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The Galaxy S25 Ultra S Pen Really is Losing Features..

shane craig

Almost two weeks ago rumors started to swirl that Samsung would be making a rather interesting move with its upcoming flagship, the Galaxy S25 Ultra. As hard as it was for many to believe, word was that Samsung was set to remove bluetooth functionality from their trademark stylus. Let’s be honest, at the time this was pretty hard to believe. Not only was it only coming from one smaller source, it also just didn’t make a lot of sense.

Why remove the feature in the first place? What could you possible stand to gain from doing so? Sure, the radio had to have an effect on battery, but it would be such a tiny effect that no one would ever notice one way or the other. You could make the pen a bit lighter, but is anyone complaining about the pen being heavy? Could cost cutting be the reason? Like any large corporation, Samsung isn’t above doing something like this to squeeze out another penny or two, but I feel like that wouldn’t be far from the truth. This isn’t saving them a significant amount of money.

So why do it?

When I wrote about this initially I said “It’s entirely possible that Samsung has data that tells them people just aren’t using these bluetooth reliant features and because of that if there is any benefit to be had, removing it is the right call.” It turns out that’s exactly the reason. At the Galaxy Unpacked event, Samsung has been telling people that less than 1% of users used the features that relied on bluetooth in the S Pen. If the benefit of removing a feature is tiny, the benefit of keeping said feature must be even smaller than that and Samsung’s calculus told them that was the case.

Was This The Right Call?

Before we dig deeper, let’s talk about what we’re missing now. It really comes down too two primary features: Air Actions and Camera Controls. The former allows users to navigate their phones by waving their S Pen around like Harry Potter. It’s actually pretty neat, but I have a hard time imagining how anyone works this into their work flow and why on earth they would. The latter allows the Pen to function as a control for the camera. Set you phone up on a tri-pod, walk away and use the pen to trigger the shutter. Neat and much more useful, IMO.

Let’s get back to the question at hand; Was this the right call? Despite their data saying virtually no one was using these features, the answer is probably not. I think that it’s possible that when Samsung did their calculus on this they underestimated one variable and that was the public outcry. They likely assumed that two features that most people didn’t know exist and no one was using would not trigger a significant public reaction, but they seem to have been wrong. In my YouTube comments, Discord and from other creators, the reaction has been swift and clear. People don’t like seeing features removed with nothing gained in replacement. The price didn’t go down, they simply lost something. Sure, they’re definitely weren’t using it, but the perfectly normal and human reaction remains. It feels bad and it looks bad.

To make matters worse, the S25 line is remarkably similar to last year’s phones - except now two features are gone. Obviously, it’s not as simple as that. There are some new things, but as people generalize, how do you think the conversations will play out on social media? “Samsung just released the same phone, but with a downgraded S Pen LOLZ.”

Will It Matter?

Honestly, this is the most important question. The thing about public outrage is that we never really know how reflective of the broader public it is. Remember when the S24 launched and the clear and concise reaction was that Samsung relied too heavily on new software features and didn’t do enough with the hardware? Hell, they even “downgraded” the telephoto zoom going from 10x optical to 5x. Surely the market would speak and these phones would sell worse, forcing Samsung to improve their hardware next generation and change their approach. Except none of that happened. The S24 series outsold the S23 largely on the back of new AI features, despite a telephoto that often performed worse than last year and with virtually zero major hardware improvements.

The new phones have the Now Bar, Now Brief, Gemini more tightly integrated into their own apps, Natural Language search, AI Tools in the Edge Panel and clones of Audio Magic Eraser and Best Take. You might make the argument that last year’s haul was better with Circle to Search, Sketch to Image and tons of Language tools, but was it really that much better.. I honestly don’t think so.

On the same subject of public perception, I have to point out the disparity between my comment section and what has to be happening in the real world. The moment someone on stage says AI, my Live Chat begins groaning. There are a lot of techy people that just can’t stand the focus on AI related tools. I’ll be digging into this later on in a dedicated article/video. But here’s the thing - Samsung is convinced the broader public feels differently. They know they just grew their sales a year ago with this same approach. Will it work two years in a row? Will AI fatigue hit breach the tech bubble or will people continuing seeing these features as alluring? No clue.

For the S Pen, I suspect it would have been better to just leave it alone. The risk of real damage from public perception might end up having been too high when weighed against almost no benefit. This feels like a decision made in a boardroom without considering how their most dedicated fans would feel and that’s rarely the correct approach.

Via Lifehacker

Anyways, time to pay some bills 😐

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