iPad Pro (M5) vs Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra: the tablet comparison that matters

Most tablet comparisons are a waste of a lunch hour, because most people should buy a mid-range iPad or a mid-range Galaxy Tab and stop. This one is for the person who is about to spend more than a thousand pounds and is using the word “laptop” with a straight face. The iPad Pro with Apple’s M5 chip, in the 13-inch size, against the Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra.

Prices checked on 14 November 2026: the 13-inch iPad Pro 256GB Wi-Fi is £1,499 at Apple UK, before a keyboard. The 11-inch model starts at £1,199. The Tab S11 Ultra sits around £1,149, and Samsung is more likely to have put a pen in the conversation. Those numbers move. The shape of the decision does not.

The iPad Pro case

The iPad Pro is the best tablet. That sentence has been true for long enough that it has become annoying, and it is still the fair starting point. The M5 generation continues what the M-series iPads already did: they are fast in a way you cannot push in normal apps, the screens are excellent, and the software support runs for years.

The limit is iPadOS. It is a brilliant tablet operating system and a reluctant laptop. Stage Manager, an external display and a keyboard get you a long way if your work is documents, a browser, calls, light photo edits and the specific iPad apps in your field. They do not get you a full desktop app that has never been ported. If your job is one of those apps, the iPad Pro is an expensive second screen. Buy the laptop.

Apple Pencil support is the other half of the price. Illustrators, students who actually annotate, and people who mark up plans get their money back here. Everyone else should not pay Pro prices for a pencil they will lose in a sofa.

The Tab S11 Ultra case

Samsung’s Ultra tablets have a different thesis: this is a computer that happens to be a slab. DeX, when you connect a monitor or use the tablet itself as the desk, is closer to a desktop than iPadOS is willing to be. File management is less precious. The pen story is usually kinder on the receipt. Android’s tablet apps are no longer the joke they were, and they are still patchier than iPad’s for specialised creative tools.

Buy the S11 Ultra if you want one device on a train table that can become a workstation in a hotel, and your software already lives in Android or the browser. Skip it if the apps you love are iPad-only. There is no dignity in forcing a workflow onto the wrong side out of brand loyalty.

Screens, weight and the sofa test

Both of these are large. The Ultra is a poster. The 13-inch iPad Pro is not much more modest. If the tablet lives on a sofa for video, you are overbuying either of them. A standard iPad, or a smaller Galaxy Tab, plays the same shows. OLED and high refresh are lovely and they are wasted on a chat app in portrait.

Weight with the keyboard attached is the figure that matters, and it is the figure marketing leaves in a footnote. Pick them up. If you would not carry it instead of a laptop, it is not replacing the laptop. It is joining it, and you should admit that before you pay.

Which to buy

Your week looks like	Buy
Pencil, Apple apps, a Mac already in the house	iPad Pro 13-inch (M5)
DeX, a pen, Android, one device on a desk	Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra
Video, a browser, and email	A cheaper tablet. Stop here.

We are not scoring this one out of five. The better tablet for most creative iPad owners is the iPad. The better computer-shaped tablet is the Samsung. Pretending those are the same question is how both companies sell you the wrong box.

Cover photo: Mikael Blomkvist / Pexels.