The Z Fold makes the ultimate sacrifice in order to survive

I also assume that another hidden reason was that Samsung needed the room inside the phone for the Wacom digitizers that makes the S Pen use possible.

Will you miss the S Pen? Samsung asked, the market responded

With last year’s Galaxy Z Fold 6, and even the Z Fold 5 before that, sales were allegedly, reportedly, that’s-what-they-say — not satisfactory or near projections. So, Samsung had to shuffle and accept a few cold, hard truths.

Ever heard of the Galaxy Z Fold 6 Special Edition? It was released in October 2024 in limited markets — South Korea and China. And it can be viewed as the prototype of the Z Fold 7 that was launched yesterday. Thinner body, bigger screens… no S Pen.

It sold out. Multiple times.

Back then, I theorized that Samsung was gauging interest and checking if sacrificing the S Pen would be viewed as a negative. One may argue that setting up production lines takes many months, so my theory that the Z Fold 6 SE was a test run for the Z Fold 7 is bogus, since the plan was in motion long before October 2024.

OK, fine. Alternative take — the Galaxy Z Fold 6 SE may have been a soft preamble, a coded message to the fans. Reading something like “OK, guys, we heard you, look — we know how to make one of the thin ones, it’s coming, hang on”.

In my head canon, both theories are somewhat right. I can’t be persuaded that Samsung didn’t have some sort of contingency in case the Z Fold 6 SE flopped terribly.

The S Pen never had a place on the Z Fold anyway

Hold on, pitchforks down. I am an avid Galaxy S24 Ultra user and not one to advocate for the removal of the S Pen. On the contrary — I do use the stylus and enjoy it as a feature.

But.

Why am I not using a Z Fold 6 with an S Pen? The big display is an obvious choice for the stylus, right? Huge canvas, more room for notes or drawing.

But also, no place to put said stylus. You probably know that ever since S Pen support was added with the Galaxy Z Fold 3, the only way to get one to attach to the phone was by buying a dedicated S Pen case.



A bulky, plastic, hard-to-pocket case with a slot for the S Pen. Samsung tried solutions, it made the entire stylus design thinner, so that the case could be somewhat thinner. Users still had issues with it. Either the heft that the case adds, or the S Pen dropping out of the case and getting misplaced. And we are back to the start of the article — it felt like a compromise.

And compromises is not what you want to be paying $1,800 (plus the price of the S Pen case) for.

Rumors are that Samsung is working on developing alternate tech — an active S Pen that doesn’t need a digitizer inside the Z Fold to work so accurately. Either the tech has been scrapped or it’s simply not there yet.

And, let’s be honest with ourselves. There are very few S Pen users out there that actually use the stylus regularly, daily, a lot. Most of us use it once in a blue moon and “It’s nice”. It’s nice to mark up your calendar. It’s nice to lay your signature on a PDF without having to print and scan the document. It’s nice to take notes by hand because it’s so natural.

But the market has shifted. People don’t want a feature that’s “nice” — they want a foldable phone that’s excellent.

The good news is that the Galaxy Z Fold 7 is giving us strong indications that it may be just that. The bad news is that it had to sacrifice the S Pen along the way. Oh, and it’s $200 more expensive *runs away*.