Looking for a Cintiq Companion alternative

I don't envy you, it's a tough choice to make. From the top of my head best option for you would be ThinkPad p40 but you'd need to stretch your budget or wait save up a bit more.

For InDesign and illustrator your pc's power should be a priority, not the pen display. There will be no use in this cool functionality if there's not enough power to process your large vector files. On the other hand, if you're used to working on MacBook air, I assume anything you get for 1200 will perform better.

I am curious to see what kind of illustrations are you planning to create with a pen in illustrator - mind showing some examples of what you've done in the past?

 

If you were completely fine with the Surface Book drawing capabilities in your software (running Ntrig) I feel that you would be fine and well suited to the Vaio Canvas. Im surprised you can afford the TP Yoga 14 and Canvas and not the Book or Companion. The Vaio is over $2500 here, but perhaps that crazy sale is still on in the states??
Anyway, as far as mobile tablets go, they dont get more premium and powerful than the Vaio Canvas. It will certainly be the most capable at running games on the side than any of the others, including the book.
The big caveat in my mind with the canvas (in contrast to the CC2) is the Ntrig digitizer, but that obviously doesn't bother your workflow or needs, so I would go for that if you can find it in your budget. It's a serious artists machine, with few compromises.

 

Only person I know that works in vector is her:
http://zzanthia.deviantart.com
Through the years I always wondered how she can work in illustrator this way.

 

i don't have much illustrations online, i'm just starting to do my own thing, since i plan on leaving my design job in a few months. that's why im looking for new hardware.

and isn't the P40 non-touch? i could be wrong but that was my understanding.

 

the Vaio Z Canvas on amazon is just under 1200 bucks (the 8gig, 256 ssd model) and the TP Yoga 14 is under a grand.

i am leaning more towards that but I guess i just wanted a bit more impressions from it, i guess.. it's just worrying me a bit that its not just one person who i watched online, have a lot of latency issues with the Canvas anyway.

 

Rayce Bird is a professional artist and VAIO Z Canvas evangelist:

 

In the UK there's only one vaio canvas available, 'signature edition' and it costs 2200 - 2600 pounds...

ThinkPad p40 yoga has the wacom active pen technology, the same as this one:

 

The Best Buy TPY14 is the P40 with an NVidia 940M discrete processor for a few hundred dollars less. It's an amazing value.

That being said, for art purposes, I still prefer the VAIO Z Canvas, which its quad core processor, detached keyboard, built-in on-screen shortcuts, etc.

 

I slightly prefer Wacom ActiveES on the TPY14 to N-Trig on the Canvas, but both are perfectly acceptable. If you go with the Canvas, you can also use a Surface Pen.

 

i'm very new to the world of styluses, but what are the differences between those two besides the company who makes them?