Galaxy Tab S11 review: Samsung, we’re ready for something new

Finest Costs Right now: Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 5G

What do individuals really need from an Android pill? It’s a query that’s been on our minds for just a few years now, and judging from the Samsung Galaxy Tab S11, it’s been on Samsung’s too.

After a 12 months wherein the corporate dropped the common mannequin from its premium pill vary, leaving solely the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10+ to accompany the flagship Extremely mannequin, the South Korean producer has selected yet one more new strategy.

This time round, there’s no Samsung Galaxy Tab S11+, with solely a Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 and a Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Extremely to select from.

With costs ranging from £799/$799, you’re getting a extremely succesful 11-inch pill with sturdy efficiency, a vibrant display screen, highly effective software program, and a bundled-in stylus. However apart from Samsung’s line-up indecision, there actually isn’t a lot that’s new or attention-grabbing right here.

Design & Construct

• Very acquainted design
• IP68 makes for an excellent bath-time pill
• New hexagon-shaped S Pen
• No extra rear attachment strip

The truth that you may specify your Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 in Gray or Silver speaks to the final lack of inspiration that surrounds the design and really feel of this pill.

It appears lots like final 12 months’s mannequin. And the 12 months earlier than that. In actual fact, glancing again so far as our Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+ assessment of 2020 reveals the identical primary, flat-edged type.

Pill design usually has remained fairly samey because the 2018 iPad Professional 3, after all, and Samsung has steadily refined its strategy through the years. Nowadays, there’s an in-display fingerprint sensor fairly than the outdated energy button-based answer.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Progress? Maybe. It’s actually extra handy to unlock when the pill is mendacity flat on a desk. Conversely, my very own thumbprint doesn’t appear to register fairly as persistently as I’d like.

IP68 certification is one other optimistic design flourish that Samsung brings to the desk(t), making tub instances with Disney+ really feel a lot much less precarious. It’s a way of reassurance that you just don’t get with the £999 iPad Professional.

One other factor you don’t get with Apple’s imperious Professional pill is a stylus within the field. You do with the Galaxy Tab S11, and this S Pen comes with a remodelled hexagonal type issue. It’s even simpler to grip, whereas additionally serving to the stylus to affix to the highest edge by means of magnets.

There’s now not a devoted strip on the again of the pill for this goal, however the brand new strategy is extra intuitive. Extra problematic, for my cash is the removing of Bluetooth Low Vitality assist, so you may’t use the S Pen to remotely activate features such because the digicam or navigation options

Display & Audio system

• 11-inch AMOLED
• 120Hz refresh fee
• No anti-reflective coating
• Quad audio system

With Samsung vacillating between the Plus and non-Plus variant, it’s value restating that that is an 11-inch show – so it’s considerably smaller than the 12.4-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab S10+, and solely fractionally bigger than the ten.9-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Fortunately, regardless of these two factors of comparability, it’s a lot nearer to the previous than the latter when it comes to high quality. It is a wealthy, vibrant AMOLED panel with a pointy 1600 x 2560 decision.

Samsung has even bolstered the brightness since final 12 months’s mannequin, with a peak of 1,000 nits (up from 650 nits) in Excessive Brightness Mode.

Conversely, it’s a disgrace to see Samsung rolling again from the anti-reflective coating of the Galaxy Tab S10+. This was a most welcome improve in final 12 months’s mannequin, however there’s no such provision to be discovered on the Galaxy Tab S11.

Sound high quality is robust, courtesy of a full quad speaker set-up, with audio system evenly spaced on every nook. There’s a properly deep, spacey sound stage right here, particularly given the (comparatively) compact nature of the system.

Specs & Efficiency

• MediaTek Dimensity 9400+ chipset
• 12GB RAM
• 128GB / 256GB / 512GB storage (microSD expandable)

Samsung has given the Galaxy Tab S11 a straight-up generational improve within the type of a MediaTek Dimensity 9400+ chipset. It won’t be probably the most recognisable chip available on the market, however make no mistake – it is a high-performing chip.

Benchmark outcomes are broadly similar to the OnePlus Pad 3 with its Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, which has been a byword for ‘flagship efficiency’ for a lot of 2025.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Certainly, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 really scored considerably greater than its illustrious rival in our GPU checks. There are mitigating circumstances with the OnePlus Pad 3’s extra pixel-packed show, after all, however the truth stays that the Galaxy Tab S11 is a really sturdy runner.

