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Review: DIGIDRAW Turing 14 Pen Display

Teoh Yi Chie — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 01:30:00 +0000

Review: DIGIDRAW Turing 14 Pen Display

Update Nov 2026: Added info on DigiDraw whiteboard software

Review unit provided by DIGIDRAW

The DIGIDRAW Turing 14 is a 13.3-inch pen display released in May 2026. Price at the time of review is USD 365 on Amazon, and at the time of writing there's a USD 91 discount to bring the price down to USD 274. A 2-year warranty is provided.

The Turing 14 is actually one of two pen displays from the company. The other is the larger Turing Pro 19 with a touchscreen. The company also sells pen tablets.

I've not heard of DIGIDRAW before until the company contacted me to ask if I'm interested to check out their new pen displays. Turns out the founder is actually part of the founding team of Huion, which is probably why these new products look rather polished as a first generation product.

Specifications

Model	D1401
Color	Dark Night Black
Dimension	329 × 234 × 11.8 mm
Active Area	286.5 × 179 mm
Net Weight	900 g
Resolution	2560 × 1600 (16:10)
Color Gamut Coverage	99.5% sRGB, 90% Adobe RGB, 93% Display P3
Display Color	16.7M (8‑bit)
Full Lamination	Yes
Viewing Angle	178°
Brightness (typical)	220 cd/m²
Stylus	M5 Pen
Pressure Levels	16384
Tilt	60°
Initial Activation Force	2 g
Accuracy	±0.3 mm (center), ±1 mm (corner)
Reading Height	10 mm (center)
Resolution (LPI)	5080 LPI
Report Rate	≥220 PPS
Adjustable Stand	Integrated Stand 19°
VESA Compatibility	No
Ports	3‑in‑1 interface USB‑C ×1, Full‑function USB‑C ×1
Power Input	AC 110–240 V
Power Output	5 V ⎓ 3 A
Compatibility	Windows 10+, macOS 10.12+, Android 6.0+, Linux (Ubuntu 20.04 LTS)

Things included

Pen display
Colour calibration report
M5 Pen
Pen holder with 8 replacement pen nibs, pen nib remover
USB-A 15W charger
Micro fiber cleaning cloth
3-to-1 cable with HDMI
Quick start guide

Design

Design of the pen display is clean and simple. There are no shortcut buttons by the sides.

The tablet is quite thin, and weighs 900g. This is a compact device that can be stored away easily, quickly, like a laptop.

The back is made with plastic, matte textured, and overall build quality is good and does not feel filmsy.

The back has two fold-out feet that can be deployed at 19 degrees. I would recommend a tablet stand with adjustable angles instead, such as the Parblo PR100 that I've been using for years, because the display has IPS or LCD glow that's visible unless you're looking directly from the front.

Two USB-C ports are located at the top left of the pen display. One's for the 3-to-1 cable and the other is for USB-C video. You can use either one, but there's no USB-C video cable included in the box.

The USB-C connector for the 3-to-1 cable has an extra extrusion to go into the hole beside the port and this makes the cable connection more secure, less likely to move when moving the pen display.

In case you don't know, a pen display is actually a monitor so it needs to be connected to a computer. The selling point here compared to portable tablets is you can use desktop software, apps from your computer.

If you use HDMI, you use the 3-to-1 cable and connect one USB-A to power, another USB-A to your computer so that the pen can be detected.

If you use USB-C video, you can use one cable that provides video, data and power. The pen display can be powered by the USB port of a laptop, but it's gonna draw the laptop battery much faster.

Power button's located at the top right and you can press and hold that to call up the OSD menu.

The OSD allows you to adjust display settings such as brightness, contrast, saturation, RGB, colour temperature and gamma.

Display

This pen display uses a 13.3-inch LCD with 2560 x 1600 resolution, 16:10 aspect ratio and 60Hz refresh rate. This is not a touchscreen

The display surface area is slightly smaller than A4 sized paper, and quite comparable to the 13-inch iPad Pro but of course the aspect ratio is different.

The display is already colour calibrated at the factory and average Delta E for sRGB is 0.62. Average Delta E is the variance between the input digital colour and the measured output colour. Anything less than 2 is good, less than 1 is fantastic.

I measured colour support for 100% sRGB, 89% AdobeRGB, 86% NTSC, 97% P3 and a maximum brightness of 183 nits out of the advertised 220 nits.

I wish the brightness could be higher but 183 nits is still sufficient for indoor use.

The visuals look sharp enough and pixelation is not noticeable.

There is IPS or LCD glow when the display is viewed from certain angles, so that's where having a tablet stand with adjustable angles will be very useful.

The display is laminated so there's almost no parallax gap between the pen tip and line beneath.

Anti-glare works well but when there's a strong and large light source, the diffused reflection can be bright and glaring. All matte surface will introduce some colour noise, anti-glare sparkle or gain to affect image quality, and all that is kept to a minimum here.

Driver

There are drivers for Windows and MacOS. Linux drivers are in development.

The driver is quite basic and provides adjustment for mapping, pen & cursor alignment, pressure sensitivity, pen button shortcuts and a virtual keyboard, a popup that can give you up to 24 customisable shortcuts. But if you have to use a pen button to call up the virtual keyboard, that's one pen button that cannot be assigned to something else.

