Samsung’s Galaxy Note 20 Ultra is more than a year old, and Samsung said earlier this year that it would not release a Galaxy Note 21. The foldable Z Flip3 is the company's summer flagship.
But hope might not be lost for Galaxy Note fans, as mobile phone leaker Ice Universe has hinted that the Galaxy Note and Galaxy S series may be merging. As BGR reports, Ice Universe tweeted this week: “Update: Note is over, but it's not over. S becomes Note!”
That came several days after he tweeted that "someone" had seen a Note22 Ultra frame with the Note's signature “right-angled design." But he later clarified that the frame’s edges were somewhere in the middle between the rounded corners of Galaxy S phones and the right-angle of Galaxy Note phones.
The idea of merging the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series isn't too surprising. This year’s Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra added support for the S Pen, which makes a Note a Note. The notable difference is that the Galaxy S21 Ultra doesn't have a dedicated slot to house the S Pen, keeping it charged and handy. With an updated design, that could change.
No Place for a (Be)Love(d) Note
As great as the Galaxy Note series has been, the increasing size of the Galaxy S devices (especially with the addition of an Ultra variant) and the introduction of Samsung’s folding phones have left the Note caught in the middle. The chip shortage of the past year also left the Korean company with fewer resources to produce new smartphones. So, cutting the Galaxy Note series was the logical move, especially since Samsung can still provide the S Pen experience on both the Galaxy S21 Ultra and Galaxy ZFold 3.
Now, with the S Pen silo being more or less the chief differentiator between the Galaxy Note and Galaxy S phones, all it would take is the introduction of an S Pen slot on the Galaxy S22 series to seal the deal.
The move would give Galaxy S buyers a new tool for their device, which is already something of a Swiss Army Knife, and it would provide Galaxy Note fans an option that doesn’t compromise on its most beloved perk. However, given that Samsung added S Pen support only to the Ultra variant of this year’s Galaxy S21 family, it wouldn’t be too surprising to see further S Pen integration once again limited to just the Galaxy S22 Ultra, especially if Samsung is in fact shrinking the Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus.