A new leak from the prolific phone leaker, IceUniverse, reveals that Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra will have support for the S-pen. No renders seen so far have depicted any slot to house the stylus, but it could magnetically attach itself to the back of the device — much like the Galaxy Tab S7.
Not too long ago, if you wanted the biggest, most high-end phone Samsung makes, the Note series was it. It was a stylus-toting, productivity powerhouse alternative to the more standard Galaxy S-series flagships.
But over the years, The Koreans have bridged that the screen size and performance gap to the point where the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and the S20 Ultra have the same giant 6.9” screens, Exynos 990 chipsets, and up to 512GB of storage. The Galaxy S has become the new Note, without the iconic S-pen, of course.
At the same time, The flagships catalog in the Samsung price list has split into three — Galaxy Z for foldables and two overlapping Note and S lineups. And each series, in turn, has become more crowded than ever. Multiple editions and variants for every new phone have made this already oversized portfolio even messier.
By offering S-pen support for the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra (practically the only feature that separates the S20 Ultra from the Note 20 Ultra), Samsung is one step closer to killing off the Note series entirely. And in doing so, simplifying their portfolio of flagship products.
This news first broke last year when the industry analyst Evan Blass tweeted that Samsung is planning to pull the plug on either the S or the Note series. And then later in August this year when a Korean publication reported that the Note 20 series would be the last generation Galaxy Note. Exactly how the company intends to make up for lost Note profits is unclear, but we won’t be surprised to see the Z series take its place. And like the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, the next Z Fold series could eventually get stylus support too.