Beyond the Alphabet
Beyond the Alphabet is a weekly column that focuses on the tech world both inside and out of the confines of Mountain View.
For whatever reason, people are still upset about Samsung removing the BLE functionality from the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s S Pen. Perhaps it’s just a “vocal minority” kind of thing, but the discourse left us wondering what Samsung should do for the Galaxy S26 Ultra.
There are really four different paths that Samsung could take; keep things as they are now, bring back BLE, ditch the S Pen while retaining compatibility, or just get rid of the S Pen entirely. Each of these comes with its own sets of pros and cons, so let’s take a deeper look.
Don’t Change Anything
For me, the most obvious course of action is for Samsung to just keep things the same as the Galaxy S25 Ultra. The community has voiced its opinion, but Samsung has the numbers to back up its decision.
In doing so, this would probably mean that we would have another year without built-in Qi2 charging or support for magnetic accessories. To some, like myself, it’s definitely going to be annoying, but as I’ve already found with the S25 Ultra, accessory makers offer a workaround.
Bring Back BLE
When iFixit revealed that the new S Pen features almost the same internals as the previous version, I couldn’t help but laugh. Not because it was surprising but because all Samsung did was use a blank circuit board.
My first thought was that Samsung probably just slapped the circuit boards in there as part of the structural integrity or something. However, the S24 Ultra and S25 Ultra S Pens aren’t exactly identical, leading me to believe that there’s a chance Samsung initially planned on including BLE before scrapping it.
Given that these phones are likely designed at least a year or two in advance, the circuit boards were already developed and printed but weren’t assembled. So when Samsung ran the numbers and found that practically nobody uses Air Actions, it decided against having the capacitors and other bits and bobs added to the board.
That being said, I think this is the second least likely decision Samsung would make with the Galaxy S26 Ultra. I just can’t see a company backtracking just to appease less than 1% of its customer base.
Take the Galaxy Z Fold Approach
It wouldn’t be an editorial from me without mentioning foldables at least once, so here we are. Samsung first brought along S Pen support with the Galaxy Z Fold 2, and every model since has retained that support. However, Samsung foldable phones are compatible with a different type of S Pen, named the S Pen Fold Edition.
For one, it’s not built-in, nor will you find one in the box. Instead, it’s a separate purchase, either on its own or included with Samsung’s S Pen Case. In terms of functionality, the S Pen Fold Edition and the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s S Pen are pretty much the same.
Samsung doesn’t offer a S Pen Fold Edition with Bluetooth built-in, meaning that Z Fold users are already used to not having Air Actions. However, the Z Fold technically does support Air Actions, provided that you have the now-discontinued S Pen Pro. Unfortunately, the Galaxy S25 Ultra doesn’t offer any kind of support for Bluetooth-enabled S Pens, so you’re out of luck on that front.
If the Galaxy S26 Ultra were to take this route, it could open the door for more improvements. By ditching the built-in S Pen, that should mean Samsung can fill that space with a bigger battery, or maybe even a microSD card slot. It also likely would mean proper built-in Qi2 wireless charging, hopefully, complete with support for MagSafe accessories without needing a case.
Saying goodbye?
Surely Samsung wouldn’t take away one of the defining reasons to pick an Ultra over any other flagship phone? Right? Well, that’s the only other potential option that I could think of. But it’s also more unlikely that the Galaxy Z Fold 7 will get the same camera hardware as the S25 Ultra.
There are still plenty of people who use an S Pen, so I just can’t see a scenario where Samsung just drops it altogether. I’m also aware that companies have a knack for just getting rid of things for the sake of it, but this wouldn’t make much sense. Well, that’s unless Samsung was actively trying to push people into the arms of Apple, Google, and OnePlus.
So what’s the move?
If I were a betting man (and I am), I think the Galaxy S26 Ultra will look and function almost identically to the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Complete with the included S Pen. I think Samsung is proud of the design changes that it made with its latest flagship, and seeing how much pushback there was with the removal of BLE on the S Pen, I shudder to think about what would happen if the S Pen was no longer included.
For the sake of brevity, here’s where I rank the laid-out scenarios:
- Don’t Change Anything
- Take the Galaxy Z Fold Approach
- Saying Goodbye?
- Bring Back BLE
If you think I’m crazy, don’t forget about the Galaxy S25 Edge that’s slated to be released at some point this year. That gives Samsung an option for those who want a big-screen phone but without the bulk of needing to have a place for the S Pen. This means that the Edge can live alongside the Ultra while giving Samsung the flexibility to offer a variety of phones based on what you want.
Almost perfect
A few squabbles aside, you couldn’t ask for much more from a flagship smartphone. The Galaxy S25 Ultra packs a punch in more ways than one, and goes beyond even what we thought was possible.