The Galaxy Note S Pen has reached a plateau and it's perfect

At first, the Galaxy Note 9 looked to be yet another exciting flagship of 2018 like the Galaxy S9 earlier this year. Then came the rumor of a new S Pen feature that sparked interest for phablette next month. This is certainly an improvement, since there has been no significant change in the S Pen for years (the spring ejector does not count). Suffice to say that the S Pen has reached its maximum maturity, making it the perfect time to turn it into a more refined and serious tool.

What's Coming

According to recent rumors, the S Pen in the Galaxy Note 9 will have a multi-talented button. Instead of just calling Air Command or allowing other Samsung-specific features, the button will also be used as a Bluetooth remote control button to take pictures, pause or resume music, and even take calls.

that Bluetooth functionality can be used for many things. Maybe it could be used to ring the phone when it's lost. Depending on the freedom that Samsung will grant to app developers or the way in which Samsung's limited orders will conflict with Samsung, it may also be used for third-party functions. It definitely turns the S Pen into more than the input device that it really is, which, hopefully, will not deter Samsung from what needs to actually be done.

What already exists

Bluetooth or not Bluetooth, the S Pen is really a pointing device like any other stylus. Of course, he differs from these stylets in three significant ways:

• He is still here
• He has an ultra-thin tip
• He has a sensitivity to pressure (thanks to the Wacom digitizer in the Galaxy Note

Although this has opened the Galaxy Note and its tablets to more creative and productive uses, most of the new features that the S Pen has received, both hardware and software, have been limited to this. pressure sensitivity, for example, is now almost equal to that of professional digital styli at 4096 levels of pressure.The pen itself is so thin that it is almost not ergonomic. As a result, it has almost reached the limits of what can be a "stylus-in-a-phone", which is the perfect time for Samsung to sit down and look at the pitfalls that users have had over the years. [19659005] Which man that still

The French author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry would have said that "perfection is reached, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing to take away". the S Pen. There are very few things you can add in terms of pressure sensitivity, buttons, electronics or size reduction without things getting worse instead of s'. improve. This does not mean, however, that nothing can be done to improve it. In fact, there are still many, and they do not always need to add new features, including hardware.

Here is a tip

That the S Pen has an extremely thin and precise tip is certainly a huge advantage. Not even the tip of LG in its Stylus / Stylus models can compare. However, this also has a disadvantage, especially compared to other Wacom pens or, of course, Apple's pencil. While the S Pen has had tilt and rotate support for a year or two now, it's not really easy to use because of the tiny size of this tip. As you tilt the pen in the shade, for example, you immediately hit the side of the pen. In other words, it is almost impossible to use anyway. A more conical tip might be able to solve that.

Anorexic Stick

This has actually been a problem with the S Pen since the beginning, but it is nowhere more obvious than in the Galaxy Note 8. It's a good thing. is, of course, a design puzzle that forces Samsung to shrink the S Pen to have more room for larger components inside the Galaxy Note phablet. The disadvantage, however, is that it also sacrifices on ergonomics. It can literally be painful to use the Super Slim S Pen for long periods of time. Like when you try to create works of art. It's almost as if the pen had an innate RSI break function. Curiously, some users of S Pen recommend you to buy the S Pen for Galaxy Tab S3 or Galaxy Book (they are compatible) if you want a more ergonomic experience.

Pushing Your Button

Although powered by Wacom, the S Pen does not look like any other Wacom digital pen or pen in that it only has one button. Another difference is that you can not really use this button for other things than what Samsung has dictated, which can range from launching Air Command to selecting a section of it. Screen to copy to do nothing. The rumored Bluetooth feature certainly adds more features to this button, but it may not respond to one of the biggest difficulties of creatives: they can not use it for anything else in apps. The stylus buttons are often used to bring up menus in art and note-taking applications and you have none of it with the S-Pen.

Remarkable Software

Samsung's S Pen ecosystem is not really the S Pen itself. It's about its applications with the biggest culprit being Samsung's S notes, now Samsung Notes. While the S Pen itself has surged in features and capabilities, the S note has regressed and has been reduced to feeling more like an app to demonstrate these pen features. Although you have loads of inking features, including some handwriting recognitions, you've lost templates, built-in media, cross-platform compatibility, and backward compatibility with the old S-note. It is quite ironic and tragic that for a device called Galaxy Note, its Notes application is its least impressive feature.

Wrap-up

In terms of material capacity, the S Pen is definitely at its best. OK, maybe the Bluetooth remote is a good idea, but it's pretty much at the limit of its hardware and features. Samsung should, perhaps, admit that as well, and instead of spending resources thinking about new features to add, they should spend the time tweaking and perfecting what is already there. Unless, of course, that they start from scratch with a foldable Galaxy X.