Most creative professionals would disagree that ntrig is anywhere near parity. I work in the field and everyone uses Wacoms of some sort.
There was initial excitement when the 1st generation launched with actual Wacom technology, as a lot of us do work in Windows, but it quickly fizzled when Microsoft cheaped out and went with less performant ntrig digitizers.
It's a tradeoff. The old SP1s and SP2s with Wacom digitizers get funky at the edges because of how Wacom's technology works. IIRC it's a big array of sensors behind the screen, and they have to extend past the edges of the sensing area to keep accuracy workable across the surface. If you're out at the edge of the grid it can't measure the pen's position accurately.
With Wacom's Intuos tablets you've probably noticed they have a really big bezel. Maybe 2-3 inches around every side. It's not just a physical design decision, they need that in order to work. MS couldn't accommodate that on the surface, so the accuracy at the edges dropped off. And this being Windows with a lot of software not designed for touchscreens, that meant you were trying to poke at tiny toolbar buttons in the least accurate region of the digitizer.
Ntrig solves that, it's let them at least be consistent across the whole surface, even as bezels got smaller and smaller. But like you said, the peak accuracy of Wacom in the middle of the screen probably beats it.
I sold my SP3 to buy a 9.7" iPad Pro when those came out, mainly because I got annoyed with the digitizer. If you draw a line slowly you can see it get visibly pulled back and forth along the digitizer grid. To get smooth lines you have to do fast sweeping strokes, which I really didn't like.
In an AMA on reddit the Surface team attributed some of the pen performance issues to "capacitive coupling" making the pen not detected as accurately if you let the tip touch a ruler, so those are drawn freehand. Even so, you can clearly see the lines get pulled into the pattern of the ntrig grid.
I understand why Microsoft made the tradeoff - they chose to cater to a note-taking enterprise set over figuring out a design solution that would allow them to integrate Wacom tech. That makes sense from a business perspective - the majority of Surface customers aren't going to notice/care. Apple is a little bit closer to professional grade with the iPad Pro tech, but its still not there and the app ecosystem for this kind of stuff is still underwhelming.
You can see some slight vertical jogs, but nothing to the degree of what the Surface has. I've never noticed it in actual use on the iPad. On my SP3 I definitely did.
I don't actually know how the technology in Apple's Pencil works compared to Wacom and ntrig, but my assumption is that it's more similar to ntrig with having the detection hardware up front in the display/glass assembly instead of behind it. It uses an active stylus w/ battery (similar to ntrig), while Wacom's stylus is a passive batteryless device.
In terms of accuracy, iPad and Wacom seemed similar to me. Never used a Cintiq (just the screenless pads) so I can't make a fair comparison. I've heard that the Cintiq has more visible lag with your stroke catching up to the pen, but that's much harder to notice when you're drawing on your desk while watching a separate screen.
The iPad is my favorite, hands down. It feels very natural to use.
Where did you hear this? From my personal experience and watching some youtube reviews from concept artists/illustrators, the Pencil beats Wacom hands down.
I’m an illustrator, have an iPad Pro and a high-end Wacom. Work with a lot of people in the animation industry. No one is regularly using iPads for anything besides sketching/toying with ideas.
If Apple made a big push to improve their hardware, get full blown Photoshop with Adobe’s brush engine, this could conceivably change. Everything’s too piecemeal right now though. File management is still terrible, Photoshop brushes are only available in Adobe’s terrible apps, lots of Bluetooth buginess from app to app, inconsistent UI patterns etc. The newest Procreate update and Affinity designer are pretty cool, but it’s still not there yet.
Indeed, I switched from Wacom Cintiq to iPad Pro when it came out. So far it's the best drawing experience I've ever had on a digital device.
I also had one of the Surface Pros with ntrig digitizer. It was near impossible to draw properly. Quick sketching is fine, but slow and precise lines were impossible. Cursor just jumped around and was unusable.
Yeah, Microsoft is not unique in being unable to sucessfully integrate Wacom tech. And Wacom's own portables leave a lot to be desired as computing devices. It's a hard problem.
I didn't say WACOM equivalent; I said WACOM-level.
Whether or not it is equivalent is a subjective judgement on the part of the user.
Personally, the current stylus input supported by ntrig is sufficient for my particular needs.
The ntrig technology Microsoft acquired has been significantly improved since its first implementation, so I think your judgements are perhaps somewhat obsolete?
No, I've been to the Microsoft store and tested out all their new devices. None are on par with even Wacom's Intuos offerings. The Surface Studio seemed especially bad.
I'm sure their digitizers work great for the average user, but Wacoms are primarily devices for pros. None of the Surface stuff is at that "level," unless you're comparing them to other (IMO bad) PC integrations.
There was initial excitement when the 1st generation launched with actual Wacom technology, as a lot of us do work in Windows, but it quickly fizzled when Microsoft cheaped out and went with less performant ntrig digitizers.