Samsung's budget-oriented Galaxy Z Fold 6 will lack S Pen support, report claims

While Apple continues to refuse to enter the foldable smartphone market companies like Samsung and Huawei are going all-in. We're getting ever closer to the expected launch of the Galaxy Z Fold 6 lineup, and while there has previously been a single phone there will likely be two this time out. Now, a new report claims that one of those phones won't have a key feature that has previously been a cornerstone of the Galaxy Z Fold family.

With Samsung expected to try and make one of the two Galaxy Z Fold 6 devices cheap enough to appeal to a whole new audience, it's now been said that the company intends to drop support for the S Pen on that model. The stylus will continue to be supported on the high-end version, thought to be called Ultra, but those who look to save some cash are going to have to make do with stabbing at their phone screen with their finger rather than the S Pen which will be available to buyers of the more costly model.

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That's all according to an ETNews report which also notes that a report by the display analysts at DSCC expect Huawei to surpass Samsung in the first quarter of the year in terms of global foldable smartphone market share. That's a big deal for Samsung and would mark the first time that there has been such a thing in the cards. The Huawei Mate is thought to be the reason behind the switch, but Samsung will hope that the launch of its Galaxy Z Fold 6 lineup can swing things back in its favor. That might explain the two-pronged approach here.

To that point, DSCC believes that the cheaper Galaxy Fold 6 will indeed help Samsung reclaim the top spot from Huawei although how long for is a question we don't yet have the answer to.

Samsung is expected to announce the new Galaxy Z Fold 6 devices in July alongside the Galaxy Ring and more. We can likely expect the Galaxy Z Flip 6 to also make its debut during the same event while the Galaxy Watch 7 is a product that could well break cover at the same event. Exact dates are yet to be made available but some have already pointed to July 10 as a potential date given Samsung's previous event cadence.

Given the fact that Apple isn't expected to announce its first foldable iPhone until 2026 at the earliest, Samsung and Huawei won't have to worry about that for some time yet.