7P: Samsung S Pen
Overview
Overall
RATING: OK. The S Pen uses standard Wacom EMR and delivers a consistent drawing experience to what you would find in drawing tablets. I prefer it to the Apple pencil as a device, but the Apple Pencil has superior pressure handling, and the S Pen is certainly not as good as the Wacom Pro Pen 2.
Pressure
The overall pressure of the S pen is OK.
Maximum pressure
In my testing it has a OK-ISH maximum pressure that ranges between 150gf to 250 gf in my testing - depending on the specific unit.
Initial activation force
The IAF depends on which device you use it with.
Physically the pen is capable of a low IAF - I would guess 3gf.
However, if you use it with a Wacom tablet then the Wacom tablet deliberately increases the IAF to something like 5 or 6gf. I suspect this is done to encourage people to buy the much more expensive Wacom pro tablets and Wacom pro pens.`
Buttons
The S Pen has one physical button, unlike the Apple iPad. This also differs from the pens of most drawing tablets like the Wacom Intuos or Wacom Intuos Pro. Those pens have two buttons, and some have three.
My pens
6 normal S Pens from Galaxy Tab S devices
1 Samsung S Pen Creator Edition
Pen tech
The S pen uses EMR tech - specifically they use Wacom UD EMR.
Other S Pen versions
I can't speak to all of them, just the ones that came with Galaxy Tab S series.
Reddit threads
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