Tag Archives: stylus

moto g stylus 2026 Review: Accessible Pocket Productivity and Creativity

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PROS:


  • Stylus with pressure and tilt sensitivity

  • Beautiful, minimalist design

  • Bright and vibrant screen

  • Headphone jack and microSD card slot

CONS:


  • Short software support period

  • Relatively higher price compared to peers

  • Not much hardware upgrades from last-gen

RATINGS:

AESTHETICS
ERGONOMICS
PERFORMANCE
SUSTAINABILITY / REPAIRABILITY
VALUE FOR MONEY

EDITOR'S QUOTE:

The moto g stylus - 2026 analog handwriting and digital freedom in a striking minimalist design that you can finally afford.

Despite and in spite of the growing number of screens and disembodied artificial voices around us, there remains a strong culture and argument for handwritten words. But while there might be plenty of benefits to putting ink to paper, there’s no denying that paper doesn’t provide the benefits of digital artifacts such as files, photos, and videos. For years, the stylus has been trying to bridge the best of both worlds, but it has so far been only within the reach of those who can afford it.

Since 2020, Motorola has been working to provide that kind of experience to more people through its Moto G Stylus line, but there have always been compromises. Ironically, most of those revolved around the very feature that gave the product line its name. With the moto g stylus – 2026, however, the brand is making its most daring leap forward yet, aiming for a title held only by the most luxurious of Samsung’s (non-foldable) handsets. So does it fly or does it fall? Read on to find out.

Designer: Motorola

Aesthetics

The moment you pull the moto g stylus – 2026 out of the box, you are immediately struck by how different it is from most phones of this generation. It doesn’t scream for attention with a ridiculously large camera module, nor does it attempt to dazzle your eyes with tricks of color and light. It is, in a nutshell, a minimalist lover’s dream.

The back of the phone, which is always the most expressive side of the design, is covered with a vegan leather-inspired material that gives the phone both visual and tactile texture. Continuing its partnership with PANTONE, those covers are available in subtle Coal Smoke (our review unit) and Lavender Mist colors, with the flat edges matching the hue. Other than the iconic “Batwing” logo and minuscule markings around the LED flash, the design is bare and plain, a refreshing change from the active and noisy rears of most smartphones these days.

The camera bump follows that same pattern, rising from the back plate with a gentle slope. There’s no separate structure caging the lenses, creating a seamless and unbroken surface that almost has a calming effect, especially when your finger starts to glide over the textured surface. There’s almost a sense of Zen, so to speak, which is almost how many pen and paper lovers describe their favorite notebooks.

Of course, the front is the polar opposite, but only because of its bright and vibrant screen. The thin and almost symmetrical bezels and the flat glass, however, serve to provide balance that keeps that liveliness in check. All in all, the moto g stylus – 2026 is both simple and sublime. It doesn’t call attention to itself with some fancy visual or material gimmick, but you can’t help but pay close attention to its minimalism just the same.

The stylus is cut from the same cloth, with a design that might be familiar to those who have held a Samsung “Ultra” flagship. It’s basically a somewhat flat stick, with a spring-loaded rear that easily resembles the (addictive) clicky ends of retractable pens. But unlike the small but stubby nibs of its predecessors, there is now a proper tapered, conical tip. Of course, it’s not just an aesthetic change, as we’ll get to in a bit.

Ergonomics

Another thing you’ll notice the moment you lift the moto g stylus – 2026 out of the box is how light it is. At only 192.3g, even with the 4.7g stylus inside, it’s easily one of the lightest phones in the market today. Given that it has a 6.7-inch screen and a large 5,200mAh battery, that’s even more surprising.

That lightness, however, is a double-edged blade. On the one hand, it might make the phone feel a little flimsy, almost like it could easily fly out of your hand. It almost makes the vibration haptics feel hollow, as if there’s not enough substance in there.

On the other hand, it strains your hand less when holding it for a long time, especially as you might find yourself constantly scribbling or doodling on it. The phone’s textured back and flat edges also help deliver a more confident hold. It just won’t accidentally slip from your hand that easily. A protective case almost feels redundant if grip is your only reason for putting one on.

One thing to note about the camera module is that although it is thin and subtle, it still lifts a single corner of the phone when you put it on a flat surface. That means it will wobble, which can be pretty annoying when you’re writing with a stylus. Funnily enough, that might actually be a more pressing reason to put a case on, just to create a balance. Unfortunately, you do lose out on feeling the phone’s textured surface.

Performance

The Specs

The moto g stylus – 2026 makes no qualms about its specs, clearly marking it for the mid-range smartphone market. There’s only 8GB of RAM, which can be expanded up to 24GB with RAM Boost, which basically eats up some of the already modest 128GB or 256GB of storage. Thankfully, you can also expand that storage with a microSD card of up to 1TB capacity, definitely a rare sight these days, even among phones on the same tier.

The biggest disappointment is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 processor, which is a holdover from last year’s moto g stylus. In fact, if you look closer, you’ll see plenty of similarities between the 2025 and 2026 models, from processor to cameras. It’s not always a bad thing, but given the price hike, you’d be forgiven for expecting a bit more.

Make no mistake, though, the moto g stylus – 2026 is plenty capable. It won’t win trophies on benchmarks, but it does get the job done without breaking too much of a sweat. It’s even surprising how it can handle a game like Warframe on high settings. It doesn’t get too warm, either, and the vegan leather material probably helps make it feel a little less warm as well.

And that’s perfect because the moto g stylus – 2026 has such a gorgeous screen to play and watch on. The 6.7-inch 2712 x 1220 AMOLED display boasts a peak brightness of 5000 nits, definitely one of the brightest in the market, making it easily usable under sunlight. The rounded corners are also less curved, so UI elements are not obstructed, especially in games. Plus, the 3.5mm headphone jack, another rare sighting, can perfectly complement the visuals with hi-def wired audio.

The moto g stylus – 2026 runs the latest Android 16, and given Motorola’s history, the skin is pretty minimal and non-invasive. It’s probably the closest you can get to a Pixel experience outside of Google Pixel phones, which is light, fast, and probably barebones if you’re coming from other brands like Samsung and Xiaomi. There’s almost no bloatware, unless you count the dozen or so pre-installed Google apps, which would be the same situation on a Google Pixel phone anyway.

The Pen

There’s no beating around the bush: the only reason you’d even give the moto g stylus – 2026 is because of its stylus. For the first time, that stylus is no longer just a very thin stub standing in for your finger tip. For the first time, it is supporting pressure and tilt sensitivity, features that only Samsung offers at nearly three times the price.

The older stylus designs were practical and usable, but this new pen opens the door to even more possibilities, especially when it comes to creative activities like drawing, designing, and editing photos. It gives you much better control and precision, while also offering more styles in terms of pen width, brushes, and the like.

The stylus is also crucial in some productivity workflows, like when dragging images to a note in split-screen mode, highlighting and copying text to a note, or for sketching a crude representation of a cat and using AI to turn it into a photorealistic masterpiece. Part of this upgraded experience is made possible with the Moto Notes app, which supports drawing on an infinite canvas that can then be embedded into notes.

The new stylus also has a button that can be mapped to some actions depending on whether you press or long-press it, though the actions are not that varied. The pen now also has to be charged, which is how it’s able to pull off that pressure sensitivity stunt, and you can only charge it when it’s inside its silo.

The Cameras

The moto g stylus – 2026’s camera story is rather underwhelming. On the hardware side, it doesn’t exactly differ from last year’s cameras, which include a 50MP Sony LYTIA 700C sensor and a 13MP Ultra-wide shooter that doubles as the Macro camera. In a nutshell, these are serviceable and decent, but they wouldn’t be something you’d want to rely on if you were planning on being a professional shutter bug.

