Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch

Product: Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch

Website: www.wacom.eu
System Specifications: Windows XP, Vista or 7; Mac OS X 10.4 or later
Price: £78.99

WACOM ISN'T THE FIRST company to come up with a laptop-style trackpad for use with desktop PCs, but its new range of Bamboo tablets are a more elegant option than those offered by old-timer Cirque.

This time we're reviewing the Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch model, which works as both a traditional graphics tablet with the supplied stylus and as a trackpad, but there's also a finger-only Bamboo Touch model that's essentially the same.

The Bamboo is a little larger than a sheet of A5 paper and the touch-sensitive area measures 190 x 130mm. This is made from the same kind of matte plastic as many laptop trackpads and feels pleasantly smooth when sliding a fingertip around.

Four large buttons run down one side of the pad and, by default, these are set to left-click, right-click, back (for a web browser) and a toggle to stop the pad responding to fingertip control - although this kicks in automatically when it detects the nearby presence of the magnetic passive stylus. The driver also lets you configure the buttons for a variety of other actions and keystrokes.

The placement of the buttons makes them a stretch for a thumb when using the Bamboo with one hand and we'd prefer them along the bottom edge - like on a laptop. This would also mean that you wouldn't need to flip the tablet through 180 degrees for left- and right-handed use. And while we're at it, we'd also move the USB cable to its top edge so that it doesn't get in the way of the keyboard when used right alongside it.

Focusing on the graphics tablet side of things, the Bamboo Pen & Touch works as well with the stylus as any other pressure-sensitive tablet - though we'd like the option to disable tap-to-click and just use the button on the stylus instead. The tablet works with the tablet PC features of Windows Vista and 7, while Mac OS X users get a bundled 'Ink' application for handwriting recognition.

The Bamboo Pen & Touch works as a multi-touch trackpad with a fingertip, but it only recognises two points of contact. So, while it offers two-finger scrolling and the usual pinch and twist gestures, it doesn't offer the same three- and four-finger gestures as on Apple's new MacBook Pros.

Using the Bamboo with a fingertip is pretty much like using a laptop trackpad - although the half inch of dead space on either side (well inside the border that delineates the touch-sensitive area) was an annoyance. The large surface area may mean that you need to fiddle with the pointer speed settings until you find a setting that works best for you, but sadly, no amount of fiddling could make the Bamboo to work to our complete satisfaction.

Although it worked fine with the stylus, the Bamboo seemed unable to track a fingertip smoothly and would regularly register finger swipes as both single and double-taps (the latter is supposed to require a two-finger tap). Two-finger scrolling was also subject to lag in some applications and wouldn't work at all in Firefox.

The problem seems to be that while Wacom has plenty of experience with graphics tablets and styluses, it's not quite so adept with trackpad technology and the Bamboo's driver doesn't even have an option to tweak touch sensitivity. This has been standard issue on laptop trackpads for years and is sorely missed here. The Bamboo's large touch-sensitive area is all too easy to touch with something other than a fingertip, which causes the mouse pointer to jump around and runs the risk of inadvertently clicking something by accident.

In Short
We love the concept and although the design is a touch flawed. The bigger problem is that Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch just doesn't work that well as a laptop trackpad and the driver needs some serious attention if it's to be anything more than a novelty alternative to a mouse or trackball. µ

The Good:
Great idea
Works well as a graphics tablet.

The Bad:
Awkward button placement
Dead areas on trackpad.

The Ugly:
Regular misidentification of finger taps
Driver lacks sensitivity control.

Bartender's Report:
4/10