Wondering why your Galaxy S24 Ultra has an S Pen dead spot? You can blame it on magnets

There was a lot of excitement around Qi2 when it was announced. The success of Apple’s MagSafe has shown the potential for magnetic phone accessories, and the fact that Qi2 is compatible with MagSafe and vice versa only makes the deal sweeter. Unfortunately, we’ve only seen a single Android phone adopt Qi2 so far. Case manufacturers reacted better though, releasing Qi2-enabled cases for a wide variety of Android flagships. However, if you use one of Samsung’s S Pen-equipped Ultra models, you might want to think twice before boarding the Qi2 case wagon.

For a long time now, we’ve known that magnetic accessories can cause issues for the S Pen. Samsung has acknowledged this since the release of the Galaxy Note 8, and it made the news cycle when the S24 Ultra launched.

However, Qi2 cases are becoming more popular, and many users may not know the issues they can cause. We’ve seen reports over the last few months from people experiencing problems with their S Pens, like Reddit user ddelin86’s post this week. Most cases for previous Galaxy Ultra flagships lacked magnets, but that’s changed with the S24 Ultra this year, and such cases will only become more popular as we enter 2025, so it’s worth reminding people of what to look out for.

The S Pen has become a staple of the Samsung experience. One of the things that makes it so special is that it doesn’t require power to function, aside from the Bluetooth features newer models have added. The basics of writing, drawing, and hovering over the screen all happen passively, thanks to, you guessed it, magnetism. Phones and tablets that support the stylus emit an electromagnetic field that reacts to the coil inside of the S Pen. Your device detects that reaction and uses that information to understand where the S Pen is and what it’s doing.

Adding a strong magnet to the back of your phone interferes with this electromagnetic field, resulting in issues with the S Pen, like having to press more firmly on the screen or having a dead zone where it doesn’t work.

Thankfully, this doesn’t mean you can’t use Qi2/MagSafe accessories. As noted by Dbrand on Reddit, it’s rare for the case itself to cause any issues because the manufacturer should have tested its product with the phone. Problems arise once you add accessories to the case. In my testing, simple accessories like card holders don’t cause any issues with the S Pen, but a battery pack with stronger magnets does.

How this affects you depends on how you use MagSafe accessories. A magnetic car mount will probably cause issues with the S Pen, but you’re unlikely to use it while driving. Likewise, if your battery is low and you need a Qi2 battery pack to keep your phone going, you can probably forego any S Pen use until your battery has some charge.

Don’t let this issue stop you from using magnetic accessories with your phone; just keep this in mind so that you know what’s causing the issue if you encounter it.

This does raise questions about how Samsung will integrate Qi2 into its smartphone lineup. To eliminate any chance of this happening, it would likely need to completely overhaul how the S Pen functions, which would be a significant undertaking.

Do you use Qi2/MagSafe accessories with your Samsung device? If so, have you encountered any issues with the S Pen? Let us know in the comments.