The main shooter does a pretty good job of capturing detail, but its dynamic range seems to be on the narrower side, making subjects look a little flat. The AI-enhanced Signature Style can try to compensate, but it also oversaturates the output.

Normal

Signature Style

Normal

Night Vision

Nighttime photography is what you’d expect, as there wouldn’t be enough light information to work with. Night Vision Mode definitely kicks things up a notch, brightening things up enough to make out the details. This is one of those moments where the difference is, pardon the pun, night and day.

Ultrawide (0.5x)

Wide (1x)

Zoom (2x)

Given the hardware, ultra-wide shots are naturally less impressive but still get the job done for a quick panoramic picture. There’s no dedicated telephoto lens, so it does double duty as the macro camera. Unfortunately, it doesn’t make much of a difference. Portrait shots are pleasant and accurate, though, and you can select from 24mm, 35mm, and 50mm focal lengths.

Macro

Macro

The Battery

One of the few upgrades this year is the moto g stylus – 2026’s larger 5200mAh battery. It still supports 68W wire Turbo Charging and 15W wireless charging, the latter with no magnetic tricks. With the right power brick, you’re promised a full charge in just 44 minutes, but even a 65W charger managed to top the phone off in just a little over an hour.

That charging won’t happen frequently though, as the phone can last more than a day with normal use, including browsing the web, social media, and even watching videos on that bright, large screen. With less frequent use, it can actually extend to two days, though you’ll want to be on Wi-Fi rather than cellular to pull that off. Needless to say, it’s a reliable daily partner that won’t have you scrambling for a charger before you head home.

Sustainability

Motorola has been pretty vocal about its sustainability efforts, but the moto g stylus – 2026 is a bit of a hit and a little miss. The compact, plastic-free packaging is superb in that regard, ditching the redundant charging brick as well. Motorola also boasts about longevity, given the IP68, IP69, and MIL-STD-810H certifications.

Where the story takes a sad turn, however, is in the software upgrades. Only two years of Android upgrades and three years of security updates, figures that would have sounded generous almost a decade ago. This lags way behind the likes of Xiaomi, notorious for its short software support cycles, and is quite disappointing for an Android user experience that is almost as pure and unencumbered as the Google Pixel.

Value

There’s no going around the fact that the moto g stylus – 2026 has a price tag that’s a little difficult to swallow. It’s more than a $100 jump from last year’s model, and at $500 or $600, for 128GB and 256GB storage, respectively, other brands might give you better specs for the same price. Granted, Motorola often throws in bundles and discounts to sweeten the deal, but the initial price shock is unavoidable.

That said, that price could be a bit justifiable, especially if you factor in how electronics prices are going up these days anyway. For that amount, you get a solid, reliable, and beautiful phone that is almost literally a digital Field Notes notebook in your pocket. Considering that the closest competition is actually a $1,300 Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, then there’s almost no contest. Sure, it doesn’t have the glamorous bells and whistles, but neither would a trusty notebook.

Verdict

More than any mainstream smartphone in the market today, the moto g stylus – 2026 is clearly aimed at a particular audience: people who don’t want their productivity and creativity to be hampered by not having their notebook or their computer around. They say the best tool is the one that you have with you, and almost everyone has their smartphone in their pocket. And what better way to capture fleeting inspiration or sketch inspiring vistas than by whipping out your phone and pulling out the stylus?

By no means is the moto g stylus – 2026 perfect. In fact, you might even call it dated if you judged it by its specs alone. But with a talented stylus, a gorgeous screen, a reliable battery, and a beautiful minimalist design, it is definitely worth every penny. There is no perfect productivity tool or notebook, but the moto g stylus – 2026 comes pretty darn close.

The post moto g stylus 2026 Review: Accessible Pocket Productivity and Creativity first appeared on Yanko Design.

moto g stylus – 2026: Pressure-Sensitive Stylus, Military-Tough, $500

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Motorola has introduced the moto g stylus – 2026, refreshing one of its more popular smartphone lines with an upgraded built-in stylus, added durability, and a feature set aimed at users who want productivity tools without stepping into flagship pricing. The moto g stylus has become one of Motorola’s more popular models by offering a built-in stylus in a segment where that feature remains relatively rare. With the 2026 version, Motorola is clearly building on one of the line’s biggest points of differentiation.

The stylus is central to the phone’s updated experience. It now supports tilt and pressure sensitivity in supported apps, allowing for broader shading, finer lines, and a more natural pen-on-paper feel when sketching, jotting notes, or marking up ideas on the fly. That functionality extends to a refreshed Notes experience, where handwritten notes, doodles, and brainstorms live in one place.

Designer: Motorola

Beyond the pen features, the moto g stylus – 2026 brings together a hardware package aimed at broadening its appeal. The phone includes a 6.7-inch AMOLED display with 1.5K resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. Peak brightness has been increased to 5,000 nits, up from 3,000 nits on the previous model.

The camera hardware, however, looks rather familiar. Motorola lists a 50-megapixel main camera with Sony’s LYTIA 700C sensor, along with a 13-megapixel ultrawide and macro camera and a 32-megapixel front-facing camera. That mirrors the setup used on the 2025 model on paper, suggesting the bigger story this year is the stylus and durability rather than a major imaging overhaul.

Motorola is also putting more emphasis on durability this year. The moto g stylus – 2026 adds IP69 protection and SGS-certified military-grade toughness, building on the IP68 resistance already offered by the previous model. That should help the phone better handle dust, water exposure, drops, and more demanding day-to-day conditions.

Battery life remains another key part of the package. The phone includes a 5,200mAh battery that Motorola says can deliver up to 44 hours of use, along with support for 68W wired charging and 15W wireless charging. On the software side, the device ships with Android 16 and includes Google Gemini, Motorola’s Hello UX customization layer, Smart Connect for multi-device experiences, and Moto Secure.

The new model continues Motorola’s design-forward approach, pairing its feature set with a leather-inspired finish and twill-like texture. It will be offered in Pantone-curated Coal Smoke and Lavender Mist color options. Motorola announced the phone alongside the Moto Pad 2026, a new tablet intended to complement the smartphone across productivity and entertainment use cases.

The Moto G Stylus 2026 will go on sale on April 16 as an unlocked device through Best Buy, Amazon, and Motorola.com, with a starting price of $499.99. We are expecting to receive a review unit, and we will have more to say once we have had the chance to test the stylus, camera system, battery life, and day-to-day performance. Stay tuned for our full review.

The post moto g stylus – 2026: Pressure-Sensitive Stylus, Military-Tough, $500 first appeared on Yanko Design.

Two ESR Accessories That Fix the iPad’s Most Frustrating Problems

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The iPad has a funny relationship with its own potential. Apple builds these devices with silicon that outpaces many laptops, pairs them with displays that creative professionals genuinely covet, sandwiches everything into one impossibly sleek slab of glass and aluminum… and then just announces them without obsessively planning the broader ecosystem. The Magic Keyboard, while capable, is expensive, as is the Pencil. One confines you to a laptop-style of using, the other to a conventional tablet. This, I believe, is Apple building a symbiotic relationship with third-party accessory makers who, more often than not, do a better job than Apple at really planning an ecosystem around powerful devices like the iPad Pro… and at a much lower price point.

ESR has made a habit of knowing how to harness the iPad’s hybrid potential correctly. The Shift Keyboard Case (Detachable) and the Geo Digital Pencil read like two products designed by people who use an iPad seriously and got tired of being held back. One brings detachable keyboard flexibility and a generous trackpad to a category Apple makes expensive and rigid. The other brings Find My tracking and Bluetooth shortcuts to stylus use, features that make you wonder why they were ever considered optional. Together, they close the loop on what a well-designed iPad workflow actually needs.

