Wacom is making good on its promise to create larger digital canvases for creatives. On Tuesday, February 27, Wacom announced the Cintiq Pro 24-inch pen display alongside the Wacom Cintiq Pro engine, a PC module that turns the displays into a complete workstation without a computer.
Last year, Wacom teased that a 24-inch and 32-inch Cintiq Pro was coming sometime in 2018 but didn’t share full details. Now, Wacom says that the 24-inch 4K pen display will hit stores in mid-March with details on the 32-inch coming later this year. A Pen and Touch Cintiq Pro 24 version, which includes touch navigation alongside the pen, will also be available in May.
Building on the existing 13 and 16-inch Cintiq Pro models, the 24-inch option has a 98-percent Adobe RGD color accuracy rating, which the company says offers a true-to-life display. Updating to the Pro Pen 2 improves the display’s sensitivity to pressure from the pen. That increased sensitivity is mixed with an etched glass on the surface and optical bonding, all changes that Wacom says makes using the pen display more like using pen and paper.
The Cintiq Pro line is designed to be used alongside a computer as a touch-sensitive digital canvas — but Wacom’s new Cintiq Pro Engine will allow the displays to work as a self-contained workstation. The module, available in two versions, eliminates the cords for that computer connection and adds a Windows 10 system to the pen display. The Pro Engine slides into the back of the Cintiq Pro, while adding a new Wacom Ergo Stand creates a stand-alone touch graphics system.
Wacom says the module will support even the most demanding graphics programs, including augmented reality and virtual reality applications, 3D and CAD. That’s because both of the modules house a Nividia Quadro P3200 for graphics, while the Cintiq Pro Engine i5 uses an Intel Core i5HQ processor and the Cintiq Pro Engine Xeon a Intel Xenon processor. Both dedicate 6 GB of memory to graphics, while the pricier Xenon has 32GB of RAM and the i5 has half that.
“It is our mission to help professionals create with the least amount of distraction and clutter and to give them the power to tackle the new spaces of creating content for AR, VR, and MR,” Faik Karaoglu, executive vice president of the creative business unit at Wacom, said in a press release. “The Wacom Cintiq Pro Engine provides a beautiful, easy-to-use solution for creatives everywhere.”
Both versions of the Pro Engine will go on sale in May, listing at $2,499 and $3,200. The Cintiq Pro 24 will list for about $2,000, with the Pen and Touch listing for $2,500. The Pro Engine is compatible with the larger 24-inch and upcoming 32-inch displays, not the previous 13-inch and 16-inch displays.
