S25 Ultra 5G missing essential features

[userhpcPG49QRO]

Moving from a Samsung Galaxy S> S3 > Note 2 > 3 > 4 > 9 > 20 Ulta 5G > S25 Ultra 5G, I've seen the products evolve. User replaceable batteries have gone away. And after the Note 20 Ultra 5G, we lost the microSD, so more revenue could be shared between Samsung, distributors and retailers (I don't care to acknowledge other excuses). But the S-Pen is heavily used for its remote photo snapshot features, which requires BLE... until the S25 Ultra 5G.

The public excuse for removing this feature was that only 1% of users use the air command feature, which requires the BLE function of the S-Pen, and the S-Pen recharge ability. But the poll taken was highly prejudiced, perhaps including mostly paid employees (?), and did not explore the most popular use of the S-Pen's capability, the use as a snapshot trigger. Every Samsung user I know with a Samsung phone with S-Pen (I've know many, and encouraged even more over the years) use the photo trigger frequently. I use it for group photos, so- called "selfie photos", and at work, I use it to snap photos without touching the device when magnifying electronics components up choose, where a touch would blur the shot. 

I "cannot care" about including this feature in the S26, as the pricing is now over USD$1250 just for the S25 Ultra 5G, and it's truly INSANE to pay that much for each successive model, unlike in the past. I want this corrected NOW, updating the camera compatibility to work with a Bluetooth (Ideally BLE) S-Pen replacement which fits the Current S25 Ultra 5G phone, and can optionally charge using the phone's power share or the Samsung wireless charger station, same as the earbuds or Samsung Watch models after the Watch 3. The software update is the easier part, and a BLE S-Pen was already designed and built for ALL recent previous models, it needs only to be enabled to charge via Chi.

At this price point, I call on Samsung to correct the mistake and missing feature, to replace the product design contributors who suggested this stupid de-feature idea, and to roll out the replacement S-Pen with BLE within the next 6 months. 

[Mujibar]

Don't hold your breath

[userhpcPG49QRO]

In brightest day, in blackest night... but it feels like your willpower is waning.

Samsung has collected their revenue from me for years, this time for a premium product, which is missing an essential feature, though this choice is mostly correctable. When the the flagship's differentiators are no longer, brand loyalty is severely weakened. This needs to be addressed and corrected by Samsung corporate.

[Oxford]

Wow! You have all the answers don't you? Samsung as a corporation has one responsibility, to provide to their shareholders, which means they are revenue-centric. Don't you think that they have done an absurd amount of analysis regarding peripherals and accessories and I'm sure they begrudgingly took away some things, but in order to make their shareholders happy, they had to remove them because they weren't profitable. It seems you want to make Samsung choose between their shareholders and their customers, I can tell you 100% of the time any company needing to make this choice will always choose their shareholders!

[Robin621k]

See below!

[Robin621k]

You demand it to be corrected?



Did you know that you can buy a Bluetooth shutter button as an alternative to paying for an Spen you so kindly demanded that Samsung produce.

[realaud]

You are addressing your concern in the wrong place.  This is a peer-to-peer user help forum, not Samsung Corporate.  If you want to write a letter expressing your views on this, I suggest you email the CEO.

https://www.samsung.com/us/support/contact/email-the-ceo/

You will likely get a polite response back that they will share your thoughts with the development team and maybe,  just maybe, you may see some features come back in something like the S29.  You will never see the SD card come back.

[userhpcPG49QRO]

Your response is well thought out, informative with a link, and appreciated. I have worked with product teams with a larger corporation, and honestly, de-featuring often has little to do with profitability, and has more to do with politics in the group, with carefully worded polling bent used to support one factions' preferences. I can appreciate that end users never working in this environment might imagine things differently, and justified by the will of shareholders. We'll let it be that, to keys the needs of ... equilibrium. Regardless, I support your helpful reply. I'll go that direction.

[userhpcPG49QRO]

Many add on devices are available for all phones on the market. Would you not be bothered that your new car comes without aGPS - though you could easily buy a PND or use your phone? Integrated features have known and thoroughly tested expectations. I cannot care about the inconvenience to Samsung that I redirect their product to meet or exceed the capabilities of the previous model, especially at the extreme price. I will defend what they've done right, but i do not blindly accept mediocrity in a premium product. There is no shame in expecting a well established, and well paid for feature.

[Robin621k]

Question: Since this feature is used by less than 1% of users, why should it be built into the price for those that don't use it?

I have had many notes and Ultras, I didn't use the Spen for shutter control for the simple reason of fiddling with it to find the button. It is just easier to wave my hand or use a voice command.

As to price of the Flagship's, they have pretty much stayed the same since the Note 20 Ultra launched in 2020 at $1300 for 128gb.

Samsung has removed some features to keep the phones basically the same price fir 5 years running. Where else isn this economy have prices stayed the same 5 years in a row.