While we have a pretty clear idea of how the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 will look and function at the moment, one of the great known unknowns is the S Pen. We know it will have a faster response time than ever, which should make you feel more like a pen on paper, but do you have any new tricks up your sleeve?
Well, according to a new YouTuber video Jimmy is Promo, the answer is yes. The filter seems to have got its hands on the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and gives us a quick tour of the S Pen menu in the embedded clip below.
The main addition is the ability to use the S Pen as a pointer with a long press of the button and a flick of the pen. You can then navigate the screen from a short distance, interacting with the elements by pressing the button, just as you would with a mouse pointer on a desktop PC. Scrolling down pages is handled by pressing the button and then physically moving the S Pen up and down.
Double-pressing and holding the button will switch it to ‘focus’ mode, where the entire page darkens and your pointer turns into a large circle of light, allowing you to highlight key parts of the page you are on. There are additional options to change the tracking speed, the icon size and make it one of the eight colors.
How useful is this? Well, not much for the vast majority of the time. It’s unclear how far away the pointer will work, but it’s a moot point: the Note 20 Ultra’s screen is large, but it’s not. that big. Bluntly, if you’re close enough to see what’s going on, then you’re close enough to touch the screen yourself as you do with any other smartphone.
Where it will come into play is when combined with the previously leaked update to Samsung DeX (the so-called “Desktop Experience” somewhat awkwardly). That feature will reportedly go wireless, which means you can stream your screen to nearby televisions and monitors.
At that point, being able to use your S Pen as a pointer becomes a game changer. Presentations in meetings, especially with focus mode, become much easier to deliver. Even if the controls sound a little hard to remember for a feature that won’t compromise on muscle memory when using every day of the week.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 will launch in just over a week at the company’s next unpacked event on August 5. While we expect different versions, they will all be powered by the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus (or Exynos 990 in non-US regions) backed by 8-12GB of RAM. While the regular version is likely to have a plastic back and be limited to 60Hz, the Ultra model will come with a 120Hz display and all the usual frills you’d expect from a high-end Samsung flagship.