ESR Shift Keyboard Case: Designed Around How People Actually Use an iPad

The biggest issue with turning an iPad into a laptop has always been the finality of it. Most keyboard cases, including Apple’s own, lock the device into a landscape, clamshell-style format that feels clumsy the moment you want to use it as a tablet again. The Shift Keyboard Case is built around a strong magnetic connection that sidesteps this entire problem. The keyboard half simply lifts away from the stand and case, leaving the protected iPad behind. This design treats the keyboard as a powerful, dedicated tool you bring in for serious typing, not as a permanent attachment you have to constantly wrestle with. It’s a simple mechanical solution to a complicated user experience problem, and it fundamentally changes how you approach the device.

When the keyboard is attached, the setup feels remarkably committed to a proper laptop workflow. ESR put a large, click-anywhere trackpad at the center of the design, which is the correct choice now that iPadOS has such robust cursor support. It lets you navigate, select text, and use gestures without your hands ever leaving the typing area. The keys themselves are backlit, with enough travel to feel responsive for long-form writing rather than just firing off a quick email. This combination of a full-featured keyboard and a genuinely usable trackpad is what separates a serious work setup from a temporary compromise, and it’s clear which side of that line ESR was aiming for.

Once you detach the keyboard, the other half of the product’s intelligence becomes apparent. The remaining case and stand function independently, offering multiple viewing angles in both landscape and, crucially, portrait orientation. This is a detail that many competitors miss entirely. Being able to set the iPad up vertically for reading documents, coding, or taking video calls respects the fact that not all work happens in a 16:9 window. The stand mechanism is sturdy enough to support the iPad securely on a desk, making it a useful tool for media viewing or as a secondary display, all without the keyboard taking up space.

Putting it all together, the Shift case presents a complete, two-part system that adapts to the task at hand. The protective shell keeps the iPad safe, while the keyboard and stand components offer a level of functional flexibility that feels genuinely thoughtful. It’s a design that acknowledges the iPad is not a laptop, nor is it just a tablet; it’s a hybrid device that thrives when its accessories allow it to switch between roles effortlessly. The entire package is less about forcing the iPad into a new shape and more about giving its existing, versatile shape the tools it needs to be useful in more situations.

Why We Recommend It

At $89.99, the Shift Keyboard Case costs roughly a fifth of what Apple charges for the Magic Keyboard, and that price gap alone would almost be enough. What makes the recommendation easy, though, is that the Shift Case actually offers something the Magic Keyboard doesn’t: the ability to leave the keyboard behind entirely. Apple’s solution commits you to a permanent clamshell, while the Shift Case treats that keyboard as a deployable tool with a specific job to do. For anyone who uses their iPad across genuinely different contexts, a desk in the morning, a couch in the evening, a bag in between, that modularity has real, daily value. The backlit keys and click-anywhere trackpad raise the floor on what a $90 keyboard case is supposed to feel like, making it difficult to justify spending more for fewer options.

Click Here to Buy Now: $89.99 | Amazon Link Here.

ESR Geo Digital Pencil: A Stylus That’s Actually Hard to Lose

The most intelligent feature in the Geo Digital Pencil has nothing to do with drawing. It’s the integration of Apple’s Find My network, a decision so logical it feels like an oversight on Apple’s part. Not only can you locate the stylus using Apple’s Find My, you can even ping it through the app, causing the stylus to emit an audio alert for helping find it easily. This elevates the stylus from an easily misplaced accessory into a trackable piece of hardware, just like an AirTag or a pair of AirPods. Losing a stylus between sofa cushions or leaving it behind in a cafe is a common, expensive problem. By making the Geo Pencil locatable on a map directly within the Find My app, ESR has addressed a genuine point of user anxiety with a clean, native software solution that requires no extra apps or dongles.

Standardizing on a USB-C charging port was the other correct, user-first decision. It aligns the pencil with the charging ecosystem of the iPad, the Mac, and countless other modern devices, eliminating the need to carry a separate, proprietary cable. The port is discreetly located near the top of the stylus, allowing for a full charge in just 20 minutes, which is fast enough to rescue a dead battery right before a meeting or class. This commitment to a universal standard removes a significant point of friction from the daily workflow, acknowledging that convenience is a critical feature in any tool you rely on.

For actual creative and navigational input, the pencil delivers the features that cover the majority of use cases. It has full tilt sensitivity, allowing you to vary line thickness for shading in apps like Procreate, and its palm rejection is reliable enough for you to rest your hand on the screen while writing. While it doesn’t include pressure sensitivity, a feature reserved for high-end artistic work, it adds utility elsewhere. Once paired over Bluetooth, the top button becomes a shortcut key: a single tap returns you to the home screen, and a double tap opens the multitasking view, turning the stylus into a capable system remote.

These thoughtful features add up to a tool designed for the realities of daily use. The pencil snaps magnetically to the side of compatible iPads for easy storage, and its weight and balance feel comfortable for long note-taking sessions. It operates with pixel-perfect precision and no discernible lag, behaving exactly as you would expect a native stylus to. The Geo Digital Pencil is a clear example of a product designed to complete an experience, addressing the practical needs of organization, charging, and system navigation that make an iPad a genuinely more capable device.

Why We Recommend It

The Apple Pencil USB-C, Apple’s most affordable stylus, retails at $79 and offers no Find My support, no Bluetooth shortcuts, and no battery indicator. The Geo Digital Pencil costs $32.99 and has all three. That comparison does most of the heavy lifting, but the more interesting case for the Geo Pencil is what it means for the kind of person who carries an iPad between locations constantly, students, freelancers, people working from cafes and conference rooms. Styluses disappear. They roll off desks, get left in bags, and turn up missing at the worst possible moment. Having Find My baked in at this price point converts a frustrating accessory into a dependable one, and that reliability is worth more in practice than any spec on a sheet. The 20-minute full charge via USB-C keeps it from becoming another thing you have to carefully manage, and the tilt sensitivity and Bluetooth shortcuts round out a package that punches well above its category.

Click Here to Buy Now: $32.99 $36.99 (11% off). Hurry, deal ends in 48-hours! Amazon Link Here.

The post Two ESR Accessories That Fix the iPad’s Most Frustrating Problems first appeared on Yanko Design.

Two ESR Accessories That Fix the iPad’s Most Frustrating Problems

Posted on by

The iPad has a funny relationship with its own potential. Apple builds these devices with silicon that outpaces many laptops, pairs them with displays that creative professionals genuinely covet, sandwiches everything into one impossibly sleek slab of glass and aluminum… and then just announces them without obsessively planning the broader ecosystem. The Magic Keyboard, while capable, is expensive, as is the Pencil. One confines you to a laptop-style of using, the other to a conventional tablet. This, I believe, is Apple building a symbiotic relationship with third-party accessory makers who, more often than not, do a better job than Apple at really planning an ecosystem around powerful devices like the iPad Pro… and at a much lower price point.

ESR has made a habit of knowing how to harness the iPad’s hybrid potential correctly. The Shift Keyboard Case (Detachable) and the Geo Digital Pencil read like two products designed by people who use an iPad seriously and got tired of being held back. One brings detachable keyboard flexibility and a generous trackpad to a category Apple makes expensive and rigid. The other brings Find My tracking and Bluetooth shortcuts to stylus use, features that make you wonder why they were ever considered optional. Together, they close the loop on what a well-designed iPad workflow actually needs.

