For several years now I have been creating computer art for the web, for editing pictures, and simply for entertainment. I am in no way a professional artist, however I felt that I was good enough to graduate from having to negotiate with my clumsy mouse when drawing on the computer. I already knew that Wacom was probably the best brand-name in graphics tablets and I wanted to buy their entry level product, as opposed to their professional models, so the Graphire 2 was the obvious choice. My first concern was getting value for the price and in this respect I have been quite pleased. Usually you can get these for $89-$99, and, quite frankly, that's not too bad.
The Graphire 2 comes as a set of three components: a tablet that connects to a USB port, a pen, and a mouse. There is also a software bundle that includes device drivers, Corel Painter Classic, and a scaled-down version of Adobe Photoshop (Photoshop "LE"). The software bundle, itself, would be a pretty good buy for $89, considering how much they cost separately.
Now, on to the review of the product, itself. The tablet itself is not very bulky or awkward. Sitting on your desk, it looks more like a mouse pad than anything else, having about the same size and thickness of one. When it is not in use, the pen sits in a vertical stand at the front end of tablet. This, I feel, is a terrible design flaw. The vertically standing pen, sticking up awkwardly from the tablet, often gets in the way and constantly falls out of the stand. I much would have preferred a mechanism that allowed for the pen to lie horizontally. Aside from this, the design and ergonomics of the product are very good. The ambidextrous mouse fits in the hand as well as any other mouse and the pen feels like a normal pen that one would use to write with.
The pen is the main draw of the package. It is sensitive to 512 levels of pressure, has 2 buttons for mouse functions, and has an "eraser" on the end, which really functions as an eraser in most drawing and photo-editing programs. The pen works really well, and is excellent for drawing and tracing. It really gives you feeling of control, since the cursor will follow your movements in a way that is altogether impossible with an ordinary mouse.
I also like the included mouse very much. It is cordless (it must be used on the tablet), has no ball, has a decent scroll-wheel, and is very sensitive. In fact, Wacom claims that it is more sensitive than an infrared mouse (like the Microsoft Intellimouse). This sensitivity is both good and possibly bad. It is good to have this sensitivity when using the mouse for normal functions and for playing PC games, for which it is advantageous to be able to move the mouse quickly from one end of the screen to the other. However, if one wants to very detailed work with the mouse, it might take some getting used to because the movement is much more "loose" than with a ball mouse. However, I feel that after about 15 minutes of experience with the mouse, anyone will be able to get used to its peculiarities. However, since this is a USB device, one will easily be able to use BOTH the tablet and/or their regular mouse whenever one wants to.


Recommended: Yes