The S Pen has always been a defining feature of Samsung's Galaxy Note flagships, but next year it may come bundled with a different Samsung phone.
Samsung is reportedly planning to include a S Pen with next year's Samsung Galaxy S21 flagship. A report from The Elec explains that the top-end version of the next Galaxy S flagship will get an S Pen, marking the first time than a Galaxy S phone will come with a stylus.
The Galaxy S21 is reportedly codenamed "Unbound". There are three version of the device, M1, N2, and O3, and the O3 model is the top-end "Ultra" version that will come with an S Pen.
Because the S Pen has always been a defining feature of the Galaxy Note series, the decision to bundle an S Pen with a Galaxy S flagship could mean the end of the Note series. Today's report claims that Samsung has not yet decided on a Galaxy Note flagship launch for the second half of the year, which is typically when a new Note phone is released.
In recent years we've seen the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note lines become more and more similar. It used to be that the Galaxy S flagships had smaller displays and were the more mainstream flagship while the Galaxy Note had a bigger screen and S Pen stylus because it was a "power user" phone.
Lately Samsung has expanded the Galaxy S line to include multiple models, including a big screen device that's just about as big as Galaxy Note phones. Bringing the S Pen to the Galaxy S series would blur the line between the S and Note phones even more, and such a move could bring the end of the Galaxy Note series and simplify Samsung's lineup.