Wacom One 13 Touch Features

Touch gestures are supported by the Wacom One Touch. The two-finger gestures are active by default and the optional three, four and five-finger gestures can be activated via the Wacom Centre app.

 

Whether or not a graphics tablet has a place in your imaging workflow largely depends on how much editing in software you do. If all you do is rate images and make a few quick tweaks a normal mouse can do the job just fine. Get a little deeper into editing and you’ll need an ergonomic mouse or a trackball for comfort, especially during long sessions and to avoid the risk of repetitive strain injury (RSI). However, if your editing takes you into the realm of making intricate selections, doing lots of cloning and other image refinements, the best all-around, most comfortable solution is to use a graphics tablet with a pen stylus.

Going back a few years, the name in the graphics tablet market was Wacom and the brand has 40 years of experience in this market. The modern tablet market is very competitive and the type of product available has evolved too.  

The original graphics tablet had a blank but sensitive working surface and you navigated around the computer screen – that was hard-wired or connected wirelessly – using the dedicated pen-shaped stylus. It could take a little while to get used to moving the pen around the tablet and relating that movement to how the cursor moved around the computer screen. Persevere, though, and the effort will bring its rewards and you’ll soon find using a tablet becomes second nature, so much so that going back to a mouse feels strange.

 

 

Wacom continues to play a strong role in the graphics tablet market and its highly regarded Intuos and Intuos Pro ranges are great value and offer great performance, fine handling and a choice of sizes. In the touch screen sector, its Cintiq range is the choice of creative professionals.

Where touch display tablets are different is that you work directly on the tablet, working on the exact mirror image showing on the computer’s screen. So, when you are making an intricate selection, it’s even easier than a traditional graphics tablet because you’re tracing the image on-screen with the pen.

This is the functionality the Wacom One Pen Display family offers. Two models are available, the Wacom One 12 and the Wacom One 13 Touch, the model tested here. Both have touch glass displays of 11.6in and 13.3in respectively with Full HD 1920×1080 resolution. The actual display on each is optically bonded to keep parallax low and to give greater, more accurate control. The Wacom One 13 Touch also has two-finger gestures plus an extra ten multi-finger gestures for even greater handling flexibility.

 

 

 

In the Wacom software, you can set up extra gestures with three, four or five fingers. The two finger gestures are active by default.

 

The Wacom One family also has two non-display, traditional graphics tablets; the Wacom One S is priced at £55.99 and the Wacom One Medium at £106.

 

Key Features

• The Wacom One 13 touch can take notes, make sketches, paint and, of course, edit photos
• Large 13.3-inch screen
• Just 11.5mm thin
• The display is Full HD 1920×1080
• The screen has AG + AF glass to avoid fingerprints
• 99% sRGB (CIE1931) (typ.) colour range
• The Wacom pen has a ‘real’ pen feel
• Two USB-C ports
• On/off touch switch
• Works with two-finger strokes
• Extra ten multi-finger gestures
• The screen works with many third-party pens
• Compatible with Android, Mac and Windows
• Free software available on trial
• For more information visit the Wacom eStore.

 

Wacom One 13 Touch Handling & Performance

I began this test with a MacBook M1 Air laptop which has a 13-inch Retina screen. Setting up the Wacom One proved straightforward and once the tablet was connected to the computer with the supplied Wacom USB-C cable, the driver was downloaded from the website address supplied in the quick start guide.

 

Setting up the Wacom One is easy. For Apple and Windows, the driver is available from Wacom, and installation proved straightforward.

 

Pushing the on/off button and the Wacom was ready for use in a few seconds. Mirroring was automatically selected so the Wacom screen showed exactly what the laptop screen was showing. If you want to use the tablet as an extended display to the laptop, on a Mac do this by going to System Settings>Displays.

 

There are few controls on the Wacom One Touch 13. Here, from left to right we have the on/off switch, menu button and touch on/off. There are also two USB-C ports for connecting to the laptop and for power.

 

 

The tablet’s touch functionality is handled by an on/off switch, one of three controls located at the rear of the unit, on the opposite side of the two USB-C ports. The central button of the three brings up a set-up menu.

