- Samsung is reportedly considering an Apple Pencil-like S Pen for the Galaxy Z Fold 7
- This would be thicker than current S Pens but allow the phone itself to be thinner, due to the lack of a digitizer
- It would also mean the pen needs charging
Samsung could be planning some substantial changes for the Galaxy Z Fold 7, both to the device itself and the S Pen you can use with it.
This is according to a report on ET News (via @Jukanlosreve), which states that Samsung is considering a different type of technology for the S Pen – one that doesn’t require a digitizer.
With the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, there’s a digitizer, which is a layer on the screen that registers input from a stylus. Without it, you wouldn’t be able to use Samsung’s current S Pen on Samsung phones – that's why the S Pen doesn’t work with the South Korea-only Samsung Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition, as Samsung removed the digitizer to make the phone thinner.
According to this report, though, Samsung could switch to an Apple Pencil-like technology for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7’s S Pen, which would allow it to work without a digitizer. The benefits here are obvious – the phone could be slimmer while still allowing you to use a stylus.
There are, however, some downsides to this approach too, as while this technology allows for the phone to be thinner, it makes the pen thicker, as the pen rather than the display has to generate the electric current that allows it to interact with the screen. That also means it needs a battery and needs charging.
Technically, some of Samsung’s S Pens can be charged already, but this is only required for their Bluetooth features – basic interactions with the screen can be performed even without a charge.
Weighing it up
According to this report, Samsung is still deciding whether these trade-offs are worthwhile, and will finalize its decision early next year, so it’s still possible that nothing will change in the company's S Pen approach.
If it does adopt this new system, though, then the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 might be around 1.5mm thinner than it would otherwise be, as that’s how much slimmer the Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition is than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6.
If it matches the Special Edition, it will be 10.6mm thick when folded and 4.9mm when unfolded, though of course other differences could also affect the thickness.
However, since this would make the stylus thicker, it’s not a change we imagine Samsung making for the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra the following year; Samsung’s Ultra phones have a slot in them for the stylus, and that slot would then need to be made larger, so the phone probably wouldn't end up any thinner overall.
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