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Things You Didnt Know the S Pen Could Do

Galaxy Note 20 Ultra with S Pen

The Samsung Galaxy Annotation phones are among the nearly popular and powerful Android devices every twelvemonth. We are in the 10th generation with the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 — recollect, Samsung skipped the Galaxy Note 6 and went directly from the Note x to the Note twenty. Each device has come up with a variant of the Due south Pen, an included stylus the software in the Os supports.

This is no ordinary stylus. Each generation has added functionality as well. Nearly recently, Samsung pushed S Pen support to the new Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. Most of these features are besides bachelor on older Note devices to a certain extent. Allow's become right into this.


About the S Pen

Galaxy Note 20 Ultra with S Pen

The clicky part doesn't practise anything aside from assistance y'all take the pen out of the phone.

Allow'southward kickoff out with some quick specs about the S-Pen itself. About all of this information applies to every S-Pen from the Galaxy Annotation 9 all the way up to the Galaxy Note xx Ultra. Nosotros expect Samsung to iterate and improve over time, peculiarly at present that the S-Pen comes with Samsung Galaxy Fold 3.

  • The modern S Pen connects to the phone with Bluetooth starting every bit of 2018. Of course, information technology even so lives within the body of the device dissimilar nearly of its competitors.
  • It gets power from a super-capacitor battery instead of the classic lithium-ion batteries of the Microsoft Surface Pen or the Apple Pencil. Samsung claims a full charge takes just xl seconds.
  • A full charge allows for up to 30 minutes of usage fourth dimension or 200 button clicks. Users get a notification when the battery is at twenty% to remind them to charge. This may change from Note to Note.
  • It uses a wireless charging method while resting inside the body of the device to accuse. It works differently from Qi Wireless Charging so you can't charge the S Pen with one of those.
  • Samsung estimates it uses 0.5mAh per full accuse. In other words, S Pen shouldn't bear upon your battery life at all, even if super-capacitors slowly lose charge over fourth dimension. For reference, 0.5mAh is one/9,000th of the 4,500mAh battery in the Note 20 Ultra.
  • The S Pen notwithstanding works without a accuse. You just lose the remote capabilities until you lot recharge the S Pen again.
  • The tip of the S Pen is 0.7mm thick. It too registers up to iv,096 pressure levels. This is on par with the Microsoft Surface Pen 2 and most Wacom tablet styli.
  • You tin can purchase S Pen replacements from Amazon. Currently, y'all can buy it in copper and in black.
  • The S Pen operable distance with Bluetooth is xxx anxiety give or take.
  • A little-known feature of the S Pen is its multiple tips. Every recent Galaxy Note device comes with a fiddling puller tool you can use to remove the Due south Pen'south tip, which you lot can so flip. The default is a soft prophylactic tip, but you tin can flip that for a difficult plastic tip. The puller tool should be in the box.

Basic features

Galaxy Note 20 Ultra Direct Writing Input

Directly Writing Input is basically exactly what the proper name implies.

The Southward Pen comes with a multifariousness of bones features. These work basically all the time, and you can toggle them on and off in the settings card.

Air View – Air View allows you lot to glean quick information by hovering the stylus close to $.25 of information. It works all-time in Samsung'southward agenda and gallery apps. We haven't seen information technology piece of work well with third-party apps, like Google Calendar or Google Drive.

Direct Writing Input – This lets you fill out text fields on your telephone with actual writing. You can enable this in two ways. The Samsung Keyboard has thePen Detection option in theHandwriting department of its settings menu to recognize when the S Pen is out and will automatically open the writing pad when blank text fields are selected. On older Notation devices, you can only hover the pen over a blank text field until a pen icon appears.

Screen Off Memo – A classic Note feature. You lot can have notes on your device without unlocking the screen. Simply remove the Southward Pen while the screen is off and follow the on-screen prompts to use the characteristic. Yous can save these notes to Samsung's note app, record multiple notes, erase what you wrote, and even change the thickness of the digital ink.

