It wasn’t that long ago that we thought Samsung wouldn’t be able to implement a proper Wacom digitizer – that’s the magic under the screen that makes the S Pen work – in a foldable form factor. Amazingly, it only took Samsung three generations to figure out how to do this, but the company still hasn’t been able to cram a dedicated S Pen into the same chassis.
Why the dichotomy? Of course, the obvious answer is that engineering smartphones is ridiculously difficult. If you’re not busy trying to cram hundreds of components into a small frame that will fit in your hand, you’re annoyed by the fact that the battery has to fit inside – and have enough room for thermal expansion – plus the fact that the processor the phone emits an indescribable amount of heat without proper cooling too should be wrapped in this frame.
Oh, and then you have to consider the hinge as well. With Galaxy Z Fold 4 (opens in new tab) and the Z Flip 4 (opens in new tab), Samsung managed to reduce the size of the hinge by 6 mm, which takes up 3 mm less space in each half of the two phones. While this sounds like it could, could enough extra space to slip the S Pen in, the fact is that the S Pen itself is 5mm wide and the case you put it in is 3mm wider than that.
The physics problem
Above, you’ll see a teardown of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy S22 Ultra (opens in new tab) side by side. I made sure to adjust them to be as accurate as possible in terms of size, just to give you an idea of how crowded both phones are. Every millimeter of space – except perhaps for the awkward square corners of the Galaxy S22 Ultra – is taken up by one component or another.
Samsung often stacks components on top of each other – such as boards and connectors – to make the best use of space, further complicating things.
With the Z Fold 4, Samsung shortened and widened the design by an extra 3mm compared to the Fold 3. So while there’s more horizontal space for engineers to work with, there’s just as much reduced height to contend with.
Looking again at the Galaxy S22 Ultra, we can see that the shell itself takes up roughly 8mm of horizontal space. As far as I can tell, there is could, could there’s a spot just to the right of the battery in the Z Fold 4 photo above if a few adjustments are made.
First, the Z Fold 4 will need to be a bit wider than it currently is. If you ask me, this is still a good thing as it will further expand the internal and external display. This makes the outer display even closer to the size of a normal smartphone, while the inner display then becomes a bit closer to a 16:9 aspect ratio, similar to the OPPO Find N (opens in new tab).
Here I have put the exact size of the S Pen case on the S22 Ultra and highlighted it in the picture below. As you can see, the battery gets in the way by a few millimeters, which, if Samsung doesn’t expand the Fold 5 at all, will reduce the battery capacity a bit.
No argument, though. Even if Samsung reduced the size of the hinge, there’s clearly no room in the body of this phone to fit the S Pen without expanding the device.
Is the S Pen case really that bad?
To put it plainly, no. Having a case with a bigger The S Pen attached to it really isn’t that big of a deal. I’ve been using this Spigen Thin Fit P case on my Z Fold 4 for the past few weeks (one of the best S Pen cases for the Fold 4 (opens in new tab)) and I actually like the feel of it. This particular case has a rubber grip that doesn’t get greasy or slippery like many other cases.
The S Pen is located on the right side of the front half of the phone when closed and on the far left side when the phone is unfolded. This makes it the perfect place to take the pen when you need to jot down notes or draw on the epically large display inside.
I thought the stylus right above the fingerprint and volume sensor would be damn inconvenient. I have tried several cases with this configuration and in many cases it is definitely not ideal. But this case really does a good job of putting it as far out of the way as possible while still leaving room for my finger to touch the combined fingerprint sensor and power button.
The S Pen that comes with the S22 Ultra — and previous Galaxy Note phones — is very small. It’s not a hand grip in some cases, but I also wouldn’t want to use it for extended periods of time drawing. It’s just not the most comfortable thing in the world.
Since I found a case that allows me to use the significantly larger S Pen, I found myself using the pen much more than I ever did with the Z Fold 3. With this phone, I kept the S Pen in my wallet, which was just out of reach , to make it uncomfortable to use most of the time.
But a case with the S Pen attached makes it useful. Having an S Pen in the body of a potential Fold 5 or Fold 6 would be even better for convenience, even if that pen is smaller and less comfortable to use. Having the same S Pen as the S22 Ultra and previous Galaxy Note phones would unlock even more potential for the Fold.
Right now, the Flip and Fold are two of the best phones for taking selfies and group shots, vlogging, or any other kind of media capture like that, because they can act as their own tripods. But what if the Z Fold 5 came with an active powered S Pen inside that lets you remotely control the camera like you can on the S22 Ultra or Galaxy Note phones? Now that would be a game changer.