Samsung sunset its popular Galaxy Note lineup and brought one of its highlighting features to its top-of-the-line Galaxy S series flagship last year. The Galaxy S22 Ultra was a spiritual successor to the Galaxy Note series, featuring a built-in S Pen that unlocked various productivity features. The all-new Galaxy S23 Ultra carries the Note legacy forward and features a built-in S Pen that supports handy features like Screen Off Memo, Quick Notes, Air Actions, Screen Write, and more.

If you've just bought yourself a shiny-new Galaxy S23 Ultra and are eager to try out its S Pen, you've come to the right place. Read on to discover everything you can do with the S Pen on your Galaxy S23 Ultra.

Has Samsung improved the S Pen on the Galaxy S23 Ultra?

Last year, Samsung greatly improved the S Pen experience on the Galaxy S22 Ultra. The company adopted a new Wacom integrated circuit for the S Pen and a multi-point algorithm to anticipate the direction of movement for reduced latency and improved writing performance. In addition, it introduced several new software features to help users make the most of the new and improved S Pen.

While the Galaxy S23 Ultra brings a few noteworthy improvements over its predecessor, the S Pen and its features, remain unchanged. It utilizes the same hardware and software as the S Pen from last year, and you get access to the same features. But that's not a bad thing, as the Galaxy S22 Ultra was the best phone with a stylus last year. If you have no prior experience with a Galaxy S22 Ultra, check out the following section for everything you can do with the S Pen on the Galaxy S23 Ultra.

S Pen Features

Although Samsung introduced several new features with One UI 5.1 on the Galaxy S23 Ultra, the update doesn't include any new S Pen features. You get the same selection as previous software releases, including Air Command, Air actions, Air view, Screen off memos, Quick notes, etc.

Air Command

Air Command is the pop-up menu that shows up as soon as you pull the S Pen out. It gives you quick access to all the other S Pen features. By default, it only offers a few options. However, you can select the Add button at the bottom to include other frequently used features in the Air Command menu.

Screenshot of Air command on a Galaxy S23 Ultra.

Air actions

Air actions let you use your S Pen as a remote to control various functions. You can use it to open apps, click pictures, play movies, and even more without touching the screen. By default, pressing and holding the S Pen button opens the camera. You can also perform various gestures in the air to go back to the previous screen, go to the home screen, open the recent menu, and trigger the Smart select or Screen write features. These gestures are fully customizable, allowing you to set them up per your preference.

You can also set up Air actions for individual apps from the S Pen settings and perform various functions by single or double pressing the S Pen button or using air gestures. For instance, you can use this feature in the Camera app to take pictures or record videos, switch cameras and camera modes, and control camera zoom levels.

Air view

The Air view feature lets you quickly preview links, Gallery albums, and calendar events by hovering your S Pen over the items. You can also hover the S Pen over the edges to scroll. The Air view pointer shows you exactly where your S Pen's hovering to make selection easier.

Screen off memos

As its name suggests, the Screen off memo feature lets you quickly take notes without turning on the screen or unlocking your device. The feature works seamlessly and presents you with a blank canvas as soon as you pull the S Pen out when the screen is turned off. It's great for jotting down notes and offers some basic customization options. All the notes you create using this feature are saved in the Samsung Notes app as soon as you place the S Pen back in its slot.

Quick notes

The Screen off memo feature is great for taking a note when you're in a hurry, its lack of customization options makes it less than ideal for regular note-taking. That's where the Quick notes feature and Samsung Notes app integration come in. You can take a quick note by selecting the Create note option in the Air command pop-up. This opens a new pop-up window with a blank canvas for notes.

Unlike Screen off memos, this window gives you access to a wide range of customizations. You get to choose different pen types, set the thickness of the stroke, choose between fixed or variable thickness, and pick from a wide range of colors. The feature also includes various highlighter options to help you highlight important text, an eraser, a marquee selection tool, and undo/redo buttons. As with Screen off memos, all your quick notes are saved in the Samsung Notes app.

Smart select

Smart select is a nifty tool that supercharges screenshots on the Galaxy S23 Ultra. It lets you capture rectangular, circular, or freeform screenshots of any section of the screen instead of grabbing the entire screen. You can either save and share the screenshot or perform additional edits, like removing the background, adding annotations, or creating a GIF.

Screen write

Screen write is a simpler screenshot and annotation tool that allows you to quickly take a screenshot of whatever's on your screen and annotate it. For annotations, you get access to a pen tool with different colors, an eraser, and undo/redo buttons.

Penup

The Galaxy S23 Ultra comes with the Penup app preinstalled, and it seamlessly integrates with the S Pen. Using the Penup option in the Air command window, you can open the app quickly to color line drawings, find drawing tutorials, and much more. The standalone Coloring option in the Air Command menu gives you quick access to the coloring feature in the Penup app.

Live messages

The Live messages feature lets you scribble on videos and GIFs. Whatever you write appears as animated text when you play the resulting video.

AR doodle

The AR doodle feature is a fun tool that lets you doodle in augmented reality. It recognizes faces and surfaces in the viewfinder and lets you scribble on them. The text or drawings stick to the surface and behave as if they were a part of the scene.

Screenshot of AR Zone on a Galaxy S23 ultra.

Translate

The Translate feature is pretty straightforward. You can use it to highlight text with the S Pen and translate it into any language that Google Translate supports. You don't even need to have the Google Translate app installed on your Galaxy S23 Ultra for this feature to work, which is an added bonus.

Magnify

The Magnify feature lets you quickly magnify content on your screen using the S Pen. You get two preview sizes and four magnification options from 150% to 300%.

Glance

Glance is a multitasking feature that lets you open a small thumbnail of one app on top of another app. You can hover the S Pen over this thumbnail to return it back to its normal state. But as soon as you pull the S Pen away from the screen, the app will revert to the thumbnail. You can use this feature in any scenario where you're frequently switching between apps.

Write On calendar

The Write On calendar feature is pretty self-explanatory. It lets you take notes on an overlay in the Calendar view on the Samsung Calendar app. The feature can come in handy if you want to quickly note an appointment without opening Samsung Calendar.

Screenshot of write on calendar on a Galaxy S23 Ultra.

Bixby Vision

The S Pen also lets you use Samsung's version of Google Lens: Bixby Vision. The Bixby Vision Air command shortcut lets you quickly perform a search for text or images on your phone's screen. You just have to highlight the relevant section with the S Pen, and Bixby Vision will show search results from the web.

S Pen unlock

The S Pen unlock feature lets you unlock your phone with the S Pen button if it locks while you're using the S Pen. Once you unlock your phone using this feature, it'll remain unlocked till the S Pen disconnects or you place it back in its slot.

Make the most of the S Pen on your Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

Now that you know everything you can do with the S Pen on your Galaxy S23 Ultra, what do you plan on trying out first? I often use the S Pen to take notes while I'm on the move or annotate screenshots using the Smart select feature on my Galaxy S22 Ultra. Let us know how you use the S Pen in the comments section below.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra in green with transparent background showing front and back of the phone with S Pen stylus
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

The Galaxy S23 Ultra is one of the best phones on the market, packing an all-new 200MP sensor, a refined design, a custom Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy chipset, and One UI 5.1.