Wacom Bamboo Fun Pen & Touch review

Thanks to OS X Lion we're all getting used to the idea of using gestures to do things on the Mac, but you can quickly hit the limit of what multi-touch can do – especially when you want to paint, draw or customise your photos. And that's where Wacom's Bamboo Fun Pen & Touch comes in.

Designed to match the MacBook's look and feel, the Bamboo Fun Pen & Touch is a family-friendly graphics tablet that combines the usability of multi-touch with the precision of pen.

The small version of the tablet we tested includes Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 and Art Rage 3.0, which are available for download once you register the tablet with Wacom. Children will love the growing range of fun creative apps and games available too.

Other goodies include a new wireless option (£35) so you can doodle USB cable-free. The supplied driver software also includes a good range of customisation options, including the ability to change the firmness of the pen's eraser and tip.

In use, the Bamboo Fun Pen & Touch works very well and it can be easier to find your way around OS X than with a mouse or Magic Trackpad. But it's with creative apps that the Bamboo Fun Pen & Touch really comes into its own.

The amount of control you can get with the pen is staggering – applying more downward force on the pen applies more ink or pencil to the 'paper' just like the real thing.

Unfortunately the same can't be said of the multi-touch capabilities of the tablet, which can be slow to respond to gestures like pinch-to-zoom. But overall the Bamboo Fun Pen & Touch is a winner.

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