Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I am disgusted with Wacom at this point. I have used their products for almost twenty years, starting with the original Intuos tablet, which lasted almost 10 years. I am extremely serious - do not buy this tablet. The odds of it dying within a year are very high. Do a search online for "Wacom MobileStudio Pro issues" and just see how many results come up. You can read below for a much more thorough review, but the short of it is to please save yourself the headache and don't buy this tablet. In fact, I strongly recommend you look to another brand entirely. Wacom used to be incredible, and they used to put out incredible products. That is no longer the case. After being a loyal fan for almost twenty years, I will now be switching to a new brand. Even the newer Cintiq models seem to be riddled with problems that Wacom won't stand by or be able to fix. There's a more in-depth review below, but you can skip to the bottom for bullet point pros and cons. TABLET FUNCTIONALITY ------------------------------ The Mobile Studio Pro is supposed to be portable. That's it's whole selling point. It is NOT portable at all. It is heavy, requires a stand because of its large size, and has only 3 USB-C ports on the left side. One of these ports has to be dedicated at all times to the charger cable, because regardless of what Wacom claims, the battery only lasts around 3-4 hours, and that's only if you turn your brightness way down and change some other settings too. So it HAS to be plugged in - not at all portable. The express keys on the right side of the tablet don't work great. They're awkward to access, especially the ring, and it's easy to hit the wrong button. So you'll need to also buy a bluetooth keyboard, or a USB-C keyboard (good luck on both). The pen driver dies constantly, so you'll need a USB-C or bluetooth mouse as well. The included stand is garbage. It's flimsy and doesn't like to support the tablet's weight. So you'll need a new stand and I strongly recommend you don't buy it from Wacom, which charges double the price it should be for a stand. You'll also need to buy a screen protector, because the nibs wear out quickly and will absolutely scratch your screen, and you're looking at a huge amount of money to fix it. PC CONNECTIVITY ----------------------- I've seen an overwhelming amount of people complaining online about being unable to get their MSP to connect like a Cintiq - that is, you should be able to plug it in to your desktop PC and use it as a pen display. What they don't tell you is that you'll have to buy a 'Wacom Link', which is a converter box and some cables for $70. What they also don't tell you is that all a Wacom Link is is a USB-C to USB-C cable, a standard USB cable, a mini displayport to mini displayport cable, and the adapter box. This means that your PC needs to have a Mini DisplayPort and a USB C port to work easily with the MSP. Neither of these are all that common on PCs, even newer ones. So you'll likely need adapters, like a Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapter and a USB-C to standard USB adapter. If your computer is a little older you'll need a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI instead. To make matters worse, Wacom support has NO CLUE how to fix the very common issues people, myself included, have with getting the tablet to work with their PC. They blame Intel and their drivers, they blame the cables and adapters you're using, they blame your PC being too old (even if it's brand new!) - they'll blame everything but their flawed product. FACTORY FLAWS --------------------- The MSP I bought from here on Amazon arrived with immediate issues, primarily being unable to connect to my PC and be used as a pen display. During the weeks of back and forth with Wacom support, the right side of the tablet, which is where the fan is located, started getting uncomfortably, and then painfully hot. It ended up burning the underside of my right arm. Because of these issues, Wacom had me send it to them and they replaced it, which I was very grateful for. I'd asked them for a refund instead, but they refused because the tablet wasn't purchased directly through them. I'd wanted to ditch the MSP altogether, because it wasn't portable and was way more hassle than it was worth, especially considering the several extra hundred dollars I'd sunk into all of the extra stuff to make it work as advertised. The second MSP works even worse than the first. I had to go through the connectivity issues all over again, and once again, support was unable to help me and I eventually fixed the problem myself by replacing one of the Wacom Link cables. Now, however, the screen is burning around the edges. My taskbar, the top bar from Photoshop, and my desktop background are all burning into the screen. It flickers very quickly and looks like a stereotypical 'glitch', but it never goes away. It's very distracting while drawing. This burn-in didn't occur because the screen was left on and not in use. This happened while I was using it, which shouldn't happen at all. Worse, it's spreading bit by bit every day. Two days ago it was on the top left, bottom left and right. Now it's also in the top right and right side. I contacted Wacom about this new issue. This is at least the 4th time I've had to talk with support. I sent them photos and things were going smoothly until they decided that my >year old product was not under warranty. They told me they would need $1,017 to send the tablet to them for repairs. Both major issues I had with the tablet came about through no fault of my own. I didn't drop it, damage it, or spill on it. These are flaws from their shoddy parts and development. They refuse to stand behind their product. DRIVERS ----------- The pen driver fails constantly. You have to go into your task manager, into the 'services' tab, and find WTabletServicePro and restart it. Then you'll also have to save your work and restart your drawing program, otherwise you won't have any pressure sensitivity. SUPPORT ------------ Support is slow. They are clueless as to how to fix your problems. If you contact them via email, expect it to take weeks to reach your solution, if you reach one at all. They will blame everything but their own product. It's like pulling teeth. Definitely don't make the mistake of telling them you're using an adapter or different cables with the Wacom Link, because they'll be deadset that that's your only problem, and they tell you to shell out for really expensive cables to fix your problems. THE PROS ------------- - The screen is huge. - The pen is wonderful. Wacom's pens have always been a pleasure to hold, and the function buttons on the body of the pen are great as usual. Aside from the pen driver failing all the time, I love the pen very much. The nibs for the pen will last a LOT longer if you get a screen protector. THE CONS ------------- - While the screen is huge, it's not all that vibrant and the color temperature varies greatly from my monitors, which means my art comes out looking just off - desaturated and wrong. - Pen driver dies constantly and must be restarted. - Incredibly difficult to set up and use as a Cintiq/pen display. Support doesn't know how to fix this. - Express keys are awkward to use, especially if you're used to using your keyboard. The ring especially is difficult and it's easy to hit the wrong button. - Heavy. Not at all portable. - Terrible battery life, even when you follow guides online to increase it. The plug is very heavy, bulky, and annoying to drag around as well. - The included stand is garbage and needs to be replaced. - Only 3 USB-C ports, one of which will always be used for your charger since the battery is terrible. As a result, you'll need either USB-C keyboard and mouse, or bluetooth. - The nibs wear down and get sharp really fast without a screen protector. If they're sharp, they'll scratch your screen. - Support is terrible. They're slow and know about as much as you do about fixing your issues. - Have to purchase expensive Wacom Link to use connected to PC, and even then it more than likely won't work. - Huge array of factory flaws. Your tablet will stop working through no fault of your own. If Wacom decides you aren't under warranty, you can expect to pay hundreds for repairs. - Requires that your PC has a Mini DisplayPort and USB-C port even with the Wacom Link. Otherwise you'll have to buy adapters, and Wacom will blame those adapters for your issues, even when it's not true.