Galaxy S21 Ultra S Pen Tipped As Samsung Shreds The Note

The Galaxy Note line has long served as Samsung's fall flagship, but a new report today is claiming that Samsung may choose to phase it out beginning next year. If that happens, we could potentially see the S-Pen – the accessory that the Galaxy Note made its name on – come to the mainline Galaxy S series, with Samsung merging the two lines, so to speak.

This report comes The Elec, which also says that the Galaxy Note could be replaced by the Galaxy Z Fold in the fall. This is something of a risky proposition for Samsung because while the Galaxy Note has become a household name among Android users, the Galaxy Z Fold hasn't had a lot of time to grow its own slice of the pie. Replacing an established brand like the Galaxy Note with one that's still budding would probably mean fewer sales and smaller market share for Samsung, at least at first.

Still, it's not absurd to think that Samsung could merge the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note lines. As the years have gone on, Galaxy S and Note flagships have started to look more and more like each other. As The Elec notes in its report, the Galaxy S20+ ships with the same 6.7-inch screen as the Galaxy Note 20, while the Galaxy S20 Ultra has the same screen size as the Galaxy Note 20 at 6.9 inches.

So, with little difference between S-series and Note-series phones these days, Samsung could equip the Galaxy S20 Ultra with an S-Pen and offer it as some kind of Galaxy Note stand-in while it attempts to turn the Galaxy Z Fold into its fall flagship.

We'll see what happens from here, but if next year's top-end Galaxy S phone – which might be called the Galaxy S21 Ultra according to The Elec's report – ships with an S-Pen, that might be an indication that Samsung will look to phase out the Galaxy Note series. Stay tuned.