Last year, the global tablet market was up 8.5% in Q1 as people started to replace devices they bought during the pandemic. Apple led the quarter with 13.7 million units shipped, up 14.0%, while Samsung was around half that with 6.6 million units shipped, down 5.2%. Samsung usually starts shipping its new flagship tablets in late Q3 (the Tab S11 models were available in September) or early Q4 (the Tab S12 series launched earlier this week), so shipments declining by 5.2% in Q1 was a bad look for the Tab S11 slates.
So, now our attention turns to the Samsung Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra – the Ultra series is the only Tab S model that gets regular yearly upgrades. That said, they are not particularly exciting – a quick comparison with the Tab S11 Ultra shows that Samsung upgraded the chipset, dropped the base 128GB version (which was cheaper and was actually usable since the tablets have microSD slots) and found new shades of gray with which to paint the slate.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra
And the chipset isn’t even the latest from MediaTek. Instead, Samsung picked last year’s Dimensity 9500. According to official numbers, the recently unveiled Dimensity 9600 Pro is faster and significantly more power efficient than the 9500 (up to 61% more efficient in multi-core tests). But perhaps the 9600 Pro wasn’t ready in time for the Tab S12 series launch.
The Dimensity 9500 is no slouch – officially, its Arm C1-based CPU promises a great 32% improvement in single-core and 17% improvement in multi-core performance compared to the older Tab S11 Ultra chipset with amazing efficiency gains of 55% on average during peak load. The G1-Ultra GPU is 33% faster and 42% more efficient.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra
The Tab S11 Ultra already had great battery life and while Samsung kept the battery capacity at the same level, 11,600mAh, we were hoping for some gains from the chipset. However, the new model posted a nearly identical result to its predecessor – for more details, read our review of the Tab S12 Ultra. That’s still a great result, to be fair.
And that’s it for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra upgrades – just the chipset. The slate costs $1,400 / €1,540 / ₹150,000 for the base 12/256GB model. But before we get to the polls, we have to look at the other new model.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S12+ replaces the two-year-old Tab S10+ due to Samsung’s leapfrogging release cadence for the vanilla and plus tablets. That means a bigger performance leap over the Dimensity 9300+ that was inside the 2024 plus tablet. However, even two years of accumulated upgrades don’t amount to much besides the chipset.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S12+
The plus models have had a 12.4” display since the line was introduced back in 2020 with the Tab S6+. This one goes a bit larger, but only marginally so – it has a 12.6” display, which works out to around 3% more surface area.
Additionally, the battery is bigger, but again only marginally so – it has 10,600mAh capacity, up from 10,090mAh. That’s not majorly impressive at a time when some phones have 11,000mAh batteries. Strangely, Samsung decided to omit the 8MP ultra-wide camera that was on the Tab S10+. We don’t think it matters much on a tablet, but it’s worth noting.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra and Tab S12+ size comparison
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S12+ starts at $1,200 / €1,300 / ₹130,000. An 11” iPad Pro also starts at $1,200 and that one has an Apple M5 chipset and a tandem OLED display. It would have been a killer tablet if it ran macOS, but even iPadOS has good multitasking skills these days. The 13” iPad Pro starts at $1,500, by the way, and note that it has a smaller display than the Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra, which has a 14.6” panel.
Alright, time to vote starting with the Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra. Do you have a use-case for a large flagship tablet and is the Tab S12 Ultra that tablet?
What about the Galaxy Tab S12+? That one is a bit cheaper while offering the same performance and features – but wouldn’t you pay extra to get the Ultra?