- Samsung might have an all-new S Pen up its sleeve
- A company exec revealed Samsung is developing a new S Pen
- It will only return when the device is just right, and if enough people want it
The S Pen is dead, long live the S Pen? Yes, while Samsung’s stylus has skipped the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, it might not be goodbye forever – be that a return in future generations or a return for the Z Fold 7 itself.
That’s according to comments made by Samsung’s own Kang Min-seok – its head of smartphone product planning – to Korean outlet ETNews. He explained that Samsung is “researching and developing thinner and innovative technologies for the S Pen” (machine translated from Korean).
Adding that the S Pen will potentially return “when the level of perfection increases and there is consumer demand.”
This could align with Samsung’s HiDeep partnership. The pair is said to be working on an S Pen which doesn’t require a digitizer or an internal battery – combining the best of both the batteryless S Pen and the digitizer-less Apple Pencil (via SamMobile).
A new stylus design could explain why Samsung removed the digitizer from its Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7. If it was hoping to have the next-gen S Pen ready for the Z Fold 7’s launch, then why would it burden its foldable with a soon-to-be-useless component?
The fact that it isn’t here yet suggests the stylus might have been delayed, or it could be that Samsung is simply holding off until its S26 Ultra launch to introduce a new S Pen to the world. However, that leaves a frustrating 6-month or so long gap for Z Fold 7 users to suffer without a stylus.
Alternatively, tying into the other aspect of Samsung’s comment, it could simply be that the S Pen wasn’t popular enough with the Z Fold line to warrant continued support. And while I’ve never felt the need to use a stylus, that seems as much Samsung’s decision as it is mine.
Samsung doomed the S Pen
If commenters online are to be believed, the Z Fold 7’s tremendous faux pas is enough to kill the foldable outright, but as an avid Z Fold 6 user, I think reports of the Z Fold 7’s death are greatly exaggerated.
I never felt the need to use an S Pen, and I don’t expect I’ll miss it now.
If I ever needed to scribble notes or annotate, I could use my index finger, which was always quick and accurate enough for short annotations. Alternatively, I could type out my annotation – either in full, using swipe to type, or speech-to-text to speed things up.
Perhaps this wasn’t wholly my decision, however, because the main factor in my S Pen usage decision isn’t that I don’t want to use one, it’s that I don’t own one.
The Z Fold line didn’t come with an S Pen like Samsung’s Ultra phones, meaning you had to buy the stylus separately. Moreover, you’d need to find your own storage solution for the S Pen, and according to user reviews on Samsung’s website, its official S Pen Z Fold 6 case is beyond terrible.
So if S Pen usage is low on Samsung’s foldables, I’m hardly surprised.
It’s impossible to know how popular the rumored revamped S Pen will be. While many are disappointed by the Z Fold 7’s lack of a stylus, how many of them were ever really planning to buy the foldable, and would a new and improved stylus change their decision?
I’ll never say no to a revamp, but the real change I want to see is Samsung’s next foldable dropping with the stylus in the box. That would make it a true Ultra equivalent as Samsung has promised for the Z Fold 7.
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hamish.hector@futurenet.com (Hamish Hector)
