The Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra has more power, more AI, and much more battery life than its predecessor

The amazing thing about the Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra is how much more it is than last year's heavily packed S10 Ultra. It's thinner, lighter, but also more powerful and longer lasting. It is quite the feat to take something so 'ultra' and add more to it.

And it has done so with some panache, giving users more of what they want: power, endurance, and AI innovation. The does, unfortunately, come at a pretty hefty price (£1,200/$1,200), practically double the OnePlus Pad 3, but the same as the S10 Ultra from last year.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra: Design

There is not a great deal of difference between the S11 Ultra from last year's S10 Ultra; it's slightly thinner, but largely the same height and width. There is a newer Mediatek chipset, but the same resolutions for both front and rear camera lenses. And the display is the same size and resolution. These are not in any way terrible specifications, but it's worth noting that it's perhaps not worth upgrading from the S10 Ultra.

It is, though, a thoroughly lovely-looking slab of technology. Our review unit is a cool, bluely-gray affair, with a white Samsung logo and grey accents on the back. The two camera lenses have a minimal look, and the corners are neatly rounded. At 326.3mm tall, it's large, almost to the point of being unwieldy, but also thin as a wisp at 5.1mm. Taking photos is a little awkward, as is holding it in one hand. However, that is the price one pays for a lovely, big-screen tablet. We would have loved to see the keyboard and or cover case, but, alas, we were not supplied with one.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra: Display

When it comes to displays, Samsung sets its own lofty standard as it is the clear market leader in most form factors. The S11 Ultra has a 14.6in AMOLED panel, with HDR10+, 120Hz refresh rate, and a 1,848 x 2,960 resolution. All that is encased in some skinny bezels.

We tested the display with our colormeter and DisplayCal, with the screen in its 'Natural' mode. And we were suitably impressed with the results. The S11 Ultra reproduced 99.7% of the color gamut, which is almost the same as last year's S10 Ultra. To the naked eye, its black level is deep and dark, and it reproduces vivid colors.

You can't really avoid touching the screen, though; your thumb will encroach due to the skinniness of the bezels and the thinness of the whole thing, but it seems relatively good at determining what is a deliberate touch and an accidental one.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra: Specs and performance

When it comes to the chipset, there is a considerable upgrade with Mediatek 9400+ processor with either 12GB or 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage. This is a faster, more efficient chip that's been developed with a 3nm process. And that is very apparent in Geekbench scores and our in-house battery test results.

In Geekbench 6, the S11 Ultra hit 2,699 for single-core performance and 8,434 for multi-threaded performance. Both are significant increases over the S10 Ultra (2,159 and 7,154, respectively) and most other tablets, though neither score can match the iPad or the OnePlus Pad 3.

In day-to-day use, however, the S11 Ultra is superb; great at all it does and all you don't know it does. Hours of streaming, scrolling social media, and even some light Excel work. Provided you get the keyboard accessory (which we sadly didn't), this is as good a work tablet as any around.

The new processor also aids battery life, and we found the S11 Ultra had much more endurance than its predecessor. The S11 Ultra lasted 17hrs and 21mins in our looped video test, a rather large improvement over the 13hrs and 45mins for the S10 Ultra.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra: Features

There is a glut of features on the S11 Ultra, with AI again front and center. So much so that there is a dedicated AI button on the keyboard – in the same style as your Copilot button on a Windows AI PC.

Bixby is still somewhere in the mix, but Gemini Live is somewhat in the way. This is a type of AI assistant that can help you with a range of tasks, along with the Galaxy AI tools. These mainly focus on writing prompts, language interpretations, and email summaries. There are plenty of other features here, but it's a little hit and miss in terms of usefulness.

The two camera lenses on the back are 13MP and 8MP, the latter is ultrawide. Both are fairly decent for tablet cameras – but it always feels unnecessary when you have such amazing cameras on your phone.

Although we didn't get a keyboard, we did receive the new redesigned S-Pen stylus. It also has a new place on the tablet for charging (top right edge). It doesn't look very nice – sort of like a white version of a pen you might fill your Lotto numbers in with. But it is highly responsive and comfortable to use.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra: Is it worth it?

And so to the real question: should you get a Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra? If you're a consumer who hasn't got the S10 Ultra, then it is a worthy purchase. If you're looking for tablets for your staff, the answer is also yes, provided you get all the accessories that your staff need, and your team has reasons to use an AI-powered tablet.

We can't say that there are a lot of useful capabilities on this tablet that one can't find on, say, the OnePlus Pad 3, or last year's S10 Ultra. Our view may have been different if we had the keyboard – we could have given a fairer assessment of its business capabilities. That being said, it is a wonderful slab of technology, packed with AI features, and the battery life is fantastic. In that regard, it is very much a tablet worthy of the name.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra specifications