INKBOARD
The company is providing this whiteboard software called InkBoard that you can download for free. This app works on Windows and Mac, however it only works with DigiDraw pen displays and pen tablets.

It's a software that lets you draw on top of your desktop, so this is good for teaching, for showing process. This could be good for digital tutors, marketers and IT support staff.

Watch this video below for a demo

Pen

The M5 Pen is well made. There's a big silicone grip that's comfortable to hold.

The pen has two customisable side buttons. Interestingly the two buttons are beneath the silicone grip so it's not possible for the buttons to break off. There's no eraser at the back.

The side buttons are almost flushed to the pen body so they are not easy to feel, and easy to press unintentionally.

The pen supports tilt and 16K levels of pressure sensitivity. The pen is not powered by battery so no charging is required.

Line tests

Line tests below were created with Medibang Paint Pro.

1. Thin lines can be drawn easily even with a thick brush selected. There's no diagonal line wobble.

2. Lines can taper smoothly and sharply.

3. Line transition from thin to thick and back is smooth. There's difficulty drawing a really thin line after a thick line.

4. You can create consistent line width by maintaining consistent pressure.

5. Dots can be drawn easily, and react to pressure.

6. No issues with cursor misalignment. Cursor is always directly under the pen tip even when pen is tilted very low, or pen tip is at the extreme left or right edges.

Tilt sensitivity works well.

This pen is accurate and sensitive. Performance is consistent and predictable.

Drawing experience

Since the pen performance is fantastic, the drawing experience is wonderful.

The matte glass surface feels nice to draw on. The matte glass surface is quite smooth, smoother than matte screen protectors, but I'm still able to get good control over the pen. The pen display only gets warm in a small localised area near the top middle section.

Main thing that affect drawing experience is probably the display size. While the display surface area is slightly smaller than A4-sized paper, when there are palettes on the left and right, the drawing area is halved.

13-inch is the smallest size for pen display that I will recommend so this size is still very usable. I wish the company would come out with 16-inch pen displays in the future to give people more options.

The 2560 x 1600 resolution makes visuals look sharp enough so 4K resolution is not needed. I appreciate the 16:10 aspect ratio very much because given the fixed width of the display, you get more vertical space, more pixels, hence more desktop space. 16:10 aspect ratio is more useful when the display is small.

Pressure sensitivity works great. Thin and thick lines can be drawn easily even with a thick brush selected. The pen can create very expressive lines.

The pen is definitely good enough for creating professional art.

Conclusion

The Turing 14 pen display looks good and works well. The pen is accurate and sensitive. Performance is consistent and predictable. Main downside or limitation is just the measured 183 nits maximum brightness but it's still sufficient for use indoors. Pricing seems competitive to other brands.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Design looks good
+ Build quality is good
+ Display looks vibrant and sharp
+ Good colour accuracy
+ Supports HDMI and USB-C video
+ Can be powered by one single USB-C video cable
+ Body has fold-out feet
+ Matte glass surface
+ Accurate and sensitive pen
+ Wonderful drawing experience
- IPS/LCD glow noticeable
- 183 nits brightness
- No shortcut buttons on display
- USB-C video cable not included
- Pen buttons too flushed, not easy to feel

Availability

The DIGIDRAW Turing 14 can be purchased from Amazon US.

Teoh Yi Chie Wed, 04 Nov 2026 - 09:30

Tags

pen display

tech reviews

digidraw

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Review: Wildwood (2026)

Teoh Yi Chie — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 01:00:00 +0000

Review: Wildwood (2026)

I'm inspired to write my own review after reading many reviews of Wildwood online.

In case you don't know, Wildwood is a stop-motion fantasy film made by Laika Studios. In a world dominated by computers, technology, and now AI, running an animation studio that still creates stop-motion animation is brave. The company makes stop-motion films simply because it can, and because much of the funding comes from Phil Knight, co-founder of Nike, so it doesn't have to worry as much about making money. I mean that as a compliment, by the way.

If you haven't watched a Laika film before, I recommend that you do, even if it's just to appreciate the craftsmanship. The amount of effort put into creating this movie is incredible. It's mind-boggling to me that everything could have been animated in 3D, yet the company chose stop motion instead. Again, huge respect to the animators and their craft.

The story is just alright. It's not bad, but it isn't particularly strong either. I've not read the book that the story was based on, so I won't comment on how closely the film follows it, and that's not important anyway.

I also don't want to talk about the themes in the movie because they aren't the most important aspect.

I want to talk about scriptwriting. This movie doesn't have enough highs and lows. A good movie should have highs and lows. Not all good movies need dramatic highs and lows, sure. But when a movie lacks them, it's harder for the audience to become emotionally invested. I was definitely amazed by the visuals, but not by the story. I admire Prue for her determination to save her baby brother. Curtis, in my opinion, is a filler character who was added mainly to provide character development.

