Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra review: pushing thinness to the limit

Harriet L. Whitmore • August 16, 2026 08:00

Samsung no longer just builds smartphones and tablets - it is trying to bend the laws of physics. We saw that with the Galaxy S25 Edge, whose striking thinness came with a few not-so-pleasant surprises. With the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra, the Korean giant leans even harder into its latest fixation: shaving off thickness, even if it starts to feel a little absurd.

With a 14.6-inch display, the Tab S11 Ultra positions itself as the ultimate predator of the iPad Pro - and your ageing laptop. Fine in theory, but when a tablet is desperate to be the thinnest on the planet, hasn’t it compromised the fundamentals?

Because behind that catwalk silhouette, the ergonomic trade-offs are very real. Are they genuinely annoying day to day? To find out, we used it for two months - and, honestly, we’ve rarely swung so much between admiration and irritation.

Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra at the best price
Base price: 1,339 €

Retailer	Discount	Price	Link
Amazon	-29%	955 €	View offer
Rueducommerce	-10%	1,209 €	View offer
Samsung	-10%	1,210 €	View offer
Boulanger	-3%	1,299 €	View offer
eBay	-3%	1,299 €	View offer
Rakuten		1,359 €	View offer
FNAC		1,369 €	View offer
Darty		1,369 €	View offer

See more offers

Price: it makes no attempt to be friendly

Before you even open the box, you have to address the sore point: pricing. The Wi‑Fi model we tested - 256 GB of storage and 12 GB of RAM - sells for 1,340 €. If you’re someone who keeps their entire digital life stored locally, the bill climbs quickly: 1,460 € for the 512 GB version, and up to 1,760 € for the top configuration with 1 TB of storage and 16 GB of RAM, excluding any launch promotions.

For that money, you do get the S Pen in the box (hello, Apple), plus a USB‑C cable - but no charger. That’s a bit harsh at this level, and the power adaptor could at least be offered for free on request.

Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra at the best price
Base price: 1,339 €

Retailer	Discount	Price	Link
Amazon	-29%	955 €	View offer
Rueducommerce	-10%	1,209 €	View offer
Samsung	-10%	1,210 €	View offer
Boulanger	-3%	1,299 €	View offer
eBay	-3%	1,299 €	View offer
Rakuten		1,359 €	View offer
FNAC		1,369 €	View offer
Darty		1,369 €	View offer

See more offers

Design: stunning, yes. Practical… that’s another matter!

From the moment you pick it up, the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra makes an impression. This huge slab of glass and metal is only 5.1 mm thick. To put that into perspective, it’s 0.3 mm thinner than the Tab S10 Ultra, which already felt like a sheet of paper next to the competition. At 692 g, it also manages to be 26 g lighter than last year’s model.

In the hand, it feels less like a full computer and more like a rigid, high-end “premium” sheet - despite housing an 11,600 mAh battery. Build quality is, as usual for the Korean manufacturer, flawless. The “Aluminium Armor” frame feels reassuring and doesn’t flex under pressure.

Visually, it’s a complete success. The display takes up almost the entire front, with bezels trimmed down to the bare minimum. It’s also worth noting that the front camera loses one of its two lenses (the one dedicated to facial recognition), which noticeably reduces the size of the notch.

Another welcome surprise: IP68 certification is included, which is rare enough in the tablet world to deserve mention. In practical terms, it means you can show off by the pool without panicking at the first splash.

But this relentless drive towards extreme thinness comes at a cost. As we’ll see later, those few tenths of a millimetre have been bought with real compromises in ergonomics and features. Has Samsung forgotten that, however beautiful it is, a tablet is meant to be a tool first?

S Pen: a chronicle of an unexpected step backwards

The S Pen has long been one of the Galaxy Tab’s biggest strengths. This year it gets a major overhaul… for better and for worse. Let’s start with what works: the stylus now adopts a new hexagonal shape, inspired by a traditional pencil. It’s a smart idea - writing feels more natural, and the pen is genuinely pleasant to hold.

