Adesso CyberTablet 6400

The Adesso CyberTablet 6400 is a small, low-cost, pressure-sensitive graphics tablet for home users, students and educators. The CyberTablet is intended to help you draw and paint more comfortably by allowing you to use a pen rather than a mouse. In most graphics software, it allows you to use pressure to vary your brush strokes and lines--if you can get it to work, that is.

• 6 x 4.5 inch active area (9 x 9 inch overall tablet area).

• Includes a cordless two-button pen and three-button cordless mouse to be used on the tablet surface.

• 512 levels of pressure sensitivity and 3048 lines per inch resolution.

• Tablet is powered by the attached 5 foot USB cable. Mouse and pen each require one AAA battery (included).

• Twelve soft buttons along the top edge of the tablet can be assigned to launch programs or execute commands.

• A trough at the top of the tablet holds the pen when it's not in use.

• Software bundle includes Windows software: PhotoImpact XL SE, Office Ink, Free Notes, Pen Soft Pro, Power Presenter RE II (not tested).

• Two replacement pen nibs and a nib replacement tool are included.

• A Quick Start Guide (Windows only) and a slim manual for the bundled software is included.

• One year limited warranty.

Pros:

• Inexpensive.
• For Macintosh and Windows.
• Windows 64-bit drivers available from Adesso Web site.

Cons:

• Pen and mouse use batteries (included); estimated one-year battery life.
• Mouse does not have a scroll wheel, although the package states otherwise.
• Does not correspond with the wide-screen aspect ratio of new computer monitors.
• I experienced cursor jitter, especially when the pen was used near the tablet edges (Windows).
• Cursor often halted at random intervals and didn't always produce marks with every pen stroke (Mac).
• No automatic switching between pen and mouse mode, so using the mouse on the tablet was impossible.
• On Mac, double tapping with the pen does not produce a double-click (as it does in Windows).
• No documentation for Macintosh users. Software bundle is for Windows only.

My Experience

My experience with the Adesso CyberTablet 6400 was pure frustration from the start. It got better after some time, but not by much. Initially I had trouble getting the tablet installed due to the fact I was running a 64-bit version of Windows Vista. Granted, the target user for this tablet is not likely to be running a 64-bit version of Windows, but the company was able to provide a 64-bit driver for me, which is commendable.

Even with the proper driver, I had difficulty getting the tablet installed and working properly due to cryptic error messages and typos in the installation program. The new driver did not function as described in the Quick Start Guide, which created confusion. It took several uninstalls and reinstalls before the tablet was working across my dual monitors and with pressure sensitivity in my programs.

I also installed the tablet on a Macintosh using drivers from Adesso's web site. Although the driver stated it was for Mac 10.5.7, it installed under 10.5.8.

In both Windows and Macintosh, two programs are provided for pen and tablet settings. In Windows, a program called MacroKey Manager allows you to assign functions to the tablet soft keys. In Macintosh, this program is called FkeyHandlerX. The tool for customizing the button assignments for the pen can be found in the control panel in Windows under the name Pen Pad. On the Mac, it can be found in the Applications folder under the name CyberTablet.

The control panels in both Windows and Mac did not look like what was shown in the Quick Start Guide and provided no options for changing the mouse button assignments or setting tablet mapping. If you intend to use the mouse on the tablet surface, you must manually set it to mouse mode in the control panel.

As far as ergonomics, the pen feels fine. It has no bells and whistles such as grip surface or eraser and the buttons are a bit harder to press compared to other tablet pens I have used, but it's good enough. The mouse really isn’t worth bothering with, so you'll probably want to keep your current mouse unless you use the pen exclusively.

I tested the CyberTablet's pressure sensitive support with ArtRage, Corel Painter, Photoshop, and Photoshop Elements. In Windows, I experienced a great deal of cursor jitter, particularly near the edges of the tablet. This made it difficult to click small buttons, but otherwise it worked fairly well in my graphics programs with pressure-sensitive pen support. In Macintosh, the pen behavior was so erratic, I found it unusable. The cursor would constantly halt, often only moving every one out of ten strokes. I also found that my brush strokes were not smooth on the Macintosh.

I did not install the bundled software, which is for Windows only. Most of the software provides capabilities which are already provided in Windows Vista, and the PhotoImpact software is a limited version.

The Bottom Line

I can't recommend this tablet at all for Macintosh users. If you run Windows and you have a lot more patience than money, then you might want to take a chance on this tablet.