Wacom is the worlds leading manufacturer of interactive pen tablets and displays, so if you’ve happened to use one it’s more than likely that Wacom made it. I’ve happened to use quite a few and sometimes found them to be a little big and bulky for transporting around. Say hello to the Wacom Bamboo Pad.

The Bamboo Pad is an extremely small and ultra-slim wireless touchpad which adds navigation gestures, drawing and handwriting capabilities to your PC experience. Because the pad is so much smaller than its brothers it makes moving it and also finding space for it on your desk that much easier. As it’s small, it doesn’t pack much weight either and therefore is pretty much perfect for throwing into your laptop bag while your on the move.

The Bamboo Pad offers multi-touch gestures which is absolutely great if like me you happen to have a Windows 8 laptop, but are stuck in desktop mode due to the fact your missing a touch-screen. The pad will take a little getting used to at first, as with any touchpad but after a couple of days feels completely natural to use. Not only can you use it for multi-touch gestures but also for sketching, drawing and thanks to the included stylus handwriting, meaning you can write your signatures on letters, highlight words etc. – the list really is endless.

The pressure-sensitive stylus is nicely hidden away in the side of the pad, which keeps it nice and safe when not in use and prevents you from loosing it. In terms of use it works very well for both writing and when partnered with Adobe Photoshop or similar programs for touching up photos. It responds nicely and has great precision.

The Bamboo Pad is available in both a wired and wireless set-up. I personally prefer the wireless device as it helps to keep a wire-free desk environment as much as possible.

Rather cleverly the pad can actually recognise whether the pen or a finger is in contact and will automatically deactivate either the touch or the pen functions to stop the other interfering whilst trying to work.

The pad is both compatible with windows 7/8 as well as MacOS 10.7 and later, although for MacOS a driver will need to be downloaded and installed for the Wacom support website.

Available in 4 different colours there is one to suit everyone. You can choose from grey with a shiny surface or a white pad with accents in blue, light green or purple (Wireless connection only). It’s also worth mentioning that if you own a ‘feel’ enabled Bamboo Stylus then this will be compatible with the Bamboo Pad.

Our Verdict

Overall the Bamboo Pad is great little piece of kit that everybody should have. It’s perfect for editing photos or even if you’re just adding a signature to the end of an email.

The USB version will set you back £41.99, whilst the wireless pad costs a little extra at £59.99. You can grab them both over at the Wacom eStore or via various retailers.