Samsung Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra Review: A familiar big-screen tablet

Design and accessories

• Familiar slim, lightweight build
• Included S Pen continues to be top-class
• Optional Pro Keyboard is fantastic, but expensive

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra looks virtually identical to last year’s Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra, with Samsung sticking to the same sleek, understated design. That might be a disappointment to some, especially considering the Tab S11 Ultra looked a lot like the Tab S10 Ultra, and so on, but it remains one of the best-designed big-screen tablets on the market. 

The tablet itself remains super slim at just 5.1mm thick, matching Apple’s iPad Pro M5 but trailing behind Honor’s 4.8mm MagicPad 4, and weighs in at a relatively lightweight 692g. That’s impressive considering its huge 14.6-inch screen, but it’s still an enormous tablet that requires two hands to use comfortably, meaning it won’t be ideal for commuters looking for something compact to get out on the train. 

Samsung also continues to offer IP68 dust and water resistance, something you won’t find on Apple’s competing iPads or practically any other Android tablet. The familiar grey and silver finishes aren’t particularly aventuruous, but both complement the tablet’s minimalist, premium look nicely.

The accompanying S Pen still comes in the box and magnetically attaches to the long side of the tablet for charging and storage, rather than awkwardly sitting on the rear as it did with older models. It’s a much more convenient approach, both when holding the tablet and when slipping it into a bag.

The stylus retains the hexagonal, pencil-like design introduced with last year’s Tab S11 Ultra, complete with a cone-shaped tip and an impressively lightweight feel that makes it comfortable for doodling and handwritten notes. However, the glass display remains noticeably slippery compared to the paper-like surfaces of the Remarkable Paper Pro and Kindle Scribe, so it doesn’t quite replicate the true pen-and-paper experience. 

What isn’t a standard part of the experience is the Pro Keyboard, an upgraded keyboard cover for the Tab S11 Ultra – and now the S12 Ultra – quietly teased at MWC earlier this year and released a month later. 

It features a keyboard like the cheaper Book Cover Keyboard, offering a more retained typing experience with dedicated app keys, tablet controls and an AI button, along with a full trackpad sat beneath. One of my biggest complaints about last year’s option was the lack of a trackpad to truly emulate the laptop experience, and its inclusion here makes all the difference, especially when paired with the desktop-style DeX system – but more on that later. 

It snaps onto the keyboard using built-in magnets, and they have a surprisingly strong hold on the tablet, not shifting an inch as you open and close it laptop-style. It also features a little stand that unfolds behind the tablet as the case is opened to help stabilise the weight. 

That said, it is an expensive accessory at £/$399, and combined with the S12 Ultra’s £/$1,399 RRP, you might as well just buy a convertible laptop. 

Screen

• Huge 14.6-inch AMOLED screen
• Well suited to work and play
• Samsung’s privacy screen tech would’ve made sense here

The massive screen remains one of the biggest reasons to opt for the Tab S12 Ultra over pretty much any other Android tablet – though if you want something more manageable, there’s always the (slightly) smaller Tab S12 Plus and its 12.6-inch panel.

That said, there’s nothing particularly new here compared to last year’s Tab S11 Ultra. It’s the same expansive 14.6-inch AMOLED panel with a 16:10 aspect ratio, a smooth 120Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 1600 nits.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, however, given that it remains among the best displays you’ll find on any tablet. Blacks are deep, colours are vibrant and motion feels wonderfully smooth, whether I’m scrolling through apps, watching movies or playing games.

Some apps can look comically large on a screen of this size – using TikTok or Instagram full-screen remains quite the experience – but it’s about more than sheer scale.

The 16:10 aspect ratio is particularly well suited to watching widescreen movies, producing smaller black bars than the squarer displays used by Apple and Honor. Combined with the sheer size of the panel and Samsung’s desktop-style DeX experience, it’s also one of the few tablet screens that feels equally suited to entertainment and serious multitasking.

