Now that Samsung's figured out a way to build an S Pen into the design of the Galaxy S22 Ultra, you can expect that design flourish to come to some of the phone maker's other devices. And the Galaxy Z Fold 4 foldable figures to be the next in line to get its own built-in stylus.
After all, the current Galaxy Z Fold 3 is the only non-Galaxy Fold phone besides this year's S22 Ultra and the Galaxy S21 Ultra that came before it to include S Pen support. An update to the Galaxy Z Fold lineup is expected in the latter half of the year, which is when the foldable would likely take a page from the Galaxy S22 Ultra's book and add a slot for the stylus in its chassis.
You don't have to wait until late summer/early fall to see what a Galaxy Z Fold equipped with a built-in S Pen might look like. Designer Waqar Khan has posted a concept design video for the Galaxy Z Fold 4 that incorporates a stylus into the foldable phone's frame.
Specifically, in Khan's video, the S Pen slides out of a slot on the bottom right side of the unfolded Galaxy Z Fold 4. That's about where the S Pen lives on the Galaxy S22 Ultra, too — the difference being that phone doesn't unfold.
Adding a built-in S Pen slot would address a big criticism of the Galaxy Z Fold 3. While productivity-minded users certainly appreciated having stylus support, you had to buy a separate case to hold the S Pen, as it was considered an optional accessory. That wasn't terribly convenient, and it meant features like waking the screen by sliding out the S Pen were non-starters on the Z Fold 3, as we found when testing the S Pen on Samsung's foldable.
Presumably, an included S Pen with the Galaxy Z Fold 4 would work much like it does on the S22 Ultra. We hope that means Bluetooth connectivity for the stylus, which we also hope will pick up some foldable phone-specific benefits like the ability to scribble notes on the phone's exterior screen.
Khan's video doesn't list specs for the Galaxy Z Fold 4, likely because those aren't widely known yet. But we would expect the external and internal displays to be the same 6.2- and 7.6-inch sizes as on the Galaxy Z Fold 3. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 could adopt other S22 Ultra specs such as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 silicon powering the latter phone and the 45W charging Samsung added to its latest flagship.
Besides a slot for the S Pen, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 design change we're most eager to see would be a tweak to the phone's hinge that leaves less of a gap where the display folds together. A Galaxy Z Fold rival, Oppo's Find N foldable, manages to have its two panels lie flush against each other, With S Pen shortcomings seemingly being addressed, that's the next Galaxy Z Fold 3 characteristic calling for a correction with the next model.
