Samsung’s ever-expanding Galaxy gets a new premium flagship smartphone, S23 Ultra. The 2023 edition of Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra features second generation of Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 processor, and an S-Pen. But, it maintains the design of its predecessor. The South Korean electronics maker claims remarkable improvements in this device. We tested the flagship 25 days, and here’s what we think about it.
Design
We tested the Green variant of Galaxy S23 Ultra that looks both sober and premium. It gets a matte-type finish that makes it easy to hold the phone. The rear side refracts light and gives it a sense of grey-ish shade. It doesn’t get finger imprints on it.
The left frame of the device is plain while the right has the power and volume keys. The bottom houses the S-Pen, speaker grille, Type-C port, and the SIM tray. Samsung continues the centrally-placed punch hole display in the Galaxy S23 Ultra and didn’t try to visit any ‘island’. The display is curved towards the either side of the frame.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra does not feel heavy in hands as the weight distribution is uniform. The phone doesn’t generate heat either while charging. The in-display fingerprint scanner is quick but takes time to read if there’s moisture on the tips.
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The continuation of design makes anything common and doesn’t really serve the purpose of being new. Samsung is expected to shed the design monotony in 2024.
Display
Samsung has used a 6.8-inch OLED display in the Galaxy S23 Ultra. The tallest form factor serves many purposes with the S-Pen and helps people like us prepare notes more easily. The display provides ample space to jostle down the important points in a press brief, and yes of course, the S-Pen is more refined, fast and accurate than the last generations.
Galaxy S23 Ultra’s display hits 1,750 nits of peak brightness which is amazing even under the direct gaze of the sun. Never has been an occasion that we missed any detail on this phone.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra produces realistic, life-like images that hold colour, details and sharpness. | Photo Credit: Haider Ali Khan
The display oozes vividness and colour saturation is close to realism. The 120Hz refresh rate goes in sync with the content and lives up to the expectation when needed. The larger screen size with brilliance and colour accuracy makes the Galaxy S23 Ultra a long-term companion if you’re hooked to OTT content, gaming or even video browsing.
Processor
Samsung has used the same processor in entire Galaxy S23 series which is Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. The peak performing processor has all the elements of being the pinnacle in Android for the moment. Although the same processor is being used in OnePlus 11 5G, Samsung markets it as ‘custom made for Galaxy’.
Rarely the phone shows any sign of slowing down. The game play has been fluent as well with even graphics intensive games ran smoothly on the Galaxy S23 Ultra. Long-term gaming does produce heat, but the SoC cools it down quickly with the help of the heat dissipation mechanism it has.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra ships with 12GB RAM and our unit holds 256GB internal space. Even though the phone is a 200MP shooter, but by default, it clicks in 12MP which goes on occupying a minimum of 3MB to 6MB average space on the phone. It’s sufficient to store games, apps locally on the phone and for photos we have cloud options as well.
The S23 Ultra runs on One UI 5.1 based on Android 13. The customisation and advanced features are worthy. You can optimise it to look however you want with minute details from wallpapers, to widgets and photo editing.
The processor has been around in the market and its optimal performance is well known. We had reviewed the Galaxy S23 having the same SoC, UI, and the OnePlus 11, and can easily vouch for the performance of it.
Cameras
This is where the entire focus of Galaxy S23 Ultra is. Samsung has tried balancing the phone by upgrading the main sensor to 200MP and simultaneously downgrading the selfie lens from 40MP to a standard 12MP across the new series.
Samsung has packed the Galaxy S23 Ultra with quad lenses at the back. A 200MP main lens with f/1.7, a 12MP ultrawide sensor, a 10MP telephoto shooter and a 10MP periscope lens with 10x optical zoom.
I have been playing around with the Galaxy S23 Ultra and results were phenomenal. This is by far the best lens set up in a Samsung phone. The combination is awesome. The Galaxy S23 Ultra produces realistic, life-like images that hold colour, details and sharpness.
The zoom reaches another level on the Galaxy S23 Ultra. | Photo Credit: Haider Ali Khan
Nothing seems too far with its optical zoom, even the moon, and I believe Samsung must target Mars with Galaxy S24 Ultra next year with its periscope lens.
The phone’s 12MP default camera’s settings can be changed to use the 200MP resolution in the setup. The main lens preserves contrast and doesn’t overdo any image. The tiny detailing can be achieved as well using the right set of lenses. The portraits are great, easily shredding what is not required in the image. The edge detection is brilliant in portrait mode.
The zoom reaches another level on the Galaxy S23 Ultra. It can get far objects, buildings, or literally anything much closer to us without bothering too much. The zoomed images maintain colour contrast to let say 10x and thus helps distinguish what is really there far off. The ultrawide gathers image as it should be while getting the right exposure. Videos are much crisper on the Galaxy S23 Ultra with 8K and 4K recordings.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra uses a 12MP selfie lens with f/2.2. The phone does click some really good selfies in daylight observing facial features and maintaining the right skin tone. During nights, the S23 Ultra enhanced images and made them soft in texture, especially in Portrait mode. The normal mode, on the contrary, preserved more detailing.
S-Pen
Being mobile, the opportunity to use the S-Pen decreases, but whenever used, it turned out to be precise with quite low latency. The tucked in stylus is getting slimmer with generational shifts and is getting more accustomed to our hands. There are plenty of functions the stylus can perform, but mine remains taking quick notes during briefing and getting it ready on the clipboard to file it quickly.
Battery
The Galaxy S23 Ultra ships with a 5,000mAh battery and no charger inside the box. For a productive phone a 5,000mAh battery is quite sufficient as it takes the phone for a day easily on extensive usage even. The Gen 2 SoC comes handy as well in preserving more power and prevention of battery drainage.
For an average user, Galaxy S23 Ultra’s battery can last up to 40+ hours considering internet surfing, music and voice calls. The phone supports 45W chargers and takes about an hour to get fully charged.
An image sample of Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra’s ultrawide camera capabilities. | Photo Credit: Haider Ali Khan
Verdict
Samsung has aced the non-Note series with Galaxy S23 Ultra. It is prodigious; surpasses its rivals and its predecessor. It gets the top-end Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 process to match gaming, computing and the S-Pen functions. The vibrant display provides vast space to explore content in its rich form. The battery lasts as per the usage. But, all of these features come at a hefty cost, ₹1,24,999.
Published - February 27, 2023 12:51 pm IST
