It was rumored for the longest time that Samsung will bring S Pen support to the Galaxy Fold 2. For many, it makes perfect sense for a device like the Galaxy Fold to work with a stylus. It would open up new use cases for the device and allow users to get the most out of the large foldable display.
It's more or less confirmed now that the Galaxy Fold 2 isn't going to come with the S Pen. A report has provided some insight as to why that is. Samsung has indeed been working on this but has decided to not offer it with the Galaxy Fold 2 due to durability concerns.
Durability concerns prevented S Pen support for the Galaxy Fold 2
Samsung has reportedly been developing digitizers for foldable smartphones for over a year in collaboration with printed circuit board specialists in South Korea. A digitizer is what allows for the display to recognize input from the stylus. It's placed underneath the display panel. Without it, the S Pen just won't work on the device.
Samsung can crank out digitizers for the Galaxy Note and Galaxy Tab devices without breaking a sweat. There's added complexity when trying to do the same for a device that has a foldable display. Not only does the Galaxy Fold 2 need a display that can essentially fold in half, but it would also need the digitizer to be foldable.
The company has certain durability standards for foldable smartphones. They should be able to withstand at least 200,000 folding and unfolding motions without any part or material issues. It appears that the digitizers haven't been able to meet that standard. The digitizer performance reportedly deteriorates after 100,000 folds which means it can't meet Samsung's durability standard.
With just two months to go until the Galaxy Fold 2's launch, it's hard to imagine that Samsung will be able to scale this hurdle. It does provide hope for future iterations of the Galaxy Fold, though. Samsung's work on foldable digitizers will continue and it will eventually create one that's able to meet the durability standard.