That is pushed house by firing up GRID Legends, one of the crucial graphically superior video games on the Google Play Retailer. With the excessive decision graphics pack put in and a full grid of detailed automobiles jostling for place, it barely dropped a body.

There’s a 12GB of RAM as normal, which is first rate fairly than excellent, and there’s a selection of 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB of inside storage. You may broaden that additional with a microSD slot.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 benchmarks

Digicam

• 13Mp rear digicam captures sometimes mediocre pictures
• 12Mp ultra-wide selfie cam greatest suited to video calls
• Helps 4K video at 30fps

I’m usually fairly dismissive with regards to discussing pill cameras, as a result of they don’t actually matter. In case you’re shopping for this sort of system with the intention of taking any variety of photos or movies, you’re doing it fallacious.

With that mentioned, the actual fact that these parts are all the time included necessitates some type of testing. And in the event you’re spending £800/$800 on any sensible system, it’s truthful to count on each element to at the very least do an satisfactory job.

So, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 has a 13Mp digicam round again, and a 12Mp digicam in entrance. It’s very similar to the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10+ earlier than it, minus the devoted 8Mp ultra-wide digicam.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

They’re high-quality. You may take satisfactory snaps with that 13Mp essential digicam if the lighting’s good and also you’re away out of your cellphone for some unlikely cause, or (as is extra probably) you’ll want to snap some paperwork.

Don’t hassle with these snaps if mentioned lighting is something lower than optimum. The sensor’s tiny, and also you don’t get OIS to help with longer exposures.

Samsung’s stable picture processing does a number of the work right here, lifting the colors and the publicity to almost-unnatural ranges. The additional pop arguably serves such inferior parts higher than on Samsung’s flagship telephones, as there are extra photographic sins to cowl.

Video seize extends to 4K and 30fps, which most telephones promoting for half the worth can beat. Once more, that’s the take care of tablets.

The 12Mp entrance digicam is far more necessary – not a lot for selfies as for video calls. Once you do use it to take selfies, it reveals itself to be a predictably restricted element. So possibly don’t.

Battery Life & Charging

• 8400mAh battery
• 45W wired charging
• No charger in field

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 comes with an 8400mAh battery. That’s precisely the identical measurement because the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9, which is the final comparable premium pill that Samsung made.

Similar to that two-year-old pill, that is enough for a full day of sunshine work or, as is a extra probably use case situation for a pill of this type, most of every week of occasional utilization (a spot of net shopping and the odd video).

Weirdly, the PCMark 3.0 Work Battery Take a look at didn’t work on the Tab S11, regardless of repeated tries, so I can’t supply our ordinary comparability to rival gadgets. Nevertheless, I did file that an hour of Disney+ streaming sapped 8 p.c of a full cost, whereas half-hour of sunshine gaming sapped 5%.

These are sturdy outcomes, and are greater than aggressive with different full-sized tablets.

Charging assist extends to a decent 45W, in the event you can present an acceptable charger (there isn’t one within the field). I recorded this getting from empty to 49% in half-hour.

Software program

• Android 16
• One UI 8
• Seven years of software program updates

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 is the primary pill to run on the corporate’s newest One UI 8 interface, working on high of Android 16. Given the sluggish rollout to Samsung’s telephones, that isn’t fairly such a minor declare because it sounds.

It appears and feels rather a lot like One UI 7, and that’s no dangerous factor. Samsung’s UI has tightened up considerably through the years, with a vibrant look and appealingly sharp widgets.

It’s properly optimised for tablets, too, with a notification pane that pops down from the centre or the left facet of the display screen, relying on the place you swipe from.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

Cut up display screen multitasking is dealt with intuitively, letting you contact and maintain from the app switching display screen, or just drag an app icon from the completely seen job bar alongside the underside. You may run three apps concurrently on this manner.

Samsung’s DeX, in the meantime, allows you to run a number of instanced desktops facet by facet, together with windowed apps, basically turning the Galaxy Tab S11 into a light-weight laptop computer – particularly in the event you pair it with the non-obligatory Slim E book Cowl Keyboard.

