If there ever was a device so uniquely positioned to benefit from the S Pen, it’d be one of the new Galaxy Z Fold 8’s. But Samsung didn’t make that a possibility for the sake of compact design. Still, Samsung says there’s a chance that may change in the future.

It’s been well-reported that Samsung reduced the size of the Galaxy Z Fold 7 because it ditched the S Pen digitizer. A digitizer is responsible for translating a signal from Samsung’s proprietary stylus into input. It also happens that it takes up a lot of space Samsung could shave off the thickness of the Galaxy Z Fold series.

The launch of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 series has come and gone, and with it, the news that Samsung has, once again, culled S Pen support for its foldable phones. They’re well-suited to the kind of user that would want to use the S Pen, but it’s just not possible without the right hardware.

In an interview with the press, senior executive in charge of hardware, HS Moon, said that S Pen support for future Galaxy Z Fold devices isn’t completely out of the question. The answer came after he was asked whether an S Pen could return if digitizer technology shrinks.

The response does little to lay a concrete foundation for a Galaxy Z Fold 9 with S Pen support. Originally said in Korean, the interpreted response was understandably vague:

We are committed to providing maximum user experience, and we continue to monitor the user reactions, Which we will, of course, continue to do after the release of this new generation as well. And also, what we can say is we continue to explore and consider various more innovative technologies that can incorporate digitizer and S Pen in an even slimmer form factor.

What Moon said in Korean and machine-translated to English reads a little more finite. The machine-translated quote reads, “And as you mentioned, we’re going to innovate with technology and add S Pen and digitizer features. But we’ll maintain our competitive edge in slim form factors while doing so.”

In either case, it seems Samsung is aware of the user base that wants to see an S Pen return to the Galaxy Z Fold series. There’s no series called out specifically, but the response makes it sound like the possibility is there if Samsung can keep its foldable as thin as it is.

And they keep getting thinner. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is 4.1mm when opened. That’s a slight improvement over the previous generation. If Samsung keeps improving on thickness, even incrementally, that means a digitizer return could potentially increase the Galaxy Z Fold’s size more than Samsung is willing to accept.

Given it’s stayed ahead of the pack in sheer engineering, I wouldn’t put too much stock into an S Pen return, no matter how much I’d love to see it.