Samsung has always given S-Pen support to the Galaxy Z Fold series, despite the pricey device not coming with the stylus when you buy it. One exception to this was the Special Edition, with the sacrifice being made in the name of keeping it thin. A report points towards the South Korean tech giant making changes to the stylus rather than the phone, in order to give the Galaxy Z Fold7 S-Pen compatibility while keeping thickness down.
This comes via Korean news site ETNews, which cite sources who also say that Samsung is considering not installing a digitiser in its foldable phone next year. This will be paired with “a new pen input method that will replace the existing technolgy”, according to a machine-translated version of the article.
For context, the digitiser in this case is the electromagnetic resonance (EMR) digitiser, which sits under the display to read input from a stylus using electricity. On the flip side, this supposed new stylus input method that Samsung may adopt will be similar to the implementation of the Apple Pencil, which uses active electrostatic (AES) tech. This moves the electricity generation bit from the display to the stylus, which means that the stylus will need an internal battery, and to be regularly charged.
On one hand, switching to AES stylus tech would allow the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7 to be as thin as the Special Edition. On the other, it remains to be seen if the new S-Pen can be charged just by being magnetically attached to the phone, the way the new Apple Pencil does. But for those who don’t intend to make use of the stylus if it isn’t part of the package, then it would simply be a net benefit.
(Source: ETNews)