ESR Shift Keyboard Case: Designed Around How People Actually Use an iPad

The biggest issue with turning an iPad into a laptop has always been the finality of it. Most keyboard cases, including Apple’s own, lock the device into a landscape, clamshell-style format that feels clumsy the moment you want to use it as a tablet again. The Shift Keyboard Case is built around a strong magnetic connection that sidesteps this entire problem. The keyboard half simply lifts away from the stand and case, leaving the protected iPad behind. This design treats the keyboard as a powerful, dedicated tool you bring in for serious typing, not as a permanent attachment you have to constantly wrestle with. It’s a simple mechanical solution to a complicated user experience problem, and it fundamentally changes how you approach the device.

When the keyboard is attached, the setup feels remarkably committed to a proper laptop workflow. ESR put a large, click-anywhere trackpad at the center of the design, which is the correct choice now that iPadOS has such robust cursor support. It lets you navigate, select text, and use gestures without your hands ever leaving the typing area. The keys themselves are backlit, with enough travel to feel responsive for long-form writing rather than just firing off a quick email. This combination of a full-featured keyboard and a genuinely usable trackpad is what separates a serious work setup from a temporary compromise, and it’s clear which side of that line ESR was aiming for.

Once you detach the keyboard, the other half of the product’s intelligence becomes apparent. The remaining case and stand function independently, offering multiple viewing angles in both landscape and, crucially, portrait orientation. This is a detail that many competitors miss entirely. Being able to set the iPad up vertically for reading documents, coding, or taking video calls respects the fact that not all work happens in a 16:9 window. The stand mechanism is sturdy enough to support the iPad securely on a desk, making it a useful tool for media viewing or as a secondary display, all without the keyboard taking up space.

Putting it all together, the Shift case presents a complete, two-part system that adapts to the task at hand. The protective shell keeps the iPad safe, while the keyboard and stand components offer a level of functional flexibility that feels genuinely thoughtful. It’s a design that acknowledges the iPad is not a laptop, nor is it just a tablet; it’s a hybrid device that thrives when its accessories allow it to switch between roles effortlessly. The entire package is less about forcing the iPad into a new shape and more about giving its existing, versatile shape the tools it needs to be useful in more situations.

Why We Recommend It

At $89.99, the Shift Keyboard Case costs roughly a fifth of what Apple charges for the Magic Keyboard, and that price gap alone would almost be enough. What makes the recommendation easy, though, is that the Shift Case actually offers something the Magic Keyboard doesn’t: the ability to leave the keyboard behind entirely. Apple’s solution commits you to a permanent clamshell, while the Shift Case treats that keyboard as a deployable tool with a specific job to do. For anyone who uses their iPad across genuinely different contexts, a desk in the morning, a couch in the evening, a bag in between, that modularity has real, daily value. The backlit keys and click-anywhere trackpad raise the floor on what a $90 keyboard case is supposed to feel like, making it difficult to justify spending more for fewer options.

Click Here to Buy Now: $89.99 | Amazon Link Here.

ESR Geo Digital Pencil: A Stylus That’s Actually Hard to Lose

The most intelligent feature in the Geo Digital Pencil has nothing to do with drawing. It’s the integration of Apple’s Find My network, a decision so logical it feels like an oversight on Apple’s part. Not only can you locate the stylus using Apple’s Find My, you can even ping it through the app, causing the stylus to emit an audio alert for helping find it easily. This elevates the stylus from an easily misplaced accessory into a trackable piece of hardware, just like an AirTag or a pair of AirPods. Losing a stylus between sofa cushions or leaving it behind in a cafe is a common, expensive problem. By making the Geo Pencil locatable on a map directly within the Find My app, ESR has addressed a genuine point of user anxiety with a clean, native software solution that requires no extra apps or dongles.

Standardizing on a USB-C charging port was the other correct, user-first decision. It aligns the pencil with the charging ecosystem of the iPad, the Mac, and countless other modern devices, eliminating the need to carry a separate, proprietary cable. The port is discreetly located near the top of the stylus, allowing for a full charge in just 20 minutes, which is fast enough to rescue a dead battery right before a meeting or class. This commitment to a universal standard removes a significant point of friction from the daily workflow, acknowledging that convenience is a critical feature in any tool you rely on.

For actual creative and navigational input, the pencil delivers the features that cover the majority of use cases. It has full tilt sensitivity, allowing you to vary line thickness for shading in apps like Procreate, and its palm rejection is reliable enough for you to rest your hand on the screen while writing. While it doesn’t include pressure sensitivity, a feature reserved for high-end artistic work, it adds utility elsewhere. Once paired over Bluetooth, the top button becomes a shortcut key: a single tap returns you to the home screen, and a double tap opens the multitasking view, turning the stylus into a capable system remote.

These thoughtful features add up to a tool designed for the realities of daily use. The pencil snaps magnetically to the side of compatible iPads for easy storage, and its weight and balance feel comfortable for long note-taking sessions. It operates with pixel-perfect precision and no discernible lag, behaving exactly as you would expect a native stylus to. The Geo Digital Pencil is a clear example of a product designed to complete an experience, addressing the practical needs of organization, charging, and system navigation that make an iPad a genuinely more capable device.

Why We Recommend It

The Apple Pencil USB-C, Apple’s most affordable stylus, retails at $79 and offers no Find My support, no Bluetooth shortcuts, and no battery indicator. The Geo Digital Pencil costs $32.99 and has all three. That comparison does most of the heavy lifting, but the more interesting case for the Geo Pencil is what it means for the kind of person who carries an iPad between locations constantly, students, freelancers, people working from cafes and conference rooms. Styluses disappear. They roll off desks, get left in bags, and turn up missing at the worst possible moment. Having Find My baked in at this price point converts a frustrating accessory into a dependable one, and that reliability is worth more in practice than any spec on a sheet. The 20-minute full charge via USB-C keeps it from becoming another thing you have to carefully manage, and the tilt sensitivity and Bluetooth shortcuts round out a package that punches well above its category.

Click Here to Buy Now: $32.99 $36.99 (11% off). Hurry, deal ends in 48-hours! Amazon Link Here.

The post Two ESR Accessories That Fix the iPad’s Most Frustrating Problems first appeared on Yanko Design.

Two ESR Accessories That Fix the iPad’s Most Frustrating Problems

Posted on by

The iPad has a funny relationship with its own potential. Apple builds these devices with silicon that outpaces many laptops, pairs them with displays that creative professionals genuinely covet, sandwiches everything into one impossibly sleek slab of glass and aluminum… and then just announces them without obsessively planning the broader ecosystem. The Magic Keyboard, while capable, is expensive, as is the Pencil. One confines you to a laptop-style of using, the other to a conventional tablet. This, I believe, is Apple building a symbiotic relationship with third-party accessory makers who, more often than not, do a better job than Apple at really planning an ecosystem around powerful devices like the iPad Pro… and at a much lower price point.

ESR has made a habit of knowing how to harness the iPad’s hybrid potential correctly. The Shift Keyboard Case (Detachable) and the Geo Digital Pencil read like two products designed by people who use an iPad seriously and got tired of being held back. One brings detachable keyboard flexibility and a generous trackpad to a category Apple makes expensive and rigid. The other brings Find My tracking and Bluetooth shortcuts to stylus use, features that make you wonder why they were ever considered optional. Together, they close the loop on what a well-designed iPad workflow actually needs.

ESR Shift Keyboard Case: Designed Around How People Actually Use an iPad

The biggest issue with turning an iPad into a laptop has always been the finality of it. Most keyboard cases, including Apple’s own, lock the device into a landscape, clamshell-style format that feels clumsy the moment you want to use it as a tablet again. The Shift Keyboard Case is built around a strong magnetic connection that sidesteps this entire problem. The keyboard half simply lifts away from the stand and case, leaving the protected iPad behind. This design treats the keyboard as a powerful, dedicated tool you bring in for serious typing, not as a permanent attachment you have to constantly wrestle with. It’s a simple mechanical solution to a complicated user experience problem, and it fundamentally changes how you approach the device.

