When Wacom announced the new Bamboo Pen & Touch tablet, I was very eager to get my hands on the product. This was to be the perfect enhancement to my MacBook Pro setup at the desk where I already have a great external keyboard and a tolerable mouse. My goal was to have the multitouch that I love so much on the laptop alone extend to the desktop setup and replace the mouse.
As soon as my local Best Buy had it on the shelves, I rushed out and slapped down the $100. (Yes, Mr. FTC, I paid for this myself and was not provided a review unit.) Wacom has made the packaging and setup quite good, and the additional tutorials for learning how to get the most from the Bamboo were helpful.
Houston, we have a problem.
The Bamboo Pen & Touch supports both touch with your hands and the pen stylus basically simultaneously. When holding the pen, your hand will rest close enough to the large touch sensitive area that you get errant taps and clicks. So this amazing feature is actually the biggest problem. I think that the problem would be resolved if the unit ignored touch while it was tracking the pen, or at least some sensitivity or timing setting to prevent these errant clicks.
This all said, I love the Bamboo touch, it is just not what I expected. If you are in the market for a drawing tablet, this is a fantastic choice. If you are in the market for a mouse replacement, move along.