Samsung's S Pen has been unchallenged for many years. It used to be the go-to solution for tablet users who wanted the option to handwrite or draw on their large digital screens. But in 2024, Samsung is not alone, and the S Pen has some real competition. Not so much in the smartphone sector, where the Galaxy Ultra lineup remains the best choice for stylus fans, but certainly so in the tablet space.
Apple unveiled its first Pro-grade Pencil accessory for iPads earlier this week, and even though it hurts to say this as a Samsung fan, the Pencil Pro does many things better than the S Pen ever could.
The S Pen is getting challenged and even surpassed, and that's a hard pill to swallow given the S Pen's longevity and legacy. But there's no way around it. The Pencil Pro is an impressive piece of technology, and now, the S Pen has to catch up in many areas.
No, Apple didn't steal Air Command from Samsung
First things first, let's dispel this misconception that Apple stole Air Command. One of the popular narratives you may have seen on X (formerly Twitter) over the past few days is that Apple lifted Samsung's Air Command feature for its own Pencil. But that's a misguided notion based on nothing but a visual similarity.
Let's do a recap of the S Pen's Air Command feature. What is it? In short, the Air Command menu functions much like the Edge app panel. It's a pop-up window that can be summoned with the S Pen button or by tapping an on-screen S Pen bubble.
Galaxy device users can add shortcuts for S Pen-compatible apps to the Air Command menu, but the Air Command menu itself is not dynamic. It doesn't change based on which drawing or note-taking app you're using at a given time. Its sole function is to offer shortcuts to apps, and no matter which app you might be using, the Air Command menu always looks the same when summoned.
In that sense, you can think of it as an apps drawer for S Pen apps. Is it redundant? Not necessarily. But it certainly feels like a wasted opportunity in light of what the new Pencil Pro can do.
So, back to the original question. Did the Pencil Pro steal the Air Command menu? Far from it. In fact, as far as we can tell, Apple doesn't offer anything like Air Command for the Pencil Pro. Instead, Apple allows app developers to create their own pop-up menus with varying functions.
The confusion seemingly stems from the fact that Apple used a generic example in its presentation — an example that bears a visual similarity with Samsung's old semi-circular Air Command menu design. However, functionality-wise, these two menus are vastly different and even look different in practice.
Unlike the S Pen, the Pencil Pro doesn't have a physical button but a pressure-sensitive Squeeze function. When iPad users squeeze the Pencil Pro while using a drawing app, a contextual menu appears, containing whatever shortcuts and features the app's developer decided to include. This menu can take a variety of forms — it's not bound to the generic semi-circle design Apple used in its promotional shots.
Some iPad OS apps will offer shortcuts to paint brushes. Others will offer shortcuts to manipulate the canvas in different ways, such as flipping it or rotating it. The seemingly generic example Apple used in its promotional slides (left image below) has a mild visual resemblance to the old Air Command menu, but real iPad OS apps, such as Procreate (right image), use completely different layouts and functions.
Regardless of how you feel about this, the truth of the matter is that the S Pen button and the arguably overrated Air Command menu are not nearly as versatile as Apple's Squeeze feature and contextual menus. They don't fulfill the same purpose, and similarities are only skin-deep.
And although Android app developers could, in theory, assign richer functions to the S Pen button, unrelated to the Air Command menu, that rarely happens. App developers simply don't support the S Pen as much as we would have liked.
Apple's accessory offers (better) location tracking
Aside from the aforementioned Squeeze function, which should feel more ergonomic than the inconveniently placed S Pen button, the Pencil Pro offers many other features that the S Pen either lacks altogether or doesn't capitalize on as much as it could.
One such feature is Find My. iPad users will be able to locate their misplaced Pencil Pros with high precision using Apple's Find My service.
Samsung's S Pen doesn't have this. The S Pen Pro offered compatibility with SmartThings Find, but the S Pen Pro is no longer on sale, and the standard S Pen is missing out on Find. The best the S Pen can offer is a proximity alert.
Tilt and rotate functions that are actually usable, plus haptic
The Pencil Pro also offers a tilt function that is extensively supported by app developers. In theory, at least, Samsung's S Pen supports tilt, but it's known to be unreliable, and you'll be hard-pressed to find apps that actually take full advantage of it. The S Pen Creator Edition, sold separately, touts “Enhanced Tilt” capabilities, but this is a passive stylus and lacks Bluetooth.
Unfortunately, things aren't getting any better for the beloved S Pen. Apple went even more extra, and the Pencil Pro incorporates a gyroscope that powers a Barrel Roll feature.
Barrel Roll allows Pencil Pro users to rotate brushes with extremely high precision. Once again, the S Pen does, in theory, support this type of gesture, but in practice, it is rarely used by apps, likely due to a lack of precise accuracy or potential issues concerning poor support.
Last but not least, the Pencil Pro now has a haptic feedback motor, which can vibrate gently to help users align cropped objects and more. Samsung's S Pen doesn't have anything like this, and Apple is clearly thinking ahead.
Samsung can learn a lot from this
It hurts to say this, but he Apple Pencil Pro seems to give the S Pen a run for its money. I can't deny I feel a bit of envy, not only because the Pencil Pro is better supported by app developers but also due to the fact that it offers better hardware and smarter capabilities.
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One thing Samsung offers that Apple doesn't is fantastic stylus support for phones. The Galaxy S24 Ultra and the Galaxy Z Fold 5 enable a different kind of S Pen experience focused more on note-taking and hand-writing. It is more limiting due to the smaller screens, but at least Samsung doesn't have any competition in this particular niche.
As for the stylus experience on tablets, Samsung is losing the game to Apple. The company will hopefully accept the challenge and improve the S Pen for future Galaxy Tab S models. Otherwise, it will be left behind by its rival.