Highs and lows are important. Take the movie Hidden Figures from 2016. I could tell the movie was going to be great within the first five minutes. It gives you a low point and a high point early on, then throws in a surprise, and continues that pattern throughout. While I can no longer remember the exact plot, I can still remember how the movie made me feel. A film earns huge bonus points from me if it includes a surprise, twist, or something genuinely unexpected. Even the unexpected moments in Wildwood weren't mind-blowing. They felt more like, "Oh, so that's why she did that. Next."

Another thing that makes a good movie great is having relatable characters. The characters in Wildwood are fine. I just don't have much to say about them. By the way, the worst movie I've watched this year is Supergirl, where the main character is so unrelatable that if she died, no one would care.

I would still recommend that you watch Wildwood despite everything I've said. You can still admire the visuals, appreciate the craftsmanship, support the people behind the film, and maybe you'll enjoy the story more than I did.

5/5 for visuals. 3/5 for story.

Teoh Yi Chie Wed, 04 Nov 2026 - 09:00

Tags

movie reviews

stop motion

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Best portable tablets for drawing in 2026 from my reviews

Teoh Yi Chie — Mon, 02 Nov 2026 02:00:00 +0000

Best portable tablets for drawing in 2026 from my reviews

2025 and 2026 have been incredible for artists looking for portable drawing tablets. Android tablets are finally ditching USI pens and iPads are... unfortunately getting more expensive -- so, okay, not everything is great.

I've been drawing on portable tablets for years, written too many reviews, and now I'm writing the latest buying guide based on my experience.

For this buying guide, information has been condensed down to main pros and cons. I'll only talk about things that matter to drawing, so I won't cover things like how the speakers sound, whether there's an IP rating, and the physical design unless something is terribly wrong.

Prices listed are current prices that I've found on Amazon. If you want even lower prices, you'll have to look for secondhand or refurbished units.

Links are either to my full reviews, or affiliate links.

Do me a favour. If you intend to buy any tablets, make your purchase through the affiliate links to support my blog and the work I do. I earn some commission but at no extra cost to you. It's your support that allows me to review the countless tablets over the years.

Tablets recommendation by size

Here's a quick recommendation of tablets by size before we move on the price groups.

If you want something small from 8 to 10-inch, there aren't many good options. The best mini tablet with good pen support is the expensive iPad mini -- the generation does not matter as long as it supports Apple Pencil. I enjoy drawing on the Xiaomi Pad Mini too because it's just a better tablet in many ways over the iPad mini, but the pen performance isn't as good. Huion Note E (X50) has good pen performance but the specifications aren't that good.

For 10 to 12-inch, that would either be the Wacom MovinkPad 11 or Huion Kamvas Pad 12. I may prefer the Huion slightly as the processor is better and there's more storage, but the tablet is heavier and thicker which isn't an issue if the usage is mostly indoors.

For 13-inch or larger sizes, I recommend the XPPen Magic Pro 13 and Wacom MovinkPad Pro 14. The Samsung Galaxy tablets are great but I don't like the glossy, reflective display and the new hexagonal S Pen. iPad Pros are great but they are just overpriced compared to the XPPen and Wacom. And if you are thinking of getting the iPad Air, just go with the XPPen which will provide more value for money.

USD 200 - 400

At this price point, tablets usually have weak processors which may affect longevity.

Ugee ArtPlay Pad (USD 379 on Amazon | Ugee store) is what I would recommend. This tablet is designed for kids and beginners.

I usually recommend the 10.9-inch Samsung Tab S10 Lite as the budget option but the Ugee ArtPlay Pad is probably the better option this time as it has a matte glass display, and pen performance is good.

Main pros and cons at a glance
+ Big 12-inch matte glass display
+ Sensitive pen
+ 6GB RAM and 256GB storage for the price
- Slight diagonal line wobble and jitter
- Auto-brightness too sensitive
- Android OS 14 with no info on future OS updates
- Tilt sensitivity not consistent
- MediaTek Helio G99 processor may not have longevity

If you want the best pen performance at a budget price, go with the Samsung Tab S10 Lite or Huion Note E (X50).

Huion Note E (X50) (USD 369 on Amazon | Huion store) is actually designed for reading and note taking, but since it has Google Play Store, you can install and use drawing apps too.

Main pros and cons at a glance
+ 8.4-inch size is portable
+ Matte glass surface
+ Pressure sensitivity works well
+ Android 15 with Google Play Store
- 300 nits display isn't bright enough for outdoor use
- Weak processor
- 6GB RAM but only 128GB storage without microSD card slot
- Tilt does not work well due to the pen display

USD 400 - 600

This is where you can get noticeably better drawing tablets:

Huion Kamvas Pad 12 - USD 499 (review | Huion store | Amazon)
Wacom MovinkPad 11 - USD 499 (review | Amazon)
XPPen Magic Drawing Pad 2025 - USD 499 (review | XPPen store | Amazon)
Apple iPad 2025 with Apple Pencil - USD 499

It's got to be between the Wacom MovinkPad 11 and Huion Kamvas Pad 12.

With the Wacom, you get a better pen. The Huion pen has good pressure support, but tilt sensitivity is inconsistent and the pen button gets pressed too easily.

Both tablets have 8GB RAM. Huion has 256GB storage and microSD card slot vs 128GB of Wacom. Huion's processor is also more powerful. There's the occasional sluggishness with the Wacom.

