The Wacom Cintiq Pro 27 takes a leaf out of Apple’s upselling book

Wacom has announced the Cintiq Pro 27, its latest pen display for creative professionals such as photo editors and digital artists. It takes on a new look more similar to that of a traditional computer monitor, and features a compact design with slim bezels, 4K resolution, HDR support, and a customizable pen. 

The Cintiq Pro 27 comes in at $3,500 and is available to buy now direct through Wacom or third-party retailers. That price frustratingly doesn’t include a stand, which is required now that Wacom has removed the retractable legs found on older Cintiq models. The official Wacom Cintiq Pro 27 Stand will set you back an additional $500, and is fully adjustable, supporting 20 degrees of display rotation. If you’re not keen on Wacom seemingly being inspired by Apple’s Pro Stand upselling methods, the Cintiq Pro 27 does thankfully support standard VESA mounts, enabling you to use third-party alternatives.

This new drawing tablet has a 16:9 (3840 x 2160) display with a 1000:1 contrast ratio and 400 nits of peak brightness. It features a 120Hz refresh rate (up from 60Hz on older models) and a 10ms typical response time for fluid motion and low latency. The Cintiq Pro 27 is Pantone and Pantone SkinTone validated and supports 99 percent Adobe RGB and 98 percent DCI-P3 coverage.

Right off the bat, it’s clear that the bezels on the Cintiq Pro 27 are significantly smaller than those found featured on previous Pro line tablets, such as the Cintiq Pro 24. In fact, they’re so much slimmer, that the 27-inch Cintiq Pro 27 display tablet is actually smaller overall than the 24-inch Cintiq Pro 24, despite its larger screen. They even have a similar weight, with the Cintiq Pro 27 weighing 15.9 pounds, against the Cintiq Pro 24’s 15.8 pounds.

Those chunky bezels have been used on older Wacom tablets as a place to house express keys (built-in programmable buttons), or in later models simply as a place to rest your palms. Nevertheless, they made many of the tablets look dated, despite their practicality. If you don’t want to buy Wacom’s ExpressKey Remote ($100) to have access to express keys then good news: on the rear of the Wacom Cintiq Pro 27 you’ll find a total of eight programmable buttons built into ergonomic grips. There are four buttons on each, with the form factor allowing creative professionals to better manipulate the tablet into a comfortable position while having access to four express keys on each side. You’ll also find the power input, an HDMI 2.1 port, a MiniDisplayPort, two USB-C ports and a USB-A port on the back of the device.

The included Pro Pen 3 has a number of improvements, giving creators the ability to customize the three pen buttons, grip thickness, weight, and even center of balance thanks to some included interchangeable components. The stylus doesn’t require power of any kind, has 8,192 levels of pressure sensitivity and supports enhanced tilt recognition. The Pro Pen 3 will be compatible with older Cintiq Pro and Intuos Pro tablets, and can also be purchased on its own for $130.