[Saúl Martinez]

Well, after a full week playing with the tablet, I can say I am a happy camper. The tablet has quirks and then there’s the Windows Fiasco thing. If you are willing to upgrade it and do a few hacks, it’s a very usable tablet.

First of all, build quality is good. The tablet feels solid and it’s a bit heavy but OK. I’m using it as a light laptop replacement that I can just throw around the house and not worry too much about it and looks like it will stand careless use.

The tablet GETS HOT when you use it, specially if you prefer to use the performance settings. No way around it, so I threw a case on it, problem solved. Not very happy because there’s no silicone cases for it, but it’s doing it’s job, and now i feel more confident using it instead of naked. I also bought a tempered glass protector from Amazon for Surface 2 and it’s doing good. Beware that the corners and camera placement are not in the same place and the surface is a little bit smaller at the corners,but after putting it in the case the problem is taken care of.

I don’t see the stylus affected by the glass cover, it’s working really good although the multi touch seems to stutter a bit, but it could be my finger oils as I see that I’m having a little issue with my iPhone, and it has also a tempered glass cover. Definitively an improvement from the protector shipped with the tablet, which looked like I let a wild cat use my tablet after a few hours of experimenting with it.

The performance is OK for what I do which is light web browsing to handle online orders and printing shipping labels, which is something  I can’t do on an ipad, so it’s good. I have good WiFi connectivity after using the updated drivers for the Win10 so I have no need to do the aluminum foil hack, I wish it was a little bit more responsive but I am not complaining here, for light duty is good.

The pen may have issues with calibration but nothing you can’t solve re-calibrating. The pen is very sensitive to position and angle so it may take a few re-calibrations until you find the pattern of positions you use with pen tilt. I also own a CINTQ and it’s a common problem with pen displays,once you re-calibrate to your personal use, it’s good. If you are planning to use the pen a lot, I really recommend upgrading to a better Bamboo pen and go with the felt tips. The gliding over the glass becomes super smooth and feels very much like pencil over paper. A thicker and more balanced pen will work much better.

Another member said ordered the Carbon Bamboo Pen, if you can report on it it will be great.

Make sure you order more than one of the cheap pens just in case you lose it  (I know I will)

I upgraded the SSD to a 256 GB drive and the tablet is doing great. Opening it was very simple for me, I just jammed a gift card on the wide side in the space on the side and went happy opening it. Apply even pressure and the clips pop out easily, even the speaker ones. Leave the bottom side with the connector for the keyboard last, and be careful with the volume and power buttons. They will have a tendency to slide down.One very important word of advice, if you are using a micro SD card, REMOVE IT before you start disassembling. I damaged my reader because I left the card inside by mistake, no big deal for me but it’s something you need to keep in mind.

The upgrade is very simple, you just unscrew the old SSD and pop in the new one, place the screw back in and that’s it. Reverse the steps with the bottom side first and you’ll be fine. If you put it back upside down so that gravity keeps the volume and power buttons in place it’s much easier to put it back in.

I’m using Photoshop and lightroom CC, Autodesk Sketchbook and I am very satisfied with the pen response and the overall performance of the machine, no issues with the wacom drivers after using the latest versions. The little machine is not desktop fast but it’s not dreadful like an atom PC, very good work there by CUBE.

Another issue is battery life. Definitively not an all day performer but I can squeeze 3-4 hours of use before needing to plug back in. Will need a new power brick to compliment the one that comes with it so I am not always carrying one around.

I will give this machine 3/5 stars out of the box, and 4/5 starts after the upgraded SSD, bios hacks, pen nib changes and tempered glass and case.

[Saúl Martinez]

Does anyone know which pen from the Wacom Store happens to be compatible with this tablet? The pen is doing it’s job but I’d like something more durable and of a better quality. I already managed to knock the button rocker out of it, good thing it’s very easy to put it back in. I tried the grip pen from my CINTIQ WX12 but it did not work.

If anyone happens to know which models are compatible, it will be great.

So far the tablet is a good product I think, even with it’s quirks and the windows license issue. I ordered a tempered glass cover and I will be ordering a 256GB SSD for it, hopefully the upgrade process will not be troublesome.

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