Galaxy Tab S9 vs iPad 11" (11th Gen, 2025)
70
out of 100
VS
72
out of 100
Here we compared two tablets: the 11-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2) that was released on July 26, 2023, against the Apple iPad 11" (11th Gen, 2025), which is powered by Apple A16 Bionic and came out 1 year and 8 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
- Waterproof body (IP68 classification)
- Higher display refresh rate β 120 Hz
- Expandable storage via MicroSD card up to 1024GB
- Comes with 702 mAh larger battery capacity: 8400 vs 7698 mAh
- Delivers 24% higher peak brightness (584 against 470 nits)
- Has 33% more RAM: 8GB versus 6GB
- Dynamic AMOLED display (versus competitor's IPS LCD)
- Supports higher wattage charging (45W versus 30W)
- CPU with a higher amount of cores (+2)
- The front-facing camera can record video at 4K
Reasons to consider the Apple iPad 11" (11th Gen, 2025)
- Shows 18% longer battery life (27:25 vs 23:10 hours)
- 24% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 2589 and 2093 points
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
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 | Dynamic AMOLED | IPS LCD |
| Size | 11 inches | 11 inches |
| Resolution | 1600 x 2560 pixels | 1640 x 2360 pixels |
| Aspect ratio | 16:10 | 3:2 |
| PPI | 274 ppi | 264 ppi |
| Refresh rate | 120 Hz | 60 Hz |
| Adaptive refresh rate | Yes (30-120 Hz) | No |
| Max rated brightness | 600 nits | 500 nits |
| HDR support | Yes, HDR10+ | No |
| Screen protection | Corning Gorilla Glass 5 | Tempered glass |
| Screen-to-body ratio | 83.2% | 80.8% |
| Display features | - DCI-P3 | - DCI-P3 |
| RGB color space | 98.3% | 96.2% |
| PWM | 240 Hz | 21120 Hz |
| Response time | 2 ms | 38 ms |
| Contrast | β Infinity | 531:1 |
Screen space comparison
iPad 11" (11th Gen, 2025)
11β³ (3:2 ratio) = 55.8 in2
Galaxy Tab S9
11β³ (16:10 ratio) = 54.4 in2
~2% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
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 | 5.9 mm (0.23 inches) | 7 mm (0.28 inches) |
| Weight | 498 g (17.57 oz) | 477 g (16.83 oz) |
| Waterproof | IP68 | No |
| Rear material | Metal | Metal |
| Frame material | Metal | Metal |
| Colors | Gray, Yellow | Silver, Blue, Pink, Yellow |
| Fingerprint scanner | Yes, in-display | 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 (64th and 58th place)
Android Tablet Ranking (#47th place)
iPad Ranking (#16th place)
Performance
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 | Apple A16 Bionic |
| Max clock | 3360 MHz | 3460 MHz |
| CPU cores | 8 (1 + 2 + 2 + 3) | 6 (2 + 4) |
| Architecture | - 3 cores at 2 GHz: Cortex-A510 - 2 cores at 2.8 GHz: Cortex-A710 - 2 cores at 2.8 GHz: Cortex-A715 - 1 core at 3.2 GHz: Cortex-X3 |
- 4 cores at 2.02 GHz: Sawtooth - 2 cores at 3.46 GHz: Everest |
| L3 cache | 8 MB | - |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | TSMC |
| Lithography process | 4 nanometers | 4 nanometers |
| Neural processor (NPU) | Hexagon | Apple Neural Engine |
| Graphics | Adreno 740 | Apple GPU 4-core |
| GPU shading units | 1536 | 640 |
| GPU clock | 680 MHz | 1398 MHz |
| FLOPS | ~2089 GFLOPS | ~1789.4 GFLOPS |
Benchmarks
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
| Compute Score (GPU) | 9692 | 19767 |
| Single-core score | 2093 | 2589 |
| Multi-core score | 5838 | 6111 |
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
| CPU | 623980 | 498926 |
| GPU | 451553 | 466010 |
| Memory | 275042 | 202429 |
| UX | 420840 | 534152 |
| Total score | 1771415 | 1701517 |
| Samples | [3 tests] | [6 tests] |
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
| Stability | 97% | - |
| Graphics test | 9 FPS | - |
| Graphics score | 1156 | - |
3DMark Solar Bay
| Stability | 94% | - |
| Graphics test | 21 FPS | - |
| Section 1 | 24 FPS | - |
| Section 2 | 22 FPS | - |
| Section 3 | 18 FPS | - |
| Graphics score | 5635 | - |
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
| Stability | 89% | - |
| Graphics test | 23 FPS | - |
| Graphics score | 3917 | - |
Recent User Tests
Samsung Galaxy Tab S9
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| π 2026-06-11 (Mohammad Abu Sayeed) | AnTuTu 11 | 1749561 |
| π 2026-04-30 (Vulpes) | CPU Throttle | 87% |
| π 2026-04-30 (Vulpes) | AnTuTu 11 | 1777999 |
| π 2026-03-03 -> Lello75 | Geekbench 6 CPU | 2093 / 5838 |
| π 2025-10-12 (niko) | AnTuTu 11 | 1771415 |
Apple iPad 11" (11th Gen, 2025)
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| π 2026-07-23 (Anr1ll) | AnTuTu 11 | 1729497 |
| π 2026-07-20 (Giga) | Geekbench 6 CPU | 2702 / 6394 |
| π 2026-06-17 (Luq) | AnTuTu 11 | 1701517 |
| π 2026-04-26 (ThΓ nh) | AnTuTu 11 | 1744337 |
| π 2026-04-19 (Faeri) | AnTuTu 11 | 1628541 |
Memory
Configuration
| RAM size | 8 GB | 6 GB |
| Memory type | LPDDR5X | LPDDR5 |
| Memory clock | 4200 MHz | - |
| Channels | 4 | 4 |
| Storage size | 128 GB | 128 GB |
| Storage type | UFS 4.0 | 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 | 40 GB | 23 GB |
| OS updates | - | 0 years |
Battery
| Capacity | 8400 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 40 min) | Yes (34% in 30 min) |
| Full charging time | 1:30 hr | 1:58 hr |
| Battery cycles | - | 1000 cycles |
| Web browsing | 07:39 hr | 06:06 hr |
| Watching video | 12:06 hr | 07:41 hr |
| Gaming | 06:18 hr | 05:31 hr |
| Standby | 133 hr | 220 hr |
General 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 30FPS | Up to 60FPS |
| 1080p video recording | Up to 60FPS | Up to 60FPS |
| Slow motion | - | 240 FPS (1080p) |
| Lenses | 1) Standard: 13 MP |
1) Standard: 12 MP |
| Camera features | - | - Bokeh mode |
| Image resolution | 13 MP | 12 MP |
| Aperture | f/2.0 | f/1.8 |
| Focal length | 26 mm | - |
| 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 | f/2.4 |
| Sensor | - | 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 6E (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 | 3.2 | 2 |
| USB features | - Charging - USB-Storage mode - OTG |
- Charging - USB-Storage mode - OTG |
| DisplayPort | Yes | No |
| 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* | 20 | - |
| 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 | Mid-range |
| Announced | July 2023 | March 2025 |
| Release date | August 2023 | March 2025 |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $799 | $349 |
| Sensors | - Hall-effect sensor - Proximity sensor - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Fingerprint |
- Barometer - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Fingerprint |
| Keyboard weight | 423 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
If the camera, performance, gaming, and software are more important to you, then choose the Apple iPad 11" (11th Gen, 2025). But if the display and connectivity are more of a priority β go for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9.
Cast your vote
Total votes: 180