Customer Reviews

WACOM CTE450K Black Bamboo Fun Tablet with Pen, Mouse & Graphics Software (NEW!)

5 star:		(66)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I just got my CTE450K today. It's sold as refurbished but appeared to be brand new to me. It works great! I recently got the latest Bamboo pen tablet and decided to get this one, too, to compare the features and performance (we have more than one computer).

Features this has that the latest Bamboo pen doesn't:

- The mouse. I've read negative comments about the mouse before. I don't know what they mean. I like the mouse a lot. It's comfortable, precise, and it lets me share the same space for the tablet and mouse (more convenient than using a separate conventional mouse).

- The eraser end of the pen. This lets you flip the pen over to erase instead of having to choose the eraser tool in your program and then choose your drawing tool again. Nice to have!

- The touch ring: this lets you scroll and zoom with your finger. It works well, but it's not a huge deal to me.

- The programmable buttons: I really like having buttons to program keystrokes and functions for quick access.

- The included software: this Bamboo Fun includes Photoshop Elements and Painter Essentials (and more). With the latest Bamboo, you get one or the other, depending which model you order.

The tablet works very well, just like the latest Bamboo. The latest Bamboo has a few less features to lower the price (I assume). This previous version has all the features and originally sold at a higher price. But with these refurbished ones, you get the extra features and actually pay less than for the latest Bamboo! I highly recommend these as the way to go compared to the latest Bamboo pen.

(Note: the latest Bamboo comes in versions that support finger touch in addition to the pen functionality. I didn't get one of those, as it didn't seem worth the higher price for what I was going to do with it (artwork and photo editing). My recommendation of this version over the latest applies to the pen-only versions of the latest Bamboo. If you want finger touch (including multi-touch), you'll want to go with the latest (and pay more).)


About the size: I debated quite a bit between pads with 4x6 active area and 6x8. This was before trying a tablet. Now that I've used the 4x6 tablets for a while, I'm quite sure it's the perfect size. The 6x8 would have me moving my hand/arm much more than I'd prefer, and it would take up more desk space. There's plenty of resolution in the 4x6 area for all the precision I'll ever need.


Great product, great price! I love it, and my kids love it!

This is a great product and I'm extremely happy with mine. Just a few points that others haven't touched on...

The first thing I'd like to address is what "refurbished" means, as there seems to be some confusion, based on the general tone of other reviews, as well as having talked to many people in my four or so years of working in retail electronics. It doesn't mean that it was an old, used item that was collected out of the trash and dusted off. It just means that someone bought it and returned it, either for a minor defect or simply because they didn't want it. Then the manufacturer fixed the defect (if any), and then tested the product to make sure it works (because they don't want to see it again.)

In many ways a refurbished product can be BETTER than "new" because of the amount of care and testing that it goes through where a new product might not. They make sure it works because if it gets returned again as defective that's a lot of money down the drain. In fact I think the only reason they sell them at a discount is simply because there's a lot of stigma attached to the word "refurbished". Their loss, your gain. A generally better than retail product for half the retail price.

So, on to the product...

I chose this model over the newest model because of all the features, like the programmable buttons, the touch wheel, and the mouse. They thought of everything with this model, from the way it can tell when you flip the pen over to use the eraser to the pen stand. Yes, the stand! It has a hole if you want it to hold the pen upright, but it also has a groove across the top if you want to lay the pen down sideways, which is one of those little details that makes Wacom great. I find I store mine upright, but when using the mouse or keyboard I lay it down because it's quicker and the stand keeps it from rolling away.

Another thing I like is that you can set the pen to track like a tablet, where every point on the pad corresponds to a point on the screen (put the point of the pen in the upper-right corner of the pad and the cursor appears at the upper-right corner of the screen.) OR you can have it track like a mouse, where you drag across the pad, pick the pen up and move it, and then move it along the pad again and the cursor picks up where you left off, just like it would with a mouse or laptop touchpad.

In my preparations to buy one, I've seen a lot of reviews for these where people complain that it's hard to do some everyday tasks, as if they bought it solely to replace their mouse, and I would argue that it's not really want these are for. If you do use it to replace your mouse, I would change the tracking to "mouse style" and it should make things easier as the cursor will move smoothly rather than jumping around to specific spots on the screen. But keep in mind that generally these are intended for doing digital art and digital handwriting, not so much for moving files around and navigating the internet. Not saying it can't be done, but don't buy one and then be frustrated.

I can't say enough good things about it, and certainly not much more than what others have said. I guarantee that if you've been doing digital art with just a mouse, this will instantly double or even triple the range of things you can do. It takes a little practice, but not much. It's really not a whole lot different than using a pen or marker on a piece of paper, except you have infinite colors, infinite shapes, and infinite redos. =o)

My review is on this refurbished model in particular, and I must say its great. Looks new without a mark on it. I was really impressed, was a little concerned about a Factory Refurbished item, but I was pleasantly surprised. The Tablet works just like a very expensive CAD system tablet but at a fraction of the cost. My unit came packaged just like new and worked perfectly first time.

