Galaxy S25 Ultra did come with an S-pen sans the functionality we’ve grown to love about this small accessory. If you haven’t heard the bad news, Samsung has slashed the Bluetooth connectivity from the new S-pen, which means we are back to the olden days when it was only good for writing and drawing on the screen with no gestures.
If you don’t remember, the S Pens inside Galaxy Note 1 through Note 8 only worked as a writing tool for your screen’s digitizer. Note 9 came, and Bluetooth was first made official with an S Pen. That allowed Air gestures, play/pause, camera actions, picture scrolling, and many other functions.
We hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s now confirmed that the Galaxy S25 Ultra doesn’t come with S-pen Bluetooth functionality anymore. Samsung has axed this feature, even though the rest of the pen is just as good as last year’s S24 Ultra.
This new pen still has a 0.7mm tip and 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity, but the core stylus functions are gone. Samsung said that not enough people were using the Bluetooth features of the S-pen, and most owners only pulled it out of the silo for drawing and writing. This change aligns with the Samsung phones price, which remains competitive in the market.
Yes! It may be true that most people don’t care about Air Actions or Camera Clicker, but it was a nice-to-have feature. So, it’s becoming a point of contention in the community since downgrades are rarely welcome in the flagship smartphone categories. But, there is an upside to this.
As you know, Bluetooth requires the S Pen to have an internal battery, which recharges wirelessly, sitting inside the phone’s S pen slot. Now, the pen doesn’t need a battery. That should improve the screen-on time for the S25 Ultra, and without the wireless charging coils in the phone and the pen, they are both slimmer.
We hear the Ultra variant of the Samsung Galaxy S25 is narrower and thinner, and even the screen size is 0.1” bigger in part thanks to the new S pen. It takes up less space inside the phone, so the display is upscaled, and Samsung even gave it a larger heatsink to effectively deal with the Snapdragon 8 Elite’s hot nature. But ultimately, at the end of the day, it is up to you to decide if the trade-off is worth it.
