The Galaxy Note is dead (for now) but it lives on in Samsung’s new foldables

Galaxy Unpacked may be just a few weeks away, but Samsung isn’t leaving much to the imagination.

On Monday, the company’s president and head of mobile communications business, Tae Moon Roh, confirmed in a recent blog post that two foldable phones are on the way.

Oh, and that the Galaxy Note is dead.

Well, those weren’t his words exactly. Towards the bottom of the post, Roh writes:

“I hope you’ll join us as we debut our next Galaxy Z family and share some foldable surprises — including the first-ever S Pen designed specifically for foldable phones. Instead of unveiling a new Galaxy Note this time around, we will further broaden beloved Note features to more Samsung Galaxy devices.”

Historically speaking, Samsung has always saved the second half of the year for its Galaxy Note lineup. But considering Roh began to temper expectations for a new model as far back as last year, the news isn’t shocking.

In a blog post published in December of 2020, he wrote that Samsung has “been paying attention to people’s favorite aspects of the Galaxy Note experience and [is] excited to add some of its most well-loved features to other devices in our lineup.”

A month later, Samsung announced its Galaxy S21 lineup with S-Pen compatibility on the S21 Ultra — another hint that the company was preparing to let go of the Galaxy Note. And now, its upcoming foldable phones are also receiving the S-Pen treatment.

Samsung’s post doesn’t go into detail regarding what the stylus will look like or how it will function, but a recent leak gives us some insight.

According to leaked renders from 91mobile, a Galaxy Z Fold 3 folio case features a slot for the S-Pen. That leads us to believe the new foldable phone won’t have its own dedicated S-Pen slot. And seeing as how Samsung offered a similar case for the S21 Ultra, this latest S-Pen will probably act as an optional accessory.

Speaking of the Z Fold 3, it’s still unclear whether that will be the foldable’s official name. Throughout the blog post, Roh consistently refers to the company’s third-generation foldables as the “upcoming” Z Fold and Z Flip.

It remains to be seen whether the company will decide to tack on extra monikers like “21,” or “5G,” or perhaps even both — you know, to make it sound extra confusing.

As for what we can expect for the upcoming foldable phones? Other than a more durable display and some recycled camera specs, the leaks don’t point to all that much. Of course, we won’t have to wait long to find out as all will be revealed on August 11.