The Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition might actually be the least special of all

In case you haven’t been following tech news closely and skipped a beat, the name Galaxy Z Fold SE might shock you. OK, I’m here to assure you that you are not, in fact, losing it and that this device is kind of obscure. There isn't a lot of fanfare for it, but Samsung does have an official page up with all the details surrounding the new foldable. Well, on the South Korean Samsung page, that is.

Here’s what we know so far — it will have a slightly bigger and, more notably, wider external screen. It’ll now be 6.5 inches, with an aspect ratio of 21:9. For comparison, the Z Fold 6 has a 6.3-inch cover screen, with an aspect ratio of 22:9, so it’s slightly smaller, more noticeably narrower.

The change doesn’t end here — the Galaxy Z Fold SE is going to be thinner — up to 1.5 mm thinner than the Z Fold 6. This may not sound a lot, but in real life, the difference is noticeable. The Pixel 9 Pro Fold is 10.5 mm thin when folded, the Z Fold 6 is 12.1 mm and the Pixel feels like the decidedly thinner phone. Well, the new Z Fold SE is going to be 10.6 mm in folded form, so much, much closer to the Pixel!



And, to top it off, the Z Fold SE will have a new 200 MP camera sensor (vs 50 MP on the Z Fold 6), suggesting it will be aiming for the camera quality of the Galaxy S24 Ultra. But no 100x super zoom.

But there is something very notably missing from any information on the Z Fold Special Edition

Will it support an S Pen?

No. In fact, it’s on the official page for the Z Fold SE (in Korean | through Google Translate)

Considering that Samsung’s main focus with this limited launch was to make the Z Fold as thin as possible, it’s pretty easy to believe that the digitizer for the S Pen was the first thing to go from the engineering table.

Ironically, that kind of makes the Z Fold Special Edition… less special.

Yes, it’s a niche feature. And, considering foldable phones are also appealing to a smaller segment of users, an S Pen on a Z Fold is a niche within a niche, which may be too small to maintain a sustainable business model.

S Pen fans will probably be disappointed, and are currently in fear that this may be the future of Samsung foldables going forward.

Is Samsung changing the Galaxy Z Fold going forward?

Everything about the Z Fold SE is less Samsung and more “what the others are doing”. Google, OnePlus, Huawei, Honor, all launched foldable phones with such a form factor — wider external screen, thinner build, “normal” feel when the phone is folded. Many of them also try to cram in their latest camera tech in the foldables.

It was only Samsung that held firmly to its design choice — external display should be usable with one thumb, internal display is used when you want a big screen. Camera is an afterthought, as the Z Fold’s primary focus is productivity and workflow experience, while photography remained the Galaxy S Ultra’s field.

Well, reports are saying that this approach isn’t met with much enthusiasm, and the Galaxy Z Fold 6’s sales are lower than expected.

Now, Samsung hasn’t said anything official about the Z Fold SE, and this is pure speculation on my part. But I believe that the Galaxy Z Fold SE is an experiment. That’s why it’s a soft launch, only in South Korea and China so far. Samsung wants to try the waters, see if all it needs to do to make the Z Fold more appealing is to conform to the form factor that other manufacturers are betting on.

What happens next? It’s very possible that if the Z Fold SE is met with praise and people actually buy it, that we may see a very different Galaxy Z Fold 7 next year. Will it have an S Pen? Will Samsung branch off two different versions of the Z Fold 7 — one slim and one thick? I’d wager not, as that sounds like too expensive an investment for a sector that’s not doing great right now.

So, hug your S Pen tonight and remind it that you care for it. As it may be gone tomorrow.

Or not, we’ll see. The Galaxy Z Fold SE launches in South Korea on the 25th of October. The China launch date is yet unknown, and whether it will appear in any other region of the world is also a mystery. We’ll see how the market responds to it!