>Unfortunately the Pro 3 uses an n-trig 256-pressure levels sensor, which has a much lower resolution than the previous versions which were Wacom based. For writing/jotting down is ok, but for drawing the difference is noticeable. The lower sensitivity takes a toll when you try to customize the response curve...
>I'm appalled why so many tablet vendors don't ship with a digitizer built-in. Strip that useless rear-facing camera and put a digitizer in there! You could go as far as selling without the pen by default, as long as there's an option to buy one!
Supposedly implementing N-Trig over Wacom allows the device to be thinner. This explains why Microsoft was willing to make the tradeoff. It also explains why most vendors don't use digitizers. I wish they did, but everyone is obsessed with making the thinnest device possible, even at the expense of functionality.
There was a Penny Arcade[0] article a year ago talking about the drawing lag. I suppose Microsoft spent/spending quite a significant amount on the implementation.
I've pulled apart wacom tablets before and the panes really aren't that thick, you're talking a single layer of flex PCB. I find it difficult to believe that this was the defining reason for them not using it in their hardware. The 8 bits of resolution they ended up with are probably not all ending up being useful either, which sounds like a pretty disappointing user experience.
Problem is Wacom manufactures the PCB and the PCB is actually rather thick because Wacom doesn't use hyper-modern extra thin stuff.
Its just a grid of wires, basically, theres no reason that it HAS to be that thick, just that they've essentially not changed how they've been made for the past decade.
Wacom doesn't think they need to compete in the tablet market vs modern touch digitizers, so they don't bother doing so, even though they'll license/sell it to anyone with enough cash.
Its confusing to me that Microsoft and Wacom couldn't make a deal: I've used Wacom tablets before, hardware wise, its the best pen interface I've ever used; software wise, well, the apps themselves were laggy as fuck, but Microsoft (due to Surface) has been making a huge push to fix that, and there is literally no reason for it to happen anyways, especially if scribbling with a mouse doesn't do the same (its not caused by the driver or the hardware, because Wacom sample apps don't do it).
Unless you're some serious super-artist that does massively high res painting and lives in Photoshop or whatever all day, their sensors are fine.
The guy that draws Penny Arcade dicked around with a Surface 3 Pro and now he absolutely loves it and does a lot of art on it. No real issues reported (and any issues hes reported has been fixed quickly by Microsoft, which, well, Microsoft actually fixing issues promptly fills me with a kind of hope that I haven't had in a long long time).
Microsoft kinda feels like... the Google I wish Google was. I'm not sure how to actually describe this. A company that, yes, makes money, but also makes cool shit and I want to throw money at them to keep making cool shit.
As opposed to the post-Gates Balmer era that drove all their products (sans XBox) into the ground. Well, further into the ground. I'm not trying to flame Microsoft here, but Windows 95 is why I converted to Linux on my desktop full time, and Windows 2000 was the only sane Windows in my opinion between Windows 3.1 and Windows 8.x.
My perspective on windows 2000 is somewhat different because I came from NT4. 2000 required a lot more hardware to do basically the same thing. I thought it was a step down.
>I'm appalled why so many tablet vendors don't ship with a digitizer built-in. Strip that useless rear-facing camera and put a digitizer in there! You could go as far as selling without the pen by default, as long as there's an option to buy one!
Supposedly implementing N-Trig over Wacom allows the device to be thinner. This explains why Microsoft was willing to make the tradeoff. It also explains why most vendors don't use digitizers. I wish they did, but everyone is obsessed with making the thinnest device possible, even at the expense of functionality.