Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra review

Android 17 with One UI 9

The Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra boots Android 17 with One UI 9. The interface supports tablet and DeX mode, just like before, and both options are optimized for this form factor.

The Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra starts in the default tablet mode. It supports various widgets on the lockscreen.

The homescreens are your typical Android affair with app icons, folders, and widgets. The leftmost page is Google's.

One UI 9 in tablet mode

< p> Swiping from the top left shows the notification shade, while swiping from the right opens the quick toggles.

There is also an app drawer and the typical task manager, which was optimized for the large screen. The task manager also supports desktops right from its interface.

Task Manger

You can see the typical Android controls (tasks, home, back) at the bottom right part of the screen.

Multi-tasking is easy here and done as on the Galaxy phones - split-screen and/or pop-up windows.

Multi-tasking in tablet mode

Switching to DeX from the Quick Toggles is easy and does not take any time to load. This mode supports both landscape and portrait view. It has a bottom bar with your favorite apps plus a few recently opened apps shortcuts.

One UI 9 in DeX mode

The control bar with the Android shortcuts is still at the bottom right.

The notification and quick toggles, as well as the task manager and the app drawer, remain mostly unchanged.

And, finally, the multitasking is done differently here - everything launches in windows with your typical shortcuts at the top: minimize (line), maximize (square), close (X). You can move those freely, or snap them left or right, as you would do in, say, Windows OS.

The is also an option to Maximize as on macOS - by leaving the dock and the top status bar visible.

Multi-tasking in DeX mode

Google's Gemini AI is available on the Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra. You can use Circle to Search, and you can use the full Gemini power within the Gemini app - image generation, writing short stories, asking questions, chatting, and plenty of other things.

Gemini AI

Тhe Now Nudge feature instantly switches to split-screen view when you, for example, decide to take action on a suggestion to add a calendar event. The calendar will appear on the other half of the screen, so you don't have to switch between apps.

Now let's talk about Galaxy AI. Call Assist isn't new, but it used only to have Call Screening and Live Translate. Now there is a Call Brief option. If you opt in, it listens to your calls in the background. If it picks up on any information it potentially has relevant details on, like you start discussing an event that happens to be in your calendar, it will automatically pop up the info right in your active call screen.

Speaking of "briefings", Samsung's Now Brief - the already highly-customizable feed has gotten even more personal with the addition of custom cards. These are AI-powered, which is probably why the system currently limits you to only three at a time, and there are also some limitations on how often you can create and edit prompts for the cards.

Galaxy AI • Now Brief customizable cards

Currently, the feature has its "sources" organized into three categories: Weather, Health and Videos. These broadly determine where the data will be pulled from. Some sources might require additional permissions to communicate with third-party apps like YouTube. We were able to very effortlessly create a tailored feed of GSMArena YouTube videos only related to Samsung. It's a pretty good idea, especially if it grows in scope.

Bixby, now featuring Perplexity access, has new widgets. These are mostly meant to offer quick access to voice prompts as well as chat history and act a lot like Gemini's similar interfaces.

Bixby

Playing around the screen with the S-Pen will bring up the S-Pen shortcut, which then allows you to open the quick menu with Drawing Assist, AI select, Create Note, Screen Write, Penup, and you can add more shortcuts here if you like.

S-Pen menu • Add shortcuts here

Creative Studio is a very useful app that turns your doodles and/or prompts into graphic art based on your preferred drawing style.

Creative Studio

Screen Write is familiar - it takes a screenshot and then you write/draw on it.

Screen Write

Create Note opens Samsung Notes for quick note creation, it is a powerful app with plenty of features.

Penup is nice if you like to finish (draw, color) already generated content.

Penup

Performance and benchmarks

The Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra employs the flagship-grade Dimensity 9500, a 3nm chip by MediaTek.

Its processor uses a single Arm C1-Ultra prime core clocked at up to 4.21GHz, joined by three C1-Premium cores @ 3.5GHz, and four C1-Pro cores @ 2.7GHz - the usual 8 in total.

There's the Arm G1-Ultra GPU, and Mediatek's ninth-gen NPU 990.

The Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra is available in three memory configurations of LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage - 12GB/256GB (ours), 12GB/512GB, and 16GB/1TB.

Samsung mentions a large vapor chamber to cool the whole thing.

And now, let's run some benchmarks.

The Dimensity 9500 chip scores a notch below the current chart champion - the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. It has proven to be a real powerhouse, whether it's office apps, games, video editing, or else.

The sustained performance is solid on the Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra. It kept 74% of its CPU and 69% of its GPU maximum performance in our prolonged stress tests.

CPU test • GPU test

The Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra is properly equipped to handle everything you can throw at it. We tried populating its DeX desktop with various apps and streams, and it worked without any issues.