When Samsung introduced theGalaxy Z Fold 7, one of the foldable’s key missing features was overshadowed by everything the company got right. For the first time, the tech giant has managed to make a folding smartphone thathas the dimensions of a normal smartphone while it’s closed.The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is not only thinner and lighter than the company’s past foldables, but also includes larger displays, inside and out. Those radical design changes didn’t come without a cost, though, and in the case of the Galaxy Z Fold 7, it’s the foldable’s lack of S Pen support.
Samsung introduced support for its S Pen stylus on its larger folding phone starting with theGalaxy Z Fold 3in 2021. The feature is apparently missing from the new model because of the company’s decision to focus on thinness. The extra layer necessary to detect a stylus would get in the way of shaving off a few extra millimeters. Taken with the other ways, Samsung has opted to degrade the S Pen experience on its phones, though it suggests the stylus is on its way out – slowly perhaps, but it’s definitely happening.
The S Pen keeps the dream of the PDA alive
Before there were smartphones, there were things like them that used styluses
The first Samsung device that used theS Penwas theGalaxy Note, a premium smartphone that riffed on older ideas about how productivity devices should work. In the case of the Note, that was pairing smartphone functionality with stylus input for drawing and taking notes, not unlike classic PDAs like the Palm Pilot.
At this point, supporting stylus input became a premium feature, making it fair game for Samsung’s foldables, too.
The company released multiple generations of the Galaxy Note starting in 2011, continuing through the disastrous release of theGalaxy Note 7– notable for having a battery that would burst in flames – and ending with theGalaxy Note 20in 2020. Samsungadded features to the S Pen the entire time, making the stylus capable of navigating menus even when it’s just hovering over the screen, and letting you click the end of the stylus to capture a photo. That’s a lot more than the Apple Pencil can do at this point.
S Pen support came to the normal Galaxy S lineup with theGalaxy S21 Ultrain 2021 and continued through this year. At this point, supporting stylus input became a premium feature, making it fair game for Samsung’s foldables, too. The Galaxy Z Fold 3 used a modified version of the S Pen for taking notes. The company had to tweak the stylus and give it a softer tip that plays nice with the Fold’s flexible display, but it works. Not everyone can afford to get an Ultra or a Fold, so tying S Pen support to them made the stylus more niche, but it also seems to reflect something true about the interest in stylus support.
Interest in the S Pen is shrinking
Samsung claims it’s still committed, but it’s not clear how many fans there are
In 2022, two years after the release of the Galaxy Note 20, Samsung finally confirmed that theGalaxy Note line was discontinuedand that support for the S Pen would live on in the Galaxy S Ultra and later the Fold. Samsung attributed the decision to the similarities between the Note line and its (new at the time) Ultra devices, and a desire to focus on its foldables.
At least Samsung is selling smartphones with styluses. You can’t say the same thing for the iPhone and Apple.
That’s fine on its face, but it was followed only a few years later by a regression in what the S Pen can actually do. With the Galaxy S25 Ultra, Samsungremoved all the S Pen’s Bluetooth-enabled features– things like the stylus' ability to control your smartphone remotely – because the company said that people didn’t use them. If anyone knew, it would be Samsung, but that doesn’t really suggest that things are trending in a positive direction for the company’s stylus. Add in the Galaxy Z Fold 7’s lack of an S Pen, and it seems like removing support for the stylus wouldn’t be all that catastrophic for Samsung’s bottom line.
When the company’s first response to any design obstacle is to cut a feature to keep costs down, at a certain point, why would it bother to offer support for that feature at all? It really calls the S Pen’s long-term longevity into question.
Smartphones with styluses are going the way of the BlackBerry
Fingers won as an input method
It’s possible we’ll see a Galaxy Z Fold 8 with an S Pen next year. It’s also just as likely that Samsung will release a few more Galaxy S Ultra models with a built-in stylus before the accessory is relegated to an add-on purchase for the Galaxy Tab. The trajectory feels not unlike the BlackBerry. After the release of the iPhone, smartphones with physical keyboards became increasingly niche until owning a smaller or thicker phone with a keyboard was a problem rather than a novelty. The same thing seems to be happening for the S Pen – and the idea of a smartphone stylus in general – on a smaller scale.
Galaxy S25 Ultra
Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Ultra features a Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, a huge display, and support for a limited number of S Pen use-cases.
You can purchase an accessory likeClicksif you want an experience that gets close to a BlackBerry keyboard, but something like that doesn’t yet exist for the S Pen. That’s not to say that theGalaxy S25 Ultrais a bad phone because of its diminished stylus skills; it’s just not the focus.
