
One of the key selling points of the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is its S Pen, a small stylus that’s hidden within the body of the phone.
This is a small part of the Galaxy Note DNA that has transferred to Samsung’s flagship line of smartphones. Last year’s Galaxy S21 Ultra last year received compatibility for the S Pen, but not a special slot built into the phone.
If you’ve bought a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, you might be wondering what to do with that little stylus. You might be simply treating it as an extension of your finger, using it to swipe between menus with an extra dose of class.
However, there are loads of useful functions that the S Pen stylus brings to the Galaxy S22 Ultra. Here are our favorites after testing the phone.
When we first starting using the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, there was only one thing we wanted to do with the stylus, and that was draw loads of (admittedly terrible) pictures.
Sure, you can do this in the Notes app but there’s another pre-installed app that’s way better, Penup.
This app gives you different types of brushes, like pencils, paintbrushes and more, a wide range of colors to pick from, and more ways to sketch thanks to the stylus pressure sensitivity (more on that in our next point). We’d recommend it as the go-to sketching app for Galaxy S22 Ultra users.
Unlike some other smartphone styli on the market, the S Pen supports pressure sensitivity – this means that the device recognizes if you’re pressing harder or softer on the display, and reacts accordingly.
This is most useful when sketching. Like in real life, pressing harder on the canvas creates a bolder, fatter line, whereas a softer touch will create a paler, thinner line. This is handy for writing notes too, making it easy to emphasize important lines or draw quick illustrations to explain what you’re jotting down.
There are a few useful Galaxy S22 Ultra navigation tricks that use the S Pen, and the one we found ourselves using most is the camera app shortcut.