Samsung doesn’t care if your stylus breaks the Galaxy Note 5

Samsung: Just use your S Pen properly. Photo: Samsung

Samsung: Just use your S Pen properly. Photo: Samsung

We’ve already learned that it’s incredibly easy to do great damage to the Galaxy Note 5 simply by reinserting its S Pen upside down, and most regard this as a design flaw. Except Samsung.

Rather than promising to look into the issue or propose a solution, the South Korean company simply advises customers to read their Note 5 manual, and follow the instructions properly.

The Galaxy Note 5 was shaping up to become Samsung’s best smartphone to date, combining the stunning design and cutting-edge specifications of the Galaxy S6 with the larger display and S Pen stylus that phablet fans have grown to love. But what seemed like a perfect launch is turning sour.

Videos popping up on YouTube — like the one we reported on earlier today — demonstrate an obvious flaw with the Galaxy Note 5’s design, which causes the S Pen to become lodged when reinserted upside down. Even worse than that, it also breaks its auto-detection mechanism permanently.

Reinserting the S Pen upside down is a simple mistake to make. If you jot down a note on your way out of the office, or take down someone’s phone number before stepping off the train, it would be easy to put the stylus back in the wrong direction when you’re not looking.

Previous Galaxy Note smartphones prevented this with S Pens that were slightly thicker towards the top edge, so they would fit in upside down. But that’s not the case with the new S Pen that comes with the Galaxy Note 5. Unfortunately, Samsung has no sympathy for those who get it wrong.

“We highly recommend our Galaxy Note5 users follow the instructions in the user guide to ensure they do not experience such an unexpected scenario caused by reinserting the S pen in the other way around,” Samsung told The Verge.

Don’t expect to get your Note 5 fixed for free if you make this simple mistake, then. Samsung expects you to use it properly, and if you don’t, well, that’s your fault.

Bad move, Samsung.