When the keyboard is attached, the setup feels remarkably committed to a proper laptop workflow. ESR put a large, click-anywhere trackpad at the center of the design, which is the correct choice now that iPadOS has such robust cursor support. It lets you navigate, select text, and use gestures without your hands ever leaving the typing area. The keys themselves are backlit, with enough travel to feel responsive for long-form writing rather than just firing off a quick email. This combination of a full-featured keyboard and a genuinely usable trackpad is what separates a serious work setup from a temporary compromise, and it’s clear which side of that line ESR was aiming for.

Once you detach the keyboard, the other half of the product’s intelligence becomes apparent. The remaining case and stand function independently, offering multiple viewing angles in both landscape and, crucially, portrait orientation. This is a detail that many competitors miss entirely. Being able to set the iPad up vertically for reading documents, coding, or taking video calls respects the fact that not all work happens in a 16:9 window. The stand mechanism is sturdy enough to support the iPad securely on a desk, making it a useful tool for media viewing or as a secondary display, all without the keyboard taking up space.

Putting it all together, the Shift case presents a complete, two-part system that adapts to the task at hand. The protective shell keeps the iPad safe, while the keyboard and stand components offer a level of functional flexibility that feels genuinely thoughtful. It’s a design that acknowledges the iPad is not a laptop, nor is it just a tablet; it’s a hybrid device that thrives when its accessories allow it to switch between roles effortlessly. The entire package is less about forcing the iPad into a new shape and more about giving its existing, versatile shape the tools it needs to be useful in more situations.

Why We Recommend It

At $89.99, the Shift Keyboard Case costs roughly a fifth of what Apple charges for the Magic Keyboard, and that price gap alone would almost be enough. What makes the recommendation easy, though, is that the Shift Case actually offers something the Magic Keyboard doesn’t: the ability to leave the keyboard behind entirely. Apple’s solution commits you to a permanent clamshell, while the Shift Case treats that keyboard as a deployable tool with a specific job to do. For anyone who uses their iPad across genuinely different contexts, a desk in the morning, a couch in the evening, a bag in between, that modularity has real, daily value. The backlit keys and click-anywhere trackpad raise the floor on what a $90 keyboard case is supposed to feel like, making it difficult to justify spending more for fewer options.

Click Here to Buy Now: $89.99 | Amazon Link Here.

ESR Geo Digital Pencil: A Stylus That’s Actually Hard to Lose

The most intelligent feature in the Geo Digital Pencil has nothing to do with drawing. It’s the integration of Apple’s Find My network, a decision so logical it feels like an oversight on Apple’s part. Not only can you locate the stylus using Apple’s Find My, you can even ping it through the app, causing the stylus to emit an audio alert for helping find it easily. This elevates the stylus from an easily misplaced accessory into a trackable piece of hardware, just like an AirTag or a pair of AirPods. Losing a stylus between sofa cushions or leaving it behind in a cafe is a common, expensive problem. By making the Geo Pencil locatable on a map directly within the Find My app, ESR has addressed a genuine point of user anxiety with a clean, native software solution that requires no extra apps or dongles.

Standardizing on a USB-C charging port was the other correct, user-first decision. It aligns the pencil with the charging ecosystem of the iPad, the Mac, and countless other modern devices, eliminating the need to carry a separate, proprietary cable. The port is discreetly located near the top of the stylus, allowing for a full charge in just 20 minutes, which is fast enough to rescue a dead battery right before a meeting or class. This commitment to a universal standard removes a significant point of friction from the daily workflow, acknowledging that convenience is a critical feature in any tool you rely on.

For actual creative and navigational input, the pencil delivers the features that cover the majority of use cases. It has full tilt sensitivity, allowing you to vary line thickness for shading in apps like Procreate, and its palm rejection is reliable enough for you to rest your hand on the screen while writing. While it doesn’t include pressure sensitivity, a feature reserved for high-end artistic work, it adds utility elsewhere. Once paired over Bluetooth, the top button becomes a shortcut key: a single tap returns you to the home screen, and a double tap opens the multitasking view, turning the stylus into a capable system remote.

These thoughtful features add up to a tool designed for the realities of daily use. The pencil snaps magnetically to the side of compatible iPads for easy storage, and its weight and balance feel comfortable for long note-taking sessions. It operates with pixel-perfect precision and no discernible lag, behaving exactly as you would expect a native stylus to. The Geo Digital Pencil is a clear example of a product designed to complete an experience, addressing the practical needs of organization, charging, and system navigation that make an iPad a genuinely more capable device.

Why We Recommend It

The Apple Pencil USB-C, Apple’s most affordable stylus, retails at $79 and offers no Find My support, no Bluetooth shortcuts, and no battery indicator. The Geo Digital Pencil costs $32.99 and has all three. That comparison does most of the heavy lifting, but the more interesting case for the Geo Pencil is what it means for the kind of person who carries an iPad between locations constantly, students, freelancers, people working from cafes and conference rooms. Styluses disappear. They roll off desks, get left in bags, and turn up missing at the worst possible moment. Having Find My baked in at this price point converts a frustrating accessory into a dependable one, and that reliability is worth more in practice than any spec on a sheet. The 20-minute full charge via USB-C keeps it from becoming another thing you have to carefully manage, and the tilt sensitivity and Bluetooth shortcuts round out a package that punches well above its category.

Click Here to Buy Now: $32.99 $36.99 (11% off). Hurry, deal ends in 48-hours! Amazon Link Here.

The post Two ESR Accessories That Fix the iPad’s Most Frustrating Problems first appeared on Yanko Design.

Two ESR Accessories That Fix the iPad’s Most Frustrating Problems

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The iPad has a funny relationship with its own potential. Apple builds these devices with silicon that outpaces many laptops, pairs them with displays that creative professionals genuinely covet, sandwiches everything into one impossibly sleek slab of glass and aluminum… and then just announces them without obsessively planning the broader ecosystem. The Magic Keyboard, while capable, is expensive, as is the Pencil. One confines you to a laptop-style of using, the other to a conventional tablet. This, I believe, is Apple building a symbiotic relationship with third-party accessory makers who, more often than not, do a better job than Apple at really planning an ecosystem around powerful devices like the iPad Pro… and at a much lower price point.

ESR has made a habit of knowing how to harness the iPad’s hybrid potential correctly. The Shift Keyboard Case (Detachable) and the Geo Digital Pencil read like two products designed by people who use an iPad seriously and got tired of being held back. One brings detachable keyboard flexibility and a generous trackpad to a category Apple makes expensive and rigid. The other brings Find My tracking and Bluetooth shortcuts to stylus use, features that make you wonder why they were ever considered optional. Together, they close the loop on what a well-designed iPad workflow actually needs.

ESR Shift Keyboard Case: Designed Around How People Actually Use an iPad

The biggest issue with turning an iPad into a laptop has always been the finality of it. Most keyboard cases, including Apple’s own, lock the device into a landscape, clamshell-style format that feels clumsy the moment you want to use it as a tablet again. The Shift Keyboard Case is built around a strong magnetic connection that sidesteps this entire problem. The keyboard half simply lifts away from the stand and case, leaving the protected iPad behind. This design treats the keyboard as a powerful, dedicated tool you bring in for serious typing, not as a permanent attachment you have to constantly wrestle with. It’s a simple mechanical solution to a complicated user experience problem, and it fundamentally changes how you approach the device.

