Samsung could launch five different Galaxy Tab S9 series tablets this year (return of the Galaxy Tab FE)

Samsung launches new tablets every year, so it’s hardly a surprise that details about the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 series are starting to leak. After all, it’s been over a year since the company launched the Galaxy Tab S8 series.

But what is a little surprising is that it looks like there won’t just be three different models this year: there could be five.

According to marketing materials leaked by SnoopyTech this week, Samsung plans to kick things off with three tablets that will likely be the follow-up to last year’s models. So we can expect three tablets with pen support, big, bigger, and biggest displays, and possibly water resistance (which would explain the water in the promo picture).

These tablets will most likely be solder under the following names:

• Samsung Galaxy Tab S9
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S9+
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra

According to another leak from Ahmed Qwaider, those tablets will have 11 inch, 12.4 inch, and 14.6 inch displays, respectively… and that would be utterly unsurprising, since those are the same screen sizes as the Galaxy Tab S8 counterparts.

What is a little surprising is display industry analyst Ross Young says Samsung could also launch two more tablets later this year:

• Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE+

Young expects these tablets to go into production about two months after the other tablets, these will most likely be cheaper alternatives to the 11 and 12.4 inch tablets, possibly with less powerful processors, less memory or storage, different display technology, or maybe lacking water resistance or other features reserved for the premium models.

According to Young, another differentiating factor will be color options: the S9, S9+, and S9 Ultra will be available in beige or gray, while the S9 FE and S9 FE+ will come in gray, light green, light pink, and silver colors.

Samsung took a similar approach in 2021 when the company introduced the Galaxy Tab S7 FE as a lower-cost alternative to other members of the Galaxy Tab S7 series. But at the time the Galaxy Tab S7 FE was only available in one screen size (12.4 inches) and when the company launched the Galaxy S8 series the following year, Samsung continued to sell the Galaxy Tab S7 FE to budget-conscious shoppers rather than introducing a Galaxy Tab S8 FE.

So the return of the Galaxy Tab FE series this year is a little unexpected for two reasons. First, it wasn’t clear if the company ever planned to launch another model, and second, there was no indication that if Samsung was going to bring back the Galaxy Tab FE that it would come in two different screen sizes.

I’m tempted to conclude that Samsung may have decided to adopt an every-other-year cadence for its FE series tablets. But the truth is we don’t really have enough data points to know whether Samsung just skipped a year… plans to always skip a year… or will end the series with this year’s models. Ask me again in a year or two. You know, assuming any of these leaks are accurate in the first place.

via TabletMonkeys and NotebookCheck