TrekStor Surftab Theatre S11 Review - Giant Tablet with Multimedia Fantasies
Comparison Units
Bewertung | Rating Version | Datum | Modell | Gewicht | Laufwerk | Groesse | Aufloesung | Preis ab |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 69.6 % v7 (old) | v7 (old) | 11 / 2019 | Trekstor Surftab Theatre S11 MT8163 V/A 1.5 GHz, Mali-T720 MP2 | 719 g | 32 GB eMMC Flash | 11.60" | 1920x1080 | |
| 80.7 % v7 (old) | v7 (old) | 05 / 2019 | Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 2019 Exynos 7904, Mali-G71 MP2 | 460 g | 32 GB eMMC Flash | 10.10" | 1920x1200 | |
| 76.8 % v7 (old) | v7 (old) | 01 / 2019 | Lenovo Tab M10 SD 450, Adreno 506 | 480 g | 16 GB eMMC Flash | 10.10" | 1920x1200 | |
| 80.8 % v7 (old) | v7 (old) | 09 / 2018 | Huawei MediaPad M5 lite Kirin 659, Mali-T830 MP2 | 475 g | 32 GB eMMC Flash | 10.10" | 1920x1200 |
Case, Equipment and Operation
The case of the Theatre S11 consists of a neatly processed mixture of aluminium and plastic. The integrated kickstand is also made of metal alloy, is sufficiently stable and infinitely adjustable. Only the already applied display protection foil already shows some air bubbles on our test device.
In addition to two full-fledged USB-A ports, the connectivity offers an additional microHDMI port for wired image output, an audio jack and a slot for memory expansion using a microSD card. The latter, however, does not support exFAT. We are a little irritated that a proprietary power connection and not USB is used for the power supply.
The operating system used is Android 9.0 Pie, which is equipped with the security updates of May 5, 2019 at the time of the test. Regular updates are probably a no-no. After all, bloatware is not found on the tablet.
The WLAN module supports the IEEE 802.11 standards a/b/g/n (Wi-Fi 4) and can transmit in both 2.4 and 5.0 GHz networks. This doesn't happen very quickly in combination with our reference router Linksys EA8500, because the TrekStor tablet remains below its capabilities, but does not show any interruptions in data transmission.
In the test, the touch screen reacts precisely and sufficiently quickly to touches. However, the protective film quickly becomes dull and offers the fingers a lot of sliding resistance. The keys sit firmly in the case and have a clear pressure point.
| Networking | |
| iperf3 transmit AX12 | |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 2019 | |
| Lenovo Tab M10 | |
| Trekstor Surftab Theatre S11 | |
| Huawei MediaPad M5 lite | |
| iperf3 receive AX12 | |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 2019 | |
| Lenovo Tab M10 | |
| Trekstor Surftab Theatre S11 | |
| Huawei MediaPad M5 lite | |
Cameras - One is already too much
The TrekStor Surftab Theatre S11 has a camera on the front, which has 2 MP resolution. The quality is poor even in good lighting conditions and is sufficient for undemanding video telephony. Moving pictures are at best recorded in HD (720p) and the sound only very quietly.
The manufacturer completely dispenses with a camera on the back, which we consider to be a logical decision in view of the intended use as a multimedia tablet.
Display - TrekStor S11 with IPS and lush 11.6 inches
With a comparatively large 11.6-inch display, the TrekStor Surftab Theatre S11 on the datasheet has good prerequisites for a strong multimedia tablet, but the measurements show that savings have been made in some areas. For example, the IPS panel doesn't shine very brightly and only has an average contrast ratio.
