In the early days of the Galaxy Note line, the stylus or the S Pen, as we now know it, was just a stylus. But just like its phones, the S Pen had to evolve. And Samsung's response was to make it seem like a magic wand—on top of it functioning as a stylus. As Engadget calls it, this has been a poorly kept secret. But the S Pen now supports gesture controls, or what Samsung calls Air Actions. It improves on the remote control function of the Note9's S Pen by letting you control the phone with a wave of the stylus.
You can activate shortcuts and perform specific actions by drawing shapes above the screen. Like with the Galaxy Tab S6, you can swish-and-flick to switch between the front- and rear-facing cameras. You can use it to toggle through the camera modes as well. Samsung is opening the Air Actions SDK to developers, so we might get games or apps that take advantage of Air Actions.
The stylus now offers more flexibility when it comes to converting handwritten text to digital text. With the phone, you can customize notes by shrinking, enlarging, or changing the colour of the text. You'll also be able to export it in different formats, including Microsoft Word.
It can be used to control YouTube, too. And if you use the new Screen Recorder, you can annotate footage as you record. The S Pen now also works with the video editor, so making more precise edits to your videos will be possible here. The Galaxy Note10 also introduces a new AR Doodle feature that lets you add drawings, effects, and animations to whatever scene the camera is pointed at.
Samsung redesigned the battery so it can last for hours on a single charge. And you don't have to do anything extra to recharge it, just slide it into your Note for the stylus to charge.