A note about the side buttons on the pen : the driver currently do not allow you to map whatever you want on it. I’m a keyboard shortcut addict, I never used (or so rarely) those on my intuos, but I can admit it could be nice if Yiynova add them in the future version. – No shortcut on the Yiynova nor zoom wheel. I do not use it, but I can imagine it will miss for some painter users. – The next point could be the missing tilt option. It’s okay if you have a good position but a better angle is always apperciated ! – The first one is the viewing angle : while working on the Yiynova, you have to be right in front of it. What do you want more ? It’s a very good tool, it have no big default that could be a deal break for a large part of people but some point should be ameliorated in the future : The bottom is a little warm but nothing big. With a little organisation you can even work with it on your laps, it’s not very heavy and the screen don’t get hot. With the 19″ size and considering they are no shortcuts on it, the MSP19U isn’t very big nor heavy, that make it really easy to move arround. If you were using an intuos 4 with their special sheet you may find it a little strange, but at least the glass will not get scracthes in time.
The screen is full made of glass, it will offer no resistance to your strokes. The feeling on the screen is good, if you never draw on a screen, you will need a little adaptation but you will get used to it in a blink of an eye. (For information, intuos 3 stylus are 18 gr/0.63 oz.) With battery included it’s between 19 – 24 gr (0.67 – 0.85 ounces) depending your battery brand. The stylus isn’t heavy even with the AAA battery in it. I never found it “lack” some resolution, because everything look sharp and define. It’s a little smaller and the resolution is only 1440*900, but honestly the screen is great, colors and contrasts are good. If you compare it to a cintiq, well, I don’t know about the 22hd and 24d, but the MSP19U is as good as the 21ux. Actually it’s closer to the intuos 3 at the first level of pressure. If you compare it to the intuos 4, you will find you need to press a little more before getting the first pression information. Yes, it’s hard to believe someone else than wacom could make a screen digitizer working well, but yes, it’s possible. But at the minute I could make it work I was sold. Until I had tried it for real, I was so nervous and couldn’t believe it either. My comparison devices are intuos 3 & 4 from wacom and a cintiq 21ux I could try for a few hours at my previous work. Now, if you are there, you probably are wondering “it look too good to be true, is it really good ?” In my opinion : YES, it’s good. Kosen review with some videos and images as exemples :
PC Weenies : And a very impressive inking video : Plus here some drawings on various softwares showing the pressure sensitivity : Ray Frenden : (Check is twitter account, he show some piece of work with the Yiynova !) They show quite everything you need to know about specifications.Įnupnion : Did the very first review of the msp19U and I thank him so much, I bough mine after reading his blog, sadly this article is now broken… but he did a video about it here that is still working:
I will not speak about the technical point, Enupnion, Ray Frenden and pc weenies all did a great job at explaining every pro and cons and I agree with them. It comes from a chinese brand, Yiynova and use the same digitizer than Monoprice tablet. I got mine arround one month ago now, it’s called “MSP19U” (not a very sexy name and too much close to the previous device MSP19 that you MUSN’T CONFUSE with !). Come on, don’t be shy, we all thought one day “ if only I had the money…” Today it’s about something we all dream, it became true : a cintiq alternative. Yeihei for once I write a full text post ! Because I think they are some things I need to share and let the world know, sometime I will try to give a few words about interesting software/hardware.