Last year, Samsung resurrected the ‘Galaxy Note’ with the launch of the Galaxy S22 Ultra, and it was received rather positively. The company has now followed it up with the launch of the S23 Ultra, along with the S23 and S23+. With a design that looks very similar to its predecessor and a couple of internal upgrades, has Samsung released a worthy update to the Galaxy S Ultra series? Read on in my review to find out.
Box Contents
- Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphone 12GB + 256GB storage version in Green colour
- USB Type-C to Type-C Cable
- SIM ejector tool
- Quick Start Guide and Warranty information
Design and Hardware
At first glance, the S23 Ultra looks nearly identical to the previous year’s S22 Ultra. It has the same big display up-front, curved edges, glossy metal railings, and frosted glass in the rear. The camera bump is identical too, with bolder silver rings around each camera.
The biggest change is the slightly flatter edges on the S23 Ultra, which results in a noticeable improvement of the hand ergonomics. The display is also flatter to give it a larger surface area.
The placement of the ports, SIM slot, buttons and S-pen remain the same, and in my opinion they are in the right places.
For structural protection, the phone features their Armor Aluminium frame and both the front and rear glass are made out of Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus 2. It weighs 233 grams, which is only marginally higher than its predecessor. It measures 163.4 x 78.1 x 8.9mm, which is definitely on the larger side. So if you have smaller hands, maybe check out the device in a store first before purchasing.
Display and Audio
The S23 Ultra has a 6.8-inch Quad HD+ Infinity-O-Edge Dynamic AMOLED panel with a supported refresh rate range of 1-120Hz and a peak brightness of 1750 nits. Samsung has always used their best panels for their flagship devices, and the S23 Ultra is no exception. The panel is absolutely beautiful, with some of the best colours and contrast I’ve seen on a mobile device.
The brightness in particular is impressive, and I had no issues with outdoor visibility. The phone is equipped with an updated version of their Vision Booster technology, which now features 3 levels to provide improved visibility in direct sunlight. And of course HDR content on streaming platforms looks fantastic, although Samsung still refuses to add Dolby Vision support in their devices.
With support for refresh rates between 1-120Hz, the display feels buttery smooth when navigating the UI, scrolling through social media and especially when gaming. Samsung is also making good use of the variable refresh rate to optimize the battery life
For speakers, it uses the same dual stereo setup as the S22 Ultra, although it does sound a bit better at full volume. Just as before, the phone does support Dolby Atmos audio, and it worked well when I used it in Apple Music.
Camera
Having a great camera system seems to be a necessity these days for flagship smartphones. With the S23 Ultra, Samsung has introduced their newest ISOCELL HP2 sensor, featuring a mind-boggling resolution of 200 megapixels. This is a lot more than the 108MP sensor present in the S22 Ultra.
Along with the main wide-angle, the S23 Ultra has a 12MP 120° Ultra Wide sensor, a 10MP Telephoto lens for 3x zoom and a 10MP Periscope lens for 10x zoom. The front camera has been updated with a new 12MP front camera with f/2.2 aperture.
The default camera app for the S23 Ultra remains the same, with a new mode for capturing at 200MP or at 50MP. By default, the app outputs 12MP photos after binning pixels. Another change to the camera app is the direct shortcut to their Expert RAW app, which needs to be installed separately from the Galaxy Store.
Coming to how well the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s camera performs, well simply put, it is fantastic. The S22 Ultra’s camera was already quite good, and somehow the S23 Ultra is better. It is better at capturing details, with great contrast and good exposure. The low-light performance has noticeably improved and the HDR processing is done well. Samsung continues to have one of the best portrait effects, with natural looking bokeh and clean subject cut-outs. One issue I had with the camera was the high shutter lag. I’m assuming that capturing and processing 200MP takes time, however it shutter lag shouldn’t exist for a flagship phone in 2023.
Having multiple focal ranges makes the camera quite versatile, and in particular I enjoyed using the 3x telephoto. I would often find myself clicking with the 3x camera as it can shoot with unique perspectives and the outputs were great.
Although the front camera has a lower resolution than last year, the quality has dramatically improved. The dynamic range is impressive, and it captures a high amount of detail. I don’t know what magic Samsung has done, but it is good!
Coming to videography, the phone can now shoot at up to 8K at 30fps, along with support for other typical frame rates. The phone also features better stabilization with improved OIS and advanced VDIS technology. There is support for Pro Video and support for Portrait video too. Unfortunately, there is no support for shooting in Dolby Vision.
Here are some camera samples of the S23 Ultra:
Software, UI and Apps
Out of the box, the S23 Ultra is running OneUI 5.1 based on Android 13. At the time of writing this review, the phone was running the April Android security patch. Samsung has promised 4 years of Android upgrades and 5 years of security updates, which is excellent. The company has also been quite regular with their software updates.
