Wacom Teases Upcoming Mystery Tablet Tech With Comic Strips
It's been months since Wacom took to its social media accounts to tease its mysterious upcoming "on-the-go dream device" -- an HD graphics tablet with a pressure-sensitive pen, multi-touch, and "other valuable features that you haven’t seen in other tablets" -- leaving many in the comics biz yearning for more info before they, say, spend a bunch of money on a Cintiq or Yiynova. Weekly details about the new mobile tablet began rolling out at the end of July on Wacom's European Facebook page in the form of intentionally goofy comics strips of all things, but it wasn't until last week's third installment of "The Innovation Spy" that some juicy tidbits were revealed. Among them? It seems they'll run Windows and Android.
The -- this pun has to be made -- Wacomics (*Harharhar!) by artist Millus follow a reporter desperate to discover new details following the tech's announcement in Japan. His quest for info leads him to spy on Wacom's engineers and eventually crash the new tablet's manufacturing plant in China.
The comic doesn't explicitly rattle off tech specs, but rather shows specific chips and other corporate icons in the art. From the looks of the latest strip, the tablet seems to be about the size of the 13HD and will comic in two versions running Nvidia Tegra 4 and Intel i7 processors, respectively, suggesting Android and Windows 8 OS options. It's unclear from the strips so far, but many are speculating that the tablet will be able to be used solo as well as plugged into computer like a normal desktop Cintiq. There's no pricing info yet, but there's reason to believe it could cost as much as $1,500-2,500 considering the price of the regular Cintiq 13HD and 22HD Touch, plus standalone guts.
It should be an interesting next few weeks as Wacom ramps up hints on the way to the unnamed mobile tablet's full unveiling on August 20.