There was once only one S Pen. Tucked into the body of the Samsung Galaxy Note, the pen redefined what it meant to use a stylus with a phone.
With the coming of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3, there are now five S Pen models for current phones: the Galaxy Note S Pen, the Galaxy S21 Ultra S Pen, the Galaxy Tab S Pen, the S Pen Fold Edition and the S Pen Pro. Here’s how they compare.
Galaxy Note 20 S Pen
The S Pen included with the Galaxy Note 20 has a button at the top that lets it pop out of the body of the phone. It’s the slimmest and shortest of the S Pen crowd, but it has powers that the multi-device and Fold S Pens do not.
The Note 20’s S Pen has a Bluetooth connection to your phone so you can use it as a remote control, including as a remote shutter button for the camera. If you want that feature on the Fold, you need to get the S Pen Pro, which is too large to fit in a case with the phone. This pen charges when it’s inside the body of the phone.
Both the Note 20 pen and the S21 Ultra pen have 4,096 pressure levels and a 0.7mm tip.
Galaxy S21 Ultra S Pen
The Galaxy S21 Ultra’s S Pen is longer and wider than the Note 20’s pen, with two flat sides.
Where the Note 20 pen is made of a slightly slipperier plastic, the S21 Ultra pen is a very matte plastic. The S21 pen can draw on the screen and can use “Air Command,” where you float your pen a little over the screen to pop up a menu of options, but it can’t act as a remote shutter. The S21 pen fits into the side of an optional rubbery case for the phone.
Without Bluetooth, this pen never needs charging.
Galaxy Tab S Pen
The special S Pen for the Galaxy Tab tablets has two features that aren’t on the S21’s pen. It has a Bluetooth connection like the Note 20’s pen, so you can use it as a remote shutter or a remote-control for presentations at a distance. It also has a unique magnetic attachment and charging function, where it snaps onto the side of the tablet to charge.
Galaxy S Pen Fold Edition
The S Pen Fold Edition is a different shape, and has a different tip, compared to the others. It’s rounder than the Galaxy S21 pen, with a partially flattened side as opposed to the fully squashed profile of the S21 pen. It says “Fold Edition” on it so you know which one it is.
The tip is slightly rounder at 1.5mm rather than 0.7mm, although that’s honestly hard to notice. What you can notice is that with sufficient force, the tip retracts into the body. That’s not the case with other devices’ S Pens, and it’s to prevent you from poking holes in the Fold’s screen.
The Fold Edition pen doesn’t have Bluetooth or a battery, so it doesn’t work as a remote control but doesn’t need charging. It operates at a different frequency than the other pens, so other devices’ pens don’t work with the Fold, and this one doesn’t work with Notes or S21 phones.
Galaxy S Pen Pro
This one is your multi-device, do-everything pen. It’s also significantly thicker and longer than the other pens. I only used it for a minute, but to me, it felt more like a paintbrush than an S Pen. It has a switch on it to flip it between the Fold and other-device frequencies, and it has Bluetooth to act as a remote.
As a multi-device pen, it has another unique trick: Use the pen to copy an item on the screen of one device and then paste it onto another. (It uses Bluetooth to negotiate the transfer.)
The Pro is the only pen that needs to be charged separately. It comes with a case it slides into, with a USB-C charging port. Samsung says a 50-minute charge gives you 16 days of battery life. The pen can also be tracked in Samsung’s SmartThings Find app if you lose it.
