Galaxy Z Fold 7: Lots of S Pen News!
There has been a lot of debate in the comment section about whether or not the Fold 7 have an S Pen and a lot of this seems to come from the fact that the Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition removed the S Pen digitizer chasing a thinner form factor. That's the thing that actually allows the pen to function, in order to make the device even thinner. Because of that, the Z Fold Special Edition did not have compatibility with the S Pen.
All the way back in December, I brought you guys a news story talking about how Samsung was working on some new, different technology for the S Pen that would allow it to function without need for an S Pen digitizer. Despite this reporting, there have still been rumors that the S Pen just isn't going to be there.
Source Reliability and S Pen Confirmation
About 3 days ago, Panda Flash Pro, who has been a quite reliable tech tipster, in particular with regard to Samsung phones, posted about some issue Samsung was facing regarding a new S Pen that was causing some sort of production delay. It was unclear to Panda at that time if this was a new Pen for the Fold 7 or not.
Of course, the very mention that it could be the Fold 7 S Pen is indicative of the fact that the Galaxy Z Fold 7 does use an S Pen. I had asked Panda Flash Pro directly in the past, "Can you confirm that it does have an S Pen?" And he said "Yes, it's 100% confirmed. It does have an S Pen." So even though some random people that I don't even know who they are are telling people that there's no S Pen, a much more reliable tech tipster has said all along that there is, but there was some kind of problem with it.
This morning, they quote tweeted that and they said "Production starts again Galaxy Z Fold 7 S Pen. The issue is fixed. The issue wasn't with the pen itself with the Galaxy Z Fold 7 display S Pen reading software." Apparently, there was some kind of software issue, but they have now resolved it.
S Pen Functionality and Size
One of the biggest questions that people had about the Z Fold 7's S Pen was would it be able to not just work on that inner screen but also on the cover display? I had actually asked about this in the past, and it seemed like we just didn't really have a good answer to that question. But I asked again this morning about an hour ago, and he responded "only main foldable display." That is a bummer, even for me as someone who doesn't use the S Pen literally ever. I think I would be more likely to use it if the cover display was actually functional as well, especially now that the Fold 7 cover display is getting much wider and larger. It is honestly a little bit odd because the pen doesn't need a digitizer. So why couldn't it work on the cover display? It really doesn't make any sense why they wouldn't do this.
In another Post, Panda also said that the Z Fold 7 S Pen will “maintain the slim thickness of the S Pen using new technology." If you go back to my news article in December, we talked about how that pen might need to be a little bit larger. The reason for that is because Samsung was potentially switching to an active electrostatic technology, similar to the Apple Pencil, which requires a battery in the pen to generate an electrical field for touch detection, and that would cause it to be a little bit larger. Panda Flash Pro here saying the pen is going to be about the same size.