Samsung Galaxy Tab S12 Packs a Pen, Photoshop, and AI

Samsung is ending September with a hardware double act. The company unveiled the Galaxy Tab S12 tablet series and the Galaxy SmartTag3 Bluetooth tracker on September 30, 2026, with the tablets open for pre-order now and hitting US stores in October.

The lineup has two models. The Galaxy Tab S12+ carries a 12.6-inch 120Hz AMOLED display, a MediaTek Dimensity 9500 chip, 12GB of RAM and a 10,600mAh battery; the larger Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra stretches to 14.6 inches, adds up to 16GB of RAM and one terabyte of storage, and packs an 11,600mAh battery. Both ship with an S Pen in the box, IP68 dust and water resistance, and seven years of software updates on One UI 9, based on Android 17, according to Samsung's official announcement.

Prices start at about twelve hundred dollars for the Plus and about fourteen hundred for the Ultra in the US — the top model now sits roughly two hundred dollars above last year's S11 Ultra launch price. Samsung is also sweetening the software: Adobe Photoshop comes pre-installed on the tablets, a first for Android, with four months free and S Pen optimization, alongside a half-year Notability trial and six months of Google AI Pro.

"The Galaxy Tab S12 series is designed for people who are constantly exploring new ideas," Samsung executive vice president Jay Kim said in the company's newsroom announcement, describing the goal as removing friction from complex tasks.

Galaxy Tab S12 pricing tells a familiar story

The price bump over last year's Ultra is the number to watch. Samsung is betting buyers will pay it for the performance upgrade, the bigger vapor chamber, Wi-Fi 7 on the Ultra model and the bundled software freebies — while keeping the tablet's slim 5.1-millimeter profile. Notably, there is no smaller model this generation: the 11-inch Tab S11 stays on sale as the compact option.

The value pitch is aimed squarely at creatives and students. A bundled stylus, free Photoshop months and note-taking apps in the box make the Tab S12+ an out-of-the-box sketching and school machine without a separate accessory run — a contrast with rivals that sell the pen as an add-on. Tablets go on sale in the US in October 2026, in Gray and Silver, with both Wi-Fi and 5G versions listed by Samsung.

SmartTag3 finally works with iPhones

The second launch may matter more. The Galaxy SmartTag3 is Samsung's first tracker to support iPhones, letting iPhone owners check a tag's location and share it through the SmartThings Find app — although directional Compass View, Ring Phone and Left Behind alerts remain Galaxy-only features, according to Android Headlines' coverage of the launch.

The new tag is 35 percent smaller by volume and a third lighter than the SmartTag2, with up to 550 days of battery life in normal use — nearly a year and a half on a replaceable coin cell. Bluetooth 6.0 Channel Sounding pushes the Compass View range to about 60 meters, roughly triple the old range, and more than 900 million Galaxy devices act as finding nodes in Samsung's network. Samsung has also added trial zone alerts that notify owners when a tag enters or leaves a set area.

That puts it on even footing with Apple's AirTag 2, which Apple announced in January 2026 with its own second-generation ultra-wideband chip and precision finding on newer Apple Watches. Samsung matches Apple's single-tag price — about thirty dollars, or a four-pack for about a hundred — while stretching battery life further. Apple's Find My network, at more than a billion devices, is still larger, and iPhone owners should know some SmartTag3 features stay locked to Galaxy phones.

Availability is the catch. The SmartTag3 reaches the US in early November and Korea in October 2026, but Samsung says most other countries must wait until 2027. For anyone outside the first-wave markets, the SmartTag2 — or a rival — remains the buy-it-today option. Samsung's newsroom has the full Tab S12 announcement; 9to5Google breaks down the specs, and Android Headlines details the SmartTag3.

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