When the keyboard is attached, the setup feels remarkably committed to a proper laptop workflow. ESR put a large, click-anywhere trackpad at the center of the design, which is the correct choice now that iPadOS has such robust cursor support. It lets you navigate, select text, and use gestures without your hands ever leaving the typing area. The keys themselves are backlit, with enough travel to feel responsive for long-form writing rather than just firing off a quick email. This combination of a full-featured keyboard and a genuinely usable trackpad is what separates a serious work setup from a temporary compromise, and it’s clear which side of that line ESR was aiming for.

Once you detach the keyboard, the other half of the product’s intelligence becomes apparent. The remaining case and stand function independently, offering multiple viewing angles in both landscape and, crucially, portrait orientation. This is a detail that many competitors miss entirely. Being able to set the iPad up vertically for reading documents, coding, or taking video calls respects the fact that not all work happens in a 16:9 window. The stand mechanism is sturdy enough to support the iPad securely on a desk, making it a useful tool for media viewing or as a secondary display, all without the keyboard taking up space.

Putting it all together, the Shift case presents a complete, two-part system that adapts to the task at hand. The protective shell keeps the iPad safe, while the keyboard and stand components offer a level of functional flexibility that feels genuinely thoughtful. It’s a design that acknowledges the iPad is not a laptop, nor is it just a tablet; it’s a hybrid device that thrives when its accessories allow it to switch between roles effortlessly. The entire package is less about forcing the iPad into a new shape and more about giving its existing, versatile shape the tools it needs to be useful in more situations.

Why We Recommend It

At $89.99, the Shift Keyboard Case costs roughly a fifth of what Apple charges for the Magic Keyboard, and that price gap alone would almost be enough. What makes the recommendation easy, though, is that the Shift Case actually offers something the Magic Keyboard doesn’t: the ability to leave the keyboard behind entirely. Apple’s solution commits you to a permanent clamshell, while the Shift Case treats that keyboard as a deployable tool with a specific job to do. For anyone who uses their iPad across genuinely different contexts, a desk in the morning, a couch in the evening, a bag in between, that modularity has real, daily value. The backlit keys and click-anywhere trackpad raise the floor on what a $90 keyboard case is supposed to feel like, making it difficult to justify spending more for fewer options.

Click Here to Buy Now: $89.99 | Amazon Link Here.

ESR Geo Digital Pencil: A Stylus That’s Actually Hard to Lose

The most intelligent feature in the Geo Digital Pencil has nothing to do with drawing. It’s the integration of Apple’s Find My network, a decision so logical it feels like an oversight on Apple’s part. Not only can you locate the stylus using Apple’s Find My, you can even ping it through the app, causing the stylus to emit an audio alert for helping find it easily. This elevates the stylus from an easily misplaced accessory into a trackable piece of hardware, just like an AirTag or a pair of AirPods. Losing a stylus between sofa cushions or leaving it behind in a cafe is a common, expensive problem. By making the Geo Pencil locatable on a map directly within the Find My app, ESR has addressed a genuine point of user anxiety with a clean, native software solution that requires no extra apps or dongles.

Standardizing on a USB-C charging port was the other correct, user-first decision. It aligns the pencil with the charging ecosystem of the iPad, the Mac, and countless other modern devices, eliminating the need to carry a separate, proprietary cable. The port is discreetly located near the top of the stylus, allowing for a full charge in just 20 minutes, which is fast enough to rescue a dead battery right before a meeting or class. This commitment to a universal standard removes a significant point of friction from the daily workflow, acknowledging that convenience is a critical feature in any tool you rely on.

For actual creative and navigational input, the pencil delivers the features that cover the majority of use cases. It has full tilt sensitivity, allowing you to vary line thickness for shading in apps like Procreate, and its palm rejection is reliable enough for you to rest your hand on the screen while writing. While it doesn’t include pressure sensitivity, a feature reserved for high-end artistic work, it adds utility elsewhere. Once paired over Bluetooth, the top button becomes a shortcut key: a single tap returns you to the home screen, and a double tap opens the multitasking view, turning the stylus into a capable system remote.

These thoughtful features add up to a tool designed for the realities of daily use. The pencil snaps magnetically to the side of compatible iPads for easy storage, and its weight and balance feel comfortable for long note-taking sessions. It operates with pixel-perfect precision and no discernible lag, behaving exactly as you would expect a native stylus to. The Geo Digital Pencil is a clear example of a product designed to complete an experience, addressing the practical needs of organization, charging, and system navigation that make an iPad a genuinely more capable device.

Why We Recommend It

The Apple Pencil USB-C, Apple’s most affordable stylus, retails at $79 and offers no Find My support, no Bluetooth shortcuts, and no battery indicator. The Geo Digital Pencil costs $32.99 and has all three. That comparison does most of the heavy lifting, but the more interesting case for the Geo Pencil is what it means for the kind of person who carries an iPad between locations constantly, students, freelancers, people working from cafes and conference rooms. Styluses disappear. They roll off desks, get left in bags, and turn up missing at the worst possible moment. Having Find My baked in at this price point converts a frustrating accessory into a dependable one, and that reliability is worth more in practice than any spec on a sheet. The 20-minute full charge via USB-C keeps it from becoming another thing you have to carefully manage, and the tilt sensitivity and Bluetooth shortcuts round out a package that punches well above its category.

Click Here to Buy Now: $32.99 $36.99 (11% off). Hurry, deal ends in 48-hours! Amazon Link Here.

The post Two ESR Accessories That Fix the iPad’s Most Frustrating Problems first appeared on Yanko Design.

Acer Swift 16 AI Has World’s Largest Haptic Touchpad With Stylus Support

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CES 2026 is the year when “AI PC” stops being a buzzword and starts to show up in hardware decisions you can actually touch. Intel’s Core Ultra Series 3 chips and Copilot+ on Windows 11 are pushing laptop makers to rethink what a keyboard, touchpad, and display can do when there is a dedicated NPU and GPU ready to run local models, instead of just sending everything to a server somewhere and waiting for results to trickle back.

Acer’s answer is a two‑track strategy. The Aspire 14 AI and Aspire 16 AI bring Copilot+ and Acer’s own AI tools into mainstream machines that students and young professionals might actually buy, while the Swift AI family, Swift 16 AI, Swift Edge AI, and Swift Go AI, leans harder into thin‑and‑light design, OLED panels, and new interaction surfaces like a giant haptic touchpad for creators and on‑the‑go professionals who need more than a generic ultrabook can offer.

Designer: Acer

Acer Aspire 14 AI and Aspire 16 AI

The Aspire 14 AI and Aspire 16 AI are the kind of laptops that end up doing everything, from lecture notes and spreadsheets to light photo edits and streaming. Both are built around Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors, up to a Core Ultra 9 386H with the new Intel Graphics, paired with up to 32 GB of LPDDR5X memory and up to 2 TB of PCIe Gen 4 SSD storage on the 16‑inch, or 1 TB on the 14‑inch. That headroom handles hybrid workflows where a dozen tabs, a video call, and a Copilot window are all open at once.

Acer Aspire 14 AI

Both sizes use 16:10 WUXGA displays with refresh rates up to 120 Hz, with options for touch, non‑touch, and even OLED panels, which is unusual in the mainstream segment. The full‑flat 180‑degree hinge lets the screen lie completely flat on a table, useful when two people are huddled over a project or a group is reviewing a design. Large touchpads, thin‑and‑light chassis, and ports like Thunderbolt 4, HDMI 2.1, and USB‑A, with Wi‑Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3, keep them plugged into modern peripherals without needing dongle bags.

Acer Apsire 16 AI

Acer layers its own AI on top of Windows 11’s Copilot experiences. Intelligent Space acts as a hub for AI tools, AcerSense handles diagnostics and optimization, PurifiedView and PurifiedVoice clean up video and audio in calls, and My Key is a programmable hotkey that can trigger specific Copilot+ features like Live Captions with real‑time translation. For someone bouncing between languages and remote meetings, those small touches make the AI feel less like a gimmick and more like part of the daily routine.

