Here’s samey hardware, higher prices: It’s a bad time to buy a tablet

Pricing for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S12 tablet series has just leaked, revealing a worrying bump, while the Xiaomi Pad 9 Pro has also launched with a higher cost. Now might not be the time to buy a brand new Android tablet.

We’ve been hearing an awful lot about Samsung’s next flagship tablet series, none of which has particularly set our collective pulse racing. It would have required a nice cut – or at least some stability – on the pricing front to warrant more of a response, but that doesn’t appear to be on the cards.

WinFuture has now supplied European starting prices for the two models. According to the German website, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S12+ will start from €1,299, while the Samsung Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra will cost €1,539.

Adding 5G to either will cost you an additional €200.

It’s the Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra pricing that provides the crucial point of comparison here, as it’s the direct successor to last year’s Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra (we didn’t get a Plus model in 2025).

The previous Ultra model had a starting price of €1,339 – a whopping €200 less than its successor, if this report is accurate.

Given that the report also confirms that generational improvements will be minimal, that’s pretty disheartening. It confirms that there are effectively no significant upgrades to the Ultra aside from a faster Dimensity 9500 processor.

Xiaomi’s at it too

If you’re looking to Xiaomi to save the day, prepare for disappointment. The company has just unveiled its own premium tablet range in the Xiaomi Pad 9 and Pad 9 Pro, and they’re also are much more expensive than their predecessors.

The Xiaomi Pad 9 Pro costs ¥3,799 in its native China. That’s about £430, but don’t worry too much about a direct price conversion. What’s more important is that this is a ¥1,000 increase over the launch price of the Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro, representing a 36% rise.

On the positive side, Xiaomi is offering more of an upgrade than Samsung. That includes a larger 12.5-inch 3.2K LCD with a 144Hz refresh rate, and a faster Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 processor with up to 12GB of RAM and 256GB of UFS 4.1 storage.

It also seems to supply a larger 11000mAh battery and 67W wired charging. There’s a 50Mp camera around back, and a 32Mp camera around front.

That’s not a spec that looks set to trump the Samsung Galaxy Tab S12 Ultra, admittedly. But then, it is set to be significantly cheaper. The Xiaomi Pad 8 Pro hit the UK at just £529 last year, which was less than half the price of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra.

The regular Xiaomi Pad 9, for its part, gives you an 11.2-inch display, Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 power, 13Mp/8Mp cameras, a 9720mAh battery, and 45W charging – all starting at ¥2,999, which is also a 36% increase over the Xiaomi Pad 8.

Conclusion: don’t bother with any of them

Spiking memory prices are obviously to blame here for both price hikes, as well as the relatively conservative nature of the updates.

Let’s take the opportunity to offer another huge thank you to those AI pioneers and data centre speculators, and the wonderful benefits they’re bringing to humanity.

Whatever the reason for the price bumps, our conclusion is pretty clear. You probably shouldn’t be buying a brand new Android tablet right now.

If you absolutely have to, you’re better off finding one of last year’s models. It’ll be largely the same device, but a whole lot cheaper.