Galaxy Note 20’s S Pen is about to get a whole lot more useful – here's how

We already know that the S Pen is going to get a lot more responsive on the Samsung Galaxy Note 20, but it looks like Samsung has some new ideas about how you might want to use it, too.

YouTuber Jimmy Is Promo tweeted a picture of the S Pen’s settings menu, which suggests you’ll be able to use it as a cursor or laser pointer.

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While the S Pen has long worked as a basic pointer, able to highlight features by hovering over them for example, this looks like a whole new way of using the phone. This looks like you’ll be able to use the S Pen in the same way you would a mouse, and you’ll be able to change both the pointer’s size and colour too. 

As Samsung has always treated the Note series as a must for enterprise users, the fact that you can use it as a pointer for presentations is also quite a big selling point. And that’s not even stopping to consider the potential when combined with Samsung DeX – the technology that turns compatible phones into full-size computers when connected to a monitor.

Whether this will turn into a core feature or yet another unused gimmick depends much on Samsung’s implementation. Android is pretty well designed not to need mouse or stylus controls, but hopefully the company has thought up some nice design tweaks to take advantage.

We don’t have too long to wait for the Samsung Galaxy Note, which is due to be debuted at Samsung’s next Unpacked event – now officially confirmed for August 5. There shouldn’t be too many surprises, given the number of leaks: we’re expecting a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor backed by 12GB RAM and between 4,000mAh and 5,000mAh of battery power depending on the version.

The S20’s 120Hz screen is also expected to be added – albeit not on the vanilla Note 20, which is reported to be sticking with 60Hz. And apparently even the models with a 120Hz screen won’t use the faster refresh rate at 2K resolution according to our leaker – the same as it was with the S20. 

 We’ll know for sure in just a few weeks’ time. Stay tuned. 

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