No more internal S Pen?

[The_Chief]

Here come the news reports, saying that Samsung is internally testing the possibility of removing the S Pen silo from the Ultra and selling the S Pen as a separate accessory.

How are sales of the S Pen Pro and S Pen Fold Edition, Samsung?

Ten years ago, Samsung was at its peak of innovation, packing as many features into its flagship devices as possible. Today's Samsung is playing it too safe: little innovation, allowing long-standing issues to remain unresolved (like low-light camera shutter speed), and removing features.

I know, Samsung, that there are people who never remove the S Pen from its silo and use it. At the other end of the spectrum are people like me who rely on the S Pen all day, every day, for precision we can't get with our fingers.

At the center of the bell curve, where the vast majority of Samsung phone consumers are, are the people who may not use the S Pen (or its Bluetooth functionality) every day... but when they need it, it's there for them.

Samsung seems to think that, because the S Pen isn't used heavily by users, it's an outdated relic that can be phased out.

Do you people at Samsung have automobile insurance? I'll bet you don't need that every day... but it sure is important to have when you need it.

The S25 Ultra sales are pathetic because of Samsung's insistence on selling minor tweaks, cutting corners by removing features, and relying on Artificial Intelligence that few people asked for (and fewer still really want). The ONLY thing holding me to Samsung is the Bluetooth S Pen built into my S24 Ultra - I literally rely on it because I have health conditions resulting in fingers that don't do what I tell them to do. The S Pen gives me surgical precision. Take that away and, once the S24 Ultra dies, I'll find another brand that will actually earn my money instead of buying an external S Pen and having yet another accessory to keep up with.

Please, Samsung, for your sake and your shareholders: go back and watch the 2018 Galaxy Note 9 Unpacked event and realize how complacent you have become over the past several years. STOP trying to remove features and, instead, challenge your people to figure out how to amaze us again.

[Oxford]

Do you think Samsung is deliberately trying to shoot themselves in the foot? I'm sure they have tons of research to back up what they are planning on doing. The few people that use the S-Pen the way it was originally designed has been dwindling over the years, therefore, I believe the current number of people that use it to its full capabilities, which is probably close to zero, provided the impetus for Samsung to consider removing the S-Pen silo completely. I hope I'm wrong, because I love my s24 ultra and use my S-Pen all the time. However, I do carry a capacitive pen in my pocket that is much more convenient to pull out than the S Pen. So when I don't need the Bluetooth capabilities I use my capacitive pen from my pocket.

[The_Chief]

No one "deliberately" tries to shoot themselves in the foot. It happens nevertheless because attention is no longer paid to the important things. Another post confirms my assertion:
https://us.community.samsung.com/t5/Galaxy-S25/S-Pen-isn-t-controlling-S25-ultra-camera/td-p/3188466...

Samsung didn't bother disclosing the lack of Bluetooth functionality on the S25 Ultra S Pen - now a lot of users are having buyer's remorse over it.

[kmb1]

What a really off - the - mark reply. That reply is exactly why Samsung's logic is twisted.

[aNoteFan]

Agree with you in general, but beg to differ on 2 points. 

- Carrying a pen in your pocket can not be compared to having it in-body. In my 13 years of owning a Note, I have always had it when I needed to scribble at any unexpected moment. Except for the only two times I lost it. Both figures would be very different had I had to carry it in my pocket. I will not even discuss the inconvenience of carrying it in my pockets of different attires for 13 years.

- Samsung flawed its very data it used for it's research by not specializing it's variants clearly and bringing users meant for Plus into Ultra

[Srb79]

S25 has outsell s24

[The_Chief]

Only thanks to pre-orders. If a daily shipments tally was recorded after the pre-order period ended, the Galaxy S24 series would have the edge, with 240,000 units sold, with the Galaxy S25 averaging 180,000 units. I believe the only reason for that is because buyers didn't yet know that the S Pen's Bluetooth functionality was gutted - another reason was One UI 7/Android 15, the rollout to older phones being stalled to increase S25 sales. My assertion stands, however, that the Samsung of 2025 is a shadow of the Samsung of 2015. Too cautious, too comfortable, too content.

[RaeJ84]

We buy the Ultra because of the s pen feature. Take that away and there's no reason to buy the ultra. I purchased the S24 Ultra when it came out because Samsung made a lot of promises, but it looks like this may be my last Samsung device (started with the S3 in 2012). They took the headphones away, then the charger cube, and now they're doing this. The research isn't consumer-based. These changes are aligned with Samsung and their shareholders' bottom line and it's pathetic at this point.

[TipsyTrex]

They never should have merged the Ultra and Note lines. Its stagnated the ultra and slowly killing off the S-Pen.

[aNoteFan]

Bang on.

That was the first step on the wrong path. I think it was intentional and strategic. Apparently they want to push the original Note into oblivion. All for profits sake. It could've been handled better.