Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Review: Hands-on with the compact tablet

Introduction

After no Galaxy Tab S10 in 2024, Samsung’s small-screen tablet is back for 2025 in the form of the Galaxy Tab S11.

Announced at IFA, I got to spend a bit of time with the compact 11-inch tablet ahead of its reveal – and it looks like it could be a big year for Samsung’s tablet collection. Not only does the Tab S11 fix complaints about previous entries in the Tab collection, but it also brings notable improvements that could make it the Android tablet to buy.

While I’m not yet ready to deliver my final thoughts just yet, here are my first impressions of the Galaxy Tab S11.

Design and screen

After skipping the Galaxy S10 series, this year’s Tab S11 is an upgrade on the two-year-old Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 – and there’s a lot to appreciate about this year’s update.

Like its larger sibling, the Tab S11 Ultra, Samsung has addressed some long-standing complaints about the tablet, including the rather frustrating placement of the S Pen on the rear when not in use. Now, the S Pen stylus – which still comes in the box, by the way – snaps to the side of the tablet, just like practically every other tablet on the market. 

It just makes sense, and hopefully, it won’t disconnect as easily when thrown into a rucksack – but I’ll have to verify that once I spend more time with the tablet. 

The S Pen itself has also had an upgrade, now sporting a hexagonal grip with a cone-shaped tip that more closely resembles a traditional pencil for writing and drawing. It’s also lighter than I remember, which contributes to the more natural feel of the Pen. 

Elsewhere, however, it remains a compact, powerful alternative to the 14.6-inch Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra with its 11-inch, 469g alternative. 

Smaller doesn’t mean less impressive however; it sports the exact same screen tech as the top-end alternative, including Samsung’s Dynamic AMOLED 2X display tech, a boosted 1600nits brightness – a massive boost from the Tab S9’s 750nits – and an LTPO-enabled 120Hz refresh rate for smooth scrolling.

The only real difference in screen tech is the size of the bezels that surround it; while the S11 Ultra’s bezels have been slimmed down to just 5.6mm, the S11 still sports the same size bezels as the S9 – and it’s noticeable when both are side-by-side. 

Still, viewed alone, there was very little to complain about during my hands-on time – it’s detailed, vibrant, and the AMOLED tech means that colours are particularly vivid. 

Elsewhere, the Tab S9 sees the return of the industry-leading IP68 dust and water resistance – still a rarity in the wider tablet market, even two years after the launch of the S9 collection – and it’ll be available in shades of Grey and Silver. No flashy colour options here – you’ll need an iPad Air M3 for that. 

Cameras

Nobody really buys a tablet for its camera prowess – even mid-range phones can outperform the best tablets in the camera department – but it’s nice to see that Samsung hasn’t completely abandoned the concept with the Tab S11.

It sports a single 13MP lens on the rear – identical in hardware to the S9, but with improved ISP smarts that should boost the overall quality of snaps – and I certainly didn’t have any complaints during my hands-on time – but that was in an exceptionally well-lit room. 

Shots in lower light and more challenging conditions will likely show the camera’s weaknesses, but I can’t confirm that until I get my hands on the tablet.

Flip the tablet around and you’ll find a single selfie camera embedded into the bezels for video calls and the like. While this used to be a downgrade compared to the dual-camera offering of the Ultra model, the S11 Ultra now features a single selfie camera, so it’s no longer a point of differentiation between the two high-end tablets.

Features and software

Unlike the top-end Samsung phones that tend to use top-end Qualcomm chipsets, the Tab S range has leaned more heavily on Qualcomm’s competitor, MediaTek, in recent years. 

This time, the Tab S11 comes with the MediaTek Dimensity 9400+ – and it should offer quite the jump from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 within the Tab S9, especially when paired with an ample 12GB of RAM. Crucially, it’s also the chipset you’ll get with the top-end Ultra model, so there’s no real difference in performance depending on the tablet you go for.

Of course, I’ll need to run a suite of benchmark tests for the full review to decipher just how much power the MediaTek chipset has compared to the competition – mainly the Snapdragon 8 Elite-equipped OnePlus Pad 3 – but in my limited time with the device, it absolutely flew. Apps opened instantly, scrolling was as smooth as butter, and it didn’t struggle running multiple apps on screen using the upgraded DeX functionality.

The latter is a new feature for the Tab S11, which essentially allows you to open multiple apps in window form – like on a regular PC or laptop – with resizable windows and more. 

It’s not the only tablet to offer the tech – the Honor MagicPad 3 has something similar, and iPadOS 26 will bring similar tech to iPads later this year – but I’ve got to say, I was impressed with just how intuitive the DeX UI was to use during my hands-on time. I had no trouble opening apps, resizing them, minimising them and more, with icons not too dissimilar to what you’ll find in Windows 11. 

Of course, the 11-inch screen means you can’t fit as much on screen as you would on the Tab S11 Ultra, but it can still comfortably run two apps on screen with space to spare. 

One UI 8, based on Android 16, brings other benefits to the tablet experience, including a new tablet-optimised form of Google Gemini that no longer takes up the entire display, and there’s new drag-and-drop functionality on offer too. 

You’ll also find staples of the One UI 7 experience introduced earlier this year, like Now Brief and Now Bar, and the refreshed UI should mean that even upgrading users will experience a new, refreshed experience – and it’ll get OS updates for the next seven years too. 

Powering that experience is an 8,400mAh battery that, while certainly not the largest around, should be good for the size of the tablet – of course, I’ll verify that for myself once I spend more time with the tablet, but it sounds promising for those wanting a device for all-day use.