I prefer Huion for the better overall tablet performance, but I'll have to make do with not using tilt (not a big deal) and the lousy side button. It is possible to buy other Huion X4 pens to use with this tablet.

With USD 499, you can also get the iPad 2025 with Apple Pencil. But you'll be drawing on a glossy non-laminated display. Specs are Apple A16, 6GB RAM, 128GB storage.

Between the Huion and iPad, I prefer Huion because the matte glass surface is quite satisfying to draw on.

It is possible to get the Samsung Tab S10 FE which is USD 549 if you don't mind drawing on a glossy, reflective display.

USD 600 - 800

The Apple M4 iPad Air with 256GB storage is USD 849 before adding Apple Pencil, so that's significantly higher than this price range.

You may be able to find the Samsung Tab S11 released in 2025 within this price range. It's good if you don't mind the glossy reflective display.

The XPPen Magic Pro 13 is the best choice here. Original retail price is USD 1000, but if you can get 20% off with my coupon code TEOHMAGIC20 when used on the XPPen online store.

This tablet has a big, vibrant, sharp and bright matte glass display. Tablet performance is smooth and responsive. Pen has good support for pressure and tilt. It runs on Android 16 with Google Play Store. There's also the pen display mode which works really well. There's 8GB RAM with 256GB storage and a microSD card slot.

This tablet is better than the iPad Air in many ways, at a lower price. Get the iPad Air only if you need iPad-only apps. In terms of value for money, the XPPen Magic Pro 13 wins hands down.

USD 800 - 1000

The 11-inch Apple M4 iPad Air with 12GB RAM 256GB storage and Apple Pencil Pro is priced at USD 978. This is a much better tablet than the base model iPad, but it's also significantly more expensive.

If you have USD 900+ to spend, I still recommend the XPPen Magic Pro 13 unless you need iPad-only apps.

Instead of the iPad Air, I recommend the Samsung Tab S11 instead which is a better tablet in many ways than the iPad Air.

The Samsung has an 11-inch 1000 nits OLED display with 120Hz refresh rate, but it's glossy without anti-reflective coating. And I don't like the physical design of the included S Pen. Apple Pencil Pro has barrel rotation which is a functional difference for drawing.

The iPad Air is a good tablet, but the competition is tough from competitors that offer more at same or lower price.

USD 1000 - 1200

The Wacom MovinkPad Pro 14 is an easy and clear choice. This is now selling at USD 1099 on Amazon.

The 14-inch OLED 120Hz matte glass display looks amazing. Pen performance is wonderful. Drawing experience is satisfying. And the tablet is quite thin and light for its size.

It may not have as many features compared to the high end Samsung Galaxy tablets or the Apple iPad Pros, but all the features designed for artists work great. The processor is powerful so this can last for many years. Android OS 17 will be coming in 2027.

Above USD 1200

The best drawing tablets in my opinion are the Wacom MovinkPad Pro 14 and XPPen Magic Pro 13. They provide incredible value for money.

If you can get those at a lower price, the only reason to buy more expensive tablets is for specific features that you need that's lacking from those two tablets.

Samsung Tab S12 series is great but Samsung removed the anti-reflective coating for the Ultra tablets and that's just a downgrade.

The overpriced M4 and M5 iPad Pros are good if you need to use the tablets in bright outdoor conditions. The tandem OLED's main selling point for me is the 1000 nits brightness. If you want the nano texture glass, you have to buy overpriced storage and then pay more for the matte glass. The iPad Pros are seriously overpriced. You're better off buying refurbished but even those are expensive.

Conclusion

Since there are so many Android tablets being released in 2025 and 2026, I've actually spent more time drawing on Android tablets than on iPads.

Advantage of iPad is iPadOS is versatile. For creatives, there are graphic design apps that handle layout, typography and vector. For drawing purposes, Android tablets are on par. When I draw on Android tablets, I do not miss the iPad, and I have an M4 iPad Pro with nano texture by the way.

With Wacom and XPPen releasing tablets that are powerful and come with fantastic pen performance, I don't think you'll be missing out if you get an Android tablet for drawing. There are so many good options to choose from today, compared to 1 or 2 years ago.

Teoh Yi Chie Mon, 02 Nov 2026 - 10:00

Tags

ipad

android

tech reviews

Comments

Hi Teoh, this is kind of…

Wiktor Budzinski (not verified) Tue, 03 Nov 2026 - 17:54

Hi Teoh,

this is kind of unrelated question to this post, sorry about that, but I don't know who else to ask:(
I am thinking about buying Kamvas Pro 19 that you've reviewed in the past. Do you think it could work with Parblo PR100 stand that you've also recommended? Or would I need something else?

Best,
Wiktor

@Wiktor Budzinski Won't work…

Teoh Yi Chie Wed, 04 Nov 2026 - 00:26

@Wiktor Budzinski
Won't work. The bottom of the Kamvas Pro 19 is too thick to fit.

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Review: Prompt Like a Designer by J Shehan

Teoh Yi Chie — Sun, 01 Nov 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Review: Prompt Like a Designer by J Shehan

Review copy provided by author J Shehan

Full title of the book is "Prompt Like a Designer: Steal good taste, prompt smarter, ship better design". Author J Shehan is a graphic designer with 30 years of experience.

