Samsung Galaxy Note 9 S Pen broken? You are not alone

While there is no doubt the Galaxy Note 9 S Pen is way more feature-rich than previous generation S Pens, looks like Samsung has taken a step back if you talk about the accessory’s fragility.

Lucky are those users who got 2 S Pens with their Note 9 out of the box, as we are seeing a significant number of user reports that say their S Pen broke while they were doing nothing out of ordinary with it.

While some complainants say their S Pen snapped while pulling out, there are also reports of it breaking while being used.

There’s a dedicated thread discussing this problem on Samsung’s official US online forum. Here are some of the reports from that thread:

I pulled used my s pen for the first time since i bought it and when i push in the top to have the top pop out to pull the pen out it was stuck. Finally i was able to pull the s pen out and found it to be broken. The top was broken.

I received my Note 9 on Wednesday, opened the box on Sunday and after barely using the S-Pen 2 or 3 times the top of the S-Pen broke off

Happened to me too, I can see this happening pretty easily. The end has a very thin plastic housing for a part that gets a moderate amount of tension. Broke off for me

Mine broke as well – and in the same spot as the others, i.e. top 1/3 where Samsung logo starts

My spen is broken also after 4 days the quality of the note 9 spen is really horrible

Those were complaints from just a single thread. Users have also shared their broken S Pen experience on XDA as well as Twitter.

https://twitter.com/ChaseIvar98/status/1041364380468826112?s=19
https://twitter.com/SubparSamaritan/status/1036410721767223296?s=19
https://twitter.com/taffam/status/1033229494436458496?s=19

Following are some Reddit threads:

https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyNote9/comments/9g0b7y/broke_my_s_pen_i_went_to_take_it_out_of_my_phone/
https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyNote9/comments/9crrkc/spen_clicker_just_broke_off_while_trying_to_pull/
https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyNote9/comments/9bdr9m/broke_s_pen/

It’s worth mentioning that there are also reports that say a non-fatal fall of the phone (like, on a carpeted floor) also resulted in broken S Pen.

For it’s part, Samsung has offered replacements in some cases, but – as the damage is physical – getting such approval hasn’t been a pleasant experience for affected users.

To conclude, the number of complaints we’ve highlighted here isn’t small. And we’ve not yet dug into Samsung’s regional forums. Some users are already calling this problem as an S Pen gate, and expecting a recall.

While that definitely seems far fetched, Samsung should at least take notice of the issue, and let users know if there’s indeed some problem with the Note 9 S Pen or if the accessory requires extra care while being used.

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