Samsung released the Galaxy Z Fold 3 last year, which had a digitizer to support stylus input from an S Pen. However, there was no slot inside the phone for storing an S Pen (like you’d find on the Galaxy S22 Ultra or Note20), so you had to carry it around separately. There was speculation that the next Galaxy Fold might fix that, but now it seems that might not happen after all.
Ice Universe, a reputable tech leaker, said on Tuesday that the Galaxy Fold 4 is now unlikely to have an S Pen slot. Other sources have backed up the claim, saying the change is likely intended to keep the physical size as small as possible. The current Galaxy Fold design is physically similar to two phones stacked on top of each other when folded, and adding enough room for an S Pen slot likely would have made that worse, unless Samsung could substantially shrink the other components.
Galaxy Z Fold4 will not have built-in S Pen. Fold4 will be a little smaller and thinner. This is correct. No one likes a brick.
— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) April 19, 2022
Rumors about a possible built-in S Pen cropped up around February, which also indicated the phone would have a 7.56-inch inner display and a 6.19-inch cover screen. The tweet from Ice Universe indicated the Fold 4 will be “a little smaller and thinner,” though it’s unclear if the dimensions have changed from the earlier rumors. The Galaxy Z Fold 3 has a 7.6-inch inside screen and a 6.2-inch cover display — nearly identical to the previously-leaked size. Other reports claimed the Galaxy Fold 4 might have the same telephoto camera as the Galaxy S22 series, which would be a notable upgrade from the older camera setup on the Galaxy Z Fold 3.
Samsung also confirmed in March that it was removing the ‘Z’ from ‘Galaxy Z’ in its upcoming foldable devices. That change was likely due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, where the letter Z became a pro-Russia symbol and was often found on Russian military equipment. The updated branding first rolled out in Estonia and Latvia — two countries bordering Russia.
Source: Ice universe (Twitter), No name (Twitter)