This is a self published book that talk about how you can use AI to create effective graphic design.

People who would find this book useful are marketers, people with no knowledge of graphic design, and of course graphic designers.

The book has chapters on core design principles such as using white space, alignment, grid, colours, fonts and more. If you're a graphic designer, you probably would already have all these knowledge already, so they benefit those who are new to design more.

There are many tips on using AI provided and those are good tips. The takeaway is really to take creative control and not to give generic prompts. There are tips on how you can give specific prompts, how they help with work. To provide better prompts, you'll also need to build up a good visual library and vocabulary and think like an art director rather than just the designer that's creating the visual. You're supposed to be the art director, and AI is the graphic designer.

It's a helpful book. For some strange reason, this book that talks about graphic design does not include any visual examples. The book could be much better with visuals, but I don't think it's a downside considering the instructions are described clearly and easy to understand.

Availability

Teoh Yi Chie Sun, 01 Nov 2026 - 20:00

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graphic design book reviews

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October 2026 roundup

Teoh Yi Chie — Sat, 31 Oct 2026 04:00:00 +0000

October 2026 roundup

Here are all the reviews from October 2026. There were several good tablets released this month: Samsung Galaxy Tab S12 series, Ugee ArtPlay Pad, XPPen Magic Pro 13.

Books

Tech

Art videos

Tech videos

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Teoh Yi Chie Sat, 31 Oct 2026 - 12:00

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monthly reviews roundup

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Book Review: Sketching Outside: An Illustrated Guide to Making Art on the Go

Teoh Yi Chie — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 15:00:00 +0000

Book Review: Sketching Outside: An Illustrated Guide to Making Art on the Go

This is a beautiful artbook that provides many ideas on what you can sketch outdoors.

The author Tilo Schneider is a freelance designer, artist and sketching instructor. He's not active on social media so unfortunately there aren't more sketches to see.

The book has so much drawing tips for different subjects that you can try. There are 250 pages so there's a lot to read.

The sketches featured in this book are lovely. They are loose, vibrant, created with a variety of media, and are just fun to look at.

This is a great book for those who love sketchbooks and urban sketching. The book is also available in Amazon Kindle format.

This book was borrowed from Basheer Graphic Books for review purposes. You can order the book from them. Check with Basheer on Facebook.

Teoh Yi Chie Wed, 28 Oct 2026 - 23:00

Tags

tilo schneider

chronicle books

urban sketching

art book reviews

instructional art book reviews

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Review: XPPen Magic Pro 13 portable drawing tablet

Teoh Yi Chie — Tue, 27 Oct 2026 02:00:00 +0000

Review: XPPen Magic Pro 13 portable drawing tablet

Review unit provided by XPPen

The XPPen Magic Pro 13 is a portable Android drawing tablet (8GB RAM 256GB storage) with a matte textured 13-inch LCD released on 27 Oct 2026. The tablet is priced at USD 999 and there will be an early bird price at USD 899. Use my discount coupon TEOHMAGIC20 to get 20% off.

Just for comparison, the M4 iPad Air with 256GB storage is USD 1049 not including Apple Pencil Pro.

I've been testing this intensively for several weeks and it's better than the XPPen Magic Drawing Pad from 2025 in many aspects. The display is sharper and brighter, pen display mode has no latency, and it comes with Android 16.

My user experience with the XPPen Magic Pro 13 has been wonderful, and you'll find out why in this review.

Specifications

Feature	Magic Drawing Pad (2025)	Magic Pro 13 (2026)
Dimensions / Thickness	279 x 192 x 6.9 mm	6.65 mm body thickness
Weight	599 g	655 g
Display Size & Type	12.2 inches, TFT-LCD (IPS)	12.95 inches, LCD
Resolution & Aspect Ratio	2160 x 1440, 3:2	3096 × 2064 (287 PPI), 3:2
Color Gamut & Colors	77% NTSC, 109% sRGB, 82% Adobe RGB	100% sRGB, 96% DCI-P3, 16.7 million colors
Brightness & Contrast	360 nits, 1200:1 contrast ratio	650 cd/m² (Typ.)
Refresh Rate	60 Hz	120Hz / 90Hz / 60Hz
Surface	Anti-glare (AG) + Anti-fingerprint (AF)	AG + AF
Stylus & Technology	EMR with X3 Pro Pencil	X4 Smart Chip Stylus (X4 Chip & EMR)
Pressure Levels	16,384 levels	16,384 levels
Tilt & Activation Force	NA	60° tilt, 2 g initial activation force
Stylus Accuracy & Height	±0.5 mm (center), ±1.5 mm (corner)	±0.2 mm (center), 10 mm reading height
Resolution (LPI)	2540 LPI	5080 LPI
Processor (CPU)	Octa-core MT8771 (2 x A76 2.4GHz, 6 x A55 2.0GHz)	MediaTek Dimensity 8300 (4nm)
GPU	ARM G57 MC2	Not specified
RAM & Storage	8 GB RAM, 256 GB Storage (expandable via microSD)	8 GB RAM, 256 GB Storage (expandable via microSD)
Cameras	Rear: 13 MP / Front: 8 MP	Rear: 13MP / Front: 8MP
Battery & Charging	8000 mAh (up to 13 hours)	10,200mAh (45W charging)
Operating System	Android 14	Android 16
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2x2), Bluetooth 5.1	Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.4
USB Ports	USB 2.0 Type-C	USB-C 3.2 Gen 1, USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (DP-IN and DP-OUT supported)
Audio	4 speakers, 2 microphones	4 speakers, 2 microphones
Durability & Sensors	Not specified	IP54 durability; Gravity, Ambient Light, Hall, SAR sensors