Sadly, Samsung has moved the magnetic attachment area. Instead of sitting on the back as on previous models, it now docks to the side of the tablet. It sounds clever in theory, but it’s frustrating in everyday use. The contact area is so narrow that the stylus falls off with the slightest jolt. During our testing, we repeatedly discovered it at the bottom of a backpack, wedged between sofa cushions, or hiding under a desk.

Like the Galaxy S25 Ultra, the S Pen has lost Bluetooth connectivity. That means no more remote control for advancing PowerPoint slides or triggering the camera for group photos. And, of course, no more alerts when the stylus is left behind… which is all the more annoying because nobody asked for a thinner pen in exchange for these features.

The S Pen tip also wears down over time. Samsung doesn’t see fit to include a spare, or even to sell replacements on its website. So you’ll need to buy a new official S Pen for 65 euros, which does at least come with an extra pair of tips…

Alternatively, you can hunt online where tips are easy to find - while hoping they actually work with the new S Pen (tips from older models do not).

That said, credit where it’s due: for pure pen-on-screen use, the S Pen remains excellent. Latency is essentially invisible, and the 4096 pressure levels deliver strong precision for drawing or handwritten notes.

The new AI tools, such as “Drawing Assist” that turns rough sketches into artwork, and “Note Assist” that summarises meetings, are impressively effective. But the best stylus in the world is pointless if you misplace it two days after buying the tablet.

Display: the key strength

Samsung understands OLED better than anyone, and this “Dynamic AMOLED 2X” panel underlines that advantage. With a resolution of 2960 x 1848 pixels, the image looks extremely crisp. What really stands out, though, is brightness: 1000 nits in typical use and 1600 nits in HDR mean the tablet isn’t afraid of sunlight.

Smoothness is also spot-on, thanks to an adaptive refresh rate that can climb to 120 Hz. Whether you’re browsing the web, gaming, or watching a film, everything feels effortlessly fluid. Colour accuracy is excellent, with 100% DCI‑P3 coverage and the deep blacks you expect from OLED.

After several weeks, we still didn’t tire of looking at it. Film watching becomes a genuinely portable cinema experience, and for creative work, editing photos on such a large surface is pure joy.

Performance: quiet confidence

For tablets, Samsung sticks with MediaTek once again: the Tab S11 Ultra runs the Dimensity 9400+. Built on a 3 nm process, this octa-core SoC delivers meaningful performance gains over the previous generation. Samsung claims a 24% uplift for the CPU, 27% for graphics, and a 33% jump for AI-related computing.

In real use, our tests back up the headline: this tablet is seriously powerful. From 4K video editing to heavy RAW photo workflows, it handled everything we threw at it without complaint.

Gamers are in for a treat. The most demanding Play Store titles, such as Genshin Impact and Call of Duty Mobile, run with the graphics settings maxed out and stable smoothness. Cooling is well judged: the chassis warms slightly under sustained load, but never becomes unpleasant to hold. More importantly, performance stays consistent over time, unlike some rivals that throttle hard when temperatures rise.

With 12 GB of RAM (or 16 GB on the 1 TB version), the Tab S11 Ultra is built for multitasking and can juggle around a dozen apps without slowing down. UFS 4.0 storage keeps transfers snappy, and the presence of a microSD slot - an increasingly rare feature - lets you add up to 2 TB of extra storage.

A quick note on media: the four AKG speakers are excellent, producing loud, rich sound, perfect for entertainment. For photography, the rear camera is fine for scanning documents, and the new single front camera is more than enough for high-quality video calls.

Battery life: the price of being thin

With an 11,600 mAh battery - one of the largest on the market - we expected best-in-class endurance. In reality it’s good, but not outstanding. In mixed everyday use (web, video, social media), we lasted around 13 hours 30 minutes. That’s respectable, but for a tablet this large, we’ve seen better elsewhere.

