A lot of ppl share your opinion. I purhcased the VisTablet, and it has a little more working area than the wacom bamboo medium, its rated to have better pressure sensitivity, and its a little less bulky. It doesn't have some of the features that the bamboo possesses, such as a mouse separate from the pen, or the cool "touch ring", but it does have a greater quantity of programmable "buttons" (you touch them with the pen) that you can assign different functions or programs to. (29 total) in addition to the two on the pen. It seems to interface pretty well with all the programs I've worked with so far, there are a few things I am trying to smooth over, but I have no doubt that the solutions are hidden in the settings somewhere.

I bought the tablet to use as a portable for use with my laptop, and at $105 vs. the $200 ish for the bamboo, it seemed to be a better purchase. I only question how long it will hold up, but time will reveal that to me.

Eventually, I will probably buy a wacom for use with my home pc because of their reputation and to compare with my opinion of the one I'm using now, but for what I am doing at the moment, this tablet is great.