On paper and by eye Galaxy S23 Ultra not too different from last year’s Galaxy S22 Ultra. It has the same display, the same look and feel thanks to the floating design of the rear cameras, and is generally very similar to last year’s specs.

However, to say that Samsung hasn’t made anything new this year would be simply not true. We’ve got a new HP2 camera sensor on the back, the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, and a subtle hardware change that completely changed my mind about big phones. While we can say that the Galaxy S23 Ultra is really just an upgraded Galaxy S22 Ultra, I wouldn’t see it as a bad thing. I have been using the phone for more than a week now and am ready to share my thoughts on the time spent with it.

This is our Galaxy S23 Ultra review!

That I love

display This is last year’s Galaxy S22 Ultra display, 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X (1440 x 3088) panel with up to 120Hz refresh rate and 1750 nits peak brightness. These are literally the same specs as last year, but the only difference is the protective glass. Samsung is using Corning’s new Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the S23 Ultra, which should improve the phone’s protection against scratches and cracks in the display. I’m not saying you should check it out, but yes, it’s there. And what’s the difference that it’s the same panel? This display is stunning, with incredible levels of brightness, superb colors, and is capable of delivering a very eye-pleasing level of low-light performance.

Since I didn’t review the S22 Ultra last year, this is the first time I’m testing this display and honestly, I think it’s the best display I’ve ever used. As always, Samsung spares no expense when it comes to tweaking settings. We can toggle variable refresh rate, set adaptive brightness, adjust white balance and choose between screen mode presets and adjust resolution. Comparing it to my Pixel 7 Pro’s display, I wouldn’t say it’s a difference between day and night to my human eyes, but it certainly performs better in direct lighting conditions thanks to its higher peak brightness.

Hardware – Yes, this phone is similar to last year’s Galaxy S22 Ultra. If this is a problem for you, I’m sorry. For those who don’t mind, this is a beautiful device. Personally, I like the floating cameras on the back, but maybe that’s just me. But most importantly, Samsung made a hardware tweak that I really fell in love with. For many of the past Galaxy Note and Ultra devices, the sides of the phones were heavily curved, creating a small area to actually hold the device. On the S23 Ultra, Samsung has reduced the flex by widening the sides, making for a noticeably larger area to hold the phone. I don’t want to be that guy, but this is a real game changer for a phone of this size. This makes single-handed use much more convenient as it feels more secure in the hand. This, along with the new and improved HP2 camera sensor, is my favorite thing about the phone. Also, yes, it’s pretty much the Galaxy S22 Ultra in the hardware department.

Battery – It shouldn’t come as a shock, but the battery life of this phone, thanks to 5000 mAh of juice, is great. To test this I was going to hard in my game Marvel Snap climbing the ranks to push this phone to the limit thanks to game performance toggles. I can enable 60Hz gameplay, increase graphic settings, and enable the gyroscope feature in the game. No doubt a smaller phone with a smaller battery might struggle with long gameplay on these levels, but the Galaxy S23 Ultra holds up well.

I’m sure it’s all thanks to the great work Qualcomm and Samsung have done on their respective products, as well as the cooling system that Samsung uses for the internals of this device. I’ve used this phone a ton and I didn’t feel it getting warm at all. Even with my games and lots of photos as well as videos I took, this phone’s battery lasts a very long time. I easily pull out 4+ hours of screen every day by going to bed with 20%+ battery every night. Again, the battery is very good. When the need arises, 45W wired charging is available, as well as 15W wireless charging and 4.5W reverse wireless charging for your accessories.

Performance – As I just finished talking in the section above, I tested this device with games, video recording and everything. It hasn’t missed a beat yet. Areas where you might typically notice glitches are fast app switching and high resolution photo processing. In my experience, the phone has no issues with app switching and fast photo processing, except for the 200MP setting. This is not surprising since we are usually talking about 50MB to 100MB snapshots. I think it’s safe to assume that any phone would take a second or two to process that much information. The fact is that with a base of 8 GB of RAM and a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, in partnership with the Adreno 740 GPU, this phone is capable of high performance.

Camera – There are many cameras on the back of the Galaxy S23 Ultra. There are four in total – the new 200MP wide-angle HP2, 10MP periscope telephoto lens, 10MP telephoto lens, and 12MP ultra-wide angle lens. The crown jewel is obviously the HP2 sensor with its massive 200 MP sensor. The goal here is a camera that can not only capture incredible detail in optimal lighting conditions, but also deliver improved levels of photography in low light. After my own testing, I can confirm that the camera system on the S23 Ultra is the best and most versatile system currently available from Samsung. I’d also say it’s the best in the entire smartphone market, but I’ve never tested every phone so it’s hard to say that. Although it is really very good.