For use within its own four walls, the performance offered is sufficient, but outdoors the TrekStor tablet quickly reaches its limits even on cloudy days. The colour calibration isn't perfect, but in view of the price range it's decent and colour falsifications can't be detected. In everyday life, the display looks quite pleasing.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brightness Distribution: 87 %
Center on Battery: 245 cd/m²
Contrast: 980:1 (Black: 0.25 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 5.2 | 0.5-29.43 Ø4.86
ΔE Greyscale 7.3 | 0.09-98 Ø5.1
95.6% sRGB (Calman 2D)
Gamma: 2.24
| Trekstor Surftab Theatre S11 IPS, 1920x1080, 11.6" | Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 2019 TFT-LCD, 1920x1200, 10.1" | Lenovo Tab M10 IPS, 1920x1200, 10.1" | Huawei MediaPad M5 lite IPS, 1920x1200, 10.1" | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Response Times | 4% | -37% | 36% | |
| Response Time Grey 50% / Grey 80% * | 48.8 ? | 52.8 ? -8% | 77.6 ? -59% | 36 ? 26% |
| Response Time Black / White * | 37 ? | 31.6 ? 15% | 42.4 ? -15% | 20 ? 46% |
| PWM Frequency | 25510 ? | 100 ? | ||
| Screen | 19% | -6% | -12% | |
| Brightness middle | 245 | 401 64% | 339 38% | 514 110% |
| Brightness | 231 | 396 71% | 327 42% | 492 113% |
| Brightness Distribution | 87 | 86 -1% | 86 -1% | 80 -8% |
| Black Level * | 0.25 | 0.5 -100% | 0.42 -68% | 0.96 -284% |
| Contrast | 980 | 802 -18% | 807 -18% | 535 -45% |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 5.2 | 2.9 44% | 5.8 -12% | 5.42 -4% |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 max. * | 10.8 | 5.8 46% | 11.6 -7% | 9.84 9% |
| Greyscale dE 2000 * | 7.3 | 4.1 44% | 8.6 -18% | 6.5 11% |
| Gamma | 2.24 98% | 2.36 93% | 2.16 102% | 2.216 99% |
| CCT | 7496 87% | 7263 89% | 8718 75% | 6780 96% |
| Total Average (Program / Settings) | 12% /
16% | -22% /
-12% | 12% /
-3% |
* ... smaller is better
Display Response Times
| ↔ Response Time Black to White | ||
|---|---|---|
| 37 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 20.8 ms rise |  |
| ↘ 16.4 ms fall | ||
| The screen shows slow response rates in our tests and will be unsatisfactory for gamers. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.1 (minimum) to 240 (maximum) ms. » 95 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is worse than the average of all tested devices (20.7 ms). | ||
| ↔ Response Time 50% Grey to 80% Grey | ||
| 48.8 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 25.2 ms rise |  |
| ↘ 23.6 ms fall | ||
| The screen shows slow response rates in our tests and will be unsatisfactory for gamers. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.165 (minimum) to 636 (maximum) ms. » 83 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is worse than the average of all tested devices (32.3 ms). | ||
Screen Flickering / PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation)
| Screen flickering / PWM detected | 25510 Hz | ≤ 71 % brightness setting |  |
The display backlight flickers at 25510 Hz (worst case, e.g., utilizing PWM) Flickering detected at a brightness setting of 71 % and below. There should be no flickering or PWM above this brightness setting. The frequency of 25510 Hz is quite high, so most users sensitive to PWM should not notice any flickering. In comparison: 53 % of all tested devices do not use PWM to dim the display. If PWM was detected, an average of 8437 (minimum: 5 - maximum: 343500) Hz was measured. | |||
Performance, Emissions and Battery life - Old SoC in TrekStor Surftab
The SoC MT8163 from MediaTek integrated into the TrekStor Surftab Theatre S11 dates back to 2015 and is manufactured in 28 nm. In addition, there is a decent 3 GB working memory and 32 GB internal memory, whereby the latter is comparatively slow. There's no reason to think of halfway modern games on the tablet and all other titles are also expected to take quite a long time to load. However, the system performance is surprisingly decent, but even buffering streams requires patience.
The surface temperatures don't give cause for criticism, it's different with the loudspeakers. The mid-range is very weak and even at medium volume listening is difficult. We definitely recommend using an external loudspeaker or headphones.
The battery life is very sobering, because the TrekStor tablet doesn't even last five hours in the practical WLAN test, which makes the travel suitability questionable not least because of the power connection.
| PCMark for Android | |
| Work performance score (sort by value) | |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 2019 | |
| Lenovo Tab M10 | |
| Huawei MediaPad M5 lite | |
| Average MediaTek MT8163 V/A 1.5 GHz (n=1) | |
| Work 2.0 performance score (sort by value) | |
| Trekstor Surftab Theatre S11 | |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 2019 | |
| Lenovo Tab M10 | |
| Huawei MediaPad M5 lite | |
| Average MediaTek MT8163 V/A 1.5 GHz (3071 - 3489, n=3) | |
| GFXBench | |
| on screen Aztec Ruins Normal Tier Onscreen (sort by value) | |
| Trekstor Surftab Theatre S11 | |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 2019 | |
| Huawei MediaPad M5 lite | |
| Average of class Tablet (3 - 122, n=84, last 2 years) | |
| 1920x1080 Aztec Ruins Normal Tier Offscreen (sort by value) | |
| Trekstor Surftab Theatre S11 | |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 2019 | |
| Huawei MediaPad M5 lite | |
| Average of class Tablet (3.9 - 340, n=84, last 2 years) | |
| on screen Aztec Ruins High Tier Onscreen (sort by value) | |
| Trekstor Surftab Theatre S11 | |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 2019 | |
| Huawei MediaPad M5 lite | |
| Average of class Tablet (1.9 - 106.4, n=84, last 2 years) | |
| 2560x1440 Aztec Ruins High Tier Offscreen (sort by value) | |
| Trekstor Surftab Theatre S11 | |
| Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 2019 | |
| Huawei MediaPad M5 lite | |
| Average of class Tablet (1.4 - 114.5, n=84, last 2 years) | |
| Trekstor Surftab Theatre S11 | Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 2019 | Lenovo Tab M10 | Huawei MediaPad M5 lite | Average 32 GB eMMC Flash | Average of class Tablet | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AndroBench 3-5 | 27% | 12% | 104% | 17% | 812% | |
| Sequential Read 256KB | 158.8 | 300 89% | 279.9 76% | 308.1 94% | 242 ? 52% | 1253 ? 689% |
| Sequential Write 256KB | 107.6 | 90.7 -16% | 52.6 -51% | 82.6 -23% | 100.5 ? -7% | 882 ? 720% |
| Random Read 4KB | 28.93 | 62.6 116% | 52.5 81% | 73.5 154% | 43.1 ? 49% | 206 ? 612% |
| Random Write 4KB | 15.98 | 11.37 -29% | 11.32 -29% | 77.3 384% | 22.3 ? 40% | 212 ? 1227% |
| Sequential Read 256KB SDCard | 86.6 ? | 81.2 ? -6% | 83.5 ? -4% | 83.7 ? -3% | 71.8 ? -17% | |
| Sequential Write 256KB SDCard | 61.9 ? | 65.6 ? 6% | 61.2 ? -1% | 72.8 ? 18% | 52.9 ? -15% |
Temperature
(+) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 37.5 °C / 100 F, compared to the average of 33.7 °C / 93 F, ranging from 20.7 to 53.2 °C for the class Tablet.
