When Samsung merged the Note and S-series in 2022, with Galaxy S22 Ultra, it marked the end of an era. But the one redeeming factor about this transition was that it did not kill the S-Pen or make it redundant in any way. The jury is still out on whether a stylus even makes sense on smartphones today—for if it did, others would be doing it, too—but it was never about doing what others were doing or could do, for Samsung. It kept marching on with the idea, putting an S-Pen inside every Galaxy S-series Ultra phone since then. The newly launched Galaxy S25 Ultra also has one. But it is slightly different.
The S-Pen on the Galaxy S25 Ultra does not have Bluetooth capabilities, unlike previous models. Well mostly because, there is no battery. This was confirmed by a Samsung executive exclusively to finacialexpress.com during a product briefing of the Galaxy S25 series ahead of Galaxy Unpacked 2025. The executive did not provide a reason for the lack of Bluetooth, but it is likely that Samsung is trying to save space and reduce costs.
One of the big sales pitches for the Galaxy S25 Ultra is how slim and light it is compared to last year’s Galaxy S24 Ultra. These phones—called phablets once upon a time—have always been big and chunky but Samsung keeps working diligently to shave off some extra millimetres every generation. And so, while it isn’t surprising that the S25 Ultra is a bit more comfortable to hold and use—it also has rounded corners and flat edges—the fact that it might have come at the expense of a hallmark S-Pen feature, surely is.
The S-Pen was introduced with the Galaxy Note series in 2011. Bluetooth was only added starting from Galaxy Note 9, unlocking the ability to tap the button on the pen to do certain tasks. On the Galaxy Note 10, more advanced “Air Actions” were brought in that allowed users to control the device remotely with the pen.
The lack of Bluetooth on the S-Pen could be a disappointment for some users, but it is not a deal-breaker. The S-Pen is still a very useful tool, and it is still one of the best stylus pens on the market. Maybe sometime in future, it will become more involved with AI, possibly with its own tricks given Samsung’s larger than life focus on it at the time of writing. The executive did not deny the possibility, might we add.
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