The Galaxy S24 Ultra’s S Pen smells like it’s burning, but Samsung says “don’t worry”

Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra offers all the latest features you’d expect from a 2024 smartphone. However, it’s drawing attention for an unusual problem: the S Pen stylus has an unpleasant smell of burnt plastic.

The discussion around this unexpected peculiarity began on Reddit, where user LatifYil noted in a post that the S Pen on his Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra “smells absolutely bad”. Comments came in quickly, with many confirming the problem.

Several comments added a touch of humor to the discussion, with one user stating the smell similar to “burning plastic”.

Some users suggested that the S Pen smell could be due to potential chemical coatings. However, the moderator of Samsung's European community forum gave a simpler explanation.

Apparently, the pen's proximity to internal components causes the S Pen to heat up during storage. This, in turn, results in a smell like “hot plastic”similar to that of a car that has been in the sun, says the moderator.

Interestingly, this odor is not limited to the Galaxy S24 Ultra model. Previous generations, such as the Galaxy S23 Ultra and S22 Ultra, also have this feature, according to other reports.

The Galaxy S23 Ultra's Pen has a slight (normal) odor of heated plastic, but nothing extraordinary.

At the time of our analysis, the S Pen actually had a “heated” plastic odor, a little more intense than what is felt on the S Pen of our Galaxy S23 Ultra. But nothing that didn't seem completely normal to us.

However, there are other testimonies that state that the older Note S20 Ultra stylus did not have this smell. This could be due to its glossy finish compared to the rubberized coating on newer models.