For all the upgrades tipped for the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, one of its signature features could be in fact getting a downgrade.
It's possible that the stylus in the range-topping Galaxy S25 may not longer use Bluetooth according to Ishan Agarwal, citing "retail sources." The S Pen uses Bluetooth to enable features such as "Air Action" gestures, which let users navigate the phone by waving the S Pen around and using its swiping between photos or presentation slides, or activating the camera remotely without touching the phone.
With Bluetooth gone, it's possible only basic functions like low-latency writing could be left for the Galaxy S25 Ultra's S Pen. But hopefully Air Command, a menu of shortcuts to open S Pen-related features like the Notes app, freeform copy/paste and photo and AR doodling tools, will stick around. While this works by pressing the S Pen's button with the tip not touching your phone's screen, this feature is available on the passive styluses in Samsung's accessories collection, such as the S Pen Fold Edition for the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and earlier models.
Pulling out the Bluetooth
Attempting to look on the bright side, having no Bluetooth will have a small impact on the phone's battery life, since the S25 Ultra will no longer have to donate power to the S Pen to keep it functional. But given the power demands of an S Pen are so small, this is unlikely to have a noticeable effect.
It's also possible that this is a tentative first step towards Samsung ditching the S Pen from future Galaxy S Ultras. Having ditched the stylus-dedicated Galaxy Note series back in 2021, the Galaxy S Ultra line is the only remaining Samsung phone with a bundled stylus. And with anecdotal reports suggesting few users take advantage of the stylus on the Galaxy S22 Ultra, Galaxy S23 Ultra and Galaxy S24 Ultra, perhaps Samsung is weighing up abandoning the Stylus fully.
Even if the S Pen is losing features, at least the Galaxy S25 Ultra is thought to be gaining in other places, such as with upgraded ultrawide and 3x telephoto cameras. All Galaxy S25 models should be upgraded to the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite processor too for the best possible performance. This is all rumor for now, but with Galaxy Unpacked coming up on January 22, it's likely we're going to get confirmation of what exactly these phones have to offer soon.
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