Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra review

Android 16 with One UI 8

The Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra boots Android 16 with One UI 8. The interface supports tablet and DeX mode, though both have been reworked and look more similar than the previous iterations. Some users may not like this, as some of the full DeX experience is available only on an external monitor.

The Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra starts in the default tablet mode. It supports various widgets on the lockscreen.

The homescreens are your typical Android affair with app icons, folders, and widgets. The leftmost page is Google's.

One UI 8 in tablet mode

Swipe from the top left shows the notification shade, while swipe from the right opens the quick toggles.

There are also an app drawer and the typical task manager, that was optimized for the large screen. The task managed also supports desktops right from its interface.

Task Manger • App Drawer

You can see the typical Android controls (tasks, home, back) at the bottom right part of the screen.

Multi-tasking is easy here and done as on the Galaxy phones - split-screen and/or pop-up windows.

Multi-tasking in tablet mode

Switching to DeX from the Quick Toggles is easy and does not take any time to load. This mode supports both landscape and portrait view. It has a bottom bar with your favorite apps plus a few recently opened apps shortcuts.

One UI 8 in DeX mode

The control bar with the Android shortcuts is still at the bottom right.

The notification and quick toggles, as well as the task manager and the app drawer, remain unchanged.

Task Manager

And, finally, the multi-tasking is done differently here - everything launches in windows with your typical shortcuts at the top - minimize (line), maximize (square), close (X). You can move those freely, or snap them left for right, as you would do in, say, Windows OS.

Multi-tasking in DeX mode

Google's Gemini AI is available on the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra. You can use Circle to Search, and you can use the full Gemini power within the Gemini app - image generation, write short stories, ask questions, chat, and plenty of other things.

Gemini AI

Playing around the screen with the S-Pen will bring up the S-Pen shortcut, which then allows you to open the quick menu with Drawing Assist, AI select, Create Note, Screen Write, Penup, and you can add more shortcuts here if you like.

S-Pen menu • Add shortcuts here

Drawing Assist is a very useful feature, which turns your doodles into masterpieces, you just need to select the drawing style first. You can then paste them wherever you like.

Drawing Assist

Screen Write is familiar - it takes a screenshot and then you write/draw on it.

Screen Write

Create Note opens Samsung Notes for quick note creation, it is a powerful app with plenty of features.

Penup is nice if you like to finish (draw, color) already generated content.

Penup

Performance and benchmarks

The Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra is powered by the MediaTek's flagship chip - the 3nm Dimensity 9400+, up from 9300+ inside the S10 Ultra.

The processor has an all-big-core CPU design - it uses one 'prime' Cortex-X925 core (up to 3.63GHz), three Cortex-X4 units (3.3GHz), and four Cortex-A720 cores (2.4GHz).

The Immortalis-G925 GPU is in charge of graphics.

The Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra is available in these memory configurations of LPDDR5X/UFS storage -12GB/256GB (ours), 12GB/512GB, and 16GB/1TB. There is a dedicated microSD slot.

The tablet supports Wi-Fi 7 connectivity, Bluetooth 5.4 and if you get the SIM-enabled model, you also get access to 5G networks and GPS.

Let's see some benchmarks now.

The Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra posted excellent scores across the board. It is bested only by the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset inside the OnePlus Pad 3, and not by a large margin.

The two stress tests returned excellent stability scores - the Tab S11 Ultra kept 78% of its maximum processor and 71% of its maximum graphics performance. It never got unpleasantly hot.

CPU test • GPU test

Overall, the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra has the performance and the operating system to deliver a laptop-like experience, no matter if it's gaming, office, video processing, or multimedia scenarios.