The Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra is one tablet that will catch your eye simply because of the sheer size of its screen. At 14.6 inches, it’s larger than most thin and light ultraportable laptops and outsizes the 13-inch iPad Pro as well.
Indeed, typical tablets you see in the market would max out around 11 inches like most Apple tablets and Samsung’s own Galaxy Tab series. The latest flagship from the Korean company takes it up a notch with its Ultra specs.
The good news is that the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra weighs under 700g. Throw in a 466g Samsung book cover with a keyboard and it’s still under 1.2kg, which can’t be said for most laptops with such a big screen.
It helps too that the tablet itself is slim, just like Samsung’s Galaxy S25 Edge phone. With a girth of just 5.1mm, the sleek design never fails to draw surprise when people see it for the first time.
Of course, you still have to account for the large flat surface when handling the tablet. The large size of the device means you could struggle to hold it up in one hand and still try to log in with your fingerprint, for example.
Especially given how slim it is, you might wish to be really careful to avoid dropping this previous slab of beautiful engineering. I found myself holding it with both hands when using it.
The only blemish, as far as design goes, is the slight camera notch at the top. This is already 2025 and even Apple iPad Pros don’t sport an ugly notch. It’s something Samsung could have tried to get around with an in-screen camera, perhaps?
Okay, one reason for this design decision may be to accomodate the 12-megapixel ultrawide lens at the front for your calls. That’s a crucial part of a portable device now.
While you won’t be taking many pictures with such a hefty gizmo, the Samsung tablet comes with two decent if unspectacular cameras at the back – a 13-megapixel regular camera and an 8-megapixel ultrawide camera – for unplanned situations.
The screen, fortunately, is a joy to use. Offering a sharp 2,960 x 1,848 in resolution, it never fails to present information sharply. Whether you’re working on a spreadsheet – yes, a touchscreen helps get into those small cells – or simply watching Netflix, the Dynamic AMOLED screen offers great image quality and brightness.
What doesn’t get said much about screens these days is anti-reflection qualities, which this Samsung flagship tablet offers. When you are at a cafe or even at home in sunny Singapore, it helps to not have to fight the reflection from the bright light.
The screen’s 120Hz refresh rate also helps to move navigation menus along snappily. Android 8.0 with Samsung’s One UI 8 is already plenty fast but it doesn’t hurt to have a zippy screen to get things moving fast. That’s especially when you’re on the road and in a hurry to get an e-mail sent off.
While it’s a great media consumption device, the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra is surely a handy workhorse. For folks who want a laptop alternative that offers the flexibility of a tablet, it is attractive.
Plus, Android is still a more touch-focused operating system than Windows, so if that’s your usage pattern, the Samsung tablet will appeal to you. It’s useful for insurance agents, for example, to share documents with clients sitting across a table and get them to sign on an agreement.
For that, I like it that Samsung has thrown in an S Pen stylus. So, out of the box, the tablet lets you get to work quickly scribbling down notes or getting your drawings done.
Having used Apple’s Pencil stylus in the past, I’ve always held it as the standard for a pressure-sensitive and realistic drawing tool. Now, I’d say the Samsung S Pen has come a long way and comes close to its more established rival.
To my surprise, the Samsung stylus simulates a pencil, a pen and a brush really well. Even my daughter, who can draw much better than me (the drawings above are hers), says she likes the Samsung stylus as much as the Apple one she’s tried out. It helps that the S Pen conveniently snaps onto the side of the tablet as well.
Speaking of interfaces, I’d be remiss not to bring up Samsung’s DeX interface, which brings desktop-like multitasking to users. This means the new tablet’s large screen can easily open up a couple of apps simultaneously on separate “desktop” interfaces.
It’s not a totally new features but it’s useful if you want your Android tablet to behave more like a Windows device when you’re at your desk. Yes, it also supports multiple monitors so you can use it like another laptop, in a way.
What about AI features? Well, I won’t go too much into them, because they are what you’d get on Samsung’s latest Galaxy phones anyway.
Most handy for work, I’d imagine, would be a circle-to-search feature, which lets you understand what you see on screen by simply asking AI. You can ask it to translate an e-mail as well.
To power everything, the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra has a capable engine but one that might surprise many. Interestingly, it is using the MediaTek Dimsensity 9400+ chip, instead of Samsung’s own Exynos or Qualcomm Snapdragon series.
You also get 12GB of memory, though I’d thought Samsung would have slapped on 16GB for this Ultra model. There are 256GB of storage and this time, the tablet helpfully offers microSD card support for capacities up to 2TB.
The new tablet is a decent performer, to be sure. When I fired up Call of Duty, it played through smoothly with the graphics maxed out. The big screen, to be sure, helped me defeat online opponents struggling with smaller devices.
What about sound? Well, the small speakers by the side are no miracle. They get by adequately if you’re firing up a game or listening to music in the background but I’m guessing you’d have a pair of earphones to link up with the tablet for better audio quality.
To support all that performance, the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra packs a beefy 11,600mAh battery (the Galaxy S25 Ultra phone has a 5,000mAh power pack).
From my own usage, the battery usually lets me spend more than a day fiddling on the tablet with no worries. Unless I’m gaming for hours on end, I don’t expect to have to juice up the tablet with a wall plug until the end of a regular day.
As you’d expect, the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra has a hefty sticker price – S$1,698 for the Wi-Fi version. Assuming you can get a good deal for the keyboard cover (another S$268), it will be close to paying for a good and well-priced ultraportable laptop like the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i.
If pure office productivity is what you’re after, I’d say a regular laptop might be better. If, however, you want the versatility of a large-screen tablet and a good stylus that lets you draw and scribble notes often, then the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra is an impressive option that’s well worth checking out.
