Wacom Creative Stylus turns your iPad into a Cintiq

Alongside the Cintiq Companion tablet/computer launched today, Wacom has also announced an iPad stylus that offers Cintiq-levels of pressure sensitivity.

The Intuos Creative Stylus – named after Wacom’s traditional line of pro-level graphics tablets such as the Intuos5 – allows you to draw on an iPad with 2,048 levels of pressure sensitivity, the same as on the Cintiq and Intuos lines. This allows much more of the sensitivity of your strokes to be recorded than with other styli, so a more accurate rendering of your roughs, sketches, plans, illustrations or artworks is produced.
Wacom says that the Intuos Creative Stylus is supported by apps including its own Bamboo Paper, Autodesk Sketchbook Pro for iPad, ArtRage, ProCreate and PsykoPaint. In the future, support will be added for Adobe Ideas, though Photoshop Touch isn’t mentioned.

Supported iPads include the iPad 3, iPad 4 and iPad Mini.

The Stylus features a brushed aluminium design that apes the Pro Pen from Wacom’s traditional ranges, though it’s available in a choice of two colour variants (well, shade variants): black or blue/black. The Stylus has the same rocker switch as the Pro Pen for triggering shortcuts, though there’s no eraser.

When you’re out and about, you can pop the Stylus in its case (below), which also holds a spare battery and two replacement nibs. The Stylus uses AAAA batteries, which Wacom says allows days of constant use.

The level of pressure sensitivity offered could turn the Intuos Creative Stylus into a competitor to Wacom’s own Cintiq Companion Hybrid. The Hybrid has features that place it a grade above a Creative Stylus-and-iPad combo: it has a 13.3-inch screen to the iPad’s 10.1 – though at a lower HD 1,920-x1,080 resolution to the iPad’s 2,048 x 1,536 – and hardware buttons for launching shortcuts.

However, the Cintiq Companion Hybrid costs £999 plus VAT for the 16GB version and £1,083 for the 32GB – compared to £403 for a 16GB Wi-Fi-only iPad-and-Creative Stylus combo, or £470 for a 32GB iPad and Stylus.

Or just £70.83 if you already own an iPad.