Wacom Cintiq 22 (DTK-2260) notes

Overview

As of July 2024, Although released in 2019 the Wacom Cintiq 22 continues to deliver the best drawing experience possible with a slightly out-of-date screen.

I bought mine used from eBay for $380 and was very satisfied.

Basics

Release year: 2019

User manual: https://101.wacom.com/UserHelp/en/TOC/DTK-2260.html

Setup

General

Pen - comes with the Wacom Pro Pen 2. Which is an excellent pen and responsible for much of the great drawing experience. See my notes on the pro pen 2.

Pressure handling - EXCELLENT. See my notes on the Pro Pen 2.

Display > basics

Size: 21.5 in (55 cm)

Lamination - NO. This is not a laminated display. Yes this introduces a very slight increase in parallax but not much. And it did not affect my drawing.

Refresh Rate - Standard. up to 60 Hz.

Resolution - 1920x1080

Brightness: 210 nits specified. Like many pen displays, this is not a super bright display - which is fine because most people tend to keep their eyes closer to the screen than a normal monitor and if the display was brighter, it might be overwhelming.

Can you see pixels? YES clearly. Which is to be expected with this resolution at this size.

Bit depth: 8bits per channel

AG film: YES

Etched glass: NO

Response time (G2G): 22ms. This response time is fine for drawing and office work. Serious gamers will likely not want to use this for a gaming monitor.

Color gamut:

  • 72% NTSC

  • 96% sRGB

  • The colors look fine. This is not a modern wide-gamut display so you might find it looks less saturated than other modern displays. But I think it looks fine and works well for my needs. I prefer to work in sRGB anyway.

Pen tracking

Accuracy: EXCELLENT in center an in edges and corners. very small deviation in corners and edges and better than many other tablets I have seen.

Tilt compensation - EXCELLENT. Tilting pen in its full supported range did not move the pointer from the tip by an appreciable amount.

Pointer lag

TYPICAL. Lag is visible but this amount is what we see in all pen displays.

Diagonal wobble

MINOR WOBBLE. Good for a pen display.

Anti-glare sparkle

VERY GOOD. Very faint ag sparkle visible. Only visible if eyes are 4" to 6" from tablet.

Display sharpness

pixels are clearly visible and well delineated

Blacklight bleed

I think this did have a little more blacklight bleed than other pen displays. I'm not particularly sensitive to backlight bleed and it didn't affect me at all.

Auxiliary inputs

Tablet has no none.

VESA mounting

YES. This tablet supports VESA mounting (100mmx100mm)

I did not test with any VESA arm or stand.

Stand

I think the original packaging includes a stand but the used package I bought on eBay did not come with a stand.

Legs

Does not have a legs.

Surface Texture

Typical texture of a plastic film on glass. Film provides enough grip. Pen does not "slide" around.

Feels ever so slightly "stickier" than an etched glass display.

Fans

It does not have any fans. You can clearly see that there are no fans in various teardowns (teardown 1, teardown 2)

Noise

Silent.

Touch

NO. This tablet does NOT support touch.

Heat

I ran the display at 100% brightness for two hours. The overall tablet is about room temperature with a very slight (very slight) warms to wards the left side.

Device shape

It has a wedge shape. It is thicker at the top of the screen and thinner at the bottom of the screen. So laying it on a desk surface gives it a very slight angle of maybe 10 degrees. It's nice to have some angle but typically if drawing at an angle is important for you, then get a stand.

The device works very well on the desk. It does not slip around due to the 4 rubber strips on the bottom.

Sound support

  • No speakers

  • No headphone jack

Cables and Connectivity

Ports

  • Power

  • USB-B

  • HDMI

Port location

The ports are behind a cover on the back.

The ports are oriented up so cords will go straight up and out and are clearly visible when using this device.

Special note on USB-B

This port type is getting less common. So to make sure you know what the cable looks like here is a photo of the cable I used. I used my own cable, the original Wacom cable was part of the package I bought from eBay. USB-B is on the left. USB-A is on the right.

Special note on HDMI

In 2024, HDMI ports on laptops is getting rare. So you may need to get a USB-C to HDMI adapter for you USB-C port that supports DP alt mode. In my experience sometimes these adapters are "finicky". So be aware. More here: Using HDMI adapters with pen displays

My connectivity setup

My laptop was connected to a CalDigit TS4 dock via a TB4 cable.

The provided power went to the wall.

For the HDMI connection I tested two scenarios:

  • The Cintiq was connected to the dock via the USB cable and an HDMI cable using an adapter.

  • Connecting the Cintiq directly to the laptop with an HDMI cable.

This is the adapter I used for HDMI when connecting to the CalDigit TS4 dock which has noHDMI port: Apple USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter.

Other notes

If you are going to buy this tablet used to save some money, please keep in mind that the Pro Pen 2 is not cheap. If you lose or break the pen, getting a new one is about $90.

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