The accompanying bezels remain impressively slim at 5.2mm, delivering an immersive look while leaving just enough room to hold the tablet without accidentally tapping the display. The small selfie camera notch also remains, though it’s easy enough to ignore in everyday use since Samsung reduced the camera count from two to one.

The 1600-nit peak brightness and anti-reflective coating help the display remain easy to see outdoors, too. And it’s one of few tablets to include an under-display fingerprint sensor, embedded near the bottom of the panel in its portrait orientation – most go for side-mounted alternatives.

I would’ve appreciated an implementation of the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s privacy screen tech here though; it’d make more sense to protect documents you’re working on or sites you’re browsing on a large screen that’s much easier to see than a smartphone screen, but alas. Maybe next year, right?

That said, though it may be unchanged from its predecessor, the Tab S12 Ultra’s expansive AMOLED screen continues to be one of the best in the business.

Performance

• MediaTek Dimensity 9500 power
• 12GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage
• Not the latest MediaTek chipset, but performance is fine

Core performance is an area where Samsung has improved the tablet this year – though considering the £200 price jump, it could be better. 

The Galaxy Tab Ultra tends to use MediaTek’s chipset in place of the Snapdragon chipsets found in Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S Ultra models, and that continues this year. That’s not a problem at all – though Dimensity chips tend to lag behind Snapdragon alternatives in some benchmarks, there’s really not that much difference when it comes to real-world use. 

The S12 Ultra sports the year-old MediaTek Dimensity 9500, a fine flagship-level chipset – the issue I have is that there isn’t much of a jump in performance compared to the Dimensity 9400 Plus-touting Tab S11 Ultra. Samsung itself claims a modest 19% uplift in the CPU department and 17% for the GPU, though the 61% jump for the NPU should make AI tasks faster. 

That’s partly down to MediaTek not releasing a slightly boosted Plus variant for the Dimensity 9500, shortening the usual gap between Samsung’s flagship tablet chips, but MediaTek has announced the newer Dimensity 9600 Pro, expected to power flagship tech going forward. 

It feels a bit odd that Samsung’s latest top-end, all-singing, all-dancing tablet doesn’t have the latest processor, especially at such a premium. Maybe it’s a cost-saving measure due to the rapidly increasing cost of components, or maybe it’s just bad timing on Samsung’s part. Who knows. 

That all said, the Tab S12 Ultra still feels every bit flagship in use; combined with the 12GB of RAM in my sample, it’s snappy, apps open instantly, and it can run plenty of apps simultaneously in its desktop-style DeX mode, all without a hint of stutter – though more on all those software smarts shortly.

Productivity is clearly the focus, then, but it’s just as good when it comes to big-screen gaming – and I mean big-screen with that 14.6-inch panel. The tablet’s extra-large chassis allows it to manage heat extremely well, which let me run demanding games with high-level graphics enabled without much complaint. It didn’t show many signs of slowing down after more than 30 minutes in testing either. 

That’s pretty much backed up by benchmark tests, showing a capable tablet across CPU, GPU and NPU with a healthy, but not unheard-of, jump over the S11 Ultra, though with the newer Dimensity and competing Snapdragon chipsets now available, it’s hard to say how long it’ll stay competitive.

Software

• One UI 9 based on Android 17
• Handy tablet-focused UI tweaks
• Desktop-style DeX is great for work
• Seven OS upgrades

Samsung continues to refine the tablet experience with One UI 9 based on Android 17 on the Tab S12 Ultra. 

The DeX experience continues to be the cornerstone of the Samsung Galaxy Tab experience, allowing you to run apps in windows like on a PC or Mac for a much better experience than standard split-screen multitasking – though that is still an option if you prefer. 

I have pretty much used the tablet in DeX mode for the entire review period – it works very well paired with the Keyboard Pro and its trackpad, as you might imagine, essentially turning it into a competent laptop replacement. 

