Home > Tablet comparison > Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra vs Apple iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026) – which one to choose?

Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra vs iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026)

86 out of 100
Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra
VS
85 out of 100
Apple iPad Air 11
Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra
iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026)

Here we compared two flagship tablets: the 14.6-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra (with MediaTek Dimensity 9400 Plus) that was released on September 4, 2025, against the Apple iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026), which is powered by Apple M4 (iPad) and came out 6 months after. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

Select the amount of RAM to evaluate performance and value for money more precisely
Memory
  1. Differences
  2. Review
  3. Specs
  4. Benchmarks
  5. Battery life
  6. Camera
  7. Comments (1)

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each tablet
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra
  • Waterproof body (IP68 classification)
  • Higher display refresh rate – 120 Hz
  • Has a 3.6 inches larger screen size
  • Comes with 3994 mAh larger battery capacity: 11600 vs 7606 mAh
  • Delivers 108% higher peak brightness (1068 against 514 nits)
  • Expandable storage via MicroSD card up to 2048GB
  • Thinner bezels – 9.3% more screen real estate
  • Supports higher wattage charging (45W versus 20W)
  • Dynamic AMOLED display (versus competitor's IPS LCD)
  • The front-facing camera can record video at 4K
Reasons to consider the Apple iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026)
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v6.0)
  • Much smaller footprint: 35% more compact case (68.5 vs 105.4 square inches)
  • 10% higher pixel density (264 vs 239 PPI)
  • CPU with a higher amount of cores (+2)
  • Weighs 228 grams less
  • 33% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 3717 and 2799 points

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra and Apple iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026) crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
Scores with a red asterisk (*) are approximate and may change in the future as we gather more data.
NanoReview Score
Final comparison evaluation
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate NanoReview Score
📱 Primary usage:

Value for money (Beta)

To get an accurate value-for-money index, update the default prices with actual prices from your country’s retailers (for the selected memory configs) and press the "Calculate" button.
Currency
12 / 256 GB
VS
12 / 128 GB
19.3
(Bad)
Value Index
62.8
(Average)

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests
Tablet:
Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra
vs
iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026)

Display

Type Dynamic AMOLED IPS LCD
Size 14.6 inches 11 inches
Resolution 1848 x 2960 pixels 1640 x 2360 pixels
Aspect ratio 16:10 3:2
PPI 239 ppi 264 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 60 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes (30-120 Hz) No
Max rated brightness 1000 nits 500 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR 1600 nits -
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ No
Screen protection Tempered glass Tempered glass
Screen-to-body ratio 90.8% 81.5%
Display features - DCI-P3 - DCI-P3
Display tests
RGB color space 99.8% 99.6%
PWM 480 Hz Not detected
Response time 2 ms 22 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity 1140:1
Screen space comparison
Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra
14.6″ (16:10 ratio) = 95.8 in2
iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026)
11″ (3:2 ratio) = 55.8 in2
~71% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 326.3 mm (12.85 inches) 247.6 mm (9.75 inches)
Width 208.5 mm (8.21 inches) 178.5 mm (7.03 inches)
Thickness 5.1 mm (0.2 inches) 6.1 mm (0.24 inches)
Weight 692 g (24.41 oz) 464 g (16.37 oz)
Waterproof IP68 No
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber -
Rear material Metal Metal
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors Silver, Gray Gold, Gray, Blue, Purple
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display Yes, in-button
Area 680 cm2 (105.5 inches2) 442 cm2 (68.5 inches2)
Repairability Average (2.78/5) Average (2.85/5)
Drop resistance - Bad (E) · 42 drops
Visual size comparison
Screen-to-body ratio
Tablet Ranking (16th and 23rd place)
iPad Ranking (#6th place)

Performance

Chipset specifications of Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra and Apple iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026)
SoC
Chipset MediaTek Dimensity 9400 Plus Apple M4 (iPad)
Max clock 3630 MHz 4410 MHz
CPU cores 8 (1 + 3 + 4) 10 (4 + 6)
Architecture - 4 cores at 2.4 GHz: Cortex-A720
- 3 cores at 3.3 GHz: Cortex-X4
- 1 core at 3.73 GHz: Cortex-X925		 - 6 cores at 2.85 GHz:
- 4 cores at 4.41 GHz:
L3 cache 12 MB -
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Lithography process 3 nanometers 3 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) MediaTek NPU 890 Apple Neural Engine
GPU
Graphics Mali-G925 Immortalis MP12 9 core Apple GPU
GPU shading units 1536 -
GPU clock 1612 MHz 1470 MHz
FLOPS ~4952.1 GFLOPS ~3763.2 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra and Apple iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026)
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
Compute Score (GPU) 22106 52952
Single-core score 2799 3717
Multi-core score 9105 13294
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
CPU 838002 915032
GPU 1024333 1135331
Memory 398068 349968
UX 612893 715682
Total score 2873296 3116013
Samples [114 tests] [2 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Stability 87% -
Graphics test 18 FPS 23 FPS
Graphics score 2422 3099
3DMark Solar Bay
Graphics test 43 FPS 46 FPS
Section 1 47 FPS 59 FPS
Section 2 45 FPS 45 FPS
Section 3 38 FPS 34 FPS
Graphics score 11418 12127
Sources: 3DMark [5], [6]
PCMark 3.0
Web score 12340 -
Video editing 7385 -
Photo editing 40750 -
Data manipulation 14039 -
Writing score 27541 -
Submit your benchmark results

