Stylus support was one of the few things that made Samsung’s foldable phones stand out, notes PhoneArena, but the Galaxy Z Fold 7 will be abandoning that convention a step that has caused a stir among the community of power users and digital artists who have depended on the precision of the S Pen for years. Based on a series of Roland Quandt leaks, supported by images and marketing collateral, the Z Fold 7 will ship without S Pen support, a big change in Samsung’s foldable direction here.
It is more than a case of missing hardware. The S Pen’s development from its introduction in 2011 on the Galaxy Note, where it provided 256 levels of pressure, to the Note20 Ultra’s almost instantaneous response and sophisticated Air Actions has been a tale of unrelenting innovation here. Through the years, the S Pen evolved beyond just a stylus: it became a remote control, digital brush, and productivity tool, with Bluetooth Low-Energy and AI-based handwriting recognition. For the Z Fold series, the S Pen Fold Edition made it possible to do creative work on a tablet-sized screen, but always as an external accessory, never with a built-in silo like the S Ultra series.
However, as Samsung executive Patrick Chomet told CNET, “We could put it in, but it’s not the main feedback from people, and therefore getting it thinner and lighter is more important.” It’s a design flaw fix: eliminating the digitizer layer made the foldable thinner, lighter, and stronger, with the Z Fold 7 said to measure just 4.2mm unfolded and weigh 215 grams something less than a slab of chocolate bar here.”. Samsung’s emphasis, Chomet added, is on “reducing the compromises that come with foldables compared to standard bar-shaped phones, such as their thickness, durability and camera quality” here.
The Z Fold 7 will reportedly have a 200MP primary camera, a Galaxy-exclusive Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, and a price that nudges beyond the previous one. The lack of an S Pen slot or compatible cases in leaked promotional materials hints at a new approach one where the form factor of the foldable and mass appeal win over specialist productivity features here.
At the same time, Samsung wearables are also being given a face-lift. The Galaxy Watch 8 and Watch 8 Classic have followed the Watch Ultra’s design with a squircle shape factor. The two devices are also now 11 percent thinner due to the improvements in component miniaturization and, importantly, AMOLED display technology. The new watches feature 3,000 nits of maximum brightness, making them visible even in direct sunlight a improvement that takes advantage of the self-emissive characteristic of AMOLED, wherein every pixel emits its own light, allowing for high contrast and power savings here.
AMOLED’s natural thinness and flexibility create slimmer, lighter devices, and its power efficiency is essential for wearables with small batteries. The Watch 8 Classic, for example, has a 445mAh battery and 64GB of storage, a big bump up from before. The Watch Ultra, similarly, now begins with 64GB of storage and has a 1.5-inch screen, as much as 100 hours of battery life while in power-saving mode, and improved features such as dual-frequency GPS and a safety siren here.
The convergence of hardware design, screen innovation, and consumer input is influencing Samsung’s new generation of devices. With the company shifting towards thinner, lighter, and more visually stunning products, the lack of the S Pen on the Z Fold 7 and the emergence of ultra-bright, power-efficient AMOLED smartwatches indicate a realignment of priorities in the high-end mobile space.
