Samsung says an S Pen for foldables is coming at Unpacked

Ahead of its upcoming Galaxy Unpacked event, Samsung has published a blog post by its president TM Roh that basically tells us what it plans to announce next month. In addition to a new Galaxy Watch powered by Wear OS, the company will be launching the third generation of its Galaxy Z series and “the first-ever S Pen designed specifically for foldable phones.”

A stylus made for the pliable screens on foldables like the Galaxy Z Fold 2 and Z Flip has been a widely requested feature, and would make the larger, opened up displays more useful. Of course, Samsung shared little else about this S Pen besides the fact that it’s coming, so there are plenty of unknowns at the moment. How will it avoid damaging the softer, flexible screen? How precise will the stylus be? What size is its nib, what is its pressure sensitivity and will there be the foldables have onboard slots to house it? Will it have Bluetooth support for remote control actions? Clearly, these are things we’ll have to wait till Unpacked on August 11th to learn about.

Roh also confirmed that Samsung will not be launching a new Note handset at the event, saying that “Instead of unveiling a new Galaxy Note this time around, we will further broaden beloved Note features to more Samsung Galaxy devices.”

As for the third generation of the Galaxy Z phones we’ll be seeing at the event, Roh said the company has “lined up even more partner apps that make the most of the versatile fold-out format.” We can expect “hands-free optimized video calling with Google Duo and watching videos in Flex mode on YouTube,” as well as “multitasking in Microsoft Teams.” 

Specifically, too, the next Galaxy Z Flip will have “an even more refined style” and “more durable, stronger materials,” while the upcoming Z Fold will “combine the very best that smartphones and tablets offer and [deliver] completely new ways of working, connecting and creating.”

The language is unsurprisingly vague, as Samsung can’t give away all the details ahead of Unpacked. But it clearly also wants people to be excited — excited enough that they might be temped to reserve one of the new Z series devices already. If you choose to go through the company’s Reserve Now program, you can trade in up to two devices, including phones, tablets and wearables, towards a new Galaxy product. I’d recommend till we learn more about what’s coming on August 11th before doing that, and you can join us on Engadget’s YouTube channel to watch Unpacked live. We’ll be kicking things off with a pre-show at 9:40am ET and answer your questions in a post-show after Samsung wraps.