It was physically impossible to insert the S Pen in the incorrect orientation on previous versions of the Galaxy Note. The pens were either thicker at the top, preventing them from fitting in the slot, or a mechanism offered significant resistance to let the user know that something was wrong.
Unfortunately, that ends with the Note 5, according to Android Police. The S Pen will quite happily fit into the phone with the tip facing outwards. Even worse, the resistance offered to doing so is no more than when inserting the pen the correct way round. A user could feasibly get their S Pen completely stuck inside their flagship smartphone.
It is very unusual for such an important handset to have such a glaring flaw. Preliminary testing, in several YouTube videos, has shown that the issue is indeed present though. It is likely causing a sizeable headache for Samsung today as it could soon end up with claims from customers who inadvertently got S Pens stuck in the Note.
Although the idea may at first seem comical, it’s easy to see how it could happen if the pen was being held the incorrect way round. An inexperienced Note user, perhaps borrowing the phone, unaware of the correct way to insert the pen could easily put it in the wrong way round and never realise their mistake until the owner tried to take it out again.
Android Police deliberately inserted the pen backwards into its review unit from Samsung. It writes that there is “no strange resistance or feel” but that “it will get stuck”. The stylus did emerge from the device again but had broken the mechanism that lets the phone software detect whether the pen is inserted or not.
A subsequent attempt got the S Pen completely stuck in the phone. Presumably, Android Police will be responding to any Samsung denial of an issue by simply sending the review unit back again – with a ruined detector system and the S Pen still stuck in the wrong way round.
Samsung has not yet commented. Many are calling for a voluntary recall of Note 5 devices or a hastily redesigned S Pen that prevents itself from being inserted incorrectly. These would logically have to be issued for free to current owners with an assurance of free repair to damaged S Pen detection mechanisms caused by incorrect insertion of the old design.
It’s hard to see how this ever got through Samsung testing. Owners of the Galaxy Note 5 should take extreme care to only ever insert the S Pen in the correct orientation and await a statement from Samsung.
