I own a Wacom 4x5 for 2 yrs now and it has been excellent. I use it along with my optical mouse and use the tablet as the mouse pad and it is very scratch resistant. The mouse that it comes with does not do it for me although wireless it needs to sit right on the pad in order to work and thus needs to exchange when using the stylus (PEN)so I put it away in a drawer and use my optical... I like using my optical mouse's wheel to scroll on screen when working with the pen. just sit your mouse next to the pad on your desk and use the scroll wheel when you need it. The size of the pad hardy has anything todo with your image on screen, except if you have to retouch huge concept drawings such as for movies. or like to use long hand stroks. I usually just look at the screen while I am drawing with it as if am looking at a canvas. the erase tip is awesom also. the bigger modles have some shourt-cuts built into the pad where you can re-program them such as save image or open new document with out having to stop what your doing and click on file and the open etc etc etc.... also has a tracing cover that you lift to add a picture for tracing. The only really issue you should be looking for is the amount of pressure the more pressure you can apply the better. It feels very realistic especially in painter 1-7. paint actually runs more when you squeeze it more on the pad. I bought mines for $50 new on ebay.com the graphir series are more expensive since you can buy extra pens with finer tips and fucntions. but why when you can change the pen size in photoshop or any other program. I guess that model is for those who want to spend more and are lazy. :O)