The S Pen has long been a key feature of the Galaxy Ultra series. With it, you can take notes, draw, and use it as a remote camera shutter with Bluetooth connectivity. At least, you could until now. Samsung has decided that you no longer need it on the S25 Ultra phone.
The S Pen on the brand’s latest flagship no longer supports Bluetooth, meaning no more Air actions. You could blame it on low user engagement, and the fact that similar features are now available through their wearable products, including the Galaxy Watch and Galaxy Ring.
Bluetooth-less S Pen is one more reason to ditch S25
The Samsung Galaxy S25 series isn’t offering many exciting changes, compared to earlier models. The designs are mostly the same as the S24 and S23 phones. The differences are small, with the brand emphasizing the slightly rounded corners on the S25 Ultra, the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, and a few design tweaks here and there. The brand may have just added one more reason for users to skip the flagship phone.
Rumors had been circulating before its launch that Samsung was planning to remove low-frequency Bluetooth connectivity from the S Pen. The downgrade has now been confirmed.
When asked the reason, the brand told several blogs, including Android Authority, that they removed it because users barely touched the features. You can use air gestures on their other Samsung devices anyway. While wearing the Galaxy Ring, double-pinch the air to capture photos or start recording videos.
You can also snooze or dismiss alarms without touching your phone using the same action. Meanwhile, the Galaxy Watch allows you to control your camera and manage media playback. Samsung is even developing a new Pointer Mode feature to allow you control smart TVs with air gestures. Android Authority has spotted it in the SmartThings app code during an APK Teardown.
Related: Boost Mobile Offers Up to $1,000 Off the New Galaxy S25 Series
You’re lucky if you still have a Bluetooth S Pen
Despite what the numbers in Samsung’s books may say, the Bluetooth features on the S Pen means a lot to users. It remained important to the overall experience, even after they stopped making Note series phones in the early 2020s. They still are if you own an older Samsung phone.
Bad news aside, there’s still a lot you can do without them. You can convert handwriting into text with AI enhancements, scribble notes or make sketches, use Smart Select to take and edit screenshots, as well as Circle to Search to find anything on your screen.
The Pen is lighter as it no longer needs a battery, but relies completely on the screen’s built-in screen sensors. They detect the pen’s movements and pressure.
Before now, S Pens relied on a small capacitor to power some features. When you insert the pen into the phone, the phone charges the capacitor. It would take around 40 seconds to charge fully and last up to 30 minutes, and charging happens as soon as you slot the Pen into the phone.
Select Galaxy models had S Pen’s battery that could last between 4-10 hours of use in standby mode when fully charged. Once the capacitor runs out of power, you can still use the pen, but all Bluetooth features stop. Unlike a battery, the capacitor is designed to only provide short bursts of power.