Things included

Tablet
X4 smart chip stylus
4x smooth tips
4x felt tips
Pen tip remover
USB-C to USB-C video cable
Artist glove
Quick start guide
Warranty card

There's no charger included. To utilise the 45W fast charging feature, you'll need a fast charger.

The felt tips are nice so I highly recommend buying extras when you're ordering the tablet.

Design

The design of the tablet is clean and simple. Corners, including the LCD, are rounded off. Since the body is white, you can see the white frame edges. Bezels are uniform on all sides.

There's a landscape 8MP camera which has no face unlock unfortunately. The auto-brightness sensor works well, and is located out of the way when holding the tablet vertically.

The power button on the left has no fingerprint scanner. On the top are volume control buttons and a switch to disable touch, which is good if palm rejection is not working well for some apps.

The back is matte textured. A 13MP camera and flash are located at the corner. The three small rubber bumpers at the corners are too small. When the tablet is flat on the table, the camera will eventually be scratched. I've installed larger bumpers to raise the tablet higher above the camera bump.

Shown above is the XPPen Magic Pro 13 beside the 13-inch M4 iPad Pro. Aspect ratio is slightly different but the size is quite comparable.

In terms of specs, the XPPen is more comparable to the iPad Air and not the iPad Pros with OLED displays.

The XPPen tablet is actually 12.95-inch but for this review it will be referred to as a 13-inch tablet. It's a big tablet and I consider it a tabletop tablet so it's more comfortable to draw on it when it's on the table or some surface. A weight of 655g is good for tablet of this size but this is not a tablet I would want to hold with one hand to draw on.

The tablet has four speakers and audio is loud but sounds slightly hollow, but still much better compared to budget tablets.

There are two USB-C video ports. The one in the middle can output video to an external display, but you only get mirror mode. This is useful if you want to draw with an Android app and look at a bigger display. The USB-C port at the corner can let this tablet work as a pen display. The two ports are not interchangeable.

Pen display mode lets you connect to Windows or Mac, and lets you use your desktop apps. Driver installation is needed for pen display feature to work properly.

Here are pros and cons of the pen display mode

Resolution and UI scaling can be adjusted
Brightness cannot be adjusted from the desktop OS
There's almost no pen latency (good!)
Pressure and tilt works with Windows and Mac
Touch works with Windows, not with Mac
No driver installation is needed
No driver to customise pen pressure, buttons

There's no pen display driver at the time of review. If you use dual displays, there's no Switch Display shortcut, so you can't move the cursor from one display to the other.

Display

The display comes with a matte glass surface that's unlikely to scratch. Anti-glare works quite well and the 650 nits brightness is able to go through diffused reflections.

Brightness is not high enough to use under direct sunlight or near sunlight. As long as you're under the shade, the brightness is high enough. Brightness is even higher compared to the old iPad Pros or current iPad Air with 500 nits brightness.

This display is bright, vibrant and sharp. Colour support is 100% sRGB and the colours look great out of the box. Not having an OLED display is not an issue as a good LCD can still look great. There's some IPS or LCD glow but not obvious.

All matte surfaces will introduce some grain, colour noise and anti-glare sparkle, and on this tablet all that is kept to a minimum. This display has good visual quality, and it's even better than I expected.

I love the 3:2 aspect ratio because both landscape and portrait orientation works well for drawing.

Display is laminated so there's almost no gap between the pen tip and the line beneath. The matte surface provides subtle tactile drawing experience. The white pen tip is quite smooth and the black tip has slightly more texture but still smooth. When drawing with the black tip, there's also audio feedback so the experience is nicer, and is the reason why artists prefer drawing on matte vs glossy displays.

Refresh rate of the display is 120hz but you have to enable that in the settings as 60Hz is the default.

Performance

The MediaTek Dimensity 8300 is a powerful processor and together with the 120Hz refresh rate makes the tablet look and feel responsive. There's 8GB of RAM which should be sufficient for multi-tasking. 8GB of RAM can get you 131 layers with an A4-size canvas with Infinite Painter.

256GB storage capacity is sufficient, and there's a microSD card slot for storage expansion.

OS and software

The tablet runs on Android 16 with official support for Google Play Store. I was told XPPen would be upgrading the OS in the future but there's no info as to how many years of OS updates you will get.

XPPen's UI on top of Android is quite basic with limited features. If you need more features you will have to find an app to get what you want.

