I switched from a Wacom Cintiq 16 to the Movink, and it's an impressive upgrade even for photographers

Wacom is well known as the leader in tablet and pen display technology for content creators and digital artists. In its latest offering, the company considers the nomadic, on-the-go lifestyle of today’s creators as it introduces the Movink pen display. I’ve had the pleasure of spending time with an evaluation copy of this device for the last couple of weeks, and it’s been an interesting experience, to say the least. 

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See, I’m a creator who focuses more on photography and video, but I have used various Wacom products in my creative career, whether I’m at my home workstation or on the road at CES. The ease of use and ergonomics have always been the driving force behind my utilization of Wacom products in my workflow. So, let’s take a look at the Movink (pronounced “move-ink”) and see how it’s fared.

Reading between the (spec) lines

The Movink is in the pen display family of Wacom products, whereas the device itself has a screen. It looks like an iPad with a cable attached to it — and it’s much nicer looking than an iPad. The Movink touts a 13-inch HD Gorilla Glass OLED display with touch capability. It has a slight teardrop slope with regard to edge thickness. 

On the larger side, the Movink is as thick as your standard USB-C port. On the thinnest side, it’s 4mm. It’s a beautiful piece of equipment. Many remarks on how elegant the iPad appears, but I believe the Movink beats the iPad because of its thinner design and subtle tear-drop slope along the edge.

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Functionally, on each side of the Movink, there’s a USB-C port, a toggle button, and a capacitive button. This allows for the form factor to be compact and light. The Pantone-validated display has a 1080p resolution, and the brilliant contrast is only found with OLED technology. With the Pantone validation, you can rest assured that the colors are accurate for your creative works. For me, it’s great to know that any portrait retouching done on the Movink will reflect great skin tones. 

Using the Movink as a photographer

As previously mentioned, I’m not an illustrator or cartoonist, but I’ve always found using a Wacom tablet device or pen display to be beneficial in my photography workflow. Granted, not all of my photography would benefit from using a Wacom device. As a high school sports photographer, I don’t see much of a need to use any of my Wacom devices for post-processing. I have a Cintiq 16, which I really enjoy when diving into the details of my portrait photography. There’s nothing like zooming into the pixel while working on a perfectly balanced skin retouching session. 

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The Cintiq is nice, but in comparison to the Movink, it’s rather bulky. The Movink has a much smaller footprint with the same functionality and even better performance. Unlike my Cintiq 16, the Movink is touch-enabled. This makes it easy to navigate across an image without having to utilize my computer’s keyboard or mouse. But if I happen to turn on the touch capability, I can still utilize smooth panning navigation with the included Pro Pen 3 stylus. This stylus has three buttons on it, which are customizable to help with functions such as “click and drag” instead of using a traditional mouse.

When running one of my go-to photo editing apps, Photoshop, I enjoy using keyboard shortcuts when not on a pen display. With Movink, the photographer can set up the toggle buttons or the capacitive buttons to perform express key functions or shortcuts. No need for the Wacom express key remote here. A right-handed creator can use the stylus in their right hand for working on the art and their left hand to toggle express key functions and shortcuts easily.

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The portability of the Movink is great. It’s small, light weight, and only uses one cable for connectivity via USB-C. No extra cabling for power is needed here. The screen is really bright and beautifully accurate when it comes to color. Panning around on the 60Hz screen is no issue, even if using the Movink as a third display while working on another project at my desk. 

The Pen Pro 3 is technically sound, with almost no latency, 60 degrees of tilt, and over 8,000 levels of pressure sensitivity. All of this is key for artists and illustrators, but it’s also useful for a photo retoucher like myself. It’s quite an impressive device, but it’s not perfect.

What I’d like to see in the next model

As much as I enjoy the Movink, I have to mention the few items I didn’t enjoy in my evaluation. First, let’s start with the simplicity of the device. It’s a bit too simple as it’s just a slate of glass. Meaning that when you set the Movink onto your workspace, it’s flat. This is not ideal for attempting to do retouching. Granted, an illustrator or artist may be okay with the Movink being flat, but I’m not. 

Wacom offers a foldable stand for purchase at $79 and also offers stands used in its budget-friendly SKU, the Wacom One, which is $44. For this particular price point, I think Wacom could have included the simple stand from its Wacom One lineup to offer a raised and angled setting of the Movink. Just throw it into the packaging, Wacom. I think it’s a bit of a “nickel and dime you” approach in this instance.  

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Next, I’d like to see the capacitive buttons have a subtle glow. Right now, it’s really difficult to see these buttons on the Movink’s black bezel unless you tilt the device a certain way to cut down on the glare. They’re great from a function standpoint, just difficult to see.

I use both Windows and MacOS. My laptop is a Windows device, and my desktop is a Mac Mini. For some reason, touch controls are smoother on Windows 10. I’m not sure why. In particular, rotating an image in Photoshop was much smoother on the Windows laptop versus my Mac Mini. I will assume there are some architectural differences at hand here.

ZDNET’s buying advice

At the time of writing this review, the Movink is available online for $699. Should you buy it? If you’re a creator on the go, I say yes. However, because of the price point, I don’t recommend it for beginners looking to pick up digital artistry.

However, a professional creator will see this as a worthy investment in their business as it allows them to create their great works of art not only on the road but also in the real world. Some artists enjoy being able to create away from home. The Movink is great for that.  Grab the Movink at your favorite online retailer