Report: Samsung moving full steam ahead with S Pen for Z Fold 3

We’ve heard for months now that Samsung is working on bringing S Pen support to its foldables, with conflicting reports that it could come to the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 3. Now, the latest news from Korea points to Samsung going full steam ahead.

ETNews reports (h/t: SamMobile) that Samsung has succeeded in developing S Pen functionality for foldable phones and has therefore decided to bring this feature to the Galaxy Z Fold 3 in Q3 2021. It’s believed the Korean company will mass-produce the relevant parts from May and completed foldables from July.

The news outlet says Samsung had several hurdles to overcome in order to bring S Pen support to a foldable phone. The first obstacle is making a screen that’s able to withstand pressure made with an S Pen, as stylus input on current foldables would leave scratches and other damage. Another obstacle noted by ETNews is that the digitizer used for S Pen input recognition needs to be foldable as well. Fortunately, it seems like these issues have been addressed.

More reading: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 buyer’s guide — Everything you need to know

“We have developed technologies such as digitizers and UTGs [ultra-thin glass – ed] that can respond to pen input,” a source familiar with Samsung’s foldables told the outlet.

We do wonder what this means for Samsung’s 2021 Note device, presumably called the Galaxy Note 21. We could totally see Samsung developing the Note 21 line and a stylus-equipped Galaxy Z Fold 3 concurrently, just in case the latter didn’t work out in 2021. But the combination of this latest news, reportedly disappointing Galaxy Note 20 series sales, and an earlier Reuters scoop means we wouldn’t bet on a new Note this year.

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