PENUP – This is a social network of sorts for Samsung Note owners. You can create drawings, color in existing drawings, and share your artwork across the collective. Information technology comes stock on the device, but you tin uninstall information technology if y'all don't want information technology. Information technology is also available in the Google Play Store if you change your mind.

Modify South Pen ink color – Back in the twenty-four hours, there were some instances (like the Screen Off Memo) where you could just select betwixt white and the color of your actual South Pen. Yet, these days, yous can almost always select your Southward Pen ink color so this is a non-outcome these days.

Visible Pointer – You tin can set the device to show a pointer graphic when the Due south Pen is close enough to the screen. This is an onetime characteristic and on by default.


Air Command features

Galaxy Note 20 Ultra Air Command menu

Joe Hindy / Android Say-so

Air Control became a vertical list on newer versions of One UI.

Air Command – This is the native interface for using all of the diverse functions. Information technology appears past default by removing the Due south Pen from the device while the screen is on. Earlier versions of the Notation used a rotary style graphic. Even so, Samsung switched it to a vertical listing with the Annotation x series and that'southward how it is at present.

Notes – Information technology'due south a Milky way Annotation device, so of course you tin can have notes. There are two Air Control functions for note-taking. The first creates a new note and the second opens the Samsung Notes app to view previous notes. Notes sync across devices via your Samsung account in case you purchase a new Notation device afterwards.

Screen Write – Screen Write takes a screenshot of the entire screen. It immediately opens an interface where you tin can write on the screenshot. From there, yous can save it, share information technology, or stylize it in other ways. On newer Note devices, you can also opt to accept the screenshot function have scrolling screenshots if needed.

Smart Select – Smart Select is our favorite way of taking a screenshot. Y'all tin use the S Pen to describe a shape anywhere on the screen and the phone volition screen shot just that portion of the screen. This is so much better than taking super tall screenshots and cropping it down when you just need a fiddling extra data. There is besides an option to capture blitheness within a defined expanse. Smart Select turns information technology into a GIF for easy sharing. Seriously, Smart Select is awesome.

Translate – A useful, just somewhat niche function. Y'all hover the S Pen over a give-and-take in a foreign language and Translate, well, translates information technology. It uses Google Translate, and we appreciate Samsung using something tried and true. You can also listen to the word with the small-scale sound icon side by side to the translation.

S Pen Battery Indicator

Joe Hindy / Android Authority

Newer One UI versions accept the S-Pen battery levels in the Air Command carte du jour.

Magnify – This is another useful, but niche feature. Hover over basically anything and Magnify can arrive bigger and easier to read. This is a decent accessibility characteristic. You can magnify things by 150%, 200%, 250%, and 300%. At that place is as well a toggle to slightly change how the area is magnified, but nosotros couldn't tell much of a difference. The magnification window is also a decent size.

Glance – Glance is an excellent tool for multitasking. Information technology basically makes whatsoever app work in picture-in-moving picture fashion. Open an app, engage Glance, and the app becomes a small thumbnail. Hover over the thumbnail to view the app again in total-page manner. Only movement the little box with the Southward Pen to put information technology back in Glance mode. Drag the box to the top center of the screen to trash it and exit Glance mode.

Alive Message – Alive Message is a fun lilliputian feature that debuted a couple of years ago. Write out a missive or draw a simple picture and your Notation device will plough information technology into a GIF. The GIF is shareable basically anywhere and works wherever GIFs work. This has no productivity value any, but it is fun. This also works with Samsung's AR Emoji characteristic and you tin write on images you lot have on your Annotation device already besides.

Bixby Vision – This one is a bit polarizing. Bixby Vision is meant to identify things on your telephone screen and show you information about it, like shopping links. It'due south extremely hit or miss and bluntly, does not work all that well. Its best use is for extracting text from an image with OCR or scanning a QR code. The rest of its functions only aren't ready for prime time all the same.

AR Putter – AR Doodle is a characteristic on newer Galaxy Note phones. It opens your camera and lets you doodle on stuff. Information technology recognizes surfaces and your environment so you can actually move the camera away from your doodle and start over again somewhere else and and then move back to the original. It'southward fun to mess around with and shows how fun AR can be sometimes.

