It’s been 15 years since Steve Jobs got on stage with the first iPhone and told us we didn’t want a stylus anymore. He was right then, and he’s still right today — well, most of the time — but not when the hardware is practically begging for a stylus. And the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 certainly is — it’s the perfect form factor for stylus input. The experience is so powerful I’d even be willing to trade a little of the device’s meager battery capacity to make it even better, because if Samsung wants to continue pushing the S Pen with foldables, the Fold 5 needs a slot.
Stylus input generally, and the S Pen specifically, are nothing new. Thus far, most stylus-optimized mobile devices have been either tablets, laptops, or flat phones, but none of these are as good for stylus input as a foldable. Large-screen foldables are a new form factor, just different enough from a traditional smartphone that the rules change.