xppen

XPPen's new Magic Drawing Pad is what the company calls the industry's first professional and mobile standalone drawing tablet, described as "a magic studio on the go."

There's no denying that in the last few years, we've seen a veritable explosion of pen and display tablets from competing companies. At this stage in the competitive game, the hardest part for creatives has been figuring out what makes one tablet better or different than another at each budget level.

There are two big leaps you can make in your photo editing workflow. The first is moving from a mouse-and-keyboard setup to a pen tablet like the Wacom Intuos Pro—almost everybody does that at some point. But if you really want to kick your experience up to another level, there's one more step you can take: you can buy yourself a high-resolution pen display.

When it comes time to up their photo editing game, most photographers reach for a pen tablet like Wacom's Intuos Pro series. But what about pen displays? Wacom, XP-Pen, and Huion all offer displays that let you draw and edit right on the screen without sacrificing any of the features you get from a tablet. They're typically used by artists, but we wanted to know: are they worth it for photo editing?

Ask any retoucher what one item they couldn't live without, and they will probably point to their photo editing tablet. Swapping your mouse for a pen tablet can make a huge difference for your workflow, but is it really worth spending $380 on the Wacom Intuos Pro that everyone seems to be using? Are there any affordable alternatives? I'm glad you asked!