- The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra has been rumored to drop Bluetooth support for the S Pen
- This would leave the S Pen unable to control the S25 Ultra via gestures
- Samsung Galaxy Unpacked is scheduled for January 22, and we expect official news of the S25 Ultra at this event
It’s almost time for Samsung’s annual Galaxy Unpacked event, where we’ll almost certainly see the Samsung Galaxy S25, S25 Plus, and S25 Ultra revealed.
Alongside other upgrades and improvements, we’re expecting the S25 Ultra to replace the S24 Ultra as the only flagship phone on the market to ship with a stylus, specifically the S-Pen. However, a new rumor suggests that the S25 Ultra’s S Pen may not be as powerful as the one included with Samsung’s current-generation Ultra phone.
Tipster Ishan Agarwal has shared a post on X (formerly Twitter) saying that the S25 Ultra’s S Pen will lose the Bluetooth connectivity of the stylus supplied with the S24 Ultra, citing unspecified “retail sources”.
Exclusive: S Pen on the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra will no longer feature Bluetooth according to retail sources!Which means you will lose certain features like gestures & remote control.How do you feel about this downgrade? #GalaxyS25Ultra pic.twitter.com/ASDKB06nsxJanuary 10, 2025
As Agarwal notes, a lack of Bluetooth support would mean the S Pen loses gesture support and the ability to remotely control phone functions. The S24 Ultra allows you to take photos and videos, open apps, and navigate through the UI with S Pen gestures.
Dropping Bluetooth may signal that the S Pen is becoming less of a priority for Samsung, which would certainly be a shame to some. With the release of the S23 Ultra just two years ago, TechRadar’s US phones editor Philip Berne wrote that the S Pen had “finally distinguished itself enough to earn its moniker”.
Personally, I think the S Pen’s Bluetooth support helps to justify its inclusion with the Ultra series. Sure, by slotting into the phone’s chassis, the S Pen takes up a lot of internal space that could otherwise be used for cooling or for a larger battery, but Bluetooth allows the average user to get some use out of the S Pen through the supported gestures.
This latest rumor is unlike most of the latest Samsung Galaxy S25 specs predictions in that it supposes a straight-up downgrade, albeit a niche one, for Samsung’s new premium handset. Without Bluetooth, the S Pen would only function as a drawing or writing tool (which may, of course, be fine for some users), but having that extra gesture support gives the average user something to do with Samsung’s stylus.
Other S25 Ultra rumors have focused on hardware upgrades – we’ve heard, for instance, that the phone may launch with the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, an improved camera system with a 50MP ultra-wide camera, and a slightly larger display than its predecessor.
With Galaxy Unpacked scheduled for January 22, we don’t have long to wait before we hear official information about Samsung’s new phones. Be sure to keep up with our Samsung phones coverage to catch the latest updates.