Within the year, video will apparently represent more than 80 per cent of consumers' online traffic, and Samsung knows you need a tablet that offers more – both in terms of screen size, specs and power.
And here's an innovation "bigger" than we've ever seen from Galaxy: the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, unveiled today alongside the new S8+ and S8.
- Hands on: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra review
All of the new tablets come boxed with an S Pen, which can snap on to the back or edge of the tablet magnetically. Said stylus is more than just a note-taker too – the 'clicker' on its side can be a magic wand for taking selfies, moving to the next slide in your presentation or handling music playback. And the improved prediction algorithm promises to reduce the S Pen latency by more than 30 per cent on the Tab S8 Ultra and Tab S8+ too.
Samsung is aiming to redefine the category of tablets with the S8 Ultra, a huge 14.6-inch Super AMOLED screen, aka its biggest and boldest display yet. And it also boasts Samsung's slimmest bezel ever, at just 6.3mm. For reference, the Apple iPad Pro 12.9 (2021) is just 12.9-inch from corner to corner diagonally, and although a firm called Chuwi makes a 13.5-inch tablet called the Hi13, the Tab S8 Ultra beats even that for size, arriving almost certainly as the largest consumer tablet on the market today.
Sales of large-screen tablets have reportedly risen by 24 per cent in the past two years owing to Zoom calls and multi-tasking from home, and Samsung clearly wants a piece of that action. That said, Samsung says Tab S8 Ultra weighs nearly half of a similar-sized laptop and, having held one next to our own work laptop, we can confirm that this feels about right. And although the Tab S8 lineup is Samsung's thinnest tablet range yet, it's also its most durable, thanks to Armor Aluminium which should also make it 30 per cent more resistant to scratches and nearly 40 per cent less prone to bending than Galaxy Tab S7 and Tab S7+.
Screen size for the Tab S8+ is 12.4-in Super AMOLED, and for the Tab S8 its 11-in with LTPS TFT.
Regardless of size, you're getting the first ever 4nm processor in a Galaxy tablet – a CPU that has also made its debut in the new Galaxy S22 smartphone lineup. You'll also get up to 16GB of RAM and expandable storage up to 1TB, for enhanced gaming, streaming and multi-tasking. Tab S8 is also the first Galaxy tablet lineup to support Wi-Fi 6E, which promises double the bandwidth and maximum speed of Wi-Fi 6.
The Tab S8 boasts a 120Hz refresh rate across the lineup, but perhaps best of all is the ability to maximise the screen and split it into up to three resizable windows for easy multi-tasking – writing a presentation while on a Zoom call to assure them you finished it yesterday, perhaps.
The Galaxy Tab S8 lineup sports an 'intelligent' battery boasting up to 15 hours of uninterrupted video playing, and Samsung claims the 45W super-fast charging nets you 100 per cent charging in less than 80 minutes. But that's not all: this battery is also your portable charger on the go. Hook a USB-C cable from the Tab S8 to a Galaxy S22 Ultra and the Tab S8 can charge your phone.
Cameras? Of course. Tab S8 Ultra has a 120 degree ultra-wide front camera with 12MP dual lenses, which also now features video effects and auto-framing tech, so everyone should always stay in frame. On the Tab S8+ and Tab S8, it's a solo 12MP front snapper, while all three Tab S8 tote 13MP and 6MP (ultra-wide) dual cameras with flash on the rear. And all three tablets sport three directional microphones with noise reduction in a bid to isolate your voice and reduce background noise by up to 50 per cent in three different modes.
Tab S8 Ultra now supports 4K recording capabilities for both its front and rear cameras too, and all Tab S8 tablets have quad speakers designed by AKG with Dolby Atmos support.
With Samsung's optimised One UI Tab 4, Samsung says the Tab S8 can be customised in more ways than ever before, promising a seamless ecosystem comprising your Galaxy Z Fold 3, Flip, or S22 device plus wearables including the Galaxy Buds 2 headphones. For example, Samsung now has an exclusive partnership with Clip Studio Paint, which means that for the first time ever, you can turn your smartphone into a palette, your S Pen into a paintbrush, and maximise your Tab S8's big screen as solely your canvas (pictured, above).
Ready for colour options? It's graphite only for Tab S8 Ultra, with graphite, silver, or pink gold finish options for the Tab S8 (below) and Tab S8+.
MORE:
Read our Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+ review
Or our Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE 12.4-inch tablet review
See our roundup of the best tablets 2022: cheap to premium tablets for movies and music