Samsung's Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra and Galaxy Tab S12+ go on sale October 7, and both ship with the S Pen in the box at no extra cost. That combination is the core of the pitch: a large Android tablet plus a stylus, aimed at students and note-takers rather than casual media watchers. The two models were first unveiled on September 30.
Battery life is the number buyers will compare first. Samsung rates the Ultra at up to 23 hours of use and the Tab S12+ at up to 21 hours. Super Fast Charging 2.0 refills either tablet in roughly 95 minutes, and both carry an IP68 dust and water resistance rating.
The software leans heavily on note-taking. Multi Window can split the display into three sections at once, so a document, a browser, and a notes app can sit side by side. Note Assist formats, spell checks, translates, and summarizes written notes. A separate Gemini Notebook pulls notes, images, recordings, and files into one place, then generates summaries and quizzes from that material. Samsung Browser can also summarize what is on a page and surface a related page the user viewed earlier.
Galaxy AI can be summoned three ways: a long press of the side button, a wake word, or the Galaxy AI Key found on the Pro Keyboard and Book Cover Keyboard Slim. Buyers also get a bundle of partner benefits that Samsung values at $445, with Google AI Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Notability, and LumaFusion among the participants.
Samsung's announcement did not list pricing for either tablet, and no standard Galaxy Tab S12 model was announced alongside them. That leaves the lineup at two sizes for now, with the Ultra and Tab S12+ carrying the launch on their own.
The series was introduced on September 30 as a productivity-focused pair. Both tablets run Android 17 with One UI 9. The Ultra was described as the thinnest and most powerful Galaxy Tab to date, while the Tab S12+ trimmed its bezels compared with the previous generation.
Samsung also claimed a 3nm processor inside the new tablets, with a neural processing unit up to 61 percent faster than the Tab S11 Ultra's, a CPU up to 19 percent quicker, and graphics up to 17 percent better. A redesigned 3D Vapor Chamber handles heat, and the audio system uses four channels of spatial audio, double the prior generation. The S Pen is pencil-shaped, and the Pro Keyboard has an aluminum finish.
Model numbers for the pair surfaced in GSMA IMEI listings back in February, pointing to a second-half debut, and those listings showed no base Tab S12 variant at the time. The October 7 date now confirms that timing.