(+) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 29.7 °C / 85 F, compared to the average of 33.2 °C / 92 F
(+) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 28.2 °C / 83 F, compared to the device average of 30 °C / 86 F.
Loudspeakers
Trekstor Surftab Theatre S11 audio analysis
(±) | speaker loudness is average but good (76.5 dB)
Bass 100 - 315 Hz
(-) | nearly no bass - on average 37.7% lower than median
(±) | linearity of bass is average (7.7% delta to prev. frequency)
Mids 400 - 2000 Hz
(±) | reduced mids - on average 10.5% lower than median
(±) | linearity of mids is average (11.6% delta to prev. frequency)
Highs 2 - 16 kHz
(+) | balanced highs - only 3.9% away from median
(+) | highs are linear (5.4% delta to prev. frequency)
Overall 100 - 16.000 Hz
(-) | overall sound is not linear (35.7% difference to median)
Compared to same class
» 95% of all tested devices in this class were better, 2% similar, 4% worse
» The best had a delta of 7%, average was 21%, worst was 129%
Compared to all devices tested
» 93% of all tested devices were better, 1% similar, 6% worse
» The best had a delta of 4%, average was 24%, worst was 134%
Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 2019 audio analysis
(+) | speakers can play relatively loud (86.2 dB)
Bass 100 - 315 Hz
(-) | nearly no bass - on average 18.9% lower than median
(±) | linearity of bass is average (13.3% delta to prev. frequency)
Mids 400 - 2000 Hz
(+) | balanced mids - only 2.1% away from median
(+) | mids are linear (3.9% delta to prev. frequency)
Highs 2 - 16 kHz
(±) | higher highs - on average 5.6% higher than median
(+) | highs are linear (5.2% delta to prev. frequency)
Overall 100 - 16.000 Hz
(±) | linearity of overall sound is average (15% difference to median)
Compared to same class
» 30% of all tested devices in this class were better, 3% similar, 68% worse
» The best had a delta of 7%, average was 21%, worst was 129%
Compared to all devices tested
» 19% of all tested devices were better, 4% similar, 77% worse
» The best had a delta of 4%, average was 24%, worst was 134%
Battery life
| Trekstor Surftab Theatre S11 6800 mAh | Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1 2019 6150 mAh | Lenovo Tab M10 4850 mAh | Huawei MediaPad M5 lite 7500 mAh | Average of class Tablet | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Battery Runtime | |||||
| WiFi Websurfing | 296 | 723 144% | 580 96% | 852 188% | 826 ? 179% |
Pros
Cons
Verdict - Media library tablet for users willing to compromise
The TrekStor tablet is a good idea in itself: a large display with integrated stand and stereo speakers, which can serve as a multimedia centre for the home. Unfortunately, however, the manufacturer relies on old or weak components at many points.
The display can certainly still be rated as quite positive here. Comparatively large 11.6 inches are otherwise scarce in this price class, contrast, pixel density and color display are OK. However, the panel is not very bright, so that the use of the tablet will probably be limited to interiors. In addition, there is the lack of DRM certification, so that protected content can only be viewed in SD quality.
The TrekStor Surftab Theatre S11 offers a lot of display for a small tablet.
We don't see the Surftab Theatre S11 as a companion on the road. This is not so much due to its size or comparatively high weight, but to its weak battery life. By not using USB as the charging interface, it would not even be possible to connect a Powerbank.
Even the advertised stereo speakers don't deserve this designation and can't support the advertising slogan "Relaxed entertainment at a high level".
Those who want to use the tablet exclusively within their own four walls, don't mind the lack of DRM certification and don't find an external audio output too cumbersome could still be happy with the TrekStor Theatre S11.
Trekstor Surftab Theatre S11
- 11/29/2019 v7 (old)
Daniel Schmidt
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