Samsung: here's what happened to the S Pen on the Galaxy Z Fold 7
The answer: it's no longer supported, thanks to the need to make the device thinner and more attractive to hold.
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Of course, the Z Fold 6 didn't have a slot for the S Pen on the device either, but was offered with a case that had a place to hold the S Pen (although you had to buy it separately. With the Fold 7, there's no compatibility with the S Pen as the digitiser has been removed to help make it thinner as well.
'There's no compatibility with the S Pen as the digitiser has been removed to help make it thinner,' Kadesh Beckford, Samsung's smartphone specialist product manager, told us. He cited analysis of usage patterns to show that the S Pen wasn't really as much of a consideration for Z Fold customers compared to a sleeker design.
'We've looked at what customers have asked for… and the reality is that the S Pen didn't come with the previous foldable devices, it's not built in like the S25 Ultra so it's an additional purchase for our customers.
'The [customer] insights were overwhelming: they wanted a thinner and lighter device.'
This is an interesting move for Samsung, given the Z Fold essentially replaced the Galaxy Note, which first launched the S Pen back in 2011. The Note was always the more expensive Galaxy smartphone in the year, and launched in the summer, usually to provide more competition to the iPhone in September.
While the Galaxy S25 Ultra has assumed all the features of the Galaxy Note – a larger display to write on, with a dedicated slot for the S Pen – to not even embed the functionality is a surprising departure from Samsung.
Opinion: a welcome move
In my view, removing the S Pen will do far more for the desirability of the Samsung Z Fold 7 than to keep it thicker with S Pen support.
I've covered the launch of Samsung phones since the first Android phone appeared, and I remember vividly when the Samsung Galaxy Note was first unveiled at IFA in 2011.
The S Pen was more of a quirk than an amazing feature – it was basically a simple plastic stylus that allowed you to interact with the smartphone without using your finger.
It's important to remember that only three or four years prior, most 'smartphones' had a stylus, something Steve Jobs famously eschewed for the iPhone.
So to see Samsung add a stylus to its most expensive smartphone (or phablet, as it came to be known) brought a lot of questions.
But the brand has done a grand job of differentiating between 'productivity' phones (i.e. the Galaxy Note, Z Fold) and more mainstream, consumer-facing phones.
The S Pen has been pretty polarizing over the years – fans of the technology adore it, but it requires larger handsets (that are less wieldy to hold) to allow for the slot to house it.
Keeping the stylus outside the phone means it's easy to lose – so for me, it's either 'house it in the handset, or drop it'… so well done to Samsung for making that choice.
I've never been a fan of the functionality, as no matter hope much the materials have been optimized, writing on the screen just feels too slippery.
It's become a lot better in the years since, with far more useful functionality, but the sheer design leap that the new Galaxy Z Fold 7 has taken is more than worth losing the S Pen.
Sure, it's one of the most expensive smartphones on the market, and removing functionality seems a little bit odd in light of that, but this feels like the right compromise.
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