With smartphones getting dramatically larger over the past few years, Google has specifically put a focus on these kinds of devices including tablets in tailoring new Android versions to more effectively take advantage of the large screen estate, thereby enhancing productivity and multitasking.
Testament to this is the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 which became the first Samsung device to launch with Android 12L-based One UI 4.1.1. Android 12L is an update on the vanilla Android 12 that is specifically built for devices with large screens. More on it here.
Next to join in the fun is the Galaxy Tab S8 series that has started receiving the Android 12L update. However, at the time of writing, Sammobile notes that the update is currently only being pushed to users in Europe and South Korea. A global rollout should however soon follow.
The Android 12L update also includes the August 2022 security patch and is available for cellular and Wi-Fi only variants of the Galaxy Tab S8, Galaxy Tab S8+, and the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra. For reference, the update features the firmware version X70xBXXU2AVH2 on the Galaxy Tab S8, X80xBXXU2AVH5 on the Galaxy Tab S8+ and X90xBXXU2AVH2 on the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra.
In terms of what the update brings, it is very similar to what the Galaxy Fold 4 demonstrated, including the taskbar feature that stays at the bottom of the screen, allowing for faster shifting between apps and more intuitive multitasking. The taskbar feature also allows apps to open in split screen mode, while it can also be used to pin and open the most frequently used apps.
There is also the introduction of a new two-finger gesture that can be used to switch between full screen and split screen views.
The Android 12L update makes it possible for the Galaxy Tab S8 series to extract text from any image, share it with any app or translate the text into a different language. The feature however supports a limited number of languages, namely, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish
An interesting update has also been made to the My Files app, which can now search for information within files. For instance, if you had typed a name in a document which you can not remember its file name, you can now use search for the specific name and any document or image housing the name will come up. For your privacy, you can exclude files that are visible on the results page.
The My Files improvement is a Samsung-specific update thanks to One UI 4.1.1 while the others are all from Android 12L, which means other devices from different manufacturers should get the functionalities once they update to the new OS version.
Another Samsung-specific update is the ability to set a different caller background for each contact that you have. Samsung’s keyboard also now features a wider range of emojis, stickers and kaomoji.
Other big screen devices from Samsung expected to get the One UI 4.1.1 update in the coming weeks and months include the Galaxy Tab S7 series, Tab S7 FE, Tab S6, Tab S6 Lite and Tab Active3.
