Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra leak just revealed a feature iPad Pro can't match

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra
(Image credit: Evan Blass)

We thought everything about the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 had already been leaked by this point, but a brand new feature has been revealed in the latest leak that could be great for creative types. 

The info comes from Evan Blass's Leakmail newsletter (via GSMArena). The one totally new thing revealed by this leak is a new crossover feature for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, a Samsung phone and an S Pen.

"Unleash your imagination with Canva" and "your smartphone becomes the color palette," the promo says (when machine translated from Italian), with the image showing a Galaxy S22 Ultra (as confirmed by the small print) acting as a color picker when creating an image on the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra using the popular Canva app.

A piece of leaked promo material for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, showing a Canva illustration with a Galaxy S22 Ultra beside it acting as a color palette for the S Pen stylus.

(Image credit: Evan Blass)

It's not clear if this feature is exclusive to the Tab S8 Ultra and Galaxy S22 Ultra, but unfortunately it would make sense if it did. The S22 Ultra and Tab S8 Ultra are both thought to use the same, super low-latency S Pen technology, something that older stylus-compatible Samsung phones like the Galaxy S21 Ultra or the Galaxy Note 20 won't be able to match.

Meanwhile, the multitasking screen also gives us a glance at the Samsung Book Cover for the S8 Ultra, which features a trackpad as we saw on one of the covers sold for the Galaxy Tab S7 Plus, and it's similar to what Apple offers for the iPad Pro.

A piece of leaked promo material for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, showing the tablet with an S Pen stylus and a keyboard cover with a trackpad.

(Image credit: Evan Blass)

However, because the iPhone 13 lineup doesn't support Apple Pencil input, you can't use the iPhone and iPad Pro together in the same way as you should be able to with the Galaxy Tab S8 and Galaxy S22 Ultra. And we don't think Apple is adding stylus input to its iPhone lineup anytime soon based on the rumors for the iPhone 14

Beyond these, the leaked material consists of a number of renders of the three tablets in the range (standard, Plus and Ultra), along with details like display size, display resolution, refresh rate, screen technology, overall size, weight and how thick the bezels are.

A piece of leaked promo material for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, showing the tablet's display and body measurements and specs.

(Image credit: Evan Blass)

There are also explainers that show the tablets' ultrawide camera, their shared 45W charging support and their different battery capacities.

A piece of leaked promo material for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8, showing the ultrawide camera

(Image credit: Evan Blass)

We also see that these tablets will likely run on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, and will have the option for expanding the default storage via microSD cards.

There's also a diagram explaining the contents of the packages, which is the tablet, an S Pen stylus, a SIM ejection tool, a quick start guide and a USB-C cable. Note there's no charger here, something Samsung started to leave out of boxes with the Galaxy S21 last year. To get that 45W maximum speed, you'll have to buy a charger or hope you already own a compatible one.

It's less than a week until the expected debut date of the Galaxy Tab S8 family at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked on February 9, alongside the Galaxy S22 smartphone. Although given the torrent of leaks we've seen for both in the past few weeks, it's hard to imagine Samsung has anything left to confirm on the day.

Richard Priday
Assistant Phones Editor

Richard is based in London, covering news, reviews and how-tos for phones, tablets, gaming, and whatever else people need advice on. Following on from his MA in Magazine Journalism at the University of Sheffield, he's also written for WIRED U.K., The Register and Creative Bloq. When not at work, he's likely thinking about how to brew the perfect cup of specialty coffee.