I'm a huge fan of Wacom's multitouch and pressure-sensitive tablets, and it thrilled me to see the company taking its first foray into building its own tablet computers, the Cintiq Companion and Cintiq Companion Hybrid. For years, Wacom has licensed its technology to Windows laptop manufacturers; to see the company selling its own computer hardware is an exciting step.
The Companion line comes in two flavors: the $2000-$2500 Windows 8 Cintiq Companion, and the $1500-$1600 Android-powered Cintiq Companion Hybrid. Both models offer you the full functionality of a Cintiq display, letting you hook it up and use it as a pressure-sensitive second monitor with your computer—but in addition, when it's not connected, you can use the tablet as either a Windows 8 machine or an Android device.
I've had the good fortune to extensively test Wacom's Cintiq Companion Hybrid for the last month or so, and while I've found several things to like about the device, they're mostly in the Cintiq's native realm—the desktop. Sadly, the portable Android experience is far less satisfactory.
Connectivity and portability problems
Despite now being a year old, Android 4.2 Jelly Bean is serviceable enough on the Hybrid, and Wacom's pressure-sensitivity integration into apps like SketchBook Pro makes it easy enough to dive into a drawing or a sketch. But the actual management of these sketchbooks—and sending them off to your computer—proved much more difficult.
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