The S Pen stylus implementation continues to be the perfect within the enterprise, too, regardless of the partial regression with the removing of Bluetooth Low Vitality assist. I’m not solely bought on utilizing the S Pen to scrawl textual content for URLs and the like, however you may’t fault Samsung’s handwriting recognition for this characteristic.

Jon Mundy / Foundry

I’ve my very own private gripes over Samsung’s normal strategy to software program, however lately they largely revolve round its intensive efforts to model away from Google’s inventory apps. As somebody who’s closely invested within the Google manner of doing issues, I discover it tiresome having to arrange Google Pockets, Calendar, and Password Supervisor on Samsung gadgets. Maybe that’s simply my laziness coming to the fore.

Extra usually, the Android pill app scene merely isn’t as mature as that of Apple’s iPad. You’re extra more likely to stumble upon apps which are poorly optimised for the shape issue, in the event that they exist in any respect.

What can’t be denied is the continued generosity of Samsung’s seven-year replace promise. This arguably makes extra sense right here on a pill than it does on Samsung’s telephones, as you’re extra more likely to hold a pill round for a number of years.

For the second 12 months working, Samsung has gone massive on Galaxy AI with its new flagship pill. Samsung’s apps are shot by means of with it, together with Drawing Help (remodel tough sketches into artworks), Writing Help (refine your rapidly written notes), and extra.

In the meantime, Google Gemini is barely ever a protracted energy button press away, letting you ask questions on no matter’s on display screen.

Worth & Availability

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 is on the market now with costs ranging from £799/$799.99 for 128GB of storage, shifting as much as £899/$859.99 for 256GB and £999/$979.99 for 512GB.

You should buy it direct from Samsung’s web site within the UK and the US (the latter is working a tempting double-storage deal at launch), but in addition from all the ordinary retailers, together with Amazon (each UK and US), John Lewis, and Very. Including 5G connectivity to the package deal provides £150 for every storage variant within the UK, however there isn’t a such mobile possibility for US prospects.

It’s value noting that this isn’t low cost for an Android pill. It falls proper in between the £599 iPad Air and the £999 iPad Professional. Given the supply of a slick 120Hz AMOLED show, IP68 certification, and a bundled stylus, it arguably does sufficient to warrant such positioning.

Nevertheless, if we flip our consideration to the remainder of the Android pill pack, the Galaxy Tab S11 begins to look slightly dearer. The OnePlus Pad 3, for instance, provides you a much bigger, sharper, smoother show; comparable efficiency; extra storage as normal; a a lot larger battery; and sooner 80W charging, all for a value of simply £529.

It’s not higher in each manner (the Samsung wins on OLED, water resistance, S Pen, and longer software program assist), however the level is that it’s an entire £270 cheaper. And even £370, if we’re evaluating like-for-like on the storage entrance.

See how the Tab S11 stacks up towards our high suggestions in our round-up of the perfect tablets round.

Must you purchase the Samsung Galaxy Tab S11?

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 is one other extraordinarily competent pill with only a few weaknesses. It’s quick, nicely constructed, packs an attractive AMOLED show, and bundles in a well-integrated S Pen stylus.

Nevertheless, we’ve been saying related issues about Samsung’s high tablets for years now, and the Galaxy Tab S11 doesn’t a lot as threaten to aim something new.

That’s high-quality – the pill format usually is fairly static lately. Nevertheless, rival Android pill makers have responded to this by providing extra for much less, and the Galaxy Tab S11 feels ever so barely costly.

It’s probably the most full 11-inch Android pill on the market, and the closest equal to the 11-inch iPad Professional you’re more likely to discover. However it’s not as compelling as that formidable Apple rival, whereas in Android phrases you may get a broadly related (and in some methods superior) expertise for considerably much less.

Specs

• Android 16 with One UI 8
• 11in, 1600 x 2560, OLED, 120Hz show
• In-display fingerprint sensor
• Mediatek Dimensity 9400+
• 12GB RAM
• 128GB/256GB/512GB storage
• 13Mp, f/1.8 essential digicam
• As much as 4K @ 30fps rear video
• 12Mp front-facing digicam
• Quad audio system
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e
• Bluetooth 5.4
• 8400mAh battery
• 45W charging
• 253.8 x 165.3 x 5.5 mm
• 469g
• Launch colors: Moonstone Grey, Platinum Silver