The S Pen should’ve stayed far away from the Galaxy S series for its own sake

The announcement of the Galaxy S25 has been a bit doom and gloom for fans of the S Pen, most of whom are refugees from the Note series. Samsung decided to downgrade the beloved pencil to remove Bluetooth functionality, thus ridding it of any remote functionality like being used as a camera shutter and for Air Actions. And even though we had some fake hope for a minute that a standalone Bluetooth S Pen could be up for sale, Samsung quickly denied that rumor (which, to be fair, came from its own Insights blog).

So the S Pen finds its position shifted this year — from the star of the show in the Galaxy S22, S23, and S24 to a mere figurant on the Galaxy S25. It’s not as powerful as it used to be, nor as important. And fans of the S Pen are right to be worried: Is this the beginning of the end of the S Pen? Should Samsung release a special-edition Note phone to appease S Pen fans? I think the concerns are legit, and most importantly, the S Pen should’ve never come close to the Galaxy S series. It was doomed straight away.