Artists Are Raving About the XP-Pen Magic Note Pad, and It’s on Sale for $140 During Amazon’s Big Spring Sale.
Despite my own disorganized nature, I ‘ve tested numerous productivity notebooks and tablets over the past few years, and the best of them work so well that I wanted to organize my notes myself. While I expected to classify the XP-Pen Magic Note Pad in this category—it’s an LED Android tablet with three screen modes that supposedly let you switch from full-color to e-ink mode, transforming it from a notepad to a media player and e-reader —it’s actually most impressive as a graphics tablet .
Unfortunately, I can’t draw, but this thing made me regret it. During Amazon’s Spring Sale , it’s 41% off, from $440 to $260, and $25 cheaper than the price during Prime Day 2025.
Magic Note Pad (essentially three screens in one).
The Magic Note Pad’s main selling point appears to be its “X-Paper” screen (which appears to be a rebranded version of the TCL NXTPAPER display ), which features a 1920 x 1200 resolution, a 90Hz refresh rate, and a maximum brightness of 400 nits (for comparison, the entry-level iPad offers a 60Hz refresh rate and 500 nits). It features a textured surface to reduce glare, as well as three different color modes controlled at the OS level, which are said to transform the tablet from a full-color LED device into a black-and-white e-reader. A dedicated button on the top of the device allows you to choose between:
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Natural Color mode , or the standard mode you would expect from any LED screen.
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The Light color mode makes bright whites softer and mutes other colors, creating an effect similar to reading newsprint (or a color e-reader like the Colorsoft Kindle ).
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Ink & Paper mode , which is claimed to simulate the grayscale display of an electronic ink display.
If you’re familiar with the various technologies involved, you’ll understand that turning a backlit LED screen into an e-ink display simply by adjusting the color settings is virtually impossible. The device is TÜV SÜD Low Blue Light Certified , meaning it reduces blue light levels by 25%. It also has Paper Like Display Certification , which I understand means it feels more like paper than other LED screens, providing a “more comfortable and natural reading experience.” The raised screen does reduce glare, and reading in Ink on Paper mode will be a little easier on the eyes if you’re reading in a darkened room, but outdoors, it’s still undoubtedly an LED tablet—you won’t magically be able to read in direct sunlight simply by switching the display mode.
Digital artists love the Magic Note Pad stylus.
The Magic Note Pad’s main appeal (no pun intended) isn’t so much productivity as creativity: Numerous digital artists have reviewed it on Reddit and YouTube , and they all unanimously praise its super-responsive stylus, which offers four times the pressure sensitivity of the Apple Pencil—16,384 levels of pressure for the included XP-Pen stylus, versus just 4,096 levels for the Apple Pencil.
The more pressure sensitivity levels, the more control you have over what appears on the screen, allowing you to sketch and “draw” with much greater precision—in a digital environment, you have all the control you would have in the real world. It’s enough to make you want to sign up for a drawing class.
The Magic Note Pad is a great value, even as a multimedia tablet.
With the current 35% discount, the Magic Note Pad drops from $400 (for artists only) to a more affordable $260—a good price even if you’re just looking for a stylus-enabled Android tablet that can be used as a digital notepad, e-reader, and for streaming media. It features an octa-core Mediatek MT8781 processor, which appears to be a solid mid-range chip, 6GB of RAM, and 128GB of internal storage, along with an 8,000mAh battery that should last several days with normal use. It also features a front-facing camera for video calls.
In short, if you need a drawing tablet and have been wondering how much an iPad and Apple Pencil will cost, this is a great way to save money.