google: Why you may see more Google Chromebooks with stylus pens in 2022 – Times of India

Google Chromebooks may be a big trend of 2022. Universal Stylus Initiative has announced a new version of its standard, USI 2.0, with new features. For those who don’t know, Universal Stylus Initiative is an alliance of companies with an aim to boost the technical standard for pen styluses used on touchscreen devices such as smartphones, tablets, and computers. Google became a part of this alliance back in 2018. With the new standard, USI is bringing in a few features that can boost performance on wireless devices.
As USI technology is used on several Chromebook devices from Asus, HP, Lenovo and more, the new USI 2.0 features will also be available on the Chromebooks that support stylus. With the latest standard, USI is adding a wireless charging feature that will allow you to charge the stylus wirelessly through the newest Near Field Communication (NFC) spec.
The new NFC version can support 1-watt charging with compatible smartphones and other devices. This means that Google will now be able to get rid of stylus pens that used to fit USB-C ports and the earlier models that used alkaline batteries.
Apart from this, the USI version 2.0 adds support for in-cell touch sensors. This will expand the types and number of devices USI 2.0 can be used with. Another major upgrade that comes with the USI 2.0 is the improved tilt usage and support for 16 million inking colours. Till now, the USI only used to support 256 inking colours.
It is worth noting that USI is referring to these features as ‘optional’, so it is not yet clear which devices will get the mentioned features. As per a report by 9to5Google, Lenovo is developing a new USI 2.0 pen but the company has not revealed any detail about it till now.