As soon as you lean on the Dimensity 9400+ for heavier work, battery life drops quickly. A full day of intensive use, including editing or gaming, will drain it before dinner. Clearly, the 3 nm process doesn’t fully offset the appetite of a giant screen and a high-end chip.

Charging also requires patience. 45 W fast charging gets you to 40% in 30 minutes, but you should expect roughly 1 hour 40 minutes to reach 100%. In 2025, that feels slow - and remember, you’ll be buying the appropriate charger separately.

One UI 8 and DeX: when software holds it together

The Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra runs Android 16 with One UI 8 on top, and it significantly shapes the experience. One of the headline upgrades is an improved DeX mode, which turns the tablet into a desktop-style PC even without an external monitor.

The Windows-like interface is more flexible than before: you can resize windows freely and create virtual desktops. The line between tablet and computer continues to blur.

Samsung’s in-house Galaxy AI and Google’s Gemini are everywhere without feeling intrusive. “Circle to Search” lets you search for anything on screen by simply circling it, while summarisation, translation, and text-generation tools slot neatly into real workflows. A special mention goes to Samsung Notes, the company’s own app, which becomes more adaptable and feature-rich.

To wrap up the topic, Samsung commits to delivering the next 7 major versions of the Android OS, plus security patches for 7 years.

Accessories: the baffling misstep

Samsung sells a “Book Cover” keyboard designed to turn the tablet into a work station. Surprisingly, the one made for the Tab S11 Ultra has no trackpad. It’s a first - and not a welcome one. The explanation is, of course, this relentless race for thinness: removing it shaves off a few millimetres.

The outcome is ergonomically absurd. Using DeX - which is clearly built around a mouse pointer - while having to lift your arm every ten seconds to tap the screen feels like punishment. For a machine that claims it can replace a laptop, it’s hard to forgive. Most professional users would happily accept a keyboard that was 3 mm thicker if it came with a proper trackpad.

Don’t plan on using last year’s accessories either: they don’t fit. The magnetic connector has moved, shifting from the bottom edge to the back of the tablet - simply because those 0.3 mm less thickness prevent it from staying in the usual place.

To make matters worse, Samsung has made the odd decision to remove the secure S Pen holder. When the magnet attachment is about as trustworthy as an election promise, the manufacturer has chosen to do without a feature that was included on previous cases and widely appreciated by users. Yet another casualty of the thinness obsession that we could have done without.

Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra at the best price
Base price: 1,339 €

Retailer	Discount	Price	Link
Amazon	-29%	955 €	View offer
Rueducommerce	-10%	1,209 €	View offer
Samsung	-10%	1,210 €	View offer
Boulanger	-3%	1,299 €	View offer
eBay	-3%	1,299 €	View offer
Rakuten		1,359 €	View offer
FNAC		1,369 €	View offer
Darty		1,369 €	View offer

See more offers

Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra: Presse-citron’s verdict

After finishing this test, the overriding feeling is deep frustration. The Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra is an undeniable technical achievement. Its screen is probably the best you can buy right now, performance is immense, the design is breathtaking, and the software side is particularly well executed.

Yet this tablet also feels like the victim of an unhealthy fixation. By chasing a thinness record at all costs, Samsung has compromised the essentials: real-world usability. Dropping Bluetooth on the S Pen is a major functional regression. The stylus attachment is unreliable. The lack of a trackpad on the keyboard makes DeX tiring to use. And accessory incompatibility lands as a bad joke for loyal Samsung users.

All of that - for what? A 0.3 mm reduction in thickness. Honestly, which professional user Samsung is targeting here ever asked for a thinner tablet? Nobody. They want battery life, practicality, and ergonomics - not a spec sheet designed to look good in a shop window.

If you want the best Android tablet for content consumption, the Tab S11 Ultra is king. But if you were expecting the ultimate productivity tool to replace a PC, you may be disappointed by these radical design choices.

If you own a Tab S9 Ultra or a Tab S10 Ultra, keep it: in terms of features, you would actually be stepping backwards. Samsung may have won the thinness battle, but it has lost the battle of common sense…