There are some pen customisation settings provided:

Show or hide the cursor
Customise the side button with Home, Back, Recent Apps (App switcher), Control Center, None
Disable touch
Adjust pen offset
Quick draw when tablet is asleep

There is no global pressure curve adjustment.

There are many good drawing apps available from the Google Play Store. Clip Studio Paint is great but it's subscription based unlike the desktop version which is a one-time purchase.

Line tests

Line tests below were created with Medibang Paint.

1. Thin lines can be drawn easily with a thick brush. There's slight diagonal line wobble or jitter but I would consider them straight enough.

2. Lines can taper smoothly and sharply.

3. Line transition from thin to thick and back to thin is smooth. Thin lines can be drawn easily after drawing the thick.

4. Consistent line width can be maintained with consistent pressure.

5. No issues with drawing dots.

6. No issues with cursor misalignment.

Tilt sensitivity works. With Krita, cursor is able to follow the direction of the pen. The pen does not support barrel rotation.

To get even finer control with pressure, you'll need a drawing app that lets you adjust the pressure curve, such as CSP or Infinite Painter.

Drawing experience

Since the pen is quite accurate and sensitive, the pen performance is consistent and predictable. Pen latency is good, but will vary depending on which app you use.

My drawing experience with the tablet is wonderful. I've used the tablet outdoors for drawing on several occasions and I never had to think about the hardware or software. I was just drawing and thinking about what I'm drawing.

This is a good drawing tablet where I don't have to do any troubleshooting or have to work around the pen limitations.

Lines are able to come out just the way I expect. Display is big so it works well with apps with many UI elements. I wish XPPen would come out with a smaller even more portable tablet, but keep the battery life.

One thing that does affect drawing experience is how smooth the pen tip is, which will take some time to get used to. The smoothness is quite similar to what you get with those screen-less pen tablets. The felt tip is better but still smooth.

Battery life

Battery life is about 9-10 hours with auto brightness.

Charging speed is up to 45W but you only get that speed when the battery is almost empty. I rarely get the maximum charging speed, but usually it's 20W or higher which is still quite fast.

Conclusion

I really enjoy drawing on the XPPen Magic Pro 13. This tablet is like a competitor to the iPads Pros with LCDs, better than the iPad Air because it has a matte display and 120Hz refresh rate, and higher brightness.

This is a well made tablet that looks good and works well. Huion has recently released the Kamvas Pad 12 and Ugee has the ArtPlay Pad. This tablet is better than those too, and maybe even comparable to the more expensive Wacom MovinkPad Pro 14 too.

I like this tablet and this is something I can recommend easily to anyone looking for good portable drawing tablet that's not an iPad.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Clean simple design
+ Has microSD card slot
+ Touch can be disabled with a switch
+ Auto-brightness works well
+ Display is sharp, vibrant and bright
+ Matte glass surface is wonderful to draw on
+ 3:2 aspect ratio
+ 120Hz refresh rate
+ Display is laminated
+ Pen has good pressure and tilt performance
+ Good pen latency
+ Pen does not require charging and pairing
+ 10 hours battery life with auto brightness
+ Android 16 with Google Play Store
+ Has future OS updates
- No biometric unlock
- Speakers are loud but audio sounds slightly hollow
- Two USB-C video ports, one supports pen display
- OS has limited features

Availability

The XPPen Magic Pro 13 is available from XPPen online store.

Use coupon code TEOHMAGIC20 for 20% off.

Codes I found online for other stores:
UK: FINCH20
CA: NiramiMagic20
DE: NiramiMagic20
ES: IVART13
PT: IVART13

Do me a favour. If you have intention to buy the tablet, make your purchase through the affiliate links to support my blog and the work I do. I get to earn some commission but at no extra cost to you. It's your support that allows me to review the countless tablets over the years.

Teoh Yi Chie Tue, 27 Oct 2026 - 10:00

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tech reviews

xp pen

drawing tablet reviews

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Review: Bigme F13 e-ink photo frame

Teoh Yi Chie — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 03:00:00 +0000

Review: Bigme F13 e-ink photo frame

Review sample provided by Bigme

The Bigme F7 is a 13.3-inch e-ink photo frame that uses Spectra 6 display technology.

Price at the time of review is USD 269. The price is much higher compared to the smaller Bigme F7 and F7 Pro photo frames I've reviewed months ago, and that's to be expected.

Here's the bottom line. I like this photo frame because it's big and makes looking at your photos very satisfying. I could also transfer my watercolour sketches to it and it's really cool to be able to display my own art this way. Battery life is rated for 1.5 years so this e-ink photo frame pretty much works just like... a real photo frame, except you have the convenient of swapping out photos easily.

Downside is photo transfer with the app does not work consistently. More on that later.

The purchase will get you the photo frame, a screw, wall plug, hanger, USB-A to USB-C charging cable and quick start guide.

This photo frame is designed to be hanged vertically or horizontally. You, of course, need to drill a hole in your wall before you can hang the photo frame.

There's no stand included like the smaller Bigme photo frames.

The photo frame can also lean against a wall if you prefer.

This is a well made photo frame with solid build quality. The exterior is probably plastic but it's dense plastic. Interior white frame is matte textured, and also plastic, and thick.

