Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ (Plus) vs iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026)
59
out of 100
VS
85
out of 100
Here we compared two tablets: the 12.4-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ (Plus) (with Exynos 1380) that was released on October 4, 2023, against the Apple iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026), which is powered by Apple M4 (iPad) and came out 2 years and 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
Key differences
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ (Plus)
- Waterproof body (IP68 classification)
- Has a 1.4 inches larger screen size
- Comes with 2484 mAh larger battery capacity: 10090 vs 7606 mAh
- Higher display refresh rate – 90 Hz
- Delivers 48% higher peak brightness (757 against 510 nits)
- Expandable storage via MicroSD card up to 1024GB
- Supports higher wattage charging (45W versus 20W)
Reasons to consider the Apple iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026)
- 4.1x better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (3116K versus 765K)
- Has 2x more RAM: 12GB versus 6GB
- Newer Bluetooth version (v6.0)
- Uses a faster type of memory: LPDDR5
- Compatible with Wi-Fi 7 wireless networks
- Much smaller footprint: 16% more compact case (68.5 vs 82 square inches)
- 3.7x faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 3717 and 1001 points
- More energy-efficient CPU – Apple M4 (iPad)
- CPU with a higher amount of cores (+2)
- Weighs 163 grams less
Review
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.
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate NanoReview Score
Value for money (Beta)
Tests and specifications
Comparison table of technical specifications and testsDisplay
| Type | TFT LCD | IPS LCD |
| Size | 12.4 inches | 11 inches |
| Resolution | 1600 x 2560 pixels | 1640 x 2360 pixels |
| Aspect ratio | 16:10 | 3:2 |
| PPI | 243 ppi | 264 ppi |
| Refresh rate | 90 Hz | 60 Hz |
| Adaptive refresh rate | No | No |
| Max rated brightness | 800 nits | 500 nits |
| HDR support | Yes, HDR10 | No |
| Screen protection | Corning Gorilla Glass 3 | Tempered glass |
| Screen-to-body ratio | 84.2% | 81.5% |
| Display features | - DCI-P3 | - DCI-P3 |
| RGB color space | 97.6% | 99.6% |
| PWM | 61100 Hz | Not detected |
| Response time | 28 ms | 22 ms |
| Contrast | 1096:1 | 1140:1 |
Screen space comparison
Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ (Plus)
12.4″ (16:10 ratio) = 69.1 in2
iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026)
11″ (3:2 ratio) = 55.8 in2
~23% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
Design and build
| Height | 285.4 mm (11.24 inches) | 247.6 mm (9.75 inches) |
| Width | 185.4 mm (7.3 inches) | 178.5 mm (7.03 inches) |
| Thickness | 6.5 mm (0.26 inches) | 6.1 mm (0.24 inches) |
| Weight | 627 g (22.12 oz) | 464 g (16.37 oz) |
| Waterproof | IP68 | No |
| Rear material | Metal | Metal |
| Frame material | Metal | Metal |
| Colors | Silver, Gray, Green, Purple | Gold, Gray, Blue, Purple |
| Fingerprint scanner | Yes, in-button | Yes, in-button |
| Area | 529 cm2 (82.1 inches2) | 442 cm2 (68.5 inches2) |
| Repairability | - | Average (2.85/5) |
| Drop resistance | - | Bad (E) · 42 drops |
Visual size comparison
Screen-to-body ratio
Tablet Ranking (97th and 23rd place)
Android Tablet Ranking (#73rd place)
iPad Ranking (#6th place)
Performance
| Chipset | Samsung Exynos 1380 | Apple M4 (iPad) |
| Max clock | 2400 MHz | 4410 MHz |
| CPU cores | 8 (4 + 4) | 10 (4 + 6) |
| Architecture | - 4 cores at 2 GHz: Cortex-A55 - 4 cores at 2.4 GHz: Cortex-A78 |
- 6 cores at 2.85 GHz: - 4 cores at 4.41 GHz: |
| L3 cache | 4 MB | - |
| Manufacturing | Samsung | TSMC |
| Lithography process | 5 nanometers | 3 nanometers |
| Neural processor (NPU) | Yes | Apple Neural Engine |
| Graphics | Mali-G68 MP5 | 9 core Apple GPU |
| GPU shading units | 160 | - |
| GPU clock | 949 MHz | 1470 MHz |
| FLOPS | ~303.7 GFLOPS | ~3763.2 GFLOPS |
Benchmarks
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
| Compute Score (GPU) | 3075 | 52952 |
| Single-core score | 1001 | 3717 |
| Multi-core score | 2859 | 13294 |
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
| CPU | 304267 | 915032 |
| GPU | 91303 | 1135331 |
| Memory | 135522 | 349968 |
| UX | 234103 | 715682 |
| Total score | 765195 | 3116013 |
| Samples | [73 tests] | [2 tests] |
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
| Stability | 98% | - |
