Samsung may launch the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra alongside the Galaxy S22. Here’s what we know so far

A new leak suggests that Samsung will be launching the Galaxy Tab S8 series alongside the Galaxy S22 series. I assume that Samsung was planning to unveil the Tab S8 series as a “one more thing”, but winfuture.de has ruined their surprise. They claim to have obtained exclusive “extensive” technical specifications and official images of the Tab S8 series.

So, what are these details? Well for starters, there will be three flavours – Tab S8, Tab S8+, and for the first time, Tab S8 Ultra.

Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra

The Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra is Samsung’s challenger to take on Apple’s iPad Pro 12.9″. It comes with all the bells and whistles you would expect to find in a premium Android tablet.

From the images shown, it looks like the Tab S8 Ultra will share the same design language as the Tab S7+ with an aluminium construction. At the rear, you find the familiar blackened strip where the magnets for the S Pen and camera modules are located. While orientated in landscape mode, at the top of the frame, you’ll find the power button and volume rocker switch on the left while on the right, there is another magnetic section to attach the S Pen. Rounding things up are 2 speakers on each side of the tablet and a USB C 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbps) port on the right frame.

It appears that Samsung is beating Apple to the punch by putting a notch on a tablet with the Tab S8 Ultra. Although the notch eats very little into the display and it won’t be visible when viewing 16:9 content. The notch is present because Samsung has stretched the screen closer to the edge, making the bezels slimmer.

The Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra comes with the biggest display fitted to a Samsung Android tablet, a 14.6” Super AMOLED display with a WQXGA+ resolution of 2960 x 1848 pixels and a peak brightness of 420 nits. The screen will run at a buttery smooth 120Hz refresh rate, but no word on if it’s an adaptive refresh rate though.

For comparison, the Tab S7+ had a 12.4” Super AMOLED display with a WQXGA+ resolution of 2800 x 1752 pixels running at 120Hz. So, not too big a difference, but the Tab S7+ had a 8-bit colour depth. So that is one area where it would make a big difference if the Tab S8 Ultra came with a 10-bit colour depth. Nothing was mentioned about HDR capabilities, but for reference, the Tab S7+ had HDR10+ support.

If you remember, Samsung introduced the Galaxy View and Galaxy View 2 a couple years ago with a 18.4″ and 17.3″ screens respectively. Despite being bigger, those were just FHD LCD displays.

Coming back to the Tab S8 Ultra, one downside here is that the Tab S8 Ultra comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 and not the newer Gorilla Glass Victus.

Just like the Tab S7 series, you will find an S Pen in the box. The leaks did not mention if the Tab S8 Ultra gets the same ultra-low, 2.8ms S Pen latency, rumoured on the S22 Ultra. However, it is said to run Samsung’s new One UI 4.1 like the S22 series. Therefore, if Samsung introduces any new S Pen features, some if not all those features can be found on the Tab S8 Ultra. Samsung Dex is present here as well, but there is no mention if a keyboard case will be provided in the box. The Tab S7/S7+ had a keyboard case in the box, but not for the cheaper Tab S7 FE.

Qualcomm’s fresh new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 with Adreno 730 GPU built on the 4nm process will be the brains of the Tab S8 Ultra. So it’s safe to say that you can expect top-notch performance. The Tab S8 Ultra is expected to come in two spec options – 8GB RAM with 128GB of storage and 16GB RAM with 512GB storage.

As for connectivity, it will come equipped with all the latest connectivity hardware and protocols currently available. A few takeaways though. The Wi-Fi here suggests it could be just Wi-Fi 6 and not the faster 6e, but it’s plenty fast enough. In the case of 5G, the leaker says it’s “optional”, so we will only know if 5G is available for the Malaysian market during its launch. In Malaysia, the current Galaxy Tab S7 series is only sold as WiFi only and there’s no LTE or 5G version available.

On the back, there will be a 13MP main camera with a f/2.0 aperture, complemented by an odd 6MP f/2.2 ultra-wide-angle camera. For the front, there is a 12MP camera with f/2.4 aperture and another 12MP camera with f/2.2 aperture. As of now, there is no info on what additional features this camera will unlock, other than requiring a notch in the display to house it.

Powering all these impressive hardware is a gigantic 11,200mAh battery capacity, which should be able to outlast the iPad Pro in terms of video playback. Though this will come down to Samsung’s power optimisation.

Galaxy Tab S8+

The Tab S8+ is probably the sweet spot in the range. It shares many of the Tab S8 Ultra’s features, hardware, and shortcomings but with some key differences.

The Galaxy Tab S8+ comes with a conventional notch-less display with a more portable 12.7” Super AMOLED display with a WQXGA+ resolution of 2800 x 1752 pixels and a peak brightness of 420 nits. But the trade-off here is a thicker bezel.

The Galaxy Tab S8 is said to come with 8GB of RAM with either 128GB or 256GB of storage, which is expandable via microSD card. As for the camera department, it shares the same rear dual-camera setup as the Tab S8 Ultra but the front comes with a single 12MP camera that’s placed on the bezel.

Finally, the battery here is smaller as well at 10,090mAh capacity.

Galaxy Tab S8

The Galaxy Tab S8 is the smallest of the family and it’s expected to be the most affordable option in the range. It shares many of the Tab S8+’s specification with just two noticeable difference.

Not surprisingly, the screen is the major downgrade here. The Galaxy Tab S8 comes with a much inferior 11” LTPS TFT display with a WQXGA resolution of 2560 x1600 pixels. It does sport a higher brightness at a peak of 500 nits, but this is a characteristic of LCD panels. It will be interesting to see how much cheaper the LCD panel will make the S8 cost compared to the OLED equipped S8+ here in Malaysia.

The second difference is that it gets the smallest battery among the three with a 8,000mAh capacity.

Based on the Tab S7 series, it’s safe to assume that all three will be equipped with a 45-watt fast charging capability. But – as is the new trend – the charger will be sold separately.

As for a way to express yourself, it looks like a black colour option will be available for all three models based on the leaked images. Other colour options are not known yet.

As always with leaks and rumour, they should be taken with a pinch of salt. We will know for sure everything about the Tab S8 series when it is revealed during Galaxy Unpack allegedly on the 9^th of February 2022.

[SOURCE , IMAGE SOURCE]