Samsung can take my Galaxy Note 9 and S Pen from my dead cold hands

When I settle down for the night with a hot cup of spiced rooibos tea in one hand, you won’t find a book or television remote in the other. Instead, you might notice a bright yellow stylus sliding across an old, trusty Samsung smartphone. Launched as the company’s mobile pinnacle in 2018, the Galaxy Note 9 remains my favorite device from the Korean company. However, it’s not necessarily due to its no-holds-barred approach to features. Instead, it’s the S Pen that I’ve grown attached to in the years since its debut, and even more so in recent weeks.

I struggle to shift my mind into idle before bed, but I’ve recently discovered a surprising and welcome methadone: doodling. None of the newer smartphones in my collection can facilitate my newfound drawing habit, but the Galaxy Note 9 fills that void.

I remember picking up the phone for the first time some seven years ago now. Its expansive screen was an inviting canvas for its fully-fledged Bluetooth-enabled S Pen, which I used as a remote shutter countless times to get oohs and aahs from my family and friends. However, as I hinted at, the phone’s true strength, at least for me, is the creative potential it still offers today.

Sure, I could finger paint on the Google Pixel 8 or the Galaxy S24 FE, but why would I resort to that when I can have the tactility, accuracy, and utility of a smart stylus?

I’ve been keenly aware of how smartphone usage affects mental health, especially since I spend almost every waking moment thinking about them. I handle these things for a living, so as much as they’re a core part of my life, I require a break from critiquing them occasionally.

Sure, to break the cycle, I’ll take a long road trip or canter around the neighborhood, but what if I can’t resort to those? Over the years, the health benefits of drawing have been explored in depth. Simple doodling has been linked to improved mood, memory recall, and even lower stress levels. It also offers practical benefits, like fine-tuning hand/eye coordination.

Naturally, such a creative outlet appealed to me, especially after more traditional disconnection methods, like reading and puzzling, have failed.

I’m keenly aware of the irony of using a smartphone before bed, even for my creative purpose. However, I’d also argue that an older device used for a single creative purpose is not nearly as distracting or destructive to my mental health as my app-laden primary phone.

For me, the Galaxy Note 9 is a portable canvas devoid of the messiness of paints and pencil shavings. I can freely and easily express myself, whether intentionally or absentmindedly, creatively brain dumping before bedtime or any other time I require it.

So, how do I use the Galaxy Note 9 in this capacity? Well, the phone shows its age in 2025, but it still runs most apps like a dream. This includes most creative apps on the Play Store. Sketchbook is my current favorite drawing app option, thanks to its variety of brushes, pens, textures, and support for layers (when I want to get fancy), but something as simple as Samsung’s own Penup will also do. Even the array of digital coloring book apps would suffice for most, but I prefer to create my own lines with the S Pen.

I’m happy I could find a viable second life for this brilliant smartphone. Of course, given its age and the shrinking tip of my S Pen, it may not last much longer, but I’ve been thinking of getting a larger canvas for my newfound hobby, anyway. Drawing has become such an essential daily mental retreat that I’m considering adding a larger Galaxy tablet to my loadout, allowing me even more room to breathe. For now, the Galaxy Note 9 will do splendidly.

I’m not advocating that anyone buy a seven-year-old smartphone in 2025 unless they know its limitations, fancy messing around with custom ROMs or can snag it for a reasonable price. Of course, more modern Samsung smartphones still offer the S Pen, although none offer the sheer breadth of practical features as the Note 9. Good luck finding one with a microSD card slot and a 3.5mm headphone jack anyway.

Samsung doesn’t seem to realize how important the S Pen is to its once loyal Note users. It’s prepared to nerf it on the Galaxy S25 Ultra. It’ll probably consider removing it from its pinnacle series entirely in the future, but here I am, still enjoying it on a device from 2018.