Galaxy Z Fold 7 Pen Is Battery Powered, Old Pens Won’t Work
The question of whether or not the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 7 will feature S Pen compatibility or not has been surprisingly hard to answer. Early leaks indicated that the Fold 7 would be dropping the all-important S Pen digitizer much the same way the Galaxy Z Fold SE did in an attempt to shave off thickness. With the SE, the result was that S Pen use was not an option. Because of this, many have assumed that the Z Fold 7 would also be dropping Pen support in a move that would certainly anger many.
However, if we go back to earlier this year there were reports that Samsung was working on a new Pen technology that would allow them to keep the pen while ditching the digitizer. Unlike the old way of doing things, where the digitizer generates a magnetic field, the new method would require the pen itself to be powered. While this seems similar to what Apple does with their Pencil, I’m told it is at least somewhat different. There was some confusion as to whether or not the Pen was battery powered, but that appears to have been an issue with details being lost in translation. We can now say fairly firmly that it does indeed have a battery.
One other detail that seemed odd to me is the question of whether or not a Pen from earlier models like the Fold 6 would work. I’m told by tipster PandaFlashPro that while the old pens do apparently somehow work, they will be disabled in software because without the digitizer the latency is too great. Honestly, I have no idea how that’s possible with no digitizer, but apparently what Samsung is doing is using a mixture of hardware and software to make things work. I’m a bit lost on this one guys.
Regardless, you’ll need to grab the new pen if you want to use it with your Z Fold 7.