From when he was a kid, the one thing that fascinated my friend Jim the most about the morning newspapers was the little cartoons. It used to kick start his days on a happy note. This love for cartoons compelled him to try his luck at being a cartoon artist. He started working very hard but it was not good enough to make a mark in the competitive environment. By sheer good luck, he came in contact with a veteran cartoonist, who suggested him to purchase the Bamboo Fun (Small) Blue Tablet with Pen, Mouse, and Graphics Software. “Most cartoonists use graphics tablets these days and this one has pretty much become a craze”, the man had said to Jim. He was desperately in need of some hope, so he conformed to his suggestion.
A few months have passed by since Jim has started using the Bamboo Fun Tablet and to his great satisfaction and my great happiness; he has been appointed as the cartoonist at a small local newspaper. The achievement might be small, but it was enough to boost his confidence. The tablet did widen his horizon and he could now do much more than he thought he was capable of. The success of my friend inspired me to write a review on the tablet. I managed time from my daily routine to write a detailed review on the various aspects of this graphics tablet that really changed the life and dreams of an individual in front of my eyes.
My evaluation of this graphics tablet would be under the following heads:
Working Area
This graphics tablet is actually a great and at the same time, easy and fun outlet to all your creativity. The medium sized tablet with 4 x 6” of working area is ideal if you want to draw and paint digitally, touch up photos or write your own personal script. It is also highly suited for the graphic enthusiast who is required to work at the pixel level for large images. The working surface has also been made textured for you to experience a real pen on paper feel.
Operation
With the Bamboo Fun Tablet, you can imagine your computer to be your canvas and let your creativity flow. The tablet’s working surface is pressure sensitive up to 512 levels. With this pressure sensitivity and an equally sensitive pen, you can more accurately imitate physical drawing. The tablet also boasts of high resolution and report rate for exceptional accuracy. Moreover, there is a finger-sensitive Touch Ring with which you can perform all the tasks of scrolling and zooming easily. Operation is also made easy with all the artistic tools and painting effects being available right at your finger tips.
Free Pen
If you are working on your photos, the pressure sensitive pen that is provided with this graphics tablet will be of much fun. You can not only edit them, but you can also increase their digital resolution and retouch them. It will also enable you to attribute unique borders to them, write your personal expressions on the photos and that too in your own handwriting and you can even create a collage out of your favorite ones. In cases of drawing or sketching, the pen is very beneficial as it will allow us to create lines of various thicknesses or add shade and color to our sketches. In case you are painting, you can hope to create mess-free and perfect brush strokes. The amount of pressure you will exert on your pen will determine the brush size, paint, texture, and pattern.
Bundled Software
The Bamboo Fun Tablet has been incorporated with valuable software. All these creative software will enhance your creative potential. The Corel Painter Essentials is great for artwork. When it comes to editing photos there can be hardly any match for the Adobe Photoshop Elements and you can render effects to your photos with the Nik Color Efex Pro.
User Friendly
The graphics tablet has an ergonomic design that will make your work more comfortable and supplement the keyboard input. And if you are always on the go, you would definitely want to carry the device. The detachable USB cable makes this possible. Thus you can unplug the tablet from your computer and easily store and carry it with you.
Other Highlights
Apart from the above mentioned features, I have gathered that the Bamboo Fun (Small) Blue Tablet with Pen, Mouse, and Graphics Software is equipped with some other note worthy characteristics. These characteristics are as follows.
- This graphics tablet measures 8.4 x 7.6 x 0.5 inches.
- The device weighs 12.3 ounces.
- The tablet works on both Windows and Mac operating system and if you integrate the tablet with Mac Inkwell or Microsoft Windows Vista and Office 2007, then you can experience more personal and interactive communication and the uninhibited flow of the pen-specific features.
- The four Express keys offer quick access to user defined shortcuts.
- You can access the technical support which is free and US-based.
- The tablet comes in black, silver, white colors apart from and blue.
- The pen comes with 3 replacement nibs.
What Comes In the Package?
The Bamboo Fun (Small) Blue Tablet with Pen, Mouse, and Graphics Software comes with the tablet, the pen, a pen stand, 3 replacement pen nibs, the mouse, USB cable, Software DVD that includes Corel Painter Essentials 4, Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 Win/4.0 Mac and Nik Color Efex Pro 2.0 GE, installation CD with tablet driver and electronic user manual and a Quick Start Guide.
Pros
I was happy to see that there were many consumers who were happy with the performance of the Bamboo Fun Tablet. Even those who claimed to be not much tech savvy said that working with this tablet was very much easy. You just need to plug it into your computer or laptop and you are on the roll. Some consumers have even pointed out that they loved the fact that there was no need for any additional power adapter. The software was very useful to the consumers and also the customizable keys. Also the price of this tablet was a winning point for this device. All in all, this was the tablet that could be used by anyone; from teenagers, to office goers and casual users.
Cons
Why is it that there will be at least a few drawbacks to even the most ideal things? I could not but feel a little disappointed with the flaws of the Bamboo Fun (Tablet. The mouse of the tablet was a little big for the device .Some said that a “How-to-DVD” would help them feel a little less confused with the use of the tablet initially. But in the end, I know that once you get used to this device then you cannot help yourself from appreciating this product.
Consumer’s Rating
There were full five star reviews and also 3 and 4 star ones on this tablet. But the average consumer rating garnered by the Bamboo Fun Tablet at Amazon was satisfactory. It has achieved a high 4.5 rating out of 5. This means that the positive features of this device have taken an upper hand on its downsides.
Price
By judging the kind of impressive product that this Bamboo Fun Tablet is, it can be said that a price of $ 99 is not expensive. You can visit Amazon.com to learn about the various sellers of this product and choose the best deal from there.
Get the Best Reviews From…
Before purchasing the Bamboo Fun (Small) Blue Tablet with Pen, Mouse, and Graphics Software Jim had visited the Amazon website. There the personal experiences of the various consumers have helped him much in deciding to make the purchase. When he told me this, I knew instantly that if I am allowed to give you any suggestion, then it would be the fact that you should also visit Amazon.com for better purchase guidelines.