Samsung

Samsung launches $99 ‘Creator Edition’ S Pen which is more like an Apple Pencil

Ben Schoon | Nov 6 2023 - 12:17 pm PT

The S Pen has been a key selling point of many of Samsung’s products over the years, and the company is now debuting a “Creator Edition” of its iconic stylus for Galaxy devices with a couple of key benefits.

Samsung’s new S Pen “Creator Edition” is a stylus for Galaxy smartphones and tablets, designed primarily with drawing and writing in mind. The stylus has a thicker design that’s supposed to be more comfortable, as well as a new stylus nib that fits more seamlessly into the body of the pen itself. The “Creator Edition” comes exclusively in white and has a single button that’s used to interact with the software.

The “Creator Edition” was first announced in July alongside the Galaxy Tab S9 series but has only recently been made available for sale at $99 in the US.

Samsung briefly explains:

Meet the S Pen Creator Edition, the newest extension of your creativity. Get inspired with each pen stroke, and bring your ideas to life with the most tilt-sensitive S Pen yet.

To address the elephant in the room, yes, this looks exactly like an Apple Pencil, but that’s not really a bad thing. With its second-generation Apple Pencil, the iPad maker nailed the size for its stylus to make a product that fits well in the hand and is reasonably natural to use. Samsung, though, hasn’t had anything exactly on par with that. Many of Samsung’s tablets come with an S Pen in the box, but it’s generally a bit smaller than Apple’s, which can make it less comfortable to use.

That’s the gap this $99 “Creator Edition” hopes to fill, but it does have some head-scratching decisions at play.

While the stylus is said by Samsung to be its “most advanced S Pen yet” with enhanced tilt sensitivity, it also completely lacks a lot of the smart features Samsung has added to the S Pen over the years. For instance, Air Commands are not supported, as there’s actually no battery in this product. It does, though, still have the needed hardware to “snap” onto the back of a Galaxy Tab for storage.

The other oddity here is that Samsung has forgone support for Galaxy Z Fold devices, saying that this “Creator Edition” S Pen is only available for Galaxy smartphones, tablets, and laptops with S Pen support. That also comes as the S Pen Pro, which was designed for both phones/tablets and foldables, has since been removed from sale at Samsung.com, though you can grab it from other sources such as Amazon.

The price is also strange, as the battery-powered S Pen included with the Tab S9 series costs only $60 for a replacement, while an S Pen for a Galaxy Z Fold 5 is $55. The angle here just seems to be on the better hardware design rather than features. We haven’t tried the stylus yet, but the sole review on Samsung’s website noted some latency complaints and a “low quality” hardware feeling. A Redditor, meanwhile, compared the hardware to the Apple Pencil, noting that Samsung’s “Creator Edition” is still smaller than Apple’s.

For those interested, the S Pen “Creator Edition” is available now from Samsung.com, Best Buy, and other retailers for $99.99 and shipping immediately. Surprisingly, the new pen isn’t being offered in bundle deals with the Galaxy Tab S9 or Galaxy Tab S9 FE.