The biggest problem with the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra is that... it exists
The first Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra image is a reminder that Samsung is not doing as well as it used to in the tablet market due to some pretty obvious strategic mistakes.
This article may contain personal views and opinion from the author.
You probably don't remember this now, but back in 2020, Samsung was the rising star of the global tablet market (alongside Lenovo, but that's a different story for another time). While Apple's industry supremacy looked just as solid half a decade ago as it does today, worldwide Galaxy Tab shipments incredibly jumped from 21.7 to 31.3 million units between 2019 and 2020, boosting their manufacturer's market share to 19.1 percent.
Fast-forward to 2024, and while Samsung is still the world's number two tablet vendor, it's hard to look at the company's latest year-ending figures and notice much progress. Granted, the market as a whole has gone through some tough times over these last four years, but there's clearly more to Samsung's stagnation than that. After all, Apple has managed to improve its share from 32.5 to 38.6 percent in the same timeframe that the silver medalist dropped from a 19.1 to an 18.8 percent slice of the pie.
In these situations, there are obviously many factors at play, but after the latest Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra leak, I can't shake the feeling that one key detail towers above all the rest in terms of potential causes for Samsung's tablet market struggles.
We don't need no Ultra tablet!
Quick, what was the best Android tablet available in 2020? If you don't recall that information (which I can totally understand), allow me to refresh your memory. That was either the 11-inch Galaxy Tab S7 or 12.4-inch Galaxy Tab S7 Plus, depending on your personal screen size preference.
The Galaxy Tab S7 Ultra was not in the conversation because... no such device existed, and if you ask me, Samsung should stop experimenting and go back to that simpler time for the company's high-end tablet roster. Yes, gargantuan 14-inch+ tablets are an experiment that has no place in the industry's mainstream landscape, and skipping the Galaxy Tab S10 last year and then (allegedly) the Tab S11 Plus this year suggests a lack of maturity totally unbefitting of a veteran like Samsung.
The Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra is an almost comically large tablet that probably should have been dropped in favor of a more compact Tab S10. | Image Credit -- PhoneArena
I don't know a single person who doesn't find the 14.6-inch Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra uncomfortable, unwieldy, or just plain old weird, so it's certainly... even weirder to see its maker insist with keeping the Ultra member of its tablet family alive at the expense of other models with (objectively) better chances of achieving higher commercial success.
Now, granted, I don't have any official sales numbers for last year's Tab S10+ and Tab S10 Ultra, but I strongly feel that a "classic" Tab S10/Tab S10 Plus duo would have proven more successful, and the same goes for a Tab S11/Tab S11+ combo this year that's reportedly not happening.
We definitely don't need THIS Ultra tablet!!!
Look, I'm not going to talk about the notch that much because it's clearly not that important. Do I like it? Definitely not. Do I want to see it gone? Absolutely. Would the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra stand a significantly better chance of becoming a box-office hit without it? I don't think so.
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And that's because, with or without a screen cutout, said screen is still too... darn... big. The Tab S10 Ultra's body as a whole is totally bonkers, exceeding the height of Apple's 2024-released iPad Pro 13 by no less than 45mm. Funnily enough, a recent rumor called for an even larger than 14.6-inch display for the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra, which seems equally absurd and unrealistic to me.
You can't really tell from this blurry image, but the Tab S11 Ultra is likely to be really uncomfortable to hold. | Image Credit -- Evan Blass on X
But even at "just" 14.6 inches, the Tab S11 Ultra sounds like a virtually guaranteed failure, especially with yet another MediaTek processor on deck. That's right, Samsung is expected to persist in its errors and snub Qualcomm's Snapdragon chipset family for the second tablet generation in a row.
Now imagine if the Galaxy S25 Ultra had packed a MediaTek SoC instead of a Snapdragon 8 Elite. Would you have still considered that the best Android phone in the world? Probably not. Would you have still been inclined to pay $1,300 for it? Almost certainly not.
So how in the world does Samsung expect anyone the least bit familiar with the mobile industry to spend (well) over $1,000 for a state-of-the-art new "Ultra" tablet with a decidedly-not-ultra MediaTek Dimensity 9400+ processor under the hood? It's not even about the performance of said MediaTek chip, which I know is not bad by any measure of the word, but this feeling that Samsung is making (even the tiniest of) compromises on a product that should be completely uncompromising. And that, my friends, is also what's wrong with the admittedly small but still very much present notch.
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Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.
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