Samsung’s One UI 8.5 Hits the Lab: Galaxy Tab S8 and S9 Are Next in Line

Samsung isn’t slowing down. Just when you thought the One UI 8.0 rollout was the end of the road for 2025, the engineers in Suwon have already started cooking the next big thing. New internal test builds have been spotted on Samsung's servers, confirming that the Galaxy Tab S8 and Tab S9 series are now officially part of the One UI 8.5 development cycle.

Usually, a ".5" update is a mid-cycle refresh, but this year feels different. Based on the firmware strings—X910XXU5EYL2 for the Tab S9 and X900XXU9EYL1 for the Tab S8—we are looking at a substantial shift. This update is built on Android 16 QPR2, which is a big deal. Why? Because it aligns Samsung’s software closer to Google’s latest quarterly platform releases than ever before.

For tablet users, this usually means a focus on multitasking. The Galaxy Tab S9, with its OLED screen, is a prime candidate for the rumored "Liquid Glass" UI tweaks—a design language shift that brings more depth and transparency to the interface.

What should you actually care about? One UI 8.5 is set to debut a feature called Storage Share. Imagine sitting at your desk with your Tab S9 and needing a file that’s buried on your Galaxy phone. With Storage Share, your tablet treats your phone’s storage like a local folder. No more slow Bluetooth transfers or digging through cloud drives.

We are also seeing a massive push for "Continuous Image Generation." If you use Photo Assist to move objects or generate AI art on your tablet, you won’t have to save every single draft anymore. You can keep tweaking and only hit "Save" when it’s perfect. It's a small change that makes the creative workflow feel much less "clunky."

Right now, the software is behind closed doors. While the Galaxy S25 is currently running the public beta in a few countries, tablet users will likely have to wait until the Galaxy S26 launches in early 2026. Samsung typically uses its new flagship phones to premiere the stable version of these mid-cycle updates before pushing them to the "S" series tablets.

If you are rocking a Tab S8, this is great news. It proves that Samsung still views their 2022 flagship tablet as a priority for major platform shifts. Stay tuned, because as these test builds move from "internal" to "beta," the real fun begins.