[Dabhand16]

I've only had this device for a few days, but I think I can now give a more detailed appraisal.

Trust Wireless Scroll Tablet TB-4200 (also termed 1200 V2)

Specification

A4+ (228mm x 304mm) workspace, (adjustable). 24 function buttons along top edge (new, open, close, exit, cut, copy etc). The functions of these buttons are customisable, but the first 15 have named labels on the button. Power is from the USB cable. Pressure sensitive stylus with customisable buttons. Mouse with scroll wheel. The tablet has an A4 size transparent overlay that enables you to trace pictures or diagrams. There is a manufacturers two-year warranty.

What’s in the box? The tablet with a hard wired USB cable, a wireless stylus and mouse. A software CD, two AAA batteries for the stylus and mouse, two spare stylus nibs and fitting tool (I assume, can’t see any other use for the bit of bent metal included) and a user manual.

First things first. This tablet connects to your computer with a USB cable. The wireless bit in the title is the stylus and mouse. There is also a ‘true’ wireless version available, but it is a smaller tablet, and uses bluetooth.

On opening the box, I was impressed with the way the device was packaged and by its general feel and the apparent quality of the construction. The stylus unscrews like a posh ball pen to accept an AAA battery, which sits in the upper half. This makes the balance of the stylus a little top heavy.

The mouse does not have a roller on the bottom, just four felt pads. So in use, you will no longer have to go through the occasional ritual of cleaning the roller and the internal contacts. Cursor movement using the mouse is entirely normal, and only the centre section of the tablet is used. I found the mouse uncomfortable, because it tapers where your fingers sit either side of the scroll wheel. You have to move your fingers down and toward the centre line to and to operate the left and right buttons. I won’t be using it, but I suppose it is handy as a spare.

Using the stylus, you have to make a large hand / arm movement to navigate the screen. You use the full area of the tablet, unlike the mouse. The stylus achieves a left click by pressure on the ‘nib’, and the pressure is adjustable in the software. The rocker switch on the body of the stylus is for right click and double left click, and you can customise the switch functions. That is you can reverse them if desired.

There is a warning label on the USB cable to install the software FIRST. This took only seconds. The three page 12cm square manual has clear instructions in picture/icon and written formats. Double clicking on the icon in the taskbar accesses the custom functions of the tablet, stylus and mouse.

Before I bought this tablet, I considered the 6” x 4” Wacom. This costs around £70. I had never used a tablet before, so I wondered if using a small tablet would equate to a small movement of the stylus becoming a large movement on the monitor, rather like a mouse, thus making fine movements tricky or perhaps having to scroll around the screen. I got some information that the next size up (A5) would be a better bet. Sadly, the Wacom A5 tablet costs in the order of £150 – quite a jump from the smaller one. I got further information that perhaps a larger tablet still would be even better. I did not even check out the Wacom prices for A4 tablets!! I stumbled across the Trust tablet on Amazon, although they are widely available. A4 size for £57, so I took the plunge. There is also a Trust A5 size tablet available for £37, although at 31cm x 29cm x 9mm thick it is not a lot smaller than the A4 one which measures in at 39.5cm wide x 35cm X 13mm thick. There are also some other Trust tablets that are smaller and cheaper.

So, what is it like in use? First, the large arm movements required to navigate the monitor screen, compared to the small wrist action we use with a mouse surprised me. The plus side is that this makes it easy to be precise when using a freehand selection tool, clone tool or brushes. In fact any tools where you need to be accurate are much easier to use with the stylus than with a mouse. The stylus needs to be closer than about 2-3 cm from the tablet to work, so I can still use my mouse if I want to by moving the stylus out of range of the tablet. My earlier assumptions around the size of the pad v speed of the cursor appear to be borne out by my changing the active tablet size to a much smaller setting. This resulted in the cursor whizzing around the screen with a small movement of the stylus. Obviously not good for fine control.

Using the stylus does take some getting used to though. My first experiments with cloning resulted in only a very small tool size effect on the screen regardless of the brush size selected. It made no difference at all. Then the penny dropped. The stylus is pressure sensitive. To get the large brush you have to press harder. The harder you press the bigger the tool. This makes the use of tools with variable sizes even easier, because you can have quite a large brush/clone stamp/eraser etc selected, but if you don’t press too hard, you don’t get the full selected size, so you don’t have to keep changing tool sizes. Easy, or what? At the moment I have the right click set on the top part of the switch on the body of the stylus, and I find it awkward to select a sampling area for cloning. I think that I’ll have to use it for a while to get fully used to it, and it will probably be better if I alter my grip to make a more fluid operation of the switch possible. I’ll also have to try the switch with the functions reversed.

The Wacom stylus does not have a battery, so I suspect the feel of the stylus may well be better, but Trust gets top marks for value for money. I have no regrets with the purchase, but would liked to have tried the A5 tablet. I suspect that this size might be the best compromise between space and control, with the caveat that I mentioned earlier about the A5 tablet not being that much smaller than the A4. I find I can use the tablet either flat on the desktop or with my chair back a little and the bottom edge of the tablet resting on my legs and the tablet leaning against the front edge of the desk. In fact, I prefer to use it like this, as it makes the function keys at the top of the tablet easier to use. This is mainly because they are around 5 mm square, and although they are numbered and named, I can’t see them unless I sit as close as I can get to the desk, and/or raise my chair. With use, I ‘ll probably get used to where they are. There is enough space above the function keys to affix name labels or coloured dots that will assist in identification. Another option is to get an angled support for the tablet like the ones you can get for drawing boards.

To sum up, the pros are it is much easier to be accurate when working on photographs, and it seems to me to be stonking good value. The cons are it takes up a lot of desk space. Depending on your layout, it could be stored on its edge, or removed when not in use.

I used Paint Shop Pro X in this trial. I think that all major software supports the variable pressure stylus, but there might be some that don’t. Would I recommend it? Yes I would.