R. Stevens, the mind (and hand) behind webcomic Diesel Sweeties as well as renowned robot sock purveyor, treated himself to one of those new Wacom Cintiq drawing screens and was kind enough to write up his impressions for us here. Thanks, "R.," if that is your real initial.

The newest Cintiq from Wacom is a baby, but a very wise Buddha baby. It's taught me something that I'm sure untold years of therapy couldn't—leaving the house is a good thing! Eight hours in and I'm already a lot less freaked out about attending conferences and doing work on the road.

First things first. I use a Cintiq 21UX [pictured right with the 12WX below] in tandem with a mouse at my desk, two-handed ambidextrous-stylez. The first thing I did upon receiving the 12WX is try to replace the larger one with it. I lasted about fifteen minutes before putting the big one back. The 12WX doesn't replace a larger tablet, but instead creates a new form of portable art studio.

Tablet PCs are old hat and they've got two problems that kept me away: Windows as the only Photoshop-capable, legal OS choice and horror stories from friends who have had cracked hinges and other physical flaws keep them away from their work for days at a time. Both these things horrify me. Not in a good Lovecraft way. This Cintiq solves both.

Combining a laptop with a second screen is a nice innovation. The input device and display don't care what hardware you hook them up to. Wacom could discontinue this product tomorrow, but you could still have it attached to the fastest laptop on the planet in five years. It's flexible and easy to share. I can see how a studio would buy one of these and lend it out to whichever artist is traveling without moving all their files to a shared laptop.

The tablet itself is very attractive- dark plastic with multiple textures, not too much shine on the screen, comfortable viewing angle, good color. I haven't calibrated it yet (and frankly, my eye is not properly trained to judge this) but I'd say the color on the 12WX is at least as good as a normal laptop in this regard. I could hold mine in the fingertips of one hand. It's that light and thin. There's a fold-out stand built into the tablet which you won't even notice if you don't use it.

Wacom would probably slap me for wasting their tech like this, but the 12WX is probably the best screen I've ever read a webpage on. Imagine a larger, slightly lower resolution matte iPhone with all the intimacy of a paperback book. This is the baseline for all future eBook readers to be designed off of. (sorry, Amazon)

We had a few pen calibration issues on first doodle, but nothing worth condemning the device over. It's not easy to calibrate a pen when you move the tablet around. My co-reviewer did an animation thesis on a tablet PC and she thinks the issue is just a matter of getitng used to it. Also, having come from a wobbly-hinges-and-all tablet PC, the first thing she mentioned was how sturdy this Cintiq feels in your lap.

Out of the box, Wacom includes pretty much everything you need. Macbook (non-Pro) and iMac users will need to purchase a separate Apple mini-DVI to DVI connector, but that's not Wacom's fault. The Cintiq' accepts DVI and VGA and both cables are provided. They even throw in a DVI adaptor for Apple's slightly "off" implementation of fullsized DVI. There's no carrying case per se, but the product box is sturdy, handled and about the size of a large briefcase.

The power brick (or "Video Control Unit") that the device runs off of is less awkward than I had feared. It's about the size of a naked hard drive, but much lighter. Power comes out one end, video and USB work their magic from the other. Once you plug it all in, this little guy gets out of your way and lets the tablet do its job with a single wire in your lap.

As a whole, the 12WX is portable, but not quite "take it on the subway" portable. It's more of a "I'm spending the night at my boyfriend's house" or "I can't miss a deadline while at a hotel" kind of thing.

There's a tiny bit of cable clutter, but it's managed about as well as possible while still using standard cables. (and allowing for both VGA and DVI)  The fact that you can run to the mall and grab replacements in a pinch while traveling will do wonders for your blood pressure.

In closing, this little guy is a strong yes with caveats for professionals.

Do look into the 12WX if you travel, do field photo or drawing work, drool over the idea of a pen-based tablet Mac or want to try the "Cintiq Experience" at a lower price point.

Don't buy the 12WX as a stepping stone to a larger screen that you know you need for studio work. It's a wonderful device, but it doesn't replace a large workspace anymore than a notebook replaces a painter's canvas. I also wouldn't buy it if you're a Japanese manga superstar who has to ink his pages while commuting via bullet train- that kind of portability is for a one-piece device.

Thanks to Meredith Gran, who offered me the perspective of a former Tablet PC user who moved to a Mac with Cintiq.