Acer Swift 16 AI

The Swift 16 AI is Acer’s CES flagship for people who live in creative apps. It runs up to an Intel Core Ultra X9 388H with Intel Arc B390 graphics, up to 32 GB of LPDDR5X, and up to 2 TB of SSD storage. The 16‑inch 3K OLED WQXGA+ display, with 120 Hz refresh, 100% DCI‑P3, and VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500, gives animators, video editors, and illustrators a bright, color‑accurate canvas that still fits in a 14.9 mm‑thin aluminum chassis.

Acer Swift 16 AI

The headline feature is the world’s largest haptic touchpad, a 175.5 mm × 109.7 mm glass‑covered surface that supports MPP 2.5 stylus input. You can sketch, scrub timelines, or manipulate 3D models directly on the pad while the screen stays clear for reference or output. Haptics provide precise feedback with fewer moving parts, and Acer’s AI tools, accessed through the Intelligence Space hub, can tie into that surface for gesture‑driven creative workflows that feel more like using a tablet than a traditional laptop.

Acer Swift 16 AI (Best Buy Chassis)

Connectivity and audio round it out with Wi‑Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, dual Thunderbolt 4 USB‑C, USB‑A, HDMI 2.1, a MicroSD slot, DTS:X Ultra speakers, and an FHD IR camera. A 70 Wh battery with up to 24 hours of video playback on certain configs means the machine can survive long flights or a full day of on‑site shoots without hunting for an outlet.

Acer Swift Edge 14 AI and Swift Edge 16 AI

Acer Swift Edge 14 AI

The Swift Edge 14 AI and 16 AI focus on portability for people who count grams in their backpacks. Built from a stainless steel‑magnesium alloy chassis, the 14‑inch model weighs under 1 kg and measures just under 14 mm thick, yet still meets MIL‑STD 810H durability standards. Both sizes run up to Intel Core Ultra 9 386H processors with Intel Graphics, up to 32 GB of LPDDR5X, and up to 1 TB of PCIe Gen 4 SSD storage, so they are not trading performance for weight.

Acer Swift Edge 16 AI

Display options go up to 3K WQXGA+ OLED with 120 Hz refresh and 100% DCI‑P3, making them surprisingly capable for color‑sensitive work on the road. Acer’s multi‑control touchpads add gesture layers for media, presentations, and conferencing, letting you adjust volume, skip tracks, or manage calls without hunting for on‑screen controls. FHD IR cameras with Human Presence Detection, DTS:X Ultra speakers, Wi‑Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, and Thunderbolt 4 ports round out a package that feels tuned for frequent flyers who still need a proper workstation when they land.

Acer Swift Go 14 AI and Swift Go 16 AI

The Swift Go 14 AI and 16 AI sit as the “just right” machines in the Swift family, balancing performance, portability, and a slightly more accessible entry point. They use up to Intel Core Ultra X9 388H processors with Intel Arc B390 graphics, up to 32 GB of LPDDR5X memory, and up to 1 TB of SSD storage. The laser‑etched aluminum chassis opens a full 180 degrees, making them easy to use in cramped lecture halls or coffee shops.

Acer Swift Go 14 AI

Display options include 2K WUXGA and 3K WQXGA+ OLED panels with wide color gamuts and smooth refresh rates, giving everyday productivity machines a surprisingly premium visual experience. The 5 MP IR cameras with HDR and Human Presence Detection improve video calls and privacy, while DTS:X Ultra speakers and multi‑control touchpads make them feel more like compact media centers than basic ultrabooks. Wi‑Fi 7, Bluetooth up to 6.0, and dual Thunderbolt 4 ports keep them ready for fast networks and external GPUs or docks.

Acer Swift Go 14 AI

As Copilot+ PCs, the Swift Go models support features like Click to Do, Copilot Voice, and Copilot Vision, with Acer’s own Assist, VisionArt, User Sensing, PurifiedView, PurifiedVoice, and My Key layered on top. For someone who wants a thin‑and‑light that can handle both spreadsheets and AI‑assisted creative work, they are the approachable entry point into Acer’s more experimental Swift AI world, offering premium design without the flagship price or the haptic touchpad that some people might not know what to do with.

Acer at CES 2026: Laptops Designed for the AI Era

Aspire AI brings Copilot+ and Acer’s AI suite into familiar 14‑ and 16‑inch shells with optional OLED and 180‑degree hinges for collaboration, while Swift AI experiments with haptic touchpads, under‑1 kg magnesium shells, and OLED‑everywhere displays for creators and travelers. The CES 2026 message is that AI is no longer just a feature buried in software menus, it is starting to shape the hardware itself, from how you press on a touchpad to how light your laptop feels in a bag, which is exactly the kind of shift Yanko Design readers expect from the start of the year when everyone announces what laptops are supposed to look and feel like for the next twelve months.

The post Acer Swift 16 AI Has World’s Largest Haptic Touchpad With Stylus Support first appeared on Yanko Design.

Logitech MX Ink stylus for Meta Quest gives creators a new tool for mixed reality

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Mixed reality platforms, or spatial computing as Apple calls it, try to seamlessly blend digital objects into the real world, but that illusion quickly breaks down when it comes to manipulating those virtual pieces directly. Yes, tapping on buttons in thin air or pinching the corner of floating windows might feel a little natural, but creating content, especially 2D and 3D objects, is less believable when all you have are two “wands” in each hand. For decades, the stylus has been the tool of choice of digital artists and designers because of its precision and familiarity, almost like holding a pencil or paintbrush. It was really only a matter of time before the same device came to mixed reality, which is exactly what the Logitech MX Ink tries to bring to the virtual table.

Designer: Logitech

The Logitech MX Ink is practically a stylus designed to work in virtual 3D space, but while that description is simplistic, its implications are rather world-changing. It means that creators no longer need to feel awkward about waving around a thick wand, making them feel like they’re playing games more than painting or modeling. Artists, designers, and sculptors can now use a more convenient and intuitive tool when moving around in mixed reality, bolstering not only their productivity but also the quality of their work. Admittedly, the MX Ink is bulkier and heavier than most styluses, closer to a 3D printing pen than an Apple Pencil, and drawing on air is still going to feel unnatural at first, but it’s significantly better than even drawing with your finger.

What makes Logitech’s implementation a bit more special is that it works in both 3D and 2D spaces. The latter means that you can still draw on a flat surface and feel the same haptics and pressure sensitivity as a Wacom stylus, for example. This means you can easily trace over a sketch or blueprint on paper and bring that up to a 3D space for fleshing out. Or you can paint artistic masterpieces on a physical canvas without actually leaving any mark on the paper.

The MX Ink is a standalone product, but Logitech is also offering optional accessories to further reduce the friction of working in mixed reality. The MX Mat offers a low-friction surface for drawing with the stylus in 2D, though the MX Ink can actually work on most flat surfaces anyway. The MX Inkwell is a stand and wireless charging station for the device, letting you simply lift it from the dock to start drawing and then put it back without having to worry it won’t be charged and ready for your next work session. Without the MX Inkwell, the stylus will have to charge via a USB-C connection, and Logitech doesn’t even ship a cable with it.

As promising as this new creativity tool might sound, its use is limited to the Meta Quest 2 and Quest 3 headsets, ironically leaving the Quest Pro out of the party. This is boasted to be the first time the Quest headsets support more than two paired controllers at the same time, which means you can connect the MX Ink and simply switch between it and the regular Quest controllers without having to reconfigure anything every time. The Logitech MX Ink goes on sale in September with a starting price of $129.99.