 

Fine-tuning of Wacom’s One menu is possible through its set-up menus.  

 

Of course, the Wacom One suits desktop computers as well as laptops but I started with a laptop because to me, with the small screen and trackpad, they are far from ideal for advanced editing.

The Wacom One, though, makes a huge difference and in the images I edited in Photoshop and Lightroom, I had so much more control over selections and using brushes. It took a little while to work out how I preferred to use the two devices together, but using the display and pen for detailed work and the laptop for other functions made for a compelling combination.

 

The Wacom’s optically bonded glass screen means the pen gives very accurate control while editing.  

 

The pen does not need a battery or recharging and has a two-push button switch that in the Wacom Centre app can be set to perform various functions including in tandem with the keyboard or behave differently. The options on offer are considerable so worth spending time exploring the possibilities – and if you get yourself in a muddle, just click on ‘Default’ and start again.

 

No complaints about the accuracy, handling of tones and colour vibrancy of the Wacom’s One Touch’s screen.

 

What impressed me was the Wacom One’s Full HD 1920×1080 screen that closely matched the clarity, colour and contrast of the MacBook’s Retina 2560×1600 screen, as you can see from the product images in this review. Closely examining zoomed-in images at 100% and 200% revealed a discernible difference in detail rendering but there was precious little in it, so it was not an issue. Overall, a thumbs up for screen quality.

 

The Wacom USB-C lead measures a generous 1.8m so here it was tucked away out of sight behind the laptop. As you can see, the Wacom One Touch’s viewing image closely matches that of the Mac M1 Air.

 

For photographers who base their imaging workflow around a laptop, the Wacom One Touch adds an extra dimension that’s certainly worth considering.

 

The smooth glass screen means the lens glides across its surface.  

 

After the laptop, I graduated to a Mac Studio M2 Max linked to a 27-inch monitor using the Wacom plugged into one of the computer’s four Thunderbolt ports. Of course, the experience is different with a big image in front of you, so I ended up using the Wacom One Touch as a conventional graphics tablet as well as a display tablet. It was great being able to seamlessly switch from one viewing method to the other and back again to suit what you’re doing with the pen. As with the laptop, I used the desktop’s keyboard for some functions, but the whole ensemble meshed together well, and I’m sure with practice and familiarity the Wacom would prove invaluable.

 

Value For Money

The Wacom One 13 Touch through Wacom’s online eStore is £484 so you are paying for the technology on offer here, and that is just the unit price.

In the Wacom eStore the tablets are priced individually so can you add accessories you actually need and pick the type of pen you prefer. There’s a wide selection of compatible third-party pens available, and some of these are on the Wacom site. Also, outfits are available from Wacom’s retail partners.

The kit I tried in addition to the Wacom One 13 Touch comprised a pen at £29.99, two 1.8m USB-C cables at £17.99 each and a power adaptor for £29.99. The whole lot added up to £579.96, so this is a significant purchase.

It’s just worth adding that this ePHOTOzine review concentrated on the Wacom One 13 Touch’s abilities with respect to photography and editing, but it can also be used for drawing, 3-D design and everyday office tasks, so it is a very versatile device and its talents go way beyond imaging.

 

Wacom One 13 Touch Verdict

Anything that can save time, give a smoother workflow and make life a little more comfortable should be welcomed with open arms. The Wacom One 13 Touch fits the bill on all three counts so by definition, it’s very much a good thing and it can be heartily recommended. The thing is, though, that rarely do good things in life come cheap and usually you get what you pay for, so while this Wacom display is pricey, for the committed image editor there are more pros than cons.

 

[REVIEW_FOOTER]R_features=4|R_handling=5|R_performance=5|R_value=4|R_overall=4.5|A_level=4.5|A_text=The Wacom One 13 is a serious purchase and while it won’t appeal to every photographer, it’s a practical and worthwhile investment to those who enjoy swimming in the deep waters of editing. |E_id=8029[/REVIEW_FOOTER]

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