Doesn’t it also annoy you when a beloved feature isn’t removed honestly and outright, but slowly gutted instead? First they disable Bluetooth, then they make the stylus thinner, then they drop support from foldable smartphones. That’s exactly what has been happening with Samsung S Pen over the past couple of years. Honestly, many Galaxy fans are already harboring uneasy suspicions, and it’s hard to blame them. Meanwhile, Samsung itself now claims that the stylus remains a “key technology.” Who should you believe — the marketing or your own eyes? Let’s figure it out.
There are literally only a handful of smartphones with styluses. Is it really needed? Or is it a relic of the past?
S Pen in Galaxy S26 Ultra: What Changed and What’s Gone
The problems started with the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Samsung removed the Bluetooth LE module from the stylus, and along with it, Air Actions disappeared. If you used the S Pen as a remote for the camera, switched music with gestures, or controlled presentations — all of that simply stopped working.
Many hoped that Bluetooth would return in the Galaxy S26 Ultra. It didn’t. Essentially, the Samsung stylus now functions as a regular capacitive tool for notes and drawing. Yes, it’s still precise. But it’s no longer the multifunctional accessory that the S Pen was a couple of generations ago. In practice, it feels like a Swiss Army knife with only the blade left. Yet it still takes up the same amount of space inside the body — space that could have been given to the battery.
S Pen and Qi2 Charging: Why They Interfere with Each Other
Samsung is chasing a thinner body. The Galaxy S26 Ultra slimmed down to 7.9 mm, and the stylus had to shrink accordingly. The S Pen’s cross-section was reduced from 5.8 × 4.35 mm to 5.0 × 4.15 mm, the clicker button now follows the curve of the frame, and the pen can only be inserted into the body one way.
Many people simply can’t imagine their smartphone without the S Pen feature.
On top of that, there’s now an issue with Qi2 magnetic cases. Samsung itself warns that such accessories can interfere with the stylus, and when a conflict occurs, a notification pops up on screen. So the company is promoting both the stylus and wireless charging, but one interferes with the other. A classic engineering compromise that the user ends up paying for.
Does the Galaxy Z Fold 7 Support S Pen?
It’s also noteworthy that the Galaxy Z Fold 7 doesn’t support S Pen right from launch, even though many expected otherwise. Samsung removed the digitizer from the display — the component responsible for pen recognition — in order to reduce thickness.
To be honest, the logic is understandable: foldable smartphones already suffer from extra millimeters. But for those who bought the Fold specifically for stylus work, it was a significant blow.
Will Samsung Remove S Pen from Galaxy Smartphones?
And here’s where it gets interesting. Won-Joon Choi, the COO of Samsung’s mobile division, told Bloomberg in an interview that S Pen remains a key technology. The company is allegedly developing a “more advanced version” that will require a “new display structure.”
The S Pen has its quirks. For example, if you insert the stylus the wrong way, it sticks out. Image: Лысый из МТ
According to rumors from Korean sources, Samsung tested a hybrid technology for the Galaxy S27 Ultra that combines the classic EMR system with active electrostatic (AES) technology. The idea is that AES allows them to remove the digitizer from the screen and save about 0.3 mm of thickness. However, this option was already dropped for the S27 Ultra — the technology wasn’t ready. Samsung is sticking with the proven EMR for now, where the stylus doesn’t need its own battery and draws energy from the display’s electromagnetic field.
It sounds promising, but there are still zero specifics. Exactly when a new S Pen will appear remains unknown.
Is It Worth Buying the Galaxy S26 Ultra for the Stylus?
If you’re choosing the Galaxy S26 Ultra solely for the stylus, it’s worth setting realistic expectations. The S Pen in 2026 is a good tool for handwritten notes and sketches, but it’s no longer the universal remote control from the Galaxy Note era. No Bluetooth, no Air Actions, and the size has shrunk.
For those who draw or annotate documents every day, the Galaxy S26 Ultra remains the best option on Android. There are virtually no alternatives with a built-in pen on the market. But if you pull out the stylus a couple of times a month, it might make sense to consider the regular Galaxy S26 and save some money.
Samsung promises that the future of S Pen will be more exciting than the present. Maybe it will be. But for now, we’re seeing a stylus that loses features with each generation rather than gaining them. And that’s perhaps the biggest cause for concern.