| Graphics test | 2 FPS | 23 FPS |
| Graphics score | 295 | 3099 |
3DMark Solar Bay
| Graphics test | - | 46 FPS |
| Section 1 | - | 59 FPS |
| Section 2 | - | 45 FPS |
| Section 3 | - | 34 FPS |
| Graphics score | - | 12127 |
PCMark 3.0
| Web score | 9549 | - |
| Video editing | 6758 | - |
| Photo editing | 25124 | - |
| Data manipulation | 9193 | - |
| Writing score | 14276 | - |
Recent User Tests
Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE+ (Plus)
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 📘 2026-08-15 (Julian Ludwig) | Geekbench 6 GPU | 3117 |
| 📘 2026-08-15 (Julian Ludwig) | Geekbench 6 CPU | 1001 / 2859 |
Apple iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026)
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 📘 2026-08-03 (Astreeek) | AnTuTu 11 | 2940000 |
| 📘 2026-04-26 (BG-M4-User) | Geekbench 6 GPU | 52952 |
| 📘 2026-04-26 (BG-M4-User) | Geekbench 6 CPU | 3717 / 13294 |
| 📘 2026-04-26 (BG-M4-User) | AnTuTu 11 | 3116013 |
Memory
Configuration
| RAM size | 6 GB | 12 GB |
| Memory type | LPDDR4X | LPDDR5 |
| Memory clock | 2133 MHz | - |
| Channels | 2 | 4 |
| Storage size | 128 GB | 128 GB |
| Storage type | UFS 2.2 | NVMe |
| Memory card | MicroSD | No |
| Memory card max size | Up to 1024 GB | - |
Software
| Operating system | Android 13 (Can be upgraded to Android 14) | iPadOS 26.3 (Can be upgraded to iPadOS 27) |
| ROM | One UI 6.1 | - |
| OS size | 29 GB | 38 GB |
| OS updates | - | 0 years |
Battery
| Capacity | 10090 mAh | 7606 mAh |
| Max charge power | 45 W | 20 W |
| Battery type | Li-Ion | Li-Ion |
| Replaceable | No | No |
| Wireless charging | No | No |
| Reverse charging | No | No |
| Fast charging | Yes (50% in 40 min) | Yes (50% in 60 min) |
| Full charging time | 1:50 hr | 2:16 hr |
| Battery cycles | - | 1000 cycles |
| Web browsing | 10:19 hr | - |
| Watching video | 16:16 hr | - |
| Gaming | 09:43 hr | - |
| Standby | 178 hr | - |
General battery life
Main camera
| Matrix | 8 megapixels | 12 megapixels |
| Image resolution | - | 4032 x 3024 |
| Zoom | Digital | Digital |
| Flash | No | No |
| Stabilization | Digital | Digital |
| 8K video recording | No | No |
| 4K video recording | Up to 30FPS | Up to 60FPS |
| 1080p video recording | Up to 30FPS | Up to 60FPS |
| Slow motion | - | 240 FPS (1080p) |
| Lenses | 1) Standard: 8 MP 2) Ultrawide: 8 MP |
1) Standard: 12 MP |
| Camera features | - | - Bokeh mode |
| Image resolution | 8 MP | 12 MP |
| Aperture | f/2.0 | f/1.8 |
| Pixel size | - | 1.22 micron |
| Autofocus | Phase autofocus | Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) |
| Stabilization | Digital | Digital |
| 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 |
| Sensor | CMOS | CMOS |
| Autofocus | No | No |
| Stabilization | Digital | Digital |
| Video resolution | 1080p (Full HD) at 30 FPS | 1080p (Full HD) at 60 FPS |
| Depth sensor (TOF 3D) | No | No |
Connectivity
| Wi-Fi standard | Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) | 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 | 5.3 | 6.0 |
| Bluetooth features | LE | LE |
| USB type | USB Type-C | USB Type-C |
| USB version | 2 | 3.1 |
| USB features | - Charging - USB-Storage mode |
- Charging - USB-Storage mode - OTG |
| DisplayPort | No | Yes |
| GPS | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS | GPS, GLONASS |
| NFC* | No | No |
| Infrared port | No | No |
| Number of SIM* | 1 | - |
| Type of SIM card | Nano | eSIM |
| eSIM support* | Yes | Yes |
| Hybrid slot | No | No |
| LTE Cat* | 18 | - |
| 5G support | Yes | Yes |
Sound
| Speakers | Stereo | Stereo |
| Headphone audio jack | No | No |
| FM radio | No | No |
| Dolby Atmos | Yes | Yes |
Speakers test
Max loudness
Other
| Category | Mid-range | Flagship |
| Announced | October 2023 | March 2026 |
| Release date | October 2023 | March 2026 |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $599 | $599 |
| Successor | - Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE+ | - |
| Sensors | - Hall-effect sensor - Proximity sensor - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Fingerprint |
- Barometer - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Fingerprint |
| Keyboard weight | 345 g | - |
| Bundled charger | Not included | Yes, 20 W |
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.
Conclusion
After analyzing all the data, we think that the Apple iPad Air 11" (8th Gen, 2026) is definitely a better buy.
Cast your vote
Total votes: < 1