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Moto G Stylus 5G 2024 lets you play with a pen without breaking the bank

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The announcement of the new Apple Pencil Pro has put the stylus in the spotlight again. This input tool isn’t just limited to tablets and large screens, though that’s where they have the most use because of the bigger digital canvas. Thanks to the Samsung Galaxy Note, now the Galaxy S Ultra series, it has been demonstrated that there is also some benefit to having a stylus on smartphones. Unfortunately, Samsung does seem to have a monopoly on that design or is at least the best-known example, but it isn’t the only game in town, and Motorola just revealed its latest contender that makes an admittedly attractive offer, at least if you’re not too intent on making pro-level artwork on it.

Designer: Motorola

The stick inside the Moto G Stylus 5G (2024) is exactly that: a stick that works in place of your stubby finger. Unlike the Wacom-powered S Pen of the Galaxy S Ultra phones, it doesn’t have pressure sensitivity, rotation and tilt detection, or Bluetooth-enabled button functions. That’s actually not a big deal-breaker if all you really want to do is scribble notes, annotate pictures and documents, or even start a rough sketch that you’ll continue on a computer or laptop. For these purposes, the Moto G Stylus is more than sufficient, especially with upgraded sensitivity and new software arriving in this model.

The rest of the smartphone is a bit of a mixed bag, though thankfully leaning more on the positive side. It runs on a Snapdragon 6 Gen 1, which is the same processor it used for last year’s model. It does have more memory this time around, with 8GB offering a bit more wiggle room for apps. Another thing that is the same is that it still has a headphone jack, though no one will probably complain about that.

The fourth-gen Moto G Stylus 5G does bring some considerable upgrades to the table, starting with a larger 6.7-inch 120Hz screen, though it’s still stuck with a 1080p resolution. The 5,000 mAh battery might still be the same, but it now supports 15W wireless charging on top of fast 30W wired charging. The main camera still has 50 megapixels but has upgraded specs. It is joined by a new 13MP ultra-wide camera, while a new 32MP selfie shooter is on the front.

The Moto G Stylus 5G 2024 isn’t going to win awards when it comes to specs, but its $399 price tag is easily a fourth of the launch price of the Galaxy S23 Ultra. Motorola’s stylus-toting smartphone, however, does score points when it comes to looks, with a vegan leather material, a clean, minimalist rear design, and two colorful options that aim to inspire your creativity just by looking at it and touching it. The Moto G Stylus 5G (2024) goes on sale on the 30th of May.

The post Moto G Stylus 5G 2024 lets you play with a pen without breaking the bank first appeared on Yanko Design.

The new Apple Pencil Pro is a death-sentence for Wacom

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Wacom was once an industry leader in the sketching tablet PC market. However, it’s no match for the deadly combo of the new iPad Pro M4 and the Apple Pencil Pro. Announced at the iPad keynote yesterday, the new Pencil Pro packs features so unique, it makes regular capacitive styluses look like tools from the Stone Age. The new Pencil Pro has a new squeeze gesture to activate quick menus, can track rotation to have objects and brushes rotate in real-time (known as barrel roll), and even has a haptic motor for feedback – while still packing features from previous models like the hover feature, pressure and tilt sensitivity, and low-latency. If all that wasn’t enough, the Pencil Pro even has Find My support, allowing you to locate your stylus if it ever gets lost. The Wacom Pro Pen 3 on the other hand, has buttons.

Styluses have existed for decades at this point, and if you asked anyone ten years back which was the most well-designed stylus and tablet combo for creatives, the answer would invariably be something from Wacom’s lineup. The company had three options back in the day, the budget Wacom Bamboo, the mid-range Wacom Intuos, and the flagship Wacom Cintiq. Apart from the Cintiq, none of the other tablets had screens – they were just massive trackpads that you could only draw on with styluses. The Cintiq was the closest thing to an iPad – it had a screen, allowed multi-touch gestures, and came with controls galore… the only problem was that it didn’t work independently, it needed to be tethered to a desktop or laptop to work. The Cintiq, along with the Intuos and Bamboo, came with a stylus that featured a pressure and tilt-sensitive tip, along with programable buttons that let you undo or redo tasks, and a stylus tip on the back of the pen also that activated the eraser, mimicking how most pencils come with erasers on their reverse tip. The styluses also operated without batteries, allowing for hours of sketching without needing to charge the pen periodically.

The Wacom Cintiq Pro is anywhere between 5-8 times thicker than the 2024 iPad Pro

Cut to yesterday when Apple dropped the iPad Pro M4 and the comparison is incredibly stark. For starters, whenever anyone asks me whether they should buy an iPad or a Wacom, the answer is almost always the former… because when you’re not sketching on the Wacom, it’s useless, but when you’re not sketching on the iPad, it’s still an iPad. The difference seems even greater with the new iPad Pro being Apple’s thinnest device yet at just 5.1mm thick, while the 16-inch Wacom Cintiq is a whopping 25mm thick – 5 times thicker than its competitor. Cut to the larger 22-inch Cintiq and it’s a staggering 40mm thick, or the equivalent of 8 iPad Pros stacked one on top of the other.

However, a hardware comparison between a trillion-dollar electronics giant and Wacom, that’s valued at just half a billion dollars doesn’t seem fair. What does seem fair, however, is to just look at one singular product to see how far Apple’s outpaced its competition – the humble stylus. Wacom played a critical role in perfecting its EMR stylus technology, which was game-changing a decade or so ago. The pens ran without batteries, could sense pressure and tilt with stunning accuracy, and an eraser on the rear, becoming the creative industry’s go-to for digital sketching. When Apple debuted the Pencil, it had the same features except without any buttons. The Pencil 2, on the other hand, got a tap feature that let you swap between brush and eraser, and a unique charging mechanism that allowed you to charge your stylus simply by snapping it to the side of an iPad (it subsequently also got a hover function with newer iPad models). Apple’s newly announced Pencil Pro, which dropped yesterday, however, is an entirely different beast.

The new Pencil Pro has the hover function, lets you squeeze to activate a quick menu, and even supports barrel rolls that allow you to rotate brushes or objects simply by rotating your stylus. In true Apple fashion, it doesn’t have any buttons on it, but you can still tap to alternate between brush and eraser, and you even get a brush preview when your stylus is near the screen, letting you know how your brush is oriented. If all that wasn’t enough, the new Pencil Pro even packs Apple’s Find My feature, letting you locate a lost pencil through your iPad or iPhone.

The Pencil Pro can be squeezed to activate a quick menu

A great stylus on the iPad Pro, which already comes with an industry-leading chip, laptop-grade performance, a brilliant camera setup and LiDAR sensor, and an app store, basically makes the iPad or Wacom question moot. The only true advantage Wacom’s tablets have at this point is that they’re bigger than iPads, starting at 16 inches and maxing out at 27 inches diagonally. They also cost MUCH more than the iPad Pros, with the Cintiq Pro 16″ starting at $1599, and the Cintiq Pro 27″ having an eye-watering $3499 price tag. That’s Vision Pro territory for a sketching tablet.

The haptic motor gives you feedback when you squeeze the Pencil Pro

There still is a market for Wacom products. They’re massive, preferred by the hardcore animation and visual industries, and are platform-agnostic, which means you can easily run Windows or Linux programs on them, which most power users will appreciate over being limited to the iPadOS. But for the most part, the iPad Pro and Pencil Pro are so far ahead of their competition at this point, that they’ve made Wacom’s tablets (an already niche creative-focused gadget) even more niche… almost to the point of obscure.

The post The new Apple Pencil Pro is a death-sentence for Wacom first appeared on Yanko Design.