Apple Reportedly Tested an Apple Pencil for Its Foldable iPhone, Then Decided It's Not a Fit
Apple internally tested a dedicated Apple Pencil for its first foldable iPhone but likely won't ship one, according to a report citing Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
The prototype was described as "stubbier" than the standard Apple Pencil Pro, a design forced by the device's compact dimensions. The foldable iPhone's inner display is expected to measure 7.7 to 7.8 inches, close to the iPad mini, which fully supports Apple Pencil Pro. But the two devices are used differently. An iPad mini typically rests on a table or is held with both hands during immersive tasks like note-taking or sketching. A foldable phone, by contrast, is usually held in the air, with one hand supporting the device and the other trying to manipulate the stylus on the flexible screen. That posture makes writing uncomfortable, with the body swaying and the wrist lacking support.
Space constraints add another obstacle. The foldable iPhone is expected to be 4.5 to 4.8 mm thick when unfolded and about 9 mm when folded. Inside that slim chassis, the dual-track hinge, dual-cell battery, periscope telephoto module, motherboard, and wireless charging coil leave almost no room for a stylus silo. Squeezing one in would sacrifice battery capacity and worsen heat dissipation. Apple's Apple Pencil design philosophy has evolved around magnetic attachment, wireless charging, and seamless storage. On a foldable, side-mounted magnetic attachment would interfere with the user's grip when opening the device, because the edge is exactly where the two halves meet. Pulling a stylus off before every fold and putting it back after each use brings back the three things Steve Jobs mocked in 2007: having to take the stylus out, put it away, and risk losing it.
Samsung, once the most vocal advocate for stylus support on foldables, has also moved away. For the Galaxy Z Fold 7, Samsung removed the S Pen digitizer layer to achieve an unfolded thickness of 4.2 mm and a folded thickness of 8.9 mm. Kadesh Beckford, a Samsung UK product manager, said in an interview that Fold users' strongest demand was "thinner and lighter" devices, prioritizing everyday feel over the occasional stylus use.
A custom protection case with a stylus slot would force users to cover the slim, carefully engineered body, contradicting Apple's preference for the naked device. Carrying the stylus separately would turn it into a burden: something to remember, to charge, and to keep from losing, likely ending up in a drawer. Even if Apple shortened the stylus to match the phone's height, the internal components still require space, resulting in a short, thick, and unbalanced "crayon" with poor weight distribution.
The current Apple Pencil Pro and Apple Pencil (USB-C) work across all iPad Pro, iPad Air, and iPad mini models. A custom short Pencil for the foldable iPhone would become an isolated SKU, adding production lines and retail complexity that Apple's supply chain discipline usually avoids. The mockup tests exposed conflicts at every turn, reinforcing the idea that a foldable phone, no matter how large its screen, is still a phone. It is meant to be pulled out of a pocket and used instantly with one hand. Apple appears unwilling to compromise its product experience for a rarely used accessory. As Gurman's report indicates, after nineteen years, the most convenient input tool may still be the ten fingers we were born with.