Plenty of rumors have been circulating about the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 over the past few months, and now it looks like one of the biggest may have just been confirmed.
The upcoming foldable has just been certified by the FCC, as all phones must do before they’re able to go on sale in the U.S. That process involves documents to be submitted to the regulator, detailing a device's various functions and features. Including the long-rumored S Pen support.
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- Plus: This could be the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Z Flip 3
Two different Galaxy Z Fold 3 models were submitted to the FCC for certification, the SM-F926U and SM-F926U1, and the supporting documents have revealed what we should expect from the phone itself.
A lot of the stuff is pretty standard, and exactly the kind of features we’d expect from a premium Samsung smartphone. Support for mmWave and sub-6 5G, Wi-Fi 6, UWB, Bluetooth, NFC, and so on. But there are also things we either didn’t know about before, or never had any sort of tangible evidence for.
So the documents have revealed that the Z Fold 3 will offer 9W Qi wireless and reverse wireless charging. That’s a slight dip from the 11W wireless charging speeds available on the Galaxy Z Fold 2, and it’s not clear what the reason is or the dip in speed.
Most importantly, however, is that the documents confirm the Z Fold 3 will indeed come with S Pen support — nailing another nail into the Galaxy Note 21's coffin. It also confirms that the Z Fold 3 will have a digitizer function that uses inductive coupling to allow S Pen functionality.
In other words, the rumors that Samsung had to redesign the S Pen’s underlying technology so it was compatible with the flexible glass screen look to be false.
The only question remaining is whether the Z Fold 3 will come with an S Pen, like the Galaxy Note range, or if it will be a separate purchase like the Galaxy Note 21 Ultra. If it’s the latter, it would also likely mean that the Z Fold 3 will not have a dedicated S Pen slot. The FCC documents feature no illustrations of the phone, and don’t offer any clarification on the matter.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3: What else to expect
Despite now being certified by the FCC, there are still a lot of unanswered questions about the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3. Rumors have given us an idea of what to expect, but they’re not nearly as trustworthy.
However, rumors indicate that the Galaxy Z Fold 3 may come with a 6.2-inch exterior display and a 7.5-inch interior foldable display. Each would have a 120Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ support.
It’s also expected that the phone will be powered by the Snapdragon 888 chipset, with 12GB and 16GB RAM options, and 256GB and 512GB storage. It’s also likely that the phone will have 25W fast wired charging, much like the Z Fold 2 did last year.
On the camera side of things we’re expecting to see a triple-lens main camera array with three 12MP lenses, and a 10MP selfie camera on the exterior display. Rumors also claim that there may be a 16MP under-display camera below the larger foldable display. Reports have indicated that Z Fold 3 will have a 4,400 mAh battery, and an official IP water resistance rating — a first for Samsung’s foldable range.
