The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 could be the slimmest Z Fold yet, but that might mean some compromises

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 in Paris in front of the Louvre pyramid
The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff / Future)

  • The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 could be less than 10mm thick when folded
  • That would make it the slimmest Z Fold yet, having even the Z Fold Special Edition beat
  • However, that would apparently mean it lacks a digitizer, and could have an S Pen "downgrade"

This year, it looks like Samsung might have become a bit obsessed with making its phones as thin as possible – even if doing so brings some downgrades.

Not only is there the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge to consider, which has seemingly sacrificed a camera and perhaps also battery capacity to slim down, but now we’re hearing that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 could be incredibly slim too.

Two separate sources have said as much, with leaker @kro_roe (via GSMArena) claiming that the Galaxy Z Fold 7 will be the slimmest Z Fold ever, thanks in part to an S Pen downgrade.

They don't get more specific about how slim or what kind of downgrade, but a report in ET News (via @Jukanlosreve) suggests that Samsung is aiming to make the Galaxy Z Fold 7 less than 10mm thick when folded.

For reference, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 is 12.1mm thick, and even the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition is 10.6mm thick, so this should be a substantial reduction in thickness.

However, to achieve this reduction, Samsung will apparently remove the digitizer from the foldable screen, which is the display layer that interacts with the S Pen stylus. Removing it isn’t necessarily a downgrade, though, as ET News claims that Samsung will simply build technology into the pen itself that allows it to work without a digitizer.

Still, since @kro_roe mentions a downgrade, it’s possible that Samsung’s solution will result in a less feature-packed S Pen. Perhaps it will lack Bluetooth connectivity, which is a sacrifice we've already seen Samsung make with the Galaxy S25 Ultra's S Pen, but that's just speculation.

In any case, ET News also claims that the foldable display will be 8 inches, and the cover screen will be 6.5 inches, which would be a match for the Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition but bigger in both cases than the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6.

Mass production in May

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 launched in July 2024 (Image credit: Samsung)

Finally, the site states that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 will enter mass production in May, by which point Samsung will have finalized the thickness of the phone.

It’s always worth taking claims like these with a pinch of salt, but we’ve heard from multiple sources that the Galaxy Z Fold 7 might lack a digitizer, so there’s a good chance that that much, at least, is correct, and we've also heard those screen sizes before.

Whether the phone really will be less than 10mm thick is more questionable, since previous claims suggested it wouldn’t be any thinner than the Z Fold Special Edition. We’ll probably find out in July, as that’s likely when the Galaxy Z Fold 7 will launch – probably alongside the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7, and perhaps even a tri-fold phone.

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James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.

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