It even has the added niceties of desktop experiences, like multi-monitor support via its USB-C port, making it very easy for me to write this very review. I’ve got my Docs app open with both my notes and review pages, with Spotify and Slack in smaller windows in the background if I need to dip into them – essentially as it’d be if I were on my laptop. 

There are also a bunch of pre-installed apps that play well with Samsung’s big-screen tablet, including apps like Notability, GoodNotes and LumaFusion, though these aren’t free – tapping on them will take you to the Samsung Store to purchase them, so it’s not as good a deal as it might seem on the surface. 

There is a new addition in the form of Photoshop, tailored for the big screen with support for the S Pen. It’s not desktop-class Photoshop, rather a blown-up version of the mobile app with AI smarts – but there’s four months of free access to that one at least. 

There’s also a strong Galaxy AI presence here, featuring the same suite of tools found on the Galaxy S26 Ultra and Galaxy Z Fold 8, including a text-based photo editor that works surprisingly well, alongside other photo editing and productivity-focused tools. 

I can’t say I use any of them that often – most are for specific use-cases – but they’re there if you want to dabble, alongside both Gemini and Bixby. Samsung just won’t let its virtual assistant rest in peace, for some reason. 

The usual niggles about Samsung’s One UI remain; it’s still packed with Samsung alternatives to official Google apps, most of which I’d never really use, and I continue to prefer GBoard to the pre-installed Microsoft SwiftKey. But really, those are minor complaints about what is otherwise one of the most polished tablet experiences you’ll find on the Android market. 

And, as has been the case for the past few generations, Samsung has committed to seven years of OS upgrades and security patches for the S12 Ultra, taking it all the way to what I assume will be One UI 16 based on Android 24.  

Cameras

• 13MP and 8MP rear cameras
• 12MP selfie camera
• Fine for video calls, but not much else

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra’s dual-rear camera setup might lead you to believe that it’s a step above the rest of the tablet competition, but that’s not really the case. Tablets are famously not that great for photography, especially compared to the phones in our pocket, and that doesn’t change with the S12 Ultra – though it does at least give you options if you need to take a quick snap. 

Just like last year, Samsung has provided us with a 13MP main and an accompanying 8MP ultrawide. Both are fine for the occasional impromptu photo if, say, your dog is doing something especially cute while you’re watching Netflix on the big screen, but really, they’re better suited to productivity-focused tasks like scanning documents or using the ultrawide to do a presentation over video call. 

The quality here is more than good enough for those kinds of tasks – just don’t expect to take incredibly detailed shots, especially in anything less than great lighting. A similar story plays out on the front, with a 12MP selfie camera that’s pretty much focused solely on video calls, rather than capturing video you’d like to share on social media. 

But again, that’s not a mark against Samsung – that’s just how it is with tablets.

Battery life

• Same 11,600mAh battery
• Can get through a full day of use
• Around 90 minutes for a full charge

I was surprised by the size of the battery in last year’s Tab S11 Ultra. Despite its svelte dimensions, it still had a sizeable 14.6-inch chassis to work with, but its 11,600mAh battery trailed behind smaller Android tablets like the 12,140mAh cell of the smaller OnePlus Pad 3. 

It would’ve been easy for Samsung to push the battery a little further this year then, especially considering battery components aren’t among those skyrocketing in price amidst the AI boon, but the Tab S12 Ultra instead ships with the same 11,600mAh cell. 

It hasn’t exactly left me wanting more in the battery life department – it can get me through a full day of multi-app work in DeX mode, and more sporadic use can spread the battery life over the course of days – but conversely, it’s also not the longest battery life I’ve seen on an Android tablet. 

In a similar vein, the 45W wired charging support can get it to around 40% in half an hour, while a full charge takes around 90 minutes – and if you’re using the tablet as a desktop replacement, you’ve also got access to bypass charging.

Again, considering the price hike from this year’s model, any upgrade here would’ve been welcome, but it’s still a perfectly fine experience nonetheless.

Should you buy it?