Page 108 - NyghtVision Magazine Volume 4 #2

The fact that I couldn't get this tablet out

of Falcon's hands for more than a few

minutes at a time should tell you a lot.

In fact, after saying that I am not even sure I But before we get to the specifics, lets

need to write another line! Falcon doesn't at- look at the specs. This tablet has 8 gigs of RAM
tach to "things" often, so, when he does, it says and a 500 gig SSD drive. The one concern we
a lot about "the thing" in question. So, when I had was with the video chip set. We have used

asked him a week ago if I could get his opin- Intel based video chip sets before and they have
ion of the tablet and borrow it for a while, his been, well, lack luster, and typically, an Intel
response was, "You want to do what with my video chip set degrades overall system perfor-

Companion?" I knew at that point that this tab- mance. I suppose this is because Intel chip sets
let was so special that it had been named, and, typically "share" system memory. When that
like Princess, his Galaxy Note II, it had become happens, you lose twice: first because system

part of the fabric of his life. RAM doesn't perform well for video, and sec-
ond because the total system RAM is dimin-
So, what's so special about Falcon's ished when some is pilfered for video. Imagine
Companion? Well, we can start with the form my surprise when I played a full 1080p video
factor. Compared to the Asus gamer laptops we and the visual experience was stunning.
have been carrying around the Companion is
considerably lighter, fits into a small carrying And then there is the whole battery
case (which comes with it) and handles video problem. On our Asus gamer laptops, even in
every bit as effectively as our NVIDIA equipped power-saving mode, after 45 minutes, we are

desktops and laptops. This combination by it- done. No power. And that is when we have a
self would be enough for us to recommend this new battery. Given that the Companion is an

tablet, but, that is only the beginning. i7 Core, I prepared myself for another round of
lack luster battery performance. When I took
The Companion is a fully functional the Companion on the road for a day, much to
Cintiq and as the photo on the previous page Falcon's chagrin, I fully expected I might get an
shows, the layout of the tablet is just like all the hour or two of battery life.
other Cintiq tablets from Wacom. This makes
transitioning to the Companion for photo ed- I got FIVE! Wow.
iting easy. Like every Wacom product we have
used, they are intuitive and becoming profi- And that wasn't in economy mode
cient requires little effort. and I was processing RAW images from
a Pentax 645D - these images are huge.

108 | Wacom