Intuos4 Medium vs Intuos5 Small

I'll be comparing the new Intuos5 small to the Intuos4 medium.

I already owned the Intuos4, but I wanted a smaller tablet for travel since the medium was a little too big. I couldn't find the Intuos4 small anywhere in my area and all they had was the new Intuos5 so I picked it up.



Here are the two tablets side by side. The Intuos4 Medium is at the top and the Intuos5 Small is at the bottom. I am left-handed so the keys are on the right. If you are right-handed, the keys would be on the left.

The medium is slightly larger and it does make a difference when traveling. Its not that its heavier, its just larger. So if you want a more portable tablet, I would recommend the small.  The small measures 12.6" x 8.2" so it's very easy to fit in your backpack.  

Intuos4 Med on bottom and Intuos5 Small on top. Big Difference.

Intuos4 MEDIUM

My custom keys for when I use photoshop.

On the Intuos4, the express keys have a virtual display next to them to show what each key does. The Intuos5 does not have this :( However, on the Intuos5 when you press your finger lightly on a key, an on screen display (Express View) will pop up that will show you what the keys do.

The Express View is the Intuos5's on screen display when a key is lightly touched. It shows up on your screen and disappears a few seconds after. It just shows what each key does. This feature can be disabled.

Intuos5 Express View feature

You can change the express keys to alot of different shortcuts on both tablets.

Intuos5 SMALL

One thing that I thought was weird on the Intuos5 was the active area. At first I thought I could draw on the entire tablet, but my pen wouldn't work outside the white backlit indicators. I freaked out because I thought I bought a broken tablet. It turns out you can only use the active area of the tablet. The inactive part is totally useless. I wonder why they did that? It does make a good palm rest area though.

Touch

As far as the touch feature on the Intuos5 goes.. I will NEVER use it.

I've tried to use it, especially since that's one of the newer features. It's just that I found it very annoying when I'm trying to draw with my pen, yet the tablet will pick up movement from my palm too since my hand is resting on the tablet. Even if its ever so lightly and your palm grazes the tablet while you're drawing, you will end up with some unwanted lines in your drawing. Or the canvas will rotate or zoom out. Ugh very annoying. If you never rest your hand on the tablet while drawing, it might not be a problem for you. The touch feature can be disabled. 

Display and Keys

I also really miss the virtual display the Intuos4 has. Since the Intuos5 has a matte finish, the buttons are really hard to feel apart. Like sometimes, I end up pressing on the space between the buttons. It's just a little more difficult to use the new keys. When your room is dark or you don't have good lighting, it looks like the keys aren't even there and blend with the tablet. I mean the matte finish feels good, it's just hard to see the keys. The middle keys have a little raised line that help sometimes when feeling the keys apart.

Well other than that, I love both my tablets. When it comes to using the pen, there really is no difference. The pressure sensitivity seems the same to me. Actually, if you don't use the Intuos5's touch feature, the drawing feels exactly the same on both tablets. As for the size, I use the 4 on my imac and the 5 with my little laptop. Even though my Intuos5 is smaller it doesn't really make a difference. I don't really work with large areas anyways. I do mostly animation and a small tablet is perfect for that. I thought it was going to be too small at first but that's not the case. After using the Intuos5 Small I felt the Intuos4 Medium was too big!

If I was able to find the Intuos4 small, I probably would've bought that instead. But after using the Intuos5, I ended up loving it.  It's just like the intuos4, just with touch added.