The Tab S12 Ultra Still Wears a Display Notch

Sixteen photos of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra and Galaxy Tab S12+ show the same split the company has used since 2022. The bigger tablet still needs a display notch to keep its bezels thin. The Plus does not.

The set, published on September 25 in black and silver, is the clearest look yet at both bodies at once. Leaked spec sheets circulating this month still point to an October 7 reveal, and a US certification listing now names the Plus as SM-X848U.

What the 16 Photos Make Obvious

Side by side, the two slates share the same language: aluminum, even bezels, a flat camera corner, and a thin profile. The Ultra is the larger of the two, and the photos make three gaps obvious without a tape measure.

THE THREE GAPS IN THE PHOTOS

• The face: Only the Ultra cuts a notch into the glass for the front camera; the Plus keeps that camera in the bezel.
• The frame: The Ultra’s bezels run thinner on every side, which is why the notch exists, and both layouts stay symmetrical.
• The back: The Ultra carries two rear cameras; the Plus shows a single lens.

Those three gaps are the whole product story in the galleries. Everything else, from RAM tiers to battery figures, still sits in leaked sheets rather than in Samsung’s own pages.

The Ultra Still Needs a Notch to Get Thin Bezels

Samsung put a notch on a tablet for the first time with the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, unveiled on February 9, 2022, because the 14.6-inch slab’s bezels had nowhere left to hide a camera. That choice has survived every Ultra since. The 14.6-inch Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra still used a dual-front-camera notch when it was announced on September 26, 2024, and the Tab S11 Ultra, launched on September 4, 2025, only shrank that cutout by dropping the second front camera.

The new Ultra photos show the same answer. Thinner glass borders sell the “more premium” look, and they leave no bezel deep enough for a 12MP front camera, so the panel gives up a bite of itself. The Plus, with thicker even bezels, never has to make that trade. On a $1,399.99-class rectangle that is meant to look like a monitor, that leftover cutout is the part of the design that has not moved in four years.

THE NOTCH THAT WILL NOT LEAVE

1. February 9, 2022: The Tab S8 Ultra debuts the 14.6-inch format with a notched front and 5.5mm-thin body.
2. September 26, 2024: The Tab S10 Ultra keeps a dual-front-camera notch, a 5.4mm body, and a 723g 5G weight.
3. September 4, 2025: The Tab S11 Ultra trims the notch to a single 12MP front camera and holds 5.1mm and 692g on Wi-Fi.
4. September 25, 2026: New Ultra photos still show a notch and thinner bezels; the Plus still shows a clean front.

A punch-hole, or a camera under the glass, would have ended this argument. The galleries do not show either.

A Plus Size Comes Back Without the 11-Inch

Last year’s flagship pair was the 11-inch Tab S11 and the 14.6-inch Tab S11 Ultra. There was no Plus. These photos put a mid-size slate back in the line, and leaked sheets size it at 12.6-inch, a 0.2-inch step up from the 12.4-inch Galaxy Tab S10+ that closed that generation in 2024.

The regular 11-inch Tab S12 is the model that does not appear. That leaves Samsung’s 2026 flagship tablet line as two large screens, which matches the tone Daniel Araujo, vice president and head of strategic planning for Samsung’s Mobile Experience division, struck on the company’s Q2 2026 earnings call, when he grouped the Tab S12 with other high-end hardware due in the second half.

To manage this, we’re focused on maintaining strong sales momentum of the S26 series while ensuring the successful launch of new premium products coming out in the second half, such as the new foldable series, Tab S12, and Watch Ultra 2.

Daniel Araujo, Vice President, Samsung Mobile Experience, Q2 2026 earnings call

The Plus is the volume machine in that pair: a 12.6-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel at 2800 x 1752 and 120Hz, a leaked 10,600mAh battery (510mAh above the S10+), and a leaked 555g weight, 16g under the S10+ Wi-Fi model’s 571g. Spec sheets also put an S Pen in the box, IP68, two speakers, and a microSD slot up to 2TB. The rear camera count is the cut. The S10+ used a 13MP wide and an 8MP ultrawide; the S12+ photos show one lens.

