There’s really one thing Samsung has to improve by this time next year to make the Galaxy Note 8 an exciting device: the battery. Making one that doesn’t explode is a good first step. But Samsung will bring other new features to its next-gen phablet, and a redesigned S Pen stylus with a crazy new feature might be one of them.
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The stylus is the iconic feature of the Galaxy Note family, a device that lets Samsung offer phablet fans a series of software tricks that aren’t available on other devices. The Galaxy Note 7’s S Pen brings over a slew of improvements compared to its predecessor, but Samsung has no plans to stop refining it.
A newly discovered patent indicates that Samsung is toying with the idea of including a speaker in the S Pen stylus of the future.
First seen by Patently Mobile, the patent describes a speaker system that would work differently depending on the position of the stylus. When the S Pen is docked, the sound will be emitted from the bottom of the stylus. When in use, the sound will come from the S Pen enclosure.
Such a creation would help Samsung free up space inside the Galaxy Note, as it could do away with the speaker and speaker grille that are found on the current Galaxy Note. The extra space could be used to boost battery capacity or house additional components.
As is the case with other patents, the technology described in this new Samsung patent might never find its way to commercial products. However, it’s still interesting to see Samsung looking to extend the use of one of the best Galaxy Note features.
Meanwhile, Samsung still has to clean up after its Galaxy Note 7 debacle. No matter how nifty its new stylus features might be, batteries that don’s explode are sexier.