The 13.3-inch Spectra 6 e-ink display is matte textured. From what I've read, it uses six pigments black, white, red, yellow, blue, and green, and can produce up to 60,000 colours.

Resolution is 1600 by 1200 and pixelation is not noticeable from normal viewing distance away. A photo frame is not gonna be viewed that closely, but if you do look close you can see the grain of the e-ink making up the picture.

E-ink will not be as vibrant compared to LCD or OLED displays so that's not surprising. The selling point here is e-ink does not use any power once the picture is drawn, and picture will remain as long as ever before you change to another picture.

I notice reds are not as vibrant but that's not really an issue. Colours will look best when there's light shining on the display, but not directly in front because you don't want the diffused reflections. So it's best to place the photo frame in a bright place with good lighting.

This is how big the Bigme B13 is compared to my 8.8-inch Xiaomi Pad Mini which is bigger than the other 7.3-inch Bigme e-ink photo frames.

There's a microSD card slot provided so I guess you can load your pictures from a microSD card. From the user manual, it says the pictures should be in .bin file format which is weird as jpeg is more popular. Anyway, I did not test that as transferring photo from the app is more convenient.

The app

There's a QR code you can scan from the back of the photo frame to install the app, available from Google Play Store or Apple App Store.

The photo frame will need wifi 2.4Ghz to connect to your phone. It may take several tries to connect to the phone. There's a power button you can press and hold for 3 seconds to get into pairing mode.

After the app is connected to the photo frame, you can transfer a picture over or pictures over if you want a slideshow.

There are some AI features which I think are quite gimmicky. The AI can answer simple questions with voice, and you can tell AI to draw you an image.

Photo frame has to be awake before you can transfer photos. Downside is there's no way to know whether the photo frame is awake by looking at it or at the app. Sometimes I have to press the power button several times to wake the photo frame. It's annoying to have to try several times before you can transfer a photo over but once the photo is transferred you won't be transferring a new photo anytime soon.

Looking at photos that brings back memories lets you appreciate the good old times.

If you want a nice big e-ink photo frame, the Bigme F13 is one I can recommend. This photo frame is available from the Bigme online store.

Teoh Yi Chie Mon, 26 Oct 2026 - 11:00

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Book Review: The Art of KPop Demon Hunters

Teoh Yi Chie — Sun, 25 Oct 2026 07:30:00 +0000

Book Review: The Art of KPop Demon Hunters

Golden

I'm actually a big fan of KPop Demon Hunters because this movie is just bursting with energy, girl power in this case, compared other animated films from 2025. The visual style also looks amazing.

This 144-page hardcover artbook is published by Random House Worlds. It comes with a dust jacket, glossy imprints and shiny page edges.

It's packed with so much concept art. There are interesting character designs, so many costumes, props such as the noodles they ate, creatures, storyboards, the underworld and environments. I wish there were more sketches though as everything is so colourful.

There is also commentary talking about the characters and the designs.

144 pages is actually not a lot for an animated film of this scale so I was left wanting more.

If you like the film, you'll love this book.

This book was borrowed from Basheer Graphic Books for review purposes. You can order the book from them. Check with Basheer on Facebook.

Teoh Yi Chie Sun, 25 Oct 2026 - 15:30

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art book reviews

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Review: Junior and the Holiday Magic (a play)

Teoh Yi Chie — Sat, 24 Oct 2026 15:21:17 +0000

Review: Junior and the Holiday Magic (a play)

I just came back from a play called "Junior and the Holiday Magic" by Singapore Repertory Theatre and felt like I should write a review to promote it because it's pretty good, very enjoyable.

The play is running now until 21 Nov 2026 at Drama Centre Theatre, National Library, Singapore.

I don't normally go for plays because tickets are noticeably more expensive than movie tickets. Thankfully, these tickets can purchased with the SG Culture Pass, so I did not pay much.

Here's their marketing material:

Step inside Santa’s workshop for a magical year-end adventure filled with music, laughter and plenty of festive cheer at Junior and the Holiday Magic!

Junior is the rebellious heir to the North Pole, where Santa’s elves are busy preparing for the biggest celebration of the year. But when the Belief-o-Meter falls to a dangerously low level, Santa slips into a mysterious sleep, leaving Grumpo, a greedy elf with plans of his own, to take control of the workshop.

After Junior runs away from home, Grumpo seizes his chance to extinguish the holiday spirit once and for all. Now, Junior must return to the North Pole and make things right before it is too late. Together with Chipper the elf and Pengy the penguin, Junior embarks on a race against time to awaken Santa, restore the world’s belief in holiday magic and save the biggest celebration of the year.

Featuring upbeat songs, lively characters and plenty of heart, Junior and the Holiday Magic is a joyful year-end treat for audiences of all ages.

The story was simple, easy to understand, clearly written for children. The play is just 60 minutes long which is just right.

Character designs are wonderful, and I love how lively the characters are. The choreography and transitions are engaging. There's also some audience interaction which was fun.

I saw many families inside the venue and judging by their laughter and smiles I would say they are quite entertained, as I am. So yes, it's a nice play that I can recommend to families with school going kids.

Teoh Yi Chie Sat, 24 Oct 2026 - 23:21