Susan, I have both. I had the Graphire and bought the Bamboo to replace it since my pen was cracked. The Bamboo is great, but I also thought the Graphire was great. If you were buying for the first time, I'd say Bamboo... but I'm not sure it is worth the upgrade. The slick surface of the Graphire does have some benefit and I miss the slide of the pen on that surface. The bamboo doesn't have the same 'slide' and is more 'paper-ish'... which can totally be an advantage too. There is also some benefit to the new functionality in the Bamboo buttons. You can program 4 buttons on the tablet. But I hate the new touch pad part. I liked the Graphire's scroll wheel and miss it quite a bit. I'm sure I'm no help, LOL, but unless your Graphire is messed up or you are unhappy with it, I'd probably say to wait to get the Bamboo until you need to replace it for whatever reason.