Galaxy Book Flex alpha S Pen support

[user11wcRkF7ko]

I just got my Flex alpha 13 with the I 7. The screen is beautiful. Some reviews, and the user manual, seem to suggest that it supports the S Pen. 

Can anyone tell me if that is true?

If F, what pen should I get?

Thanks for any answers.

[Anonymous]

The S Pen offers additional functionality, such as remote gestures and volume control, write-on-screen, air command, and others. 

[user11wcRkF7ko]

Thanks for your reply. I expect that dedicated pen users would find these features important. I am afraid that I am not of this group. I used three different Galaxy Note phones and never used these features. I would say to people deciding between the alpha and the full pen support Flex, if you only use the pen for drawing, note taking, selecting in photo editors, you might think of saving a few hundred dollars and getting the alpha. I have enjoyed our discussion. Now I am going to start a thread about the fact that the speaker support is terrible. 

[usercoxe3Qaxpx]

Thanks again for your investigation, and I'm happy you discovered the Ntrig MPP digitizing layer and that it works for you, and now others are aware.  The air commands appear gimmiky to me also; the true benefit of the S-Pen is for artists. The Wacom EMR, which has become endangered on Windows laptops, has a pressure curve and line stability which exceed all Windows AES solutions, which is why I was hopeful. The Flex would have worked for me if it had more RAM (and wasn't that distracting blue color). What is troubling is that on the Korean website, both Flex and Alpha have 16GB RAM and S-Pen support. It's also very bizarre that the North American Alpha has MPP support as you discovered and Samsung doesn't disclose or confirm it. I'll likely buy a DELL; they have specs I can rely on and they don't dumb down the North American models.

[user2YPku52WKK]

Samsung clearly is catering to the home market. Those configurations are only available there, so far. I tried to clarify the Ram and S-Pen questions with support before i bought and i received a different answer based on who i talked to. It looks like the Flex replaces Notebook 9 Pen w/S-Pen support while the Alpha replaces the Standard Notebook 9 Pro with "Active Pen" support. If you can order the Active Pen it should work. This dumbing down is similar to the QLED TVs. To get some features found on the 2019 version of the Q60, for 2020 you need to upgrade to the Q70. 

[usercoxe3Qaxpx]

The 2019 Notebook Nine Pro "Active Pen" , which used Wacom AES, would not work, as user "...F7Ko" reports MPP AES compatibility for the Alpha.  AES active pen support was in the Nine Pro specs, and was reviewed with the offered stylus. For the Alpha, we have only confusion in press releases and specs; no active pen is listed in the specs or offered as an accessory. We only know of the MPP compatibility from user "...F7Ko" above; the Samsung moderator has not even confirmed it. I'm sorry, but I cannot buy a laptop based on heresay, and IMHO, if no S-Pen, there are better options for AES laptops.

[usercobFMLq0Ni]

The 15in Notebook Pro used an S-Pen, The !3" Notebook 9 Pro 256 and 512 utilized active pen technology like the Flex Alpha. If you look on the page for the Flex alpha now you can see the pen used in the photos is very similar if not identical to the Notebook 9 Pro 13" models.

[useraCYgg0r1PN]

For what it's worth, I bought the i5 Surface pro 7 originally as a personl laptop with work backup capability.  The corporate laptop is a Dell and at home I have two external monitors hook to a dock connecting to my laptop with USB C. Afyer initial updates and a couple of days of testing, The surface pro could handle this configuration but the GPU was just too limited with an i5 and the jitters drove me buggy. I loved the features and the pen, just wanted them to work better. 

I went back to the store after doing some research and picked up the flex Alpha in exchange. The surface pro I had was on sale for 800 and the Galaxy Flex was only $50 more, as opposed to the base model of the Surface Pro which would have cost me  $500 more. 

I forgot to return the pen I bought, and reading this makes me pretty handy. I've never used a pen with a device before, so I won't miss the s pen features. 

I assume that Samsung has to negotiate with Microsoft knowing that they're going to undercut the US market, and forcing people who opt for the FLEX Alpha to kick MS $100 bucks which is probably the best margin they're making on the hardware overall.  😉

I assume that eventually they'll come to an arrangement on cross platform features eventually.  

[hgoldner]

FWIW, my Galaxy Flex Book Alpha works just fine with a Wacom Bamboo Pen (2nd generation).

[Felixhpd]

Oh good ..I just purchased one and I'm worried now but can u give me some info on it.  I will purchase that pen u said and hope it works as well. Any tips would be appreciated. 

[CorporateCAT]

25m ago

Try one of the Wacom Bamboo ink smart stylus. They usually support Wacom AES protocol and Microsoft MPP prototol and can be switched between the two.

Wacom - Bamboo Ink Smart Stylus CS321AK

Wacom - Bamboo Ink Smart Stylus for Windows Ink; 2nd Generation CS323AG0A

Samsung refuses to say if the Alpha and order Notebook Spin 7 uses Wacom AES or Microsoft MPP protocol.

[CorporateCAT]

Try one of the Wacom Bamboo ink smart stylus. They usually support Wacom AES protocol and Microsoft MPP prototol and can be switched between the two.

Wacom - Bamboo Ink Smart Stylus CS321AK

Wacom - Bamboo Ink Smart Stylus for Windows Ink; 2nd Generation CS323AG0A

Samsung refuses to say if the Alpha and order Notebook Spin 7 uses Wacom AES or Microsoft MPP protocol.