I love this Pen, best product of this kind I've ever purchased. Last one I had also cost me $50 and was crappy hard plastic which was lacking the feeling I get from a real pen, though it did have some pressure sensor and whatnot, the pad itself was too stiff for me. So I bought this Wacom Bamboo CTE450K to try and give digital pen drawing another go at a reasonable price, $50, I thought it might be ok since its normally One Bill so I decided to go with this and save money again and holy crap was I blown away! This is the best product for such an amazing price either way! Way to go Wacom for providing a functional, fanciful and distinctly unique tool for Artists to feel at home in the digital realms... The feeling of the pen to the pad is very much like a super fine sharpie to good clean sheet of paper only this pen is much more highly precise in smoothness and flow of speed and agility of movement to the board, I love the texture and even the eraser feels like an eraser o_o... My line feels so much better and natural now, better than drawing with black ball point pen ink on paper almost...

Overall this product allows for a much more refined dexterity than my old one, which I was looking for something so good as this to capture my calligraphic surrealist abstractions, this one lets me feel closer to canvas, imagine myself closer to paint... I could never say a consumer product could ever amaze me really, but when it comes to Artist tools, I'm very picky about everything so I wasn't even really sure of spending this little but I wanted to test with Wacom first before buying something more expensive but I'm glad I saved those extra $200 for something better because this is just a perfect product and perfect price too and its a great Artist's tool, beginner, advanced and even expert functionary. Great stuff it comes with too... If you're in the market for one, first time or budget, you can not get a better deal than this for such a price... Wacom is the standard for all these things, and this budget model proves that! I would not buy anything not Wacom now for my digital Art tools, I would only upgrade to an Intuos4 from here. Thank you.

I am neither a graphic designer nor an artist. However, I do have an interest in digital art and saw artists drawing beautiful anime characters using tablets at anime conventions. I was fascinated and wanted to learn how to use this tool (even if I can't draw). I read the amazon reviews for the bamboo CTE450K and its price. It looked like a risk I could afford. I immediately ordred one and was impressed right away (even though it was refurbished, it looked and felt brand new). The price was unbelievably low and the features and software that came with it are impressive. I like the feel of the pen as it feels like I am holding a real pen and the mouse feature is awesome as it prevents clutter and doesn't require batteries. I do like the zoom feature and the customizable function keys. Additionally I ordered the carrying case for it to protect this valuable gem.

Product condition: I just received this product last night and as soon as i opened the package i was shocked. Out of the box, the tablet itself was scratched, also, it had palm-prints all over it. It didn't look like something new at all except for the cds, boxes, pen and mouse. I was concerned that it wouldn't work properly and i would have to suffer the trouble of returning it and wait for a new one. And since i live in Canada, i had to buy it and send it to a friend in the US, then he would personally send it to me because Amazon won't send it directly to me... i just didn't want to go through the trouble...

Installation: when i installed the driver, the device wasn't recognized by my pc, which runs on Vista. After playing around, a couple of uninstall-reinstall, i had it work. Apparently, after the driver is install, you have to manually restart you pc... but the installation wizard doesn't say anything about it to you... or it could be just a bug in my system(?).

After all i mentioned above... and when i managed to work everything right, i was really, and i mean REALLY satisfied. this thing is the best invention since Bacon.. i instantly forgot about everything and i'm really happy with it... i just wish Amazon mentions something about scratches from time to time ..

This tablet device goes well beyond my expectations by providing an easy to learn experience that offers unparalleled accuracy and ease of use. This device not only fulfills the artistic and creative needs that drive this type of purchase, but goes beyond by providing a rather easy approach to basic user interface navigation. I find myself using the pen to navigate, as the mouse it comes with is a bit too large for the active tablet area. I have had the tablet for about 6 months now, and recently had to contact customer support for a warranty issue. The pen went bad and was still under warranty, so customer service shipped a new one out to me before I even sent the old one back in! Talk about service! Aside from that small hiccup, this is an excellent device for the money and if you think you might have some use for it, I highly recommend it!

I was reluctant buying this since it is a refurbished product but the positive customer review persuaded me to go ahead with the purchase. The reviews are absolutely right. I would have never noticed it was refurbished if I didn't know ahead of time. The product looks brand-new and works like a charm. You can't go wrong with a Wacom tablet as many tablet users say and that is also a spot-on observation. The pen responsiveness is amazing and allows for phenominal drawings/animations. This product is also a decent mouse for everyday use (though I still prefer the real deal).

This refurbished tablet is a great deal, but because it is not the latest model, it has some issues working with Windows 7. Wacom has no Windows 7 driver for this product. The software install disc that comes with it is for Windows 2003. A Windows Vista driver is available online, but creates some bugs in the performance.
So while I give this dealer high marks for great value, the problem is with the manufacturer, Wacom, for not having the Windows 7 driver available for their products

I'm not a graphic design or photography nut so I probably never would have spent money on a Wacom tablet if this wasn't such a great deal. It's been wonderful to use for projects at work, and I would highly recommend this to anyone thinking about trying out a tablet who doesn't want to invest in the higher priced or new models. Also being refurbished I didn't know what to expect, but like most of the other reviewers the tablet I received looked brand new and had no problems. Overall I'm really pleased with this purchase and would definitely recommend both the product and the seller.