The Galaxy Note is dead. Well that’s what we’re led to believe following yesterday’s Galaxy Unpacked event where Samsung showcased three new flagship phones, one of which was the Galaxy S22 Ultra.
The device is Samsung’s new Galaxy Note in all but name, sporting an S Pen stylus recessed into the frame of the phone and featuring a design very much inspired by the Galaxy Note.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Jdpwb_0F5w
To gain a bit more insight into the decision to integrate an S Pen on its largest S22 device, which is something we have been wanting Samsung to do for some time now, as well as what the future could hold as far as stylus-sporting phones are concerned, we spoke to Justin Hume, director of Integrated Mobility at Samsung South Africa.
One of the first things Hume told us, was that the new S22 Ultra represented an opportunity for Samsung to give its smartphone fans something different.
We have long said, or at least as long as Ultra-branded phones have been released, that Samsung needed to bring something new to the table for their larger Galaxy devices, and it appears as if the S Pen is it.
Needs must
“If we look at the Note and S Pen introduction, over the years we’ve had great success with that and a loyal base of fans that went from one generation to the next,” the Integrated Mobility director acknowledges.
“That said, there was this feeling that consumers had to chose between the Note series and the S series and not necessarily being able to get the best of. This is why we looked to merge the DNA of the two,” he explains.
As for whether we could see the S Pen feature on non-Ultra phones down the line or perhaps the company’s mid-range A series, Hume remains purposefully evasive.
He notes that it is certainly in the realm of possibility, but it very much depends on what consumers ask for and whether there is a right fit for the device, as the S Pen is not simply an add on in his view, but rather an accessory purpose built for multitasking and productivity.
“In terms of the S Pen being integrated into a device like the S22, not necessarily, because, the point of merging technologies is about addressing what the user is looking for. That may not necessarily be the productivity and those users may be more interested in the camera performance and how the device lends itself to social media,” says Hume.
“But I do think we will see S Pen support being far more broadly available down the line,” he advises.
As such, placing it in an A series device that is designed to deliver as affordable a smartphone experience as possible, is simply not worthwhile… at this stage at least.
As for the fate of the Note series, Hume was not definitive, but did highlight the fact that Samsung will always listen to what its consumers want.
With that in mind, given that there was Galaxy Note 21 last year and very little outcry because of it, don’t expect Samsung to release a Note 22 later this year. Instead, the flagship focus for the latter half of 2022 will likely be on foldables.
