Weekly poll: are you using the S Pen's remote control functions?

02 February 2025
The Bluetooth-enabled S Pen is no more, the Galaxy S25 Ultra comes with a passive stylus.

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Well I've just had the 25 Ultra delivered so.....no 🤷

    DerLuke, 9 hours agoI think the issue was battery drain/charging/constant onlin... moreI'm of a similar opinion. It's not just cost-cutting; it's based on efficiency concerns.

      I appreciate the speaker improvement. There's actually a little more weight in the low end than the iPhone. Which I prefer despite being a slight bit quieter.

        Invetor, 9 hours agoMy guess is they saved some weight by removing the battery ... moreI think the issue was battery drain/charging/constant online mode. I have noticed on Galaxy tab that pen is discharged when tablet is powered off.. e.g that pen has bt always on 24x7x365.. it was easier to remove bt and save money than make it more clever. My 2 cents

          The thing is that those Bluetooth features were signature of S pen usefulness and now that Samsung has taken them away it honestly sucks. Samsung should definitely bring them back.

            David 040882, 11 hours agoRegardless if people use it a lot or not, I think we can al... moreMy guess is they saved some weight by removing the battery from the S-pen. But to confirm this, we need to measure the weight of the S-pen of S24U and that of S25U.

              jiyen235, 13 hours agonot all the time, but it's not like i use the s pen al... moreI believe you can still do that

              they removed the Bluetooth functionality, not the ability to use the pen as a stylus

                "Samsung says that most people just weren’t using the remote functions."

                Oh, that's why they removed it? That's mad bs on them.
                It's crystal clear that they removed it simply to earn more profit, otherwise this could've and should have easily meant that the S25 Ultra could've been at least $100 cheaper than the S24 Ultra. Of course that didn't happen.

                  Doesn't matter if you use it or not, this is a $1,600 phone, NO cost cutting or compromises allowed, period
                  They added NOTHING new since the S22 Ultra but downgraded the telephoto on the S24 and S pen on the S25
                  If you watched Jerryrigeverything's test of the phone you can also see the garbage build quality of the phone where the ugly camera rings can easily be removed from the camera (it looks better without them) and the back glass started coming out along with the rings, they glued the rings better than the back glass it seems, so much for Samsung's ultimate phone
                  No innovation, just removing things, that's their motto

                    I'm using spen on Galaxy tabs (1 is personal device, one is given for work by my employer).
                    Honestly spen IS the only special feature and THE selling point for galaxy S series phone, for me! Ymmv! Sxx Ultra has always been a special device BECAUSE of spen and Wacom support.
                    Downgrading that is a suicide for Samsung. Fact is - i would have bought it.. almost..

                    And as few people have already said below - to downgrade/nerf/remove functionality, without offering something similar in return?!? Really not a business practice I will support with my wallet.

                    I ignore regular S and S+ devices, those are simply mobile phones like any other, even A series, just very expensive. I see zero justification to pick any of those against any other mobile phone out there on the market

                      PartTimePhoner, 10 hours agoMaybe only 1% of the users used it - Each ultra models sell... more1% of 15Mil is 150k mate 😅

                      And it's more than that imo, I use it since Note9 and now on S23U since 2 years, no plan to upgrade anytime soon with scamsung.

                      It went from Ultra great to Ultra pricey and/or Ultra cheap.

                        Does not matter. What matters is that the S25 Ultra is a $1300+ phone and Samsung chose to cheap out on something that barely costs them a cent.

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                          • Anonymous
                          • fCE
                          • 10 hours ago

                          I don't use the remote functions of an S Pen, because I don't have an S Pen

                          Also
                          I do not plan to get an S Pen anytime soon

                            You don't ghet it... us just a mean to justify. With S26U s-pen will be forever gone. Or buy a case to have all function like s24u. With s26u they will say: people are use s-pen even less so we removed it all together to increase battery size of whatever... plz react to this because I will take a prins for next year

                              Maybe only 1% of the users used it - Each ultra models sells 15Mil, thats still 100K people using this feature.

                                Regardless if people use it a lot or not, I think we can all agree that ditching the Bluetooth capabilities was a bad move, and I'm still trying to understand why Samsung did that.

                                  I use it mostly for snapping pics selfies long distance pics of groups it's useful even if u don't use it constantly it's nice to know that u have those feature in ur hand now with the S25U as much as it is a great phone n it is it's just u feel like it's lacking smthg even if u don't use it as much I think it's too late to implement it hope they'll rethink their decision in the S26U

                                    Does Samsung really expect the majority to be "power users"? Of course not—power users are typically few, and they’re savvy enough to opt out of sharing their usage stats, which in turn makes tracking unreliable. I don't mind if most people don't use the advanced features, but if I'm shelling out a premium price for an "Ultra" device, I expect every perk—both existing and new—that sets it apart from the rest!

                                      BandedKing, 12 hours agoi use it all the time. I don't think I would want a ph... moreSame, its the reason I bought a heavily used spen pro for my galaxy fold. The bluetooth functions made samsung's stylus special for me

                                        The S Pens have an RC function? No, most certainly not using it if i had the phone. But if in certain situations maybe.

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