Samsung will basically turn the S Pen into an Apple Pencil to keep Galaxy Z Fold 7 thin

6 hours ago 6

According to a new report, Samsung is planning to switch up how the Galaxy Z Fold 7 works with an S Pen in an effort to make the device thinner.

Samsung is on a quest to make its foldables thinner, and its first attempt to do so resulted in the Galaxy Z Fold “Special Edition.” The device was thinner, yes, but at the cost of support for Samsung’s S Pen stylus. That’s because the layer required to make the S Pen work added to the thickness, and as that device was very focused on thickness, that was removed. With it being a key selling point for the Fold series being S Pen input, this is something the company surely wants to solve.

To do it, Samsung is reportedly taking notes from Apple.

According to a report from ETNews, Samsung is planning to switch from its current use of an electromagnetic resonance (EMR) digitizer under the display to an active electrostatic (AES) tech. With both, electricity is used to create the precise input of the stylus, but with EMR, it’s done through the display assembly. As such, the device has to have another layer which, in turn, makes it thicker.

AES, on the other hand, puts the electricity in the stylus itself. This is the tech that Apple uses in the iPad series, and it requires that the stylus, in Samsung’s case an S Pen, to have a battery to create that electric field.

That’s been a key distinction of the S Pen versus the Apple Pencil. Apple’s stylus requires charging, in the past in less than ideal ways, while Samsung’s needs no power source to work.

In theory, this should work out well. Samsung doesn’t build the stylus directly into the Fold series, so there’s no concern with having to find a way to charge the stylus when its stowed away. However, it also comes with the downside that the stylus is now another thing the user has to charge. But this change comes with benefits, including apparently switching to a titanium backplate behind the display rather than the current carbon fiber which was used to avoid interference with the digitizer.

This S Pen change should arrive in the Galaxy Z Fold 7 when that new foldable debuts in 2025, the report claims.

Hopefully it won’t charge by jutting out of the USB-C port.