Same 14.6-Inch Canvas, a New MediaTek Chip

The Ultra’s leaked body is last year’s body. Preliminary sheets list 326.3 x 208.5 x 5.1mm, the same 14.6-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X canvas at 2960 x 1848 (~239 ppi, about 90.8% of the face), and the same 11,600mAh pack with 45W wired charging that sits on the Tab S11 Ultra spec sheet. Leaked weight is 693g, a gram off the S11 Ultra’s 692g Wi-Fi figure. The photos also show the Ultra a fraction thinner than the Plus, which matches that 5.1mm figure.

The chip is the part that actually changes. Both tablets are listed with MediaTek’s 3nm Dimensity 9500 chipset, an octa-core part with a 4.21GHz C1-Ultra core and a Mali-G1 Ultra GPU. That is the third straight Dimensity flagship in this line, after the 9300+ in the Tab S10 Ultra and the 9400+ in the Tab S11 Ultra, and that repeat is already wearing thin for anyone who wanted Qualcomm back in a Galaxy tablet.

TAB S12 PLUS VS TAB S12 ULTRA

Only the Ultra is listed with a 16GB RAM option, and only on the 1TB SKU. Both are listed with a dedicated microSD slot. Software build numbers in the leaked sheets do not agree, so that layer stays off this page until Samsung prints it.

US Pricing Starts at $1,199 for the Plus

Leaked US Wi-Fi prices put the Plus at $1,199.99 for 256GB and $1,399.99 for 512GB, with a 5G 256GB SKU at $1,349.99, a $150 cellular step. The Ultra is listed at $1,399.99 for 256GB, $1,599.99 for 512GB, and $1,999.99 for the 16GB/1TB model. That Ultra start is $200.00 above the Tab S11 Ultra’s $1,199 launch for 12GB/256GB.

LEAKED US WI-FI STARTING POINTS

• Plus 256GB: $1,199.99, the same open as last year’s Ultra, on a 12.6-inch body.
• Ultra 256GB: $1,399.99, a $200.00 step for two extra inches, a second rear camera, and the 16GB path.
• Ultra 1TB: $1,999.99, the only listed 16GB configuration.
• Europe sheet: €1,299 for the Plus and €1,539 for the Ultra, a separate regional list, not a dollar conversion.

Samsung has not published those figures. Memory costs have been squeezing the mobile group all year, which is the plain reading of a $200.00 Ultra step on a chassis that still measures 5.1mm and 11,600mAh.

Black and Silver, One Lens Versus Two

Both tablets appear in black and silver in the September 25 set. That is a tighter palette than some older Galaxy Tab generations, and it matches the Gray and Silver pair Samsung used on the Tab S11 Ultra, with “black” in these shots reading as the dark gray body.

The camera split is the other tell on the back. The Ultra keeps the 13MP wide plus 8MP ultrawide pair and a 12MP ultrawide front camera that lives in the notch. The Plus is listed with a 13MP rear and a 12MP front, and the photos back the single-lens rear. Four speakers sit on the Ultra; two sit on the Plus. IP68 and an in-box S Pen are listed for both. None of that needs a launch-day teardown. The photos already sort the two products by face, bezel, and camera count.

October 7 Is the Date on the Leak Calendar

Evan Blass and the German spec dump that followed in mid-September both land on October 7. Samsung itself has only placed the Tab S12 in the second half of 2026. A US listing under SM-X848U on September 26 is the latest sign the Plus is close to a commercial file, not a concept.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The faces: The Ultra is notched with dual rear cameras; the Plus is clean-fronted with one rear camera, in black and silver.
• The sizes: 12.6-inch Plus and 14.6-inch Ultra, both 120Hz AMOLED, both listed with Dimensity 9500.
• The skip: No 11-inch Tab S12 appears beside them, after a year with no Plus at all.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• The day: October 7 is a leak date, not a Samsung invite.
• The ticket: $1,199.99 and $1,399.99 are sheet prices, not MSRPs on Samsung.com.
• The software: Leaked OS builds do not match each other, so the shipping UI is still open.

Until that invite lands, the 16 photos are the record. They show a 14.6-inch flagship that still spends bezel savings on a notch, and a 12.6-inch Plus that looks cleaner from the front because it never tried to go that thin at the edges.