Tablets Are Keeping the Stylus Dream Alive

If you value using a stylus with a touchscreen, 2025 has been a mixed year. Fortunately, tablets still provide us with options and give reason for hope.

It’s Been a Rough Year for the S Pen on Phones

2025 began with Samsung reducing the capabilities of the S Pen on the Galaxy S25 Ultra, the sole flagship smartphone in the US to ship with a built-in stylus. The Ultra’s S Pen lost all Bluetooth functionality. That meant no more air gestures to navigate the screen without touching it and no more using the stylus as a remote shutter. As controversial as this was, I argued that simplifying the S Pen was the right call. But we’ll come back to my feelings later.

2025 also saw the release of the Moto G Stylus, the other phone in the US with a built-in stylus. There isn’t anything sad to say here. Our reviewer liked this year’s model, but it remains a mid-range phone with significantly less stylus-specific software than the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Both phones speak to people who want a stylus, but the Galaxy S25 Ultra will provide you with far more processing power and a significantly better camera.

It was over the summer when more devastating news arrived—the Galaxy Z Fold 7 lost S Pen support in its entirety. That made the Z Fold 7 a non-starter for me and other people who have heavily used the S Pen with prior versions of the Fold. My Z Fold 6 still has years of life left, but I’m hoping S Pen support has returned by the time my phone is ready to bite the dust.

But Galaxy Tablets Have a New S Pen

With Samsung reducing and removing what the S Pen can do in its phones, there’s extra reason to pay attention to this year’s tablets. Fortunately, this year’s new Galaxy Tab S11 series as well as the Galaxy Tab S10FE continue to come with an S Pen.

The tablet S Pen shares the same fate as the one in the Galaxy S25 Ultra, showing that Samsung is done with the Bluetooth-based S Pen features across the board. Removing Bluetooth makes all versions of the S Pen more consistent—my Fold Edition S Pen never had Bluetooth features to begin with. That functionality was also unrelated to writing and drawing, which are the kind of things you can expect to do with a pen.

In a sign that Samsung wants the S Pen to feel more like a writing tool, the version released alongside the new Galaxy Tab S11 series has a hexagonal shape with flat edges, like a traditional wooden pencil. This makes it easier for some to hold for extended periods of time. More importantly, this shows that Samsung is still thinking about the S Pen and not looking to quietly phase it out entirely.

Lenovo’s Newest Tablets Have the Optional Tab Pen Pro

If you’re looking for an Android tablet in the US, you’re most likely to see Lenovo’s tablets alongside Samsung’s on store shelves. While Lenovo tablets often aim to undercut Samsung’s on price, that doesn’t mean they aren’t capable. At the top of Lenovo’s newest tablet line, we have the Yoga Tab, whose optional Tab Pen Pro offers 8,192 levels of pressure sensitivity and haptic feedback. Lenovo has also packed in AI-powered software, for better or worse, such as Lenovo Smart Capture to help precisely select objects and Sketch-to-Image for turning doodles into AI-generated imagery.

The Yoga Tab comes preloaded with the Adobe Creative Suite. Lenovo is marketing the device toward creatives, in line with how companies have long marketed digital styluses. They clearly see a market there, and they’re not alone.

The iPad Remains Home to the Apple Pencil

Apple has never released a version of the iPhone with a stylus, and that is not a feature leaked to be coming on the company’s rumored upcoming foldable. Instead, the company has pointed anyone interested toward an iPad. You can pair one with an Apple Pencil, which remains a premium accessory (now priced at $130). It’s compatible with iPads from the smallest iPad mini to the 13-inch iPad Pro.

The Apple Pencil has a “squeeze” and a “barrel roll” gesture that you don’t find in cheaper styluses, but the iPad’s main selling point is the software ecosystem available in the Apple App Store. Procreate, for example, is but one digital drawing app that exclusively targets iOS. With such software drawing people to the iPad (see what I did there?), it’s hard to imagine Apple abandoning those customers any time soon.

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I have come to rely on my S Pen more than most. I’m writing these words with one, using my S Pen to quickly swipe words on my Samsung keyboard. Digital styluses aren’t just for drawing or even writing by hand. I now find this to be the most comfortable way to write for hours and also navigate my foldable’s touchscreen. I’m heavily invested in the future of the S Pen and other pens like it, personally and professionally, and I hope that future is bright.