The Apple Pencil could be the ‘missing link’ to a touchscreen MacBook Pro — here’s why
The Apple Pencil could be the ‘missing link’ to a touchscreen MacBook Pro — here’s why
Publish Date: 2026-02-07 06:15:00
Source Domain: www.tomsguide.com
We’ve heard for a while that Apple could be looking to move its MacBook lineup to a touchscreen setup, and short of seemingly spelling the end of some high-powered tablet alternatives like the iPad Pro M5, you only have to watch a newer generation prod at your Mac screen to know that it’s only a matter of time.
Fresh from my son poking my MacBook Air M3 with his digits, though, I was thinking: “How could Apple make using touch on the Mac a more pleasant experience?”
After all, the idea of navigating the macOS menu bar with your fingertips sounds, frankly, rough — but is the solution the Apple Pencil, a device that’s been staring us in the face for years?
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Minimal fresh UI needed
Imagine navigating this with your finger. (Image credit: Future)
To start with, I think Apple’s touchscreen laptops are a near certainty in the future. Whether it’ll be limited to a certain product line, like the rumored MacBook Pro M6 with OLED, or a new one entirely, remains to be seen — but I just can’t see Apple wanting to roll out two versions of macOS with different touch targets.
It would require an awful lot of work to adjust just about every part of the OS for a touchscreen, with Mac mainstays like the menu bar, the settings app and Finder likely to need major surgery.
What if, then, Apple leaned into the precision already available in its stylus? The Apple Pencil has been around the block enough times to have multiple hardware revisions, constantly improving and adding new features, culminating in the impressive (but inessential for many) Apple Pencil Pro.
If these touchscreen Macs end up having fresh designs, then we’d get yet another way for Apple to cram magnetic charging à la MagSafe into a device for charging the stylus. Moreover, while it would be a good decade and change since the Microsoft Surface Pen rollout, and other Apple Pen alternatives, Apple silicon could make these styluses much more desirable and capable.