For me, the ability to capture any frame in any conditions is of paramount importance. Not only that, but let’s say there is a considerable distance between you and the subject. This phone and its 100x zoom will take care of that if you have hands with surgeon levels of stability or a tripod. With that said, anything at 10x zoom is still captured without additional image processing, so the watercolor effect we sometimes see at 30x and 100x zoom is missing.

For those interested, astrophotography is easily achievable on this device by downloading the Samsung Expert RAW camera app. What’s more, it’s incredible that breathtaking images of stars and other celestial bodies are available at the touch of a button, without the user having to know anything about the process itself. I commended Google for bringing astrophotography to the masses with Night Sight, and Samsung is taking that principle a lot further. With the click of a button in the camera app’s enhanced Hyperlapse mode, you can turn on star trail shots for which professionals usually have time-consuming setup and post-processing software. On my phone, I press the shutter button, go away for an hour, and then return to amazing photos and videos.

It took Samsung a couple of years to catch up, but now I would say they have surpassed Google in the astrophotography category. Google introduced a new macro setting for Pixel phones last year, but yes, the Galaxy S23 Ultra has it too, and it’s pretty good too. I’m scratching my head, but I don’t think there’s anything that this phone’s camera array can’t capture well.

S-handle – For those who live the life of a stylus, yes, the Galaxy S23 Ultra has an S Pen hidden inside. No new features that I’m aware of, but that’s ok. The S Pen does so much already, like with the remote camera shutter function and other Air Actions, so I’m not entirely sure what else it might need. I think the S Pen has reached its final stage of evolution, which I’m sure is great for those who need it. Personally, I am not a stylus user and do not intend to become one. The universe gave me 5 styluses per hand, so I don’t need extra ones. The remote shutter is certainly useful in some cases, but the S Pen will never be the deciding factor for me. S Pen Pro is supported on your device if you also have it.

What could be better

Software redundancy, bloat “Samsung is notorious for redundant software settings. The company reminds me of Boeing or any other aircraft manufacturer. Any setting on this phone can be accessed from multiple locations, or settings for the same area of ​​the phone are sometimes separated into separate menus. It’s been a problem with Samsung phones that seems to go on forever, feeling completely lost in the settings menu. It’s not fun, and thank God for the search feature. Without it, you will never find anything. When One UI was first introduced, it felt polished and thin. Now, as we move to One UI 5.1 built on top of Android 13, it feels like we’re back to what can sometimes seem like a bloated mess.

Speaking of bloat, a recent report brought our attention to the actual OS size on these new Samsung devices. The storage settings for this device indicate that the OS takes up 87 GB of space, although there has been little debate about how accurate these numbers are. Whatever the true numbers, the fact that most Android manufacturers have removed expandable storage remains an issue for many potential buyers.

What I like about the software is the ongoing steps to improve user customization, but technically it’s up to Google and Android 13. On this device, in the Wallpaper & Style menu, users can turn on the color palette, which is stupidly disabled out of the box. If I were Samsung, I would like to emphasize this. When this feature is enabled, users can choose which colors of the installed wallpaper they would like to highlight throughout the OS. It’s truly one of the best things introduced to Android in a while (first available in Android 12), and Android 13 is evolving even further.

Samsung has also applied it well, as all of its apps support the masked icons feature, but unlike Pixel devices, the masked icons also carry over to the app drawer. Does this look great considering that 95% of developers aren’t using the masked icons feature yet? No no. But one day, hopefully soon (wink, wink), it won’t matter that developers are either lazy or stop supporting their apps.

video

Unboxing

First 10 things to do

Verdict

I can do it very simply. If you have a Galaxy S22 Ultra, you may want to skip the Galaxy S23 Ultra. If you have any other device, I recommend this phone. Even for my fellow Pixel fans, this is a really good phone that offers a ton of features. If you can’t live with One UI, I understand. However, if you’re running an outdated Samsung device or are finally getting ready to get rid of an old LG phone, this might be the super megaphone you need if you consider yourself a power user. In terms of specs, there is nothing better in the Android world right now here in the US, which is why the Galaxy S23 Ultra is the undisputed king of Android for now. Haters will hate, but this phone is fantastic in every major category: camera, display, hardware, battery life, and software updates.

If we look at device purchases solely in terms of how long something will be supported, Samsung is currently winning the race. As of now, new Samsung devices get 4 years of Android OS updates as well as 5 years of security patches. Not even Google matches this. Nobody disputes that Samsung devices are a good investment in Android.