This year’s Galaxy foldable lineup is different from other years, and that’s not just because the Olympic Games were this year either. This is the first year that we’re going to be seeing a variant of the Z Fold alongside the regular one and rumors have been rampant regarding it.
We’ve heard a whole lot about this mystery device but one thing that has been uncertain is what it is even going to be called. However, it seems we now know it’ll be the Z Fold Special Edition and it is also not going to end up losing its S Pen support as earlier reports seemed to claim.
Samsung Is Going To Be Going For “Special Edition” Nomenclature, And Not “Ultra” Or “Slim”
Since the start of the year, we have been hearing a whole lot of noise about how Samsung might be releasing more than one Z Fold 6 model this year. We heard similar with the Samsung Galaxy Watch and that panned out, as Samsung eventually brought the Galaxy Watch FE to the scene. However, when the Z Fold 6 launched, there was no second model anywhere to be seen.
That wasn’t the end of the rumors regarding the “Z Fold 6 Slim” though. We heard that it was going to be launching sometime after the main lineup did, and then after that, it was established that its launch is going to be regionally limited — to its home country of South Korea as well as China.
Well, the latest piece of information finally seems to confirm what we should be calling this phone, as none of us seemed to have anything concrete. It looks like it will be known as the Z Fold Special Edition, according to Evan Blass, one of the most reliable leakers that there is. I have no strong feelings about this name; I’m just waiting to hear what makes this model so “special”.
The S Pen Support Isn’t Going Anywhere; There’s A Possibility For An S Pen Slot
Part of the earlier rumors back when the device was known as the Z Fold 6 Slim, was that it was going to be able to achieve a much slimmer form factor by getting rid of the digitizer that provided S Pen support. It seemed like a pretty big trade-off to make, but many people with Z Folds that I know don’t bother acquiring an S Pen to use with it.
However, it seems, according to Ice Universe, that don’t won’t even need to be a consideration. The Z Fold Special Edition is expected to still come with S Pen Support, so if you’re dependent on a stylus, you’re not going to be losing out.
However, one confusing thing is that Ice Universe, in a reply to a user enquiring whether the S Pen will be built-in, first says “That’s impossible”, before a completely contrary reply that states it will be built-in like the Note series. However, it seems that the contrary reply is related to some kind of Weibo AI Assistant that users can turn on or off, so I’d certainly ignore that second reply.