Galaxy Tab S9 FE vs iPad 11" (11th Gen, 2025)

Here we compared two mid-range tablets: the 10.9-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE (with Exynos 1380) that was released on October 4, 2023, against the Apple iPad 11" (11th Gen, 2025), which is powered by Apple A16 Bionic and came out 1 year and 5 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

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each tablet
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE
  • Waterproof body (IP68 classification)
  • Higher display refresh rate โ€“ 90 Hz
  • Delivers 49% higher peak brightness (698 against 470 nits)
  • Expandable storage via MicroSD card up to 1024GB
  • Supports higher wattage charging (45W versus 30W)
  • CPU with a higher amount of cores (+2)
Reasons to consider the Apple iPad 11" (11th Gen, 2025)
  • 2.3x better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (1701K versus 741K)
  • Shows 10% longer battery life (27:25 vs 25:00 hours)
  • Uses a faster type of memory: LPDDR5
  • 2.6x faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 2589 and 1014 points
  • Weighs 46 grams less

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE and Apple iPad 11" (11th Gen, 2025) 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
NanoReview Score
Final comparison evaluation
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๐Ÿ“ฑ Primary usage:

Value for money (Beta)

To get an accurate value-for-money index, update the default prices with actual prices from your countryโ€™s retailers (for the selected memory configs) and press the "Calculate" button.
Currency
6 / 128 GB
VS
6 / 128 GB
34.2
(Mediocre)
Value Index
120.8
(Excellent)

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type TFT LCD IPS LCD
Size 10.9 inches 11 inches
Resolution 1440 x 2304 pixels 1640 x 2360 pixels
Aspect ratio 16:10 3:2
PPI 249 ppi 264 ppi
Refresh rate 90 Hz 60 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate No No
Max rated brightness 750 nits 500 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10 No
Screen protection Corning Gorilla Glass 3 Tempered glass
Screen-to-body ratio 81.7% 80.8%
Display features - DCI-P3 - DCI-P3
Display tests
RGB color space 96.7% 96.2%
PWM 84400 Hz 21120 Hz
Response time 27 ms 38 ms
Contrast 1052:1 531:1
Screen space comparison
iPad 11" (11th Gen, 2025)
11โ€ณ (3:2 ratio) = 55.8 in2
Galaxy Tab S9 FE
10.9โ€ณ (16:10 ratio) = 53.4 in2
~4% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 254.3 mm (10.01 inches) 248.6 mm (9.79 inches)
Width 165.8 mm (6.53 inches) 179.5 mm (7.07 inches)
Thickness 6.5 mm (0.26 inches) 7 mm (0.28 inches)
Weight 523 g (18.45 oz) 477 g (16.83 oz)
Waterproof IP68 No
Rear material Metal Metal
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors Silver, Gray, Green, Purple Silver, Blue, Pink, Yellow
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-button Yes, in-button
Area 422 cm2 (65.4 inches2) 446 cm2 (69.2 inches2)
Repairability - Average (2.78/5)
Screen-to-body ratio
Tablet Ranking (109th and 58th place)
iPad Ranking (#16th place)

Performance

Chipset specifications of Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE and Apple iPad 11" (11th Gen, 2025)
SoC
Chipset Samsung Exynos 1380 Apple A16 Bionic
Max clock 2400 MHz 3460 MHz
CPU cores 8 (4 + 4) 6 (2 + 4)
Architecture - 4 cores at 2 GHz: Cortex-A55
- 4 cores at 2.4 GHz: Cortex-A78
- 4 cores at 2.02 GHz: Sawtooth
- 2 cores at 3.46 GHz: Everest
L3 cache 4 MB -
Manufacturing Samsung TSMC
Lithography process 5 nanometers 4 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Yes Apple Neural Engine
GPU
Graphics Mali-G68 MP5 Apple GPU 4-core
GPU shading units 160 640
GPU clock 949 MHz 1398 MHz
FLOPS ~303.7 GFLOPS ~1789.4 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE and Apple iPad 11" (11th Gen, 2025)
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
Compute Score (GPU) 3076 19767
Single-core score 1014 2589
Multi-core score 2910 6111
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
CPU 306773 498926
GPU 92101 466010
Memory 125803 202429
UX 216534 534152
Total score 741211 1701517
Samples [2 tests] [6 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Stability 97% -
Graphics test 2 FPS -
Graphics score 295 -
Sources: 3DMark [5]
Web score 10094 -
Video editing 6776 -
Photo editing 25266 -
Data manipulation 10377 -
Writing score 14346 -

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-07-15 -> AzuNoBelAnTuTu 11741211
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-03-27 (DanielDuca12)AnTuTu 11696034
Apple iPad 11" (11th Gen, 2025)
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-07-23 (Anr1ll)AnTuTu 111729497
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-07-20 (Giga)Geekbench 6 CPU2702 / 6394
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-06-17 (Luq)AnTuTu 111701517
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-04-26 (Thร nh)AnTuTu 111744337
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-04-19 (Faeri)AnTuTu 111628541

Memory

Configuration
RAM
RAM size 6 GB 6 GB
Memory type LPDDR4X LPDDR5
Memory clock 2133 MHz -
Channels 2 4
Storage
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 18.4 (Can be upgraded to iPadOS 26.5)
ROM One UI 6.1 -
OS size 29 GB 23 GB
OS updates - 0 years

Battery

Capacity 8000 mAh 7698 mAh
Max charge power 45 W 30 W
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Po
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging No No
Reverse charging No No
Fast charging Yes (50% in 30 min) Yes (34% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:30 hr 1:58 hr
Battery cycles - 1000 cycles
Battery life tests
Web browsing 08:42 hr 06:06 hr
Watching video 12:33 hr 07:41 hr
Gaming 05:38 hr 05:31 hr
Standby 145 hr 220 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
1) Standard: 12 MP
Camera features - - Bokeh mode
Standard lens
Image resolution 8 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/2.0 f/1.8
Autofocus Phase autofocus Phase autofocus
Stabilization Digital 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 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
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 5.3
Bluetooth features LE LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 2 2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
DisplayPort No No
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
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 Mid-range
Announced October 2023 March 2025
Release date October 2023 March 2025
Launch price (MSRP) $449 $349
Successor - Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE -
SAR (body) 0.59 W/kg -
Sensors - Hall-effect sensor
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Barometer
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
Keyboard weight 345 g -
Bundled charger Not included Yes, 30 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 11" (11th Gen, 2025) is definitely a better buy.

Cast your vote

So, which tablet would you choose?
25 (32.9%)
51 (67.1%)
Total votes: 76

User opinions

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