Add together your own – Air Command lets you lot add together your own apps to the rotary bicycle of S Pen goodness. We recommend calculation apps yous use the stylus with a lot. For our testing, we even added the game Depict Something since we apply the stylus a lot with that game.

Access S Pen settings – Once Air Command opens, yous can click the cogwheel in the peak left or bottom left corner (depending on your Note model) to access all of South Pen's diverse settings. It'due south the quickest way to get to those settings.


Hardware features

S Pen Battery Level Settings

Joe Hindy / Android Authorisation

On newer One UI versions, the battery levels appear in the Air View menu, not the main settings.

In that location are some extra niggling hardware features. This section used to be rather boring, actually. However, the improver of a battery, Bluetooth, and remote capabilities added a lot more than stuff to this category with the Samsung Galaxy Note ix. Those features continue to this twenty-four hour period.

Alarm when lost – This is the one hardware feature from older versions of the S Pen. When it is removed from the device and separated from it, the Galaxy Annotation will constantly remind you it is missing until yous put it back. It's a good way to avoid losing it — it's an expensive accessory, after all.

Power Saver mode – This is enabled by default. The Milky way Note won't try to detect the presence of your Southward Pen while it is in the phone. This preserves valuable battery life by non running a redundant task. You tin disable this if yous really want to in the settings menu. This is non available on all Galaxy Note devices.

Sound and Vibration – You can set the Milky way Notation to brand an aural sound and vibrate slightly when you remove the Southward Pen from its holster. Both of these settings are gear up to on past default.

Unlock with S Pen – You tin can set your device to unlock with the S Pen instead of a Pivot, passcode, fingerprint scanner, and so on. It'southward a corking trick, but we don't recommend it. It'due south not a good thought to keep the key with the lock, and then to speak.

Remote Capabilities – The Galaxy Note ix variant of the S Pen introduced remote capabilities. This is usable in two ways. The get-go is allowing the Southward Pen to perform tasks within of certain apps. Information technology works with apps such as Microsoft Office, Google Chrome, and many others. Y'all can view the available controls in the settings carte du jour. They will automatically evidence upward for any app you lot have that can use them.

Change Remote Capabilities – You lot tin besides customize any app that uses remote capabilities. Each app can accept upwardly to two functions with a single press and a double press of the S Pen button. These are customizable in the Due south Pen remote settings. Pop examples include going forward in a presentation with a single click and backwards one slide with a double click. I have my tester device set to take a single click become dorsum a page in Google Chrome and forrad a folio if I double click.

Open apps with the remote – You can besides set up the S Pen to open an app with a long press of the remote button. Dissimilar the actual remote function, yous can open any app you want with this setting, simply only one at a time. The stock Samsung camera app is the default.

Controls aren't restricted to just one app – Every app that can use the remote control functionality works. You can switch from the camera app to PowerPoint then over to Chrome without any hiccups. All apps compatible with S Pen will work unless y'all plow it off.

Remote Master Controls – The S Pen has chief controls for cameras and music playback. These should work in all apps with a photographic camera function or music playback functionality. Music playback remote control worked in all of the music and podcast apps I tried (Samsung Music, Pulsar, Google Play Music, YouTube, and fifty-fifty Pocket Casts). You lot can plough these off, but you can't configure them very much.

Permit multiple S Pens – Newer Milky way Note devices permit support for multiple Southward Pens on a unmarried device. You can basically use a second S Pen while yours rests inside of your device. This is fun for sharing the telephone screen with others, but information technology's otherwise not all that useful.


The Southward Pen has stayed relevant over more than half a decade of smartphone innovation. People love it at present as much as they did back then. It can do a bunch of neat stuff and nosotros tin't await to see what Samsung has in shop for this groovy little stylus.

If we missed any dandy features, tell us most them in the comments!

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Source: https://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-s-pen-the-ultimate-guide-925944/

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