Samsung introduces new Galaxy Tab S9 series

Tech giant Samsung, on Wednesday, unveiled a new range of high-end Android tablets, Galaxy Tab S9, S9 Plus and S9 Ultra 5 at an exciting Unpacked event held in Seoul, South Korea.

According to The Verge, an American technology news website, the new models follow the Tab S8 series from 2022, with similar designs and features. As before, the smallest Tab S9 starts at USD 799.99 (Rs 66,000 approx.), while the two larger models are USD 999.99 (Rs 82,000 approx.) and USD 1,199.99 (Rs 98,400 approx.), respectively. All of the tablets are available for preorder starting today, July 26, and are slated to ship starting on August 11.

One significant difference is that Samsung is now adopting OLED screens throughout its product lineup, rather than just the larger models. All three tablets have screens that can refresh up to 120Hz for smooth scrolling and lower pen latency. The sizes remain the same: 11 inches on the Tab S9, 12.4 inches on the Tab S9 Plus, and a gargantuan 14.6 inches on the Tab S9 Ultra. Sadly, Samsung is sticking with 16:10 aspect ratios across the board, which means these tablets will work best in landscape mode and will be more awkward for reading and other portrait-orientation use cases than an iPad or the OnePlus Pad, reported The Verge.

Also, Samsung has made the Tab S9 tablets IP68-rated for dust and water resistance. All three Tab S9 models are powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy, the Samsung-exclusive version of Qualcomm’s top-tier processor. The base model of the 11-inch S9 comes with 8GB of RAM; the rest of the lineup has 12GB, save for the top-level S9 Ultra that comes with 16GB. Storage options for the Tab S9 are 128GB or 256GB; the Tab S9 Plus comes with either 256GB or 512GB storage, and the Ultra can be equipped with up to 1TB of onboard space. All three retain the ability to expand their storage via microSD cards, another differentiator from the iPad and most other Android tablets these days, as per The Verge.

The high-end S9 Tabs will come with 5G connectivity.

Rounding out the hardware features are the S Pen stylus (still included in the box), a quad-speaker system (20 per cent larger than before) with Dolby Atmos, and in-screen fingerprint scanners, reported The Verge.