The Galaxy Note Is Dead, But Its Spirit Will Live On Every Year
The Galaxy Note would have celebrated its 10th birthday in 2021, but that day sadly never came. There was no Galaxy Note launch for the first time since the original stylus-toting phablet arrived in 2011, confirming prophecies of its doom and heralding its discontinuation. With the Galaxy S22 Ultra this year basically looking like a Galaxy Note clone, it seems that the time for the much-loved productivity-centric phone has finally come to an end. Confirmation of that may have dropped, and it was delivered by a top-level Samsung executive, no less. But even if the Galaxy Note name is effectively dead, Samsung isn't ready to bury its defining feature just yet.
In retrospect, the Galaxy Note was like Samsung's rebellious answer to the iPhone and the late Steve Jobs himself. The model was everything the iPhone wasn't and had everything that Steve Jobs reviled: an extremely large screen — at least by the standards of that time — and, most importantly, it sported a stylus that other smartphones were trying to get rid of. The Note was, in a way, the black sheep of the market that eventually became the spiritual ancestor of all modern handsets.
History would prove that Samsung had it right, with many models today bearing the so-called phablet size of yesteryear. And although the Galaxy Note is still a bit unique with its S-Pen, the desire for a phone stylus never went away, even among some of Apple's own fans. Fortunately, those features that make up the DNA that defined the Galaxy Note aren't going anywhere ... even if you won't see a new Galaxy Note phone in the coming years.
RIP Galaxy Note (2011-2020)
According to notorious tipster @Ice universe, Samsung mobile division head TM Roh was quoted as saying that the Galaxy Note will appear in the form of the Galaxy S Ultra every year. The direct implication here is that there will no longer be a Galaxy Note model moving forward. It also suggests that the Galaxy S Ultra models will retain the same form and features as the Galaxy Note, just like the Galaxy S22 Ultra released in 2022.
In terms of features, that basically means that the Galaxy S Ultra model will continue carrying an S-Pen inside its body. That design change started with the Galaxy S22 Ultra this year, in contrast to the previous Galaxy S21 Ultra generation, which had no room for the stylus inside. That same ultra-large phone distinguished itself from the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+ with its boxier design, similar to that of the latest Galaxy Note models. Whether that design will remain going forward is still unknown, but the exact appearance of the Galaxy Note was never its defining feature anyway.
This news, if confirmed to be official, will probably send mixed feelings to Galaxy Note fans. On the one hand, they will be relieved that the S Pen isn't going anywhere, at least not yet. On the other hand, the brand beloved by professionals and creatives is finally being retired after almost a decade of service. The move will at least help consolidate Samsung's Galaxy S brand and even make the S-Pen a staple of its flagship — and hopefully, it will at least stay that way for more years to come.