It's been a good four years now since Wacom gave its professional graphics tablet range a spruce up, so it was about time the digital artists' favourite peripheral got a makeover.

Those familiar with Wacom's Intuos3 range should know its slim-line, sleek and sophisticated build well. With its fuss-free design and basic customisable control keys it was always distinguishable from clunky and less successful graphics tablets. Of course, as well as being an attractive bit of hardware, the performance was impeccable too.

Getting the Wacom Intuos4 out of the box is no disappointment. Keeping the basic inconspicuous shape it has an air of stealth about it with its matte black, pressure-sensitive tablet surface and high gloss control pad, complete with an OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) panel giving you the scope to customise the control keys (available on all sizes apart from Small).

Any digital artist will tell you of the frustration at having to work with both a graphics tablet and a keyboard in order to operate a software program requiring the operation of shortcut keys (such as Adobe Photoshop). It's not too much of a problem if you can fit a smaller Intuos4 tablet onto your desk, but with four different sizes reaching up to the 24.5-inch wide Extra Large tablet, sometimes this just isn't feasible.

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The eight ExpressKeys, Touch Ring and Radial Menu housed along one side of the tablet can be set to act as shortcut keys for a number of different operations, eradicating some of the need to have your keyboard close at hand.

With previous Intuos models there was always an element of guesswork involved until you got into the swing of operating the ExpressKeys intuitively. However, thanks to the OLED display, which changes labels the moment you adjust the operation, it's easy to get a quick reminder.

The Touch Ring and Radial Menu can be set to operate four different functions, signalled by four different LED dots set by pressing the centre Toggle button. Most of the functions operate by moving your finger around the fluid-feeling Touch Ring in a circular motion (as you would with an iPod), but it's also possible to use it as a directional control pad, perfect for setting shortcuts to common applications such as your email or your web browser.

As the LED dots are a little more subtle than the OLED control keys, this takes quite a bit of getting used to and it can be a little awkward to see which feature the Touch Ring is controlling at present. However, if you prefer to keep things a little more simple to start with, it's easy enough to access the tablet's properties panel and disable some of the function buttons until you find your feet.

It's hard not to notice the mirror image Wacom logos that appear at the top and the bottom of the ExpressKey panel. These are here to signal the fact that Wacom's Intuos4 range is completely ambidextrous in design. Now suitable for both right- and left-handed use, you can simply rotate the tablet through 180-degrees and change the orientation of the illuminated icons using the intuitive tablet driver software.

As well as the tablet, the Intuos4 Grip Pen has had a little makeover too. Far more comfortable to hold than the Intuos3 pen, it offers 2,048 levels of pressure and also includes a pressure-sensitive eraser and customisable size switches.

For digital artists, having a pen that replicates traditional art instruments is invaluable as it can completely change the way you interact with the tablet. As well as offering up an optional thicker barrel grip as an accessory, unscrew the pen holder and you will find a lovely stock of 10 different nibs including felt, stroke and flex. Of course, Wacom also sells separate pens such as the calligraphic Art Pen and Airbrush, which are fully compatible with this new tablet.

It's a bit of a pernickety comment, but those who are a bit obsessive in keeping their kit in top-notch condition may find themselves getting a little frustrated with the new Intuos4 tablet. The matte black finish of the tablet surface means it shows up even the slightest of marks very easily and can quickly look a little grubby.

Using scratchier pen nibs with your Grip Pen also means the tablet's left looking a little scarred. The Intuos4 does away with the annoying flappy surface of the earlier Intuos that only ever seemed good for collecting dust and bits of toast, but you may have to spend a bit of time keeping it in good nick. Thankfully, we found that even quite aggressive-looking pen marks caused by rigorous shading were easy to shift using a barely damp cloth, carefully wiped dry afterwards, of course.

The performance of the Intuos4 tablet range is superb. The improved levels of sensitivity meant the Grip Pen responded to feather-light application and, albeit after a few hours getting used to the set-up, the ExpressKeys served a good purpose.

However, the ExpressKeys on the Intuos3 model were designed so they varied in shape and also included a notched button so it was possible to locate the appropriate control through touch alone. Although the Intuos4's OLED display is handy during the early stages of operation, the choice to design the buttons all the same size and position them in a line meant it was practically impossible for us to use them without glancing down at the keyboard first.

When practising lengthy image-editing work using a variety of different tools and making good use of ‘Alt', ‘Shift' and ‘Control' shortcuts this slowed down work speed considerably. We couldn't help but think that by simply placing a raised notch on the second button of each set, this problem would be solved. After all, in most cases, once artists have customised the buttons to suit their method of working there is going to be very little need to change these often.

All said, Wacom's Intuos4 range of graphics tablets is undeniably among the best a digital artist can get and improvements in performance (especially sensitivity levels) mean it's well worth considering an upgrade from a previous Wacom model.

This new range of tablets is beautifully designed, although showing up even the most subtle of marks quickly - clammy hands, scratches from the Grip Pen's nibs, fingerprints, you name it - so you're going to need a moist cloth close at hand if you want to maintain the splendour. The ambidextrous design of the control panel and the addition of an OLED Express Key display means it's now even easier to customise keys for shortcuts and get a clear indication of the set-up straight away. However, in experimenting with this sophisticated method we can't help but think Wacom forgot a few of the more basic rules of graphics tablet operation, especially when it came to getting rid of the Braille-style notch on the Express Key that made it easy to feel your way around the graphics tablet without constantly looking down.