The XP-Pen Magic Note Pad Is a Fantastic Drawing Tablet, and It's $155 Off for Prime Day

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Despite being a fairly unorganized person, I've spent the last year testing a ton of productivity-enhancing, organization-forward notebooks and tablets, and the best of them work so well, they make me want to be the kind of person who actually organizes their notes. While I expected to slot the XP-Pen Magic Note Pad into that category—it's an LED Android tablet with three screen modes that purport to take it from full color to e-ink mode, transforming it from a notebook, to a media player, to an e-reader—it's actually most impressive as a drawing tablet.

Unfortunately, I cannot draw, but this thing made me wish I could. And right now, while it's marked down 29% for Prime Day, from $400 to $285, I'd recommend it to anyone who can.

XP-Pen Magic Note Pad

$284.99 at Amazon

$399.99 Save $115.00

Get Deal

Get Deal

$284.99 at Amazon

$399.99 Save $115.00

Three screens in one, sort of

Ostensibly, the Magic Note Pad's biggest selling point is its "X-Paper" screen (which appears to be a rebranded version of TCL's NXTPAPER display), which has 1920 x 1200 resolution, a speedy 90 Hz refresh rate, and maximum 400 nits of brightness (in comparison, the entry level iPad offers a 60 Hz refresh rate and 500 nits of brightness). It has an etched surface to reduce glare as well as three different color modes, controlled at the operating system level, that are purported to take it from full color LED tablet to a black and white e-reader.

There's a dedicated button on the top of the device that allows you to choose between:

• Nature Color Mode, or the standard you'd expect from any LED screen

• Light Color Mode, which makes bright whites look creamier and mutes other colors, akin to the effect of reading on newsprint (or a color e-ink reader like the Kindle Colorsoft)

• Ink Paper Mode, which purports to replicate a grayscale e-ink display

If you know anything about the different tech involved, you'll see that it's pretty impossible for a backlit LED screen to transform into an e-ink screen just by messing with the color settings. The device is TÜV SÜD Low Blue Light Certified, indicating it reduces blue light by 25%. It also carries a Paper Like Display Certification, which I guess means it is more paper-like than other LED screens, offering a "more comfortable and natural reading experience." The etched screen does reduce glare, and reading in Ink Paper Mode will tax your eyes a bit less if you're reading in a dim room, but take it outside, and it's unquestionably still an LED tablet—you can't magically read in direct sunlight just by switching the display mode.

Artists really love it

The Magic Note Pad's real draw (no pun intended) is actually less productivity and more artistic: A ton of digital artists have reviewed it on Reddit and YouTube, and they uniformly praise it for its super-responsive stylus, which offers four times the pressure sensitivity of an Apple Pencil—16,384 pressure levels for the XP-Pen's included stylus, versus a mere 4,096 pressure levels for the Apple Pencil.

More pressure levels gives you more control over what actually winds up on the screen, so you can sketch and "paint" with far more accuracy—giving you all the control you'd have in the real world in a digital environment. It's enough to make me want to sign up for a drawing class.

A good value even as a media tablet

At the current 29% discount, the Magic Note Pad drops from an "artists only" $400 to a friendlier $285, which is a decent deal even if all you're looking for is an above-average, stylus supporting Android tablet to use as a digital notebook/e-reader and to stream media. It has a Mediatek MT8781 Octa-core processor, which seems to be a reliable mid-range chip, with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, and an 8000mAh battery, which will last a few days between charges based on typical use. There's also a front-facing camera for video calls.

In short, if you want a tablet for drawing and have been sweating over the combined cost of an iPad and an Apple Pencil, here's a great opportunity to save some money.

Looking for something else? Retailers like Walmart and Best Buy have Prime Day competition sales that are especially useful if you don’t have Amazon Prime.

• Walmart’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. ET through Oct. 12 and includes deals up to 50% off. It’s an especially good option if you have Walmart+. 

• Best Buy’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Sept. 27 through Oct. 12, and has some of the best tech sales online. It’s an especially good option if you’re a My Best Buy “Plus” or “Total” member.

• Target’s Prime Day competition sale runs from Oct. 5 through Oct. 11, and it has deals going up to 50% off. You can become a Circle member for free.

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