A:
I doubt it. They had the boxes on display at the store where I bought mine but none out to test. I did ask for a salesman that had experience with it and that was very helpful. I can read the box just as well as a sales person, so if I want to know something beyond what's on the box, I ask to talk to someone that actually uses one. He was able to answer all my questions, but couldn't take it out of the box. Basically it came down to comparing reviews on the Wacom and other brands and the Wacom outshined them all. I mostly use mine to alter clipart, not draw from scratch, and it works well for my purposes.
Ask your friends if they have one you can play with. I did know someone that had the size smaller than I bought and I did play with hers for a half hour or so a few months before I got mine, so I did have a little idea of how it feels. By the way, I did get a cheap off brand tablet at a different store that was compatible with XP (my laptop). The Wacom feels much nicer and has some decent software that comes with it. The off-brand came with the device driver.