S-Pen what is wrong with Samsung?

[LAndre]

The S-Pen in Samsung phones used to be black, dark, rubberized, great feeling.

On the S25 Ultra Samsung decided to make it beige? Plastic touch, no rubberized feeling.

So, on a wooping 1000+ euros Flagship phone and they dont even bother to paint the freeking 50€ S-Pen? 

Not even mentioning the lack of features of the S-Pen, this year is the year of AI nobody asked for.

Seems this is my last Samsung. What do you feel about this cheep not-so-Ultra S25?

[johnz237]

I suppose it's in the eye of the beholder. I'm a student and I use it constantly to help make notes, summarize web pages, and help figure out coding problems. I do hope, however, they decide whether they want to work more on Gemini or Bixby—as Bixby can take commands for smart things, music control, etc., while Gemini is more for asking random questions.

Samsung's approach is interesting—I haven't taken my S Pen out of the phone, maybe just scribbling randomly because I can, but I haven't found much use for it.

In my opinion, it's all about saving money and redirecting funds to other places (like AI development) and also making money with the potential of marketing a Bluetooth S Pen—a very interesting decision, but I'm sure there's some valid reason behind it.

[Joeeye]

Why do you have to pay for a new S-Pen? Samsung never forced you to sell up your S24 Ultra. If you were happy with that phone, why did you just straight up buy the S25 Ultra and then start complaining about it? There's been plenty of reviews which break down what it has and hasn't improved.

For me as someone who owned both phones, I'll say straight out, the S25 Ultra is just better at everything. Sure minor speed bumps but there is software I use which has never seen improvement from any generation of phone but has markedly improved on the S25 Ultra. Charging has been improved, better charger support and it ACTUALLY charges at 45W, something I haven't seen from any past Samsung devices.

[samfan124325]

The Spen definitely has been down graded both in features and quality but it's samsung cost cutting and really pushing the AI agenda that no one asked for and want to get you hooked on using so you will pay for them come next year and make more money on a subscription based system I bet. Probably do same for samsung health before long with the ring especially like aura does. Yeah they said they won't do that but not to say that will be case forever. The sales figures look good but that is Korean sales at mo wonder how many have cancelled and returned them as well? They won't publish those figures I bet lol

[Joeeye]

So, if you use the features after the free period, so what? People are free to choose if they want to pay for them or not. If you're right and no one wants them, Samsung will think twice about it's subscription, but it's irrelevant right now as there are no future plans as far as anyone knows.

You're bitter about a missing feature, so hoping Samsung sales plummet to prove your point, really?

[samfan124325]

Sure it's upto people to decide no doubts but subscription models are such massive moneyspinners for companies that's why they are doing it.

I just feel samsung in recent times has got complacent with it's position in the market. One time it was super innovative but now it seems to be playing it safe and even copying some of apples tactics.

No one wants Samsung to go the way of how Nokia went in 2009 but they need to wake up or lose position to the cheaper and more innovative competitors.

[LAndre]

Try to take off the fan hat a little. If they launched the BT S-Pen I wouldnt buy it, just for the principle. Even forgetting the bluetooth, I bought a phone with an S-Pen, and its the first time I see a S-Pen completly "beige" color, real plastiky, it looks cheap and not really appropriate for the phone itself. Yes, its light, I like the rounded corners, never liked the "stab your palm" S24 Ultra feeling on the hand, but thats it, S24U was a beast, I just like the rounded corners and fell for it. 

Just saw Marques Bronwlee video review on the S24U and it feels just like what I feel, it could be the best, but Samsung lost its way, coming from a firts android Samsung phone user, I'm not a hater, just sad to see the lack of inovation and purpose.

[LAndre]

@SamFan is talking facts, companies are trying to shove AI down our throats either you want it or not, look at Copilot and Office365, its not selling so lets pack it together and force users to have it
Of course if you buy one phone and after 1 year it looses parts of its features you will feel you lost part of your investment, its not good for no one. 
I dont want Samsung to go the HTC path, but will not commit to a preorder like these again, and will for sure look at other options first, feeling betraid and downgraded, no I will not send it back, dont like to do that, so will live at least one year with the regret.

[Joeeye]

My S24 Ultra S-Pen was the same plastic pen as was the case with both my S23 and S22 pens before. They've not changed, except this time there's none of that dodgy chemical coating which burnt up, smelt funny and potentially damaged the phone. And if they were to release a bluetooth enabled one, why would anyone want to buy one if they never used it or felt it unnecessary?

It's something to consider, while Samsung push AI, it's not like outside of that phones haven't been doing the same thing year on year for the past decade. These phones might not feel much faster than last year, but it isn't for lack of hardware improvements. It all comes down to software being outpaced by the hardware.

[Joeeye]

To each their own. I don't feel like Samsung mis-sold me on anything. It's a better phone than last years missing absolutely nothing bar bluetooth on the S-Pen which I never used. All this AI pushing has neither hooked nor been my motivation for buying. It's nice it's free stuff and that's good for me. We don't know what they're going to charge for or that they ever will. So there isn't any point regretting something that hasn't happened yet or ever will. It's not like Samsung haven't given you pre warning that it may charge in the future anyway. AI are software features anyway and like all software that gets premium services, you can choose what you pay for.

[Ferenc75]

I was the part of the 1% SPEN users who worried about BT functionality is gone. And then i realized that I don't really needed an SPEN to make pic's. The rest of the functionality is still useful with the SPEN.
S25U is a brilliant device 👏