In the second half of 2023, Samsung will announce a slew of new flagship devices. We expect new foldables, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5, tablets that will succeed the Galaxy Tab S8, Galaxy Tab S8+, Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, and the Galaxy Tab S7 FE, and, if some rumors to be believed, possibly a foldable tablet as well.
As we move closer to the launch of these new devices, more and more details about each of them have been making their way online in recent months and will continue to do so in the future. This week, the rumor mill has churned out details on the possible storage and memory configurations Samsung will offer with the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra, the top-end model in its next flagship tablet lineup.
Same memory configurations as Tab S8 Ultra, but with UFS 4.0 storage
And it seems the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra will have a storage and memory combo that will please everyone, just like the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, at least if Samsung continues to equip its flagships tablets with a microSD slot. There have been no rumors suggesting Samsung will strip out the microSD slot from the Galaxy Tab S9 lineup, so at this time we are going to assume that expandable storage will be an option.
Anyway, let's get back to the Tab S9 Ultra's memory configurations: it will reportedly come in 8GB+128GB, 12GB+256GB, and 16GB+512GB flavors. And, like the Galaxy S23 lineup, the variant with 128GB storage will have UFS 3.1 storage while the other two will have UFS 4.0 storage. This is because UFS 4.0 chips don't come in sizes smaller than 256GB, which leaves the smallest Galaxy Tab S9 with slower theoretical transfer speeds.
We say theoretical because despite the major upgrade UFS 4.0 brings over UFS 3.1, the 128GB storage variant of the Galaxy S23 runs just as well as the Galaxy S23+ and Galaxy S23 Ultra (both the Plus and Ultra S23 models come with a minimum of 256GB of storage). And we see no reason why it will be any different for the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra.
Galaxy Tab S9 series will bring a number of upgrades, including water resistance
Speaking of the Galaxy S23, the Galaxy Tab S9 series will be powered by the ‘For Galaxy' overlocked version of Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, which is the best flagship chipset available for Android devices right now and powers all Galaxy S23 models worldwide. It can handle anything you throw at it and isn't held back by UFS 3.1 storage in real-world scenarios, including tasks such as video editing.
In addition to a newer Snapdragon chip, the Galaxy Tab S9 tablets will come with a very important upgrade: all three models will be IP67 certified for water and dust resistance. As for the Galaxy Tab S9, the smallest of the lot, we should also see a switch from an LCD panel to an AMOLED one, in addition to a slightly larger battery capacity.
