No ™️ spen, no thanks!

[facu1ty]

Samsung really are pulling the wool over people's eyes. After saying they were reading usage reports, only 1% use the Bluetooth function on the spen. Apparently that equates to 160000 people which is a lot. Am I being thick or do they get these usage reports when we opt into it when setting up the phone? How many people turn off usage reports when setting up their phone? I know I do. I smell a rat with Samsung. Air gestures are so much fun. The most composed Selfies I find is by using the spen. This was the ultras signature ™️ that should never have been up for debate. It's a great bit of tech. The S25 ultra has lost it's id. It's looking like the IPhone now. IPhone/moto g stylus vibes. No thanks. Get back to the drawing board and start giving us S10 model vibes again when you were flexing muscles globally. But losing handy hardware and copying apple seems the way forward. 🤮

[Snapper99]

Spot on.

[GusB]

Well luckily you can still get the S24u if you haven't already

[facu1ty]

I've got the S23 ultra 512g. Only had it a year. Can't stop playing with it. It's flawless. I prefer its shape to the S24 ultra. Looks and feels more elegant. I was thinking about the S25 ultra, but it will definitely be a downgrade with the spen shenanigans. Still has a few more years of updates. It's a solid all-rounder. I'm definitely keeping it 💯 👌🏻

[GusB]

Nice! 👍

[Snapper99]

Aye, true. But...
S21 Ultra... A nice phone that got 'lifted' by SWMBO about 15 mins after I transferred everything onto my (then) spanking brand new S22 Ultra...
S22 Ultra became the spare when I got my S23 Ultra and got lifted last month by youngest daughter after her S21 Ultra died a death (I am informed the S21 got stood on, yer right...)
Did the normal thing and bought a new phone during the unpacking event, and a new shiny S24 Ultra 1tb duly arrived via DPD and promptly sat on the desk for about 6 months... I then broke the S23 Ultra 1tb screen (dropped it in a heating duct of all places) so we then had a fun weekend getting the S24 Ultra going and the S23 Ultra fixed for use as a spare. My eldest daughter then lifted the S23 Ultra....
So.... I await the new S25 Ultra 1tb, while SWMBO sits quietly in the background, eying up this S24 Ultra 1tb.... I strongly suspect there will be some undercover simcard manipulating going on very quickly after the new S25 Ultra is set up.

So, is there options available if I don't like the S25 Ultra? Oh yes, but it's gonna be painful prising one of those phones out of the girls hands lol...

[Glenntech]

They actually used not only usage stats. But they surveyed as well.
160K that use it equates to just under 1% of Ultra owners.
The only thing we don't know is out of the 160K that have used it.
How many are regular users. So the numbers could well be much lower.
Personally I will miss the remote camera shutter function. But there are a number of other ways like setting something like a 2 second or longer timer

[Thomas André]

I will not miss the bluetooth support for the spen. The s25 ultra is a better phone than the s24 ultra. The majority of users don't used it and they are silently upgrading to the s25 ultra. The few that are against it have big voices and try to justify not to upgrade. And so they should not either. 

[Glenntech]

Yeah it's just one of those things.
I'm hopefully getting mine on Saturday and really looking forward to it.
Do I miss the S Pen Bluetooth. Not that much as there are other ways to achieve what you need.
But the benefits of software upgrades etc are enough for me to call it a decent upgrade.
I used the S25 in San Francisco after the Unpacked Event and loved how good the cameras are. That's with pre release software as well

[facu1ty]

Stats or not, they should never have removed because many were enjoying it. Trouble with timers or saying cheese and even doing hand gestures don't work as well as using the spen for a more composed picture. It's a more relaxed experience with the spen. I'll never buy it, lol. I'm very happy with my S23 ultra.