Home > Tablet comparison > Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 vs Apple iPad Air 11" (6th Gen, 2024) – which one to choose?

Galaxy Tab S9 vs iPad Air 11" (6th Gen, 2024)

70 out of 100
Samsung Galaxy Tab S9
VS
80 out of 100
Apple iPad Air 11
Galaxy Tab S9
iPad Air 11" (6th Gen, 2024)

Here we compared two flagship 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 Air 11" (6th Gen, 2024), which is powered by Apple M2 (iPad) and came out 10 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 (2)

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each tablet
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9
  • Waterproof body (IP68 classification)
  • Higher display refresh rate – 120 Hz
  • Expandable storage via MicroSD card up to 1024GB
  • Supports higher wattage charging (45W versus 20W)
  • Delivers 22% higher peak brightness (584 against 478 nits)
  • 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" (6th Gen, 2024)
  • 43% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (2536K versus 1771K)
  • 25% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 2619 and 2093 points

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 and Apple iPad Air 11" (6th Gen, 2024) 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
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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
8 / 128 GB
VS
8 / 128 GB
64.6
(Average)
Value Index
75.1
(Good)

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests
Tablet:
Galaxy Tab S9
vs
iPad Air 11" (6th Gen, 2024)

Display

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% 81.5%
Display features - DCI-P3 - DCI-P3
Display tests
RGB color space 98.3% 99.4%
PWM 240 Hz Not detected
Response time 2 ms 52 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity 1265:1
Screen space comparison
iPad Air 11" (6th Gen, 2024)
11″ (3:2 ratio) = 55.8 in2
Galaxy Tab S9
11″ (16:10 ratio) = 54.4 in2
~2% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 254.3 mm (10.01 inches) 247.6 mm (9.75 inches)
Width 165.8 mm (6.53 inches) 178.5 mm (7.03 inches)
Thickness 5.9 mm (0.23 inches) 6.1 mm (0.24 inches)
Weight 498 g (17.57 oz) 461 g (16.26 oz)
Waterproof IP68 No
Rear material Metal Metal
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors Gray, Yellow Gold, Gray, Blue, Purple
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display Yes, in-button
Area 422 cm2 (65.4 inches2) 442 cm2 (68.5 inches2)
Screen-to-body ratio
Tablet Ranking (64th and 38th place)
iPad Ranking (#11th place)

Performance

Chipset specifications of Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 and Apple iPad Air 11" (6th Gen, 2024)
SoC
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Apple M2 (iPad)
Max clock 3360 MHz 3490 MHz
CPU cores 8 (1 + 2 + 2 + 3) 8 (4 + 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 2.42 GHz: Blizzard
- 4 cores at 3.49 GHz: Avalanche
L3 cache 8 MB -
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Lithography process 4 nanometers 5 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon Apple Neural Engine
GPU
Graphics Adreno 740 Apple GPU 10-core
GPU shading units 1536 1024
GPU clock 680 MHz 1398 MHz
FLOPS ~2089 GFLOPS ~2863.1 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 and Apple iPad Air 11" (6th Gen, 2024)
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
Compute Score (GPU) 9692 43394
Single-core score 2093 2619
Multi-core score 5838 10084
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
CPU 623980 841074
GPU 451553 801119
Memory 275042 371059
UX 420840 523068
Total score 1771415 2536320
Samples [3 tests] Less than 3
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Stability 97% 74%
Graphics test 9 FPS 16 FPS
Graphics score 1156 2160
3DMark Solar Bay
Stability 94% -
Graphics test 21 FPS 28 FPS
Section 1 24 FPS 38 FPS
Section 2 22 FPS 28 FPS
Section 3 18 FPS 17 FPS
Graphics score 5635 7322
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Stability 89% -
Graphics test 23 FPS -
Graphics score 3917 -
Sources: 3DMark [5], [6]
Submit your benchmark results

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Samsung Galaxy Tab S9
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-06-11 (Mohammad Abu Sayeed)AnTuTu 111749561
📘 2026-04-30 (Vulpes)CPU Throttle87%
📘 2026-04-30 (Vulpes)AnTuTu 111777999
📘 2026-03-03 -> Lello75Geekbench 6 CPU2093 / 5838
📘 2025-10-12 (niko)AnTuTu 111771415
Add View all (9)
Apple iPad Air 11" (6th Gen, 2024)
No benchmark results yet
Add

Memory

Configuration
RAM
RAM size 8 GB 8 GB
Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR5
Memory clock 4200 MHz 6400 MHz
Channels 4 4
Storage
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 17.5 (Can be upgraded to iPadOS 26.5)
ROM One UI 6.1 -
OS size 40 GB -

Battery

Capacity 8400 mAh 8900 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 1:30 hr 2:17 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing 07:39 hr -
Watching video 12:06 hr -
Gaming 06:18 hr -
Standby 133 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 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
Standard lens
Image resolution 13 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/2.0 f/1.8
Focal length 26 mm -
Pixel size - 1.22 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
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 6E (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 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
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 Flagship
Announced July 2023 May 2024
Release date August 2023 May 2024
Launch price (MSRP) $799 $599
Successor - - Apple iPad Air 11" (7th Gen, 2025)
Sensors - Hall-effect sensor
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint		 - Barometer
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Fingerprint
Keyboard weight 423 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" (6th Gen, 2024) is definitely a better buy.

Cast your vote

So, which tablet would you choose?
151 (61.4%)
95 (38.6%)
Total votes: 246

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User opinions

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Avatar
Ricardo July 11, 2024 at 08:45 AM
Unless you prefer the iOS ecosystem, the S9 is the clear winner… better screen, faster charging, cheaper now, s pen included, sd card slot, front camera better for videos and calls…
+71 Reply
Avatar
Darko June 7, 2024 at 02:00 PM
It's a flawed comparison, in my opinion. The 120Hz AMOLED is a huge advantage over 60Hz LCD. And if you want battery life, the S9 would beat the Air at 60Hz. The everyday performance is top-notch on the S9 and the device feels far more fluid and snappy than the Air due to the refresh rate and the ability to switch off animations and fine-tune the settings. Also, the bang for the buck with the included S Pen and SD card slot is in favor of the S9.
+63 Reply
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