The XP-Pen Magic Note Pad Is a Fantastic Drawing Tablet That’s $155 Off During Prime Day.

Posted on October 8, 2025 by resourcefulman

Amazon’s Big Deal Days promotion ends tonight, October 8th, but until then, Lifehacker will be sharing the best sales based on product reviews, comparisons, and price tracking tools.

Subscribe to our blog to stay up to date with the best sales we find.
Check out our Editors’ Picks for a curated list of our favorite sales on laptops, fitness tech, appliances, and more.
Sign up for our Add to Cart shopping newsletter to get the best deals delivered to your inbox.
New to Prime Day? We’ve got everything you need to get started . Sales information is accurate at the time of publication, but prices and stock levels are subject to change.

Despite being a fairly disorganized person, I’ve spent the last year testing numerous notebooks and tablets that boost productivity and help me organize my work. The best of them work so well that they make me want to become someone who actually organizes my notes. While I expected the XP-Pen Magic Note Pad to fall into this category—it’s an LED Android tablet with three screen modes that supposedly switch it from full color to e-ink mode, turning it into a notepad, media player, or e-reader —it’s actually most impressive as a drawing tablet .

Unfortunately, I can’t draw, but this thing made me regret it. And now that it’s 29% off during Prime Day, from $400 to $285, I’d recommend it to anyone who can.

XP-Pen Magic Notebook

$284.99 on Amazon

$399.99 Save $115.00

$284.99 on Amazon

$399.99 Save $115.00

Three screens in one, sort of

The Magic Note Pad’s main selling point appears to be its “X-Paper” display (apparently a rebranded version of the TCL NXTPAPER display ) with a 1920 x 1200 resolution, a high 90Hz refresh rate, and a maximum brightness of 400 nits (by comparison, the entry-level iPad offers a 60Hz refresh rate and 500 nits). The screen’s matte surface reduces glare, and it features three color modes controlled by the operating system. This device is expected to transform from a full-color LED tablet into a black-and-white e-reader.

There is a special button on the top of the device that allows you to choose between:

Nature color mode or the standard you expect from any LED screen
Light Color mode , which makes bright whites appear creamier and mutes other colors, similar to the effect of reading newspaper text (or a color e-reader like the Colorsoft Kindle ).
Ink Paper Mode , which is supposed to simulate a grayscale e-ink display

If you’re even slightly tech-savvy, you’ll understand that turning a backlit LED screen into an e-ink display simply by changing the color settings is practically impossible. The device is TÜV SÜD Low Blue Light certified , meaning it reduces blue light levels by 25%. It’s also Paper Like Display certified , which I assume means it feels more like paper 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 slightly reduce eye strain if you’re reading in a dark room, but if you go outside, it’s still undoubtedly an LED tablet—you won’t magically be able to read in direct sunlight simply by switching the display mode.

Artists really love it.

The Magic Note Pad’s real selling point (no pun intended) is actually less productivity and more artistic appeal: numerous digital artists have left reviews of it on Reddit and YouTube , and they unanimously praise it for its super-responsive stylus, which offers four times the pressure sensitivity of the Apple Pencil—16,384 levels of pressure sensitivity for the included XP-Pen stylus, compared to just 4,096 levels for the Apple Pencil.

What do you think at the moment?

More pressure gives you more control over what’s happening on the screen, allowing you to draw and sketch with much greater precision, giving you the same control in the digital environment as you do in the real world. This is enough to warrant a drawing course.

Good price even as a media tablet.

With the current 29% discount, the Magic Note Pad has dropped from the $400 “artists only” price to a more affordable $285. That’s a very reasonable price, even if you’re looking for an Android tablet with stylus and pen support that can double as a digital notepad/reader and for streaming media. The device features an octa-core MediaTek MT8781 processor, which appears to be a reliable mid-range chip, 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage, and an 8,000mAh battery that should last several days on a single charge with normal use. It also features a front-facing camera for video calls.

In short, if you need a drawing tablet and you’ve already racked your brains over the combined cost of an iPad and Apple Pencil, here’s a great opportunity to save some money.

Looking for something different? Retailers like Walmart and Best Buy are running Prime Day sales, which are especially helpful if you don’t have an Amazon Prime subscription.

Walmart’s Prime Day sale runs from 7:00 PM ET on October 6th through October 12th and includes discounts of up to 50%. This is an especially great deal for those with a Walmart+ subscription.
Best Buy’s Prime Day sale runs from September 27th to October 12th and is one of the best tech sales online. It’s especially great for My Best Buy Plus or Total members.
Target’s Prime Day sale runs from October 5th to 11th, with discounts up to 50%. Joining Circle is free.