By now, you’ve surely heard of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, released just earlier this month alongside two other siblings. At the Galaxy Unpacked 2023 this year, Samsung revealed its newest flagship smartphones after much ado about the Ultra model’s rumoured specs and features.
On a whole, the rumours were right: the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra did come with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 For Galaxy, a massive 200MP camera sensor, and a near-identical design to the Galaxy S22 Ultra. For the most part, it feels more like an iterative update to the S Series than an actual upgrade.
After spending some time with Samsung’s newest flagship, we’re ready to give our final verdict. Spoiler alert: we think it’s still one of the best Android phones on the market, but also the most expensive.
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Jennifer chevron_right
Table of Contents
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Specifications
- Processor: Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy
- Display: 6.8” QHD+, Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display, 120Hz with Vision Booster
- Memory: 8GB/12GB RAM
- Storage: Up to 1TB
- Rear Camera: 200MP Wide Camera + 12MP Ultrawide + 10MP telephoto (3x zoom) + 10 MP telephoto (10x zoom)
- Front Camera: 12MP Selfie Camera with AI Object-aware engine
- Battery: 5000 mAh
- Operating System: Android 13, OneUI 5
- Weight: 234g
- Dimensions: 78.1 X 163.4 X 8.9mm
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Display & Design
As we’ve noted in our first impression, the Galaxy S23 Ultra looks pretty much identical to the Galaxy S22 Ultra. Still camera module-less, still blockish, but with straighter edges so it feels more comfortable to hold.
I say straight edges, but Samsung still retained the curved edge display, which I’m personally not a big fan of. The curved edge really serves no other purpose than to be annoyingly prone to mistouches/mis-swipes and the S Pen tends to slip off the edge when you’re trying to write closer to the edge. This is less prominent in the Galaxy S23 Ultra, but still, I could really do without the curved screen.
This isn’t that much of a dealbreaker. Apart from the curved screen, which is really more of a personal pet peeve than an actual drawback, the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s screen is some of the brightest and most vivid you can get on the market. Just like the Galaxy S22 Ultra, the 6.8” AMOLED display makes this phone bigger than most on the market, and heavier too.
What used to be known as the Advanced Vision Booster on its predecessors is now the Adaptive Vision Booster on the Galaxy S23 Ultra. What this feature does, essentially, is enhance visibility and readability in bright outdoor conditions. It doesn’t only brighten the screen; it also adjusts colour contrasts so that everything is easier on your eyes in all conditions.
With this new and improved Vision Booster, the Galaxy S23 Ultra can adjust to three levels instead of just two to adapt to even more situations. It kicks in automatically, so you don’t really have to tweak any settings or dials for this feature; just use your phone normally outdoors and marvel at how you can see everything without any uncomfortable glare.
Camera
According to Samsung, they’re focusing all their new smartphone camera technology on the S Series, whereas smartphone innovation would go in the Z Series, as we’ve seen in the likes of the Galaxy Z Flip4 and Z Fold4 last year.
This year, though, the Galaxy S23 Ultra certainly lives up to the “best camera smartphone” lineup. With plenty of Samsung’s firsts in the form of a 200MP camera sensor and Super HDR selfie camera, it’s clear that this is where Samsung is focusing on with this launch.
The camera is also one of the first things we tested out as soon as we got the phone, which is why the camera section in our first impression was so long. After using it for a little longer, we can say that it’s still very much impressive.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra doesn’t just take 200MP photos — it doesn’t even take them by default, actually. Using pixel-binning technology that combines multiple pixels to create a 12MP photo, saving you precious storage. It still shoots good, though.
Thanks to the higher resolution, photos captured on the Galaxy S23 Ultra are clear, details, and with brighter colours, though some may say the colours are a little overblown and artificial. This is because Samsung’s cameras tend to rely a little too much on AI, which in turn may also result in some inconsistent photographs that can be oversaturated sometimes.
NIghtography is as good as ever on the new Galaxy S23 Ultra — even better, if you would believe it. Having more MPs and a larger sensor allows the camera to take in more light, thus enhancing your night photos even further.
There’s also more zoom than you’ll ever need in your life unless you’re an astrophotographer. And speaking of astrophotography, I really loved how we can take expert-level astrophotos with only a smartphone, complete with a constellation guide if you download the ExpertRAW app from the Galaxy Store!
On the selfie front, while the Galaxy S23 Ultra has a slightly less MP-ed camera at 12MP, it still takes some decent selfies thanks to Super HDR, which essentially combines several photos together to create one “super” selfie using, again, AI technology.
On one hand, the hardware is downgraded, yet Samsung has upped its software game for the front-facing camera. It all balances out for results that, honestly, look no different to selfies shot on the Galaxy S23 Ultra.
Performance & Battery
Qualcomm and Samsung co-developed a special version of the newest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, which comes with the suffix “for Galaxy”. If you ask me, there’s only one word to describe the performance of the phone: fast.
You’ve never really experienced buttery smooth until you’ve tried opening fifteen apps at the same time on the Galaxy S23 Ultra, two of them being PUBG and Genshin Impact. Where my Galaxy S22 (base model) starts to falter when I try to answer my boss’s texts while playing games and Googling cheats while listening to music while also DM-ing my friends on Instagram, the Galaxy S23 Ultra had no problem dealing with all this and then some.
Also, gaming was so smooth to the point of dizziness in FPS games. In Genshin Impact, turning the camera around was something I had to remaster as sometimes happens so fast that I’d miss my objective. Champagne problems, as one would say.
However, like the Galaxy S22 Ultra, the Galaxy S23 Ultra tends to overheat. The overheating is extra prominent when using the camera for longer periods of time, surprisingly, rather than during gaming — it remained relatively after three hours of nonstop COD, while it got uncomfortable to hold after a two-hour photoshoot outdoors.
That’s something that Samsung apparently said the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 For Galaxy would fix. And I’d say even though the chip does run somewhat cooler than its predecessor, it still has some ways to go.
Battery-wise, there are literally no changes to the paper specs. Still sporting the same 5000 mAh, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is supposedly longer-lasting and more power-efficient thanks to the chip upgrade, which was true for the most part in our daily usage. It lasted the good part of the day on normal usage with a couple of gaming sessions here and there.
Final Verdict
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