Apple’s iPhone Duo Stylus Support Could Push Samsung to Rethink the S Pen

Apple's iPhone Duo may not have completely rewritten the rules for Android foldables, but the company has made some interesting choices with its first foldable iPhone.

One of the most notable is stylus support.

At first glance, allowing a stylus to work with a foldable iPhone might not sound particularly groundbreaking. Samsung has supported the S Pen on its Galaxy Z Fold lineup for years. But Apple's approach is interesting because the company appears to have faced many of the same engineering challenges that have complicated stylus support on increasingly thin foldable phones.

And that could leave Samsung with something to think about.

Samsung Previously Had the Stylus Advantage

Samsung was actually ahead of Apple here by several years.

The Galaxy Z Fold 3, released in 2021, introduced S Pen support to Samsung's foldable lineup. Samsung developed a special S Pen Fold Edition because the display required a different approach from the company's traditional Galaxy Note and Galaxy S Ultra phones.

The stylus did not need its own battery, but there was a trade-off. The S Pen was not stored inside the phone.

That was hardly a deal-breaker for many users. In fact, stylus support gave the Galaxy Z Fold series an extra layer of functionality at a time when Samsung was gradually moving away from the Galaxy Note lineup.

A large foldable screen and a precision stylus made an obvious combination. You could take notes, annotate documents, sketch, edit photos, or simply use the larger display with greater precision.

Then Samsung changed direction.

Why Samsung Removed S Pen Support

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 dropped S Pen support as Samsung pursued a thinner and lighter foldable design.

That decision reflected one of the biggest challenges facing foldable phone manufacturers: every millimeter matters.

A stylus digitizer and the supporting hardware needed for pen input can add complexity to the display assembly. In a conventional smartphone, manufacturers have more room to accommodate those components. Foldables have to fit two displays, a hinge, batteries, cameras, and other components into a much thinner body.

Samsung chose to prioritize the physical design.

The result was a thinner foldable, but users who had come to rely on the S Pen lost one of the features that helped distinguish Samsung's Fold series from ordinary smartphones.

That trade-off is now particularly interesting because Apple has arrived at the same problem from a completely different direction.

Apple Pencil Support on the iPhone Duo Is More Complicated Than It Looks

Apple's solution for the iPhone Duo is not a brand-new iPhone-specific stylus.

Instead, the company says the foldable iPhone supports the USB-C Apple Pencil designed for iPad.

That sounds straightforward. Connect a compatible Apple Pencil and start using it.

But reports suggest Apple originally had a much more ambitious plan.

According to Bloomberg, Apple explored creating a dedicated Apple Pencil specifically for the iPhone Duo. The rumored stylus would have been shorter than the standard Pencil and could potentially have attached magnetically to the foldable's hinge.

That would have been a particularly interesting design choice.

A foldable phone already has a natural central structure in the hinge. Turning that area into a place where the stylus could be stored would have solved one of the biggest complaints about foldable stylus implementations: where do you actually put the pen?

Apple Apparently Ran Into Technical Problems

The dedicated iPhone Pencil reportedly did not make it to the final product.

Bloomberg reported that Apple encountered technical issues during development, forcing the company to move toward compatibility with an existing USB-C Apple Pencil instead.

That change may sound like a compromise, but it also shows just how complicated stylus integration can become when you're designing around a foldable display.

Apple reportedly needed software changes to enable the functionality as well. The feature therefore isn't simply a matter of making the iPhone recognize an existing accessory.

There are hardware and software considerations involved, particularly when the display itself has to support precise pen input while also folding repeatedly.

The Bigger Challenge Is Making a Foldable Both Thin and Functional

This is where the Samsung and Apple approaches become particularly interesting.

Both companies appear to be dealing with the same fundamental problem.

Users want foldables to become thinner, lighter, and easier to carry. At the same time, they want these devices to offer the productivity features that make a large foldable screen worthwhile.

Stylus support sits right in the middle of that tension.

A pen can make a large internal display considerably more useful. But the technology required to support that pen can work against the industry's push toward thinner hardware.

Samsung has already demonstrated which direction it was willing to take. Apple now appears to be testing another route.

Neither approach completely removes the underlying engineering challenge.

What This Could Mean for Samsung's Next Foldables

Samsung is unlikely to ignore what is happening in the market.

The company's foldables helped establish the category, and the Galaxy Z Fold remains closely associated with productivity features such as multitasking and stylus input.

But competitors have continued experimenting with stylus-enabled foldables, while Apple has now entered the conversation.

That changes the competitive landscape.

If customers begin viewing stylus support as an expected feature on premium foldable phones, Samsung could face more pressure to bring the S Pen back.

The company has reportedly explored alternative approaches that could allow stylus functionality without simply returning to the exact hardware configuration used on earlier Fold models.

That could involve changes to the display technology, digitizer, materials, or the way the stylus itself interacts with the phone.

Stylus Support Is Only One Part of the Foldable Experience

Of course, adding a stylus doesn't automatically make a foldable better.

The usefulness of a pen depends heavily on the software supporting it.

A stylus becomes far more valuable when users can quickly write notes, mark up documents, draw, edit images, translate text, interact with apps, and take advantage of the larger display.

The same principle applies to the rest of the foldable experience.

A phone with two screens creates new possibilities, but it also creates more data, more files, and more content to manage. Photos taken on the device, videos recorded with its cameras, documents downloaded for work, and conversations backed up from messaging apps can quickly accumulate.

That is where a straightforward transfer system becomes useful.

For example, Smart Transfer can help when moving personal content between devices, whether you're upgrading to a new foldable or simply sending selected files elsewhere. Its anywhere file transfer approach is designed to make moving files less dependent on complicated manual steps.

The same applies when you're preparing a new device and need to bring important information with you. A WhatsApp backup transfer can be part of that broader migration process, helping users keep their conversations and related data in mind alongside photos, videos, contacts, and other files.

For people moving between phones, wifi content transfer can also provide a convenient way to move files across devices without turning every individual item into a separate sharing task.

As foldable phones become more capable, having an easy way to move the digital content stored on them becomes just as important as the hardware itself.

Could the S Pen Return to the Galaxy Z Fold?

It's too early to say exactly what Samsung will do next.

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Fold 8 Ultra are reportedly continuing without traditional S Pen support, but Samsung has not closed the door on bringing stylus functionality back to a future Fold device.

The Galaxy Z Fold 9 could therefore become an interesting test.

Samsung has several options available. It could return to the traditional S Pen approach, develop a new type of stylus technology, redesign the display stack, or find another way to integrate pen input without compromising the thinness that has become a major focus for its foldables.

Apple's approach could add another layer of pressure.

If the iPhone Duo proves that stylus support can be delivered without dramatically compromising the foldable experience, Samsung may have less room to argue that thinness and pen functionality cannot coexist.

Apple May Have Given Samsung a Reason to Revisit the S Pen

Samsung was the company that made stylus-equipped foldables feel normal.

Now Apple is bringing the concept to its own foldable in a different way.

The interesting part isn't necessarily which company's stylus is better. It's that Apple has shown there is still room to make pen input part of the modern foldable experience, even when manufacturers are obsessing over thickness.

Samsung's decision to remove the S Pen from newer Fold models made sense within its goal of creating slimmer hardware. But Apple's arrival could change the calculation.

If users continue to see a large foldable display as a productivity tool rather than simply a bigger screen, stylus support may become difficult for premium foldable manufacturers to ignore.

And if that happens, the Galaxy Z Fold 9 could be the device where Samsung decides that the S Pen deserves another chance.