Leaks revealing upcoming Samsung Galaxy devices continue to pile up every year as the months pass by, giving us information on what to expect from said devices before they make their market debut. And today, the Galaxy Tab S9 series — specifically the Tab S9+ — has made its first visual debut thanks to leakster OnLeaks.
And, well, if you're straining your eyes to figure out if the design has changed compared to the Galaxy Tab S8 lineup, you probably aren't alone. But there certainly is a difference or two, the most noticeable being the individually placed rear camera cutouts that take after the design language Samsung introduced with the Galaxy S23 series earlier this year and later brought to other devices, like the Galaxy A34 and Galaxy A54.
Dimensions of the tablet will also remain mostly the same, if the info released by the source of these images is accurate. The Tab S9+ reportedly measures 285.4 x 185.4 x 5.64 mm while the Tab S8+ measures 285 x 185 x 5.7 mm. So, yeah, if a major design upgrade is what you were looking for, you won't find it… at least not on the surface.
Water and dust resistance will be the Galaxy Tab S9's biggest design upgrade
The real design upgrade the Galaxy Tab S9 tablets will bring is the addition of water and dust resistance, as we exclusively revealed earlier this year. The tablets will have IP67 certification, which is just a step below Samsung's flagship phones when it comes to keeping water out while dust resistance remains unchanged. We've long been looking forward to Samsung tablets gaining water and dust resistance for years, and it will be great to see it finally happen (and hopefully without much of an increase in the price tag).
The Galaxy Tab S9 series will likely launch alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 in the second half of the year. For those unaware, Samsung doesn't follow the yearly launch routine for flagship tablets. The Tab S8 series launched in March last year alongside the Galaxy S22 lineup, while the Galaxy Tab S7 made its debut in August, 2020.
The new tablets will get a battery upgrade on at least one model and are likely to be powered by the same custom Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip as the Galaxy S23. Combine bigger batteries and that amazing chip and we could see the Galaxy Tab S9 series tablets knock it out of the park when it comes to battery life and performance and pretty much go right to the top of our list of the best Samsung tablets.
