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Don’t reach for your camera remote just yet. The S Pen bundled with Samsung’s Galaxy S26 Ultra is a stylus in the old-fashioned sense — precise, responsive, but stripped of the Bluetooth tricks some users grew fond of.
A hands-on clip posted by YouTuber Sahil Karoul, who bought an S26 Ultra before the official reveal, makes the situation clear: the new S Pen lacks Bluetooth connectivity and behaves purely as an input device rather than a tiny wireless remote.
That’s a step back for owners who used past Bluetooth-enabled S Pens to trigger camera shutters, flip through slides, or skip photos in a gallery. Those small conveniences turned the stylus into a multipurpose accessory for photographers, presenters and power users who liked one accessory doing two jobs.
Why would Samsung remove a feature people miss? There are few plausible explanations. Bluetooth requires extra circuitry, battery management and certification — all of which add cost, complexity and potential points of failure. Removing the module can simplify the pen’s design, improve reliability and reduce manufacturing overhead. It may also be a blunt trade-off to preserve battery life in the phone or to streamline supply-chain logistics.
Rumors after the S25 Ultra suggested Samsung might abandon stylus support for its Ultra line entirely. That fear has been quieted — the S26 Ultra still ships with an S Pen slot and the handwriting, sketching and precision input features remain intact. What changed is the S Pen’s role: less a Swiss Army remote, more a dedicated creative tool.
The practical upshot is this: if you relied on the S Pen as a Bluetooth remote, you’ll need to find a replacement workflow — either a third-party Bluetooth stylus or a separate remote accessory.
Could Samsung reinstate Bluetooth later? Possibly, but not via a simple software patch. Bluetooth capability depends on hardware in the pen itself, so a firmware update alone won’t restore the lost remote functions. If mass demand resurfaces, a future hardware revision or optional accessory might bring those features back.
For now, the S26 Ultra keeps the S Pen where it matters most — in the hand of someone drawing, annotating or navigating with pixel-level control — but not in the air, commanding the camera from across the room. Will users accept that trade-off? That’s the question Samsung will be watching closely.
Source: gsmarena
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