The Verge: A Touchscreen MacBook Could Borrow Ideas From Lenovo's Yoga 9n
A writer at tech site The Verge argues that Apple's rumored touchscreen MacBook should adopt several features of the Lenovo Yoga 9n, including a stylus that also works on the trackpad. The Apple laptop could reportedly be announced next week.
Apple's long-rumored touchscreen MacBook may be announced as early as next week. Antonio G. Di Benedetto of the tech site The Verge tested the Lenovo Yoga 9n laptop, built on Nvidia's RTX Spark platform, and concluded that it offers much of what he would like to see in Apple's new device. These are the author's opinions and hopes, not confirmed details of any Apple product.
What the Lenovo Yoga 9n offers
RTX Spark is an Arm-based processor with a powerful integrated GPU and a large pool of unified memory, similar to the Apple silicon chips in MacBook Pro computers. The Yoga 9n is a 16-inch 2-in-1 laptop whose hinge folds fully back, so it can be used as a regular laptop, in tent mode or as a tablet. The other RTX Spark laptops also have touchscreens, but they are conventional clamshell designs.
The bundled stylus works for note-taking and drawing on the OLED display, and it can also be used on the haptic trackpad, much like a Wacom tablet, so a hand does not block the screen. The stylus is magnetic and attaches to the lid. It charges over USB-C. The author also uses it for photo retouching in Lightroom Classic and Photoshop.
What the author wants from Apple
The author expects a touchscreen MacBook Pro to support Apple Pencil and hopes it will work on the trackpad too. He also wants the stylus to attach magnetically to the laptop and charge wirelessly, as on the iPad Pro.
He does not expect a standard convertible laptop. He hopes for something less conventional, such as Apple's take on the idea behind Microsoft's Surface Laptop Studio, where the screen moves forward. He also notes hints in macOS 27 that the system is being adapted for touch input. The author predicts the device will be expensive, so Apple has to make it worth the wait.
