Samsung is a manufacturer that knows no bounds when it comes to interesting designs and features for their smartphones. From small to large, flip to slab, edged and double-edged, not to mention the sheer amount of features the company includes in their devices, it’s no surprise that Samsung manages to come up with a slam dunk or two when it comes to popular smartphones.
Among the many smartphones that Samsung makes, one of the most notorious is the Samsung Galaxy Note. The Note is particularly “note”worthy due to the fact that the phone was one of the first “phablet”-sized smartphones (5.1-inch display or larger) on the market, essentially paving the way for the current trend of having smartphones with large screens. The Note is also popular due to the fact that it’s one of the few remaining smartphones that embrace the use of a stylus; what’s more is that Samsung has taken the stylus a step further in the Note with Wacom technology, giving Samsung’s stylus, the S-Pen, an enhanced range of features and abilities.
The Note is the typical device that you’ll find an S-Pen in, but Samsung has also recently included the S-Pen in the Galaxy Tab A last year. Additionally, Android Authority reports that Samsung may also have plans to incorporate the S-Pen in (traditionally) non S-Pen enabled devices as well.
In a recent patent filing, Samsung patented for a case that looks to have an S-Pen and dock included. So while Samsung may not have any plans to fully include an S-Pen and dock, the famous stylus may be available to non-Note users with this accessory.
There are a couple of strange things about the design of this S-Pen case, such as the fact that the case features an edge – but just one edge, like in the Samsung Galaxy Note Edge, which is the only Samsung device to feature one edge instead of two. Both the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge and S6 Edge+ feature a double-edged screen. This could mean that Samsung is going back to a single-edged display (which, to be fair, had more purpose than the double-edged displays). In a less likely scenario, I wonder if this might mean Samsung is making the S-Pen “optional” in a future Galaxy Note – but that just seems a little far-fetched, as one of the biggest selling points of the Note is the included S-Pen.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Samsung ends up incorporating the S-Pen in more devices. I’ve always liked the Note line for the S-Pen, and now that I’ve been test driving the Note 5 for a few days I remember the benefits of having an included stylus on hand, even if it isn’t something that I’d say I frequently use. I would even go so far as to say that the S-Pen might work better as an added accessory.
On that note, there’s also the possibility that this could be signaling the end of the Note line altogether. There has been suggestion that the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note line might merge, and perhaps this would be the answer? That guess also feels a little far-fetched, but not entirely out of the realm of possibilities.
All in all, I think it would be great to see the S-Pen in more products than just the Note. It’s a handy tool to have, and I think it would be a positive option to add for people who don’t necessarily want a phone as large as the Note.
Readers, what are your thoughts on this? Do you think that Samsung should branch the S-Pen out to other products as an added accessory, or should it stay exclusive to the Note? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
