Breaking the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 is easier than you’d think, as it turns out. Android Police reports that if you insert the S Pen incorrectly in the new Note 5, it can permanently damage the mechanism and stop core functionality from working.
In its previous iterations, it was only possible to insert the stylus into a Galaxy Note handset one way. The new Galaxy Note 5 allows for the stylus to be put into the slot either way, but doing so could cause it to get stuck. And if users try and get it out, they might break the mechanism that lets the phone know when the pen has been removed. This is the mechanism that lets the phone switch into relevant modes when the pen has been taken out or put in. Taking it out opens up the note taking app, for instance.
When Ars Technica tried to replicate the Android Police experiment it was eventually able to remove the S Pen and restore its functionality. However, it looks as though almost anyone could easily insert the S Pen into their Galaxy Note the wrong way up, and risk doing some major damage to its new functions.
While it may seem kind of obvious to some folks that you shouldn’t stick the S Pen stylus in the wrong way, that’s probably not something that everyone realizes. And there may be times when you’re simply not paying attention, or give your phone to someone that doesn’t know better, and end up sticking the S Pen into its slot incorrectly. It’s super easy to damage your phone that way, and it’s kind of crazy that such a design made it into a publicly-available device.
Ars Technica said that it couldn’t “see any way Samsung can sell the Galaxy Note 5 like this.”
“The company may need to either recall the Note 5 or issue a redesigned S-Pen,” it added.
Samsung hasn’t yet commented on this matter, but it’ll be interesting to see how the company reacts to this.