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra
No benchmark results yet
Add
Apple iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026)
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-08-03 (Astreeek)AnTuTu 112940000
📘 2026-04-26 (BG-M4-User)Geekbench 6 GPU52952
📘 2026-04-26 (BG-M4-User)Geekbench 6 CPU3717 / 13294
📘 2026-04-26 (BG-M4-User)AnTuTu 113116013
Add View all (4)

Memory

Configuration
RAM
RAM size 12 GB 12 GB
Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR5
Memory clock 5333 MHz -
Channels 4 4
Storage
Storage size 256 GB 128 GB
Storage type UFS 4.0 NVMe
Memory card MicroSD No
Memory card max size Up to 2048 GB -

Software

Operating system Android 16 iPadOS 26.3 (Can be upgraded to iPadOS 27)
ROM One UI 8.5 -
OS size 28.1 GB 38 GB
OS updates 0 years 0 years

Battery

Capacity 11600 mAh 7606 mAh
Max charge power 45 W 20 W
Battery type Li-Po Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging No No
Reverse charging No No
Fast charging Yes (38% in 30 min) Yes (50% in 60 min)
Full charging time 1:35 hr 2:16 hr
Battery cycles 1200 cycles 1000 cycles
Battery life tests
Web browsing 07:39 hr -
Watching video 11:26 hr -
Gaming 08:36 hr -
Standby 217 hr -
General battery life
Add your battery life

Main camera

Matrix 13 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 4128 x 3096 4032 x 3024
Zoom Digital Digital
Flash LED No
Stabilization Digital Digital
8K video recording No No
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion - 240 FPS (1080p)
Lenses 1) Standard: 13 MP
2) Ultrawide: 8 MP
1) Standard: 12 MP
Camera features - - Bokeh mode
Standard lens
Image resolution 13 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/2.0 f/1.8
Focal length 26 mm -
Sensor size 1/3.4" (≈ 0.29 inch) -
Pixel size 1 micron 1.22 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Digital Digital
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 8 MP -
Aperture f/2.2 -
Stabilization Digital -

Selfie camera

Megapixels 12 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 4000 x 3000 4032 x 3024
Aperture f/2.4 f/2.4
Sensor CMOS CMOS
Autofocus No No
Stabilization Digital Digital
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 30 FPS 1080p (Full HD) at 60 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No No

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be) Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display		 - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 5.4 6.0
Bluetooth features LE LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 3.2 3.1
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG		 - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
DisplayPort Yes Yes
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS GPS, GLONASS
NFC* No No
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM* 1 -
Type of SIM card Nano eSIM
Multi SIM mode Standby -
eSIM support* Yes Yes
Hybrid slot No No
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers 4.0 Stereo
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos Yes Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced September 2025 March 2026
Release date September 2025 March 2026
Launch price (MSRP) $1199 $599
SAR (body) 0.8 W/kg -
Sensors - Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint		 - Barometer
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Fingerprint
Bundled charger Not included Yes, 20 W
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

If the display, battery life, and design are more important to you, then choose the Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra. But if the camera, performance, gaming, connectivity, and software are more of a priority – go for the Apple iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026).

Cast your vote

So, which tablet would you choose?
2 (33.3%)
4 (66.7%)
Total votes: 6

Related comparisons

1. Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra
2. Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra vs Xiaomi Pad 7 Ultra
3. Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra vs Apple iPad Pro 12.9" (6th Gen, 2022)
4. Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra vs Apple iPad Pro 13" (7th Gen, 2024)
5. Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra
6. Apple iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026) vs Xiaomi Pad 7 Ultra
7. Apple iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026) vs Apple iPad Pro 11" (6th Gen, 2025)
8. Apple iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026) vs Apple iPad Air 11" (7th Gen, 2025)
9. Apple iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026) vs Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ (Plus)
Compare other tablets (80+)

User opinions

You can share your opinion or ask a question in the comments below
🌐 Register your profile and become part of NanoReview community!
Avatar
ComputerNerd March 31, 2026 at 04:40 PM
They appeal to different markets. The Samsung Galaxy S11 Tablet appeals to professionals in business that want a tablet experience for their daily work. Think of someone in fashion design or marketing designs. The M4 iPad Air appeals to artists and kids (ages 6-14) that want a lightweight tablet for drawing and basic web browsing. Also, some games due to the powerful M4 chip. At $600, the cost effectiveness is hard to overlook even if you hate Apple.
0 Reply
EnglishРусский