The Galaxy S24 Ultra is one of the best Android phones you can buy, with an outstanding camera, stellar battery life, and a slew of new AI features. But Samsung's latest flagship has one major drawback that users just can't ignore: the S Pen stylus stinks.

The S Pen scent story began earlier this week when Reddit user LatifYil posted that the S Pen on the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra "absolutely stinks." Either my nose is sensitive," they said, "or it's barbecued inside while out of its sheath.

The post received more than 250 comments from users sympathetic to the S Pen's offensive aroma. The highest rated comment read: "I can confirm that it is a stinky boi." Others said it smells like "burnt plastic," "smells like new technology with a burnt smell," or my favorite, "smells like cyber trucks": "smells like cyber trucks."

Several users speculated that a chemical component might be responsible for the stench. It is similar to the bitter flavoring added to the Nintendos game cartridges to keep choking hazards out of children's mouths. To test this theory, one intrepid user licked an S Pen in the name of science and found that it did not taste as bitter as the Switch cartridge (how did he know that? No worries).

As SamMobile pointed out, a moderator on Samsung's EU community forum offered the following explanation for the surprisingly foul-smelling accessory: While the S Pen is in the holster, it generates heat during use due to its proximity to the phone's internal components, plastic becomes hot. This can result in a burnt smell, similar to the smell experienced after leaving a car in the sun for several hours. The seats and plastic fittings in the car may smell hot, but this will lessen as the car cools."

Mystery solved! The S Pen smells that way because the heat generated inside the Galaxy S24 Ultra burns the plastic shell of the stylus. 9to5 Google's expert journalists sniffed previous models of the S Pen to see if this is a recurring problem to find out if this is a recurring problem. The results showed that the Galaxy S23 Ultra and Galaxy S22 Ultra had the same burnt plastic smell. Surprisingly, however, the S Pen on the Galaxy Note S20 Ultra was unscented. The media speculates that this may be because the latest S Pen has a rubber coating on the top to enhance the grip of the stylus, whereas this S Pen is an older model with a glossy finish.

Granted, you won't notice the smell of the S Pen unless you hold it close to your nose (which many people must do after reading this article). It is by no means a room-clearing stench, but it is odd to find it clinging to a device that is more than two years old at this point.