I have liked Samsung’s OneUI software experience for a long time now, thanks to its long list of useful features and optimizations. OneUI 5.1 in particular has introduced a direct shortcut to the ExpertRAW app in the camera UI and added better customisation options. There is also better multitasking support and integrations with Samsung’s ecosystem of devices. You can check out the complete list of changes in One UI 5.1 here.
Just like the S22 Ultra, you get the usual set of software features for the S-Pen. Samsung hasn’t added any new features for the S-Pen, and honestly that is fine. It is plenty capable in my opinion.
Fingerprint sensor and Face unlock
Samsung continues to utilize an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, and although they haven’t mentioned it, I feel that the fingerprint detection area is marginally bigger. The accuracy of the authentication is still high, and I rarely faced any issues with it. You can still add up to 4 fingerprints, and it can be used to lock/unlock the “Secure Folder” app present in Samsung’s OneUI. Along with this, it supports face unlock, but it isn’t as secure, so I never used it.
Dual SIM and Connectivity
The phone features Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon X70 5G Modem-RF system, with support for Dual SIMs or an eSIM. For 5G bands, it supports 16 bands, and it supports Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. 5G connectivity was excellent during my tests in Chennai and the speeds were great. More importantly, Samsung has done a lot of optimization to ensure that the battery life doesn’t suffer on 5G.
Along with this, it has the usual set of sensors including UWB and for location accuracy it supports GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo and QZSS.
Performance and Benchmarks
Performance on the Galaxy S series has been substantially improved this generation. Samsung partnered with Qualcomm to power the Galaxy S23 series with a special version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset. It is essentially a better binned SoC that can boost higher, at up to 3.36GHz on its prime CPU core. This is faster than the regular variant of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 found in other current flagship smartphones.
The faster clock speeds enable the S23 Ultra to score really well in synthetic benchmarks and perform excellently in real-world applications. The phone can handle pretty much any task that you throw at it, and I rarely noticed any slowdowns. With 12GB of RAM standard, apps stay open in memory for long periods of time.
Gaming is another area where I feel like the phone has really improved, and this is thanks to its upgraded cooling system. Samsung is more serious this time around about its cooling technologies and the results are visible. In Genshin Impact, the phone maintains good frame rates for much longer, resulting in a much better gaming experience. Qualcomm has made a good chip with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, and I’m glad to see Samsung take full advantage of that.
This kind of lift in performance may not be that meaningful now, but it will be crucial in the future, especially considering Samsung’s promise of 4 years of Android upgrades.
Here are some synthetic benchmarks:
Battery life
This is an area where I saw the biggest improvement during my review of the S23 Ultra. While the S22 Ultra offered pretty good all-day battery life, the S23 Ultra extends that noticeably further. It has the same battery capacity at 5000mAh, so there isn’t any change there. Where the improvement comes from is the efficiency of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, which is significantly better this time around.
During my review, with my normal regular use, it is possible to get nearly 7 to 8 hours of screen-on-time, which is amazing. This is with the display set to 1440p and 120Hz, adaptive refresh rate, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS on, and 5G connectivity. With the light use, the phone can easily last two days and with heavy use, the phone will still get through a day comfortably.
The charging situation has unfortunately not changed. The S23 Ultra can charge at a maximum of 45W, which is quite a bit slower than other flagships. The phone can charge from 3% to 100% in about 1 hour and 10 mins. It still has support for wireless charging and reverse wireless charging.
Conclusion
The Galaxy S23 Ultra feels like a refined version of the S22 Ultra, with improved performance, upgraded camera and a much better camera system. Samsung has increased the base variant to 12GB+256GB but also increased the starting price to Rs. 1,24,999. The price jump is significant when compared to the S22 Ultra.
In my opinion, the many little improvements that Samsung made has made the S23 Ultra a much better offering and for that reason, I understand the price increase. If you own an S22 Ultra, which is still an excellent device, then I wouldn’t recommend upgrading to the S23 Ultra. If you own an older Samsung flagship though, then you can consider the S23 Ultra as the upgrades will be noticeably significant. The phone represents one of the best offerings that Android can offer right now.
Availability
The Galaxy S23 Ultra starts at Rs. 1,24,999 for the 12GB +256GB model, Rs. 1,34,999 for 12GB +512GB and the top-end 12GB +1TB model is available for Rs. Rs. 1,54,999.
It is available from Amazon.in, Flipkart and other online stores as well as offline stores. The online-exclusive colours – Red, Graphite, Lime and Sky Blue are available from Samsung.com.