Wacom Cintiq Companion Discussion Thread

2.5 hours at high performance mode is pretty much what I expect from most Core i5/i7 slates. if I recall the max thermal drain in the companions ivy bridge i7 is 17 watts, and it has like a 42 watt battery, so at full load, it would come out to 2.5 hours roughly. even the Surface Pro 2's better haswell core i5 still has a max thermal drain of 15 watts, so if you used the Surface Pro 2 at full load...the significant battery increases Microsoft was claiming would be significantly less then expected.

The only Wacom penabled core i5 tablets that would get significantly better battery life would be the Thinkpad Helix with its battery keyboard dock or any of Fujitisu's tablet pcs with modular drives which you can plug in a 2nd battery.

If you want to make the most of the companions battery life, put it on a lower power setting and use a less resource heavy program like Sketchbook pro or even Manga Studio, both of which should run fine on Lower power settings. But for photoshop I would definitely keep it In high performance.

 

thank you kindly for the informative responses.

I'm glad to hear that this is normal. I was worried maybe i had a defective unit. this is my first mobile device. i am a traditional media artist, thus, i have little experience with drawing tablets.

you are right i do have unrealistic expectations. I knew when i bought this computer that i was buying a first generation device. so far, i have been pleasantly surprised by the painting experience.

Surprisingly, i seem to get better battery life in corel painter. I dont use photoshop for painting. I do have sketchbook pro, which i really enjoy, but when i paint with it it seems to drain the batter much faster than corel. Again, these are anecdotal observations, i have not tried more methodological testing to confirm my suspicions. I did a simple drawing the other day in sketchbook pro on high performance mode. It was a drawing of my roomate -we were watching a movie. by the end of the movie my tablet was asking for the power supply! Im going to start timing my drawing sessions for fun and comparison.

I was thinking that it might help to also put the device in airport mode to save power. you would lose the internet and blue tooth but i don't need these features while i am painting.

I really enjoy plain air painting so i'm seeking ways to maximize my battery life. Not having to haul around my french easel sounds wonderful and liberating. Perhaps a i'll research mobile power supplies.

Thanks!

 

you can create a "painting on battery" power profile to turn on whenever you want that disables everything you don't need (bluetooth, unnecessary processes, wifi, etc.) but leaves the CPU at maximum performance to try to squeeze out some extra time too. Use the free Razer Game Booster application to customize a profile and run Painter or SKetchbook from there. It's easy enough to figure out and you might find it increases your painting time away from plug enough to be worth doing.

 

Hello all. I have been away from the forums for quite a while. I have had my Companion for about 3 months at this point, and as an art device, it is a dream come true for me. I absolutely love working on this thing, and I feel like every other tablet PC I have tried pales in comparison to the drawing experience I get on it. I even tried a Surface Pro recently that, while being a pretty cool device, still has dreaded cursor wobble when drawing slowly diagonally, which is a no go for me since my inking method involves a lot of very slow, deliberate line work.

Unfortunately, there is some bad news to this. I can't tell if I am just horrifically unlucky, or if the quality control just isn't there on these devices. Within the first 3 days of getting the Companion, the connection to the LCD panel gave out and the screen went black. I got a replacement which I have been using for the past 3 months or so, and now as it turns out, my battery indicator light has a bad connection and cuts in and out if I squeeze the Companion's casing around that area. Also, I will get the dreaded "plugged in, not charging" dialog in Windows, and if I squeeze the casing near the AC input, it will begin charging. Which suggests another poor connection there as well. I am not sure what the heck they use in the guts of these machines to connect everything, but I think they really need to start working harder to make sure everything is secure and is going to hold together. I haven't even traveled with it yet, only using it from home, and baby it like crazy so this should not be happening. I haven't been tough on this thing at all.

That being said, has anyone else run into any issues with screens, battery lights, AC plugs, etc. having poor connectivity in the guts of the machine that causes anything to cut in and out? I need to call Wacom to sort this out, but unfortunately have paid art to get done and this is now my only tablet so I can't afford to be without it for weeks while it ships there, gets repaired, and then ships back. I am also feeling very uneasy since there is only a 1 year warranty (with not option to buy an extended warranty) and I have been through 2 defective units in 3 months. Which worries me that my $2k machine will crap out and cost me out of pocket to fix after only a year of use.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated. It pains me to even have to be without the Companion for a day. I am absolutely in love with it as far as how well it performs for my needs, but I need to be able to rely on it to last me at least 3 to 5 years until I can afford an upgrade. I can't be out $2k after just a year or so, that is huge money for me and a machine that costly should be absolutely perfect and last in order to get my money's worth out of it.

Thanks for reading my frustrated ranting, lol.

 

I do not have a companion, so I can't comment on those issues, but I can say that when buying these high end expensive devices you should always do 2 things if possible. 1) buy with American express. Amex usually extends the base warranty of any purchase by one year and has saved me many times. I'm not sure if this is exclusive to US purchases or not, but its great. 2) if the company does not offer affordable/realistic insurance/warranty plans, buy 3rd party. Even on a 2K device Square Trade offers pretty decent protection, even for accidents, up to 3 years. I probably wouldn't bother with it for less than $1K devices, but for something like this, I'd get it just in case.

I am curious to see if anyone else has had issues. I've been patiently waiting for the Haswell update of this device to be announced (when I do portable sketching I won't be operating at full load), and I've heard pretty decent quality so far.

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

 

Sounds bad Yuureikun, I can feel your pain.
I did not have these problems as of yet, but I do fear I will get them sooner or later. But mine is newer than yours so I probably have a few weeks "to go". Maybe I'm one of the happy ones and it it's not going to happen to me... Well I hope, at least.
And I'm curious, what wacom has to say about this. It seems ethere are several forum users experiencing the problem.

However, considering bugs n stuff, I experienced the occasionally "blob" aka loose of pressure for one stroke. It looks to me like a driver issue, more often happening when I use touch inbetween. So at least that I can confirm. It's not a biggie, usually I can just Strg+Z to get rid of the stroke and continue. I hope they'll fix this somewhen.

 

I have had slim to no driver issues. That's why it kills me that I keep having poor connections inside the thing. My actual drawing experience has been about as close to perfect as a computer can get. I am head over heels in love with the device aside from these stupid loose connections.

 

I too am one of the lucky ones...works like a charm. My only beef is the stand which has slipped out of the slots on two occasions and almost fell to the floor. I also do not like that Wacom has only the one year warranty on such an expensive piece of equipment. I was going to see about getting a 3 year from Square Trade but their site says it has to be purchased within 30 days of purchase. I am over 75 days now.

 

Haven't had many issues with the stand myself. I think they could have managed a better way to attach it, but overall it works for me. I am in the same boat as far Square Trade. Think if we both call and pester them that they will make an exception? Haha.

 

Got an RMA number from Wacom. I am really annoyed that I am expected to pay shipping to Wacom for a warranty repair for an issue that is out if my control. The RMA is valid for 90 days which is good because I have paid work I need to get done before I can part with it. I could be without this (currently my only art device) for anywhere from 3 to 5 weeks between shipping time to and from WA from CT, and repair time.

I am definitely not happy about all of this. I love this tablet to death, but this is really ruining my experience.