Has anyone used one of these newer and cheaper Bamboo tablets before?

I used to use a large Wacom tablet at work, when doing digital restorations in the past, but these look quite different. I've heard the surface has a different feel to it and I'm wondering at their size if they are too small to bother with really.

Link:
http://www.wacom.com/bamboo/bamboo_pen.php

Turns out someone I work with has one and doesn't mind if I borrow it so I guess I'll get a first-hand test of it anyways.

I'll post my impressions of it here if I remember and if anyone cares.

There are several at the office I work at and people who use them enjoy them although some are picky and prefer the older pads. The only issues I've heard anyone raise is that the Bamboo pads in general seem to be a lower resolution, or at least feel that way.

Ya, they don't seem to be nearly as smooth as older $700+ Wacom tablets I've used have been, but really for a $70 tablet that should be expected.

What really seems to bug me is how much latency it seems to have. This could be a problem with Photoshop though as the version I'm using now does seem to be a little choppier than the much older version I was using before. And if it's a "problem" with Photoshop than it's really probably a problem with my system being a bit older as Photoshop is usually optimized fairly well.

Oh, and the other thing I noticed, which I didn't like, was that my 16x9 aspect ratio monitor seems to be different than the aspect ration of the tablet. So what this means is when I draw a line vertically it seems to move the cursor fairly slowly, but when I start drawing horizontally the same movement on the tablet seems to move the cursor much faster on the screen. It makes it fairly hard to draw/write text because of this.

That can be adjusted. I forget exactly how as it has been a year since I had to do it last (converted all the monitors to wide screen at once) but there is part of the wacom software that should be installed with the bamboo driver that allows you to modify the way the tablet translates to the screen.

Interesting. I also found out the lag issue was due to photoshop and that using it in MS Paint (just as a test) was much smoother.

I returned the tablet to the person now though so I won't be able to check out that option until later if I get it... I'm still unsure but, leaning towards the "Don't bother with it" side.

I personally don't use one, I only have the experiences of setting them up and then hearing opinions from users but for what it is worth the general consensus has always been both "you get what you pay for" and "10x cheaper and works".

Ya, I'll agree with those statements, but unfortunately for me the problem is I have $500-$700 tastes in tablets on a $50-$70 budget.