The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is the company’s flagship smartphone for 2023, and it’s one of the best smartphones on the market. It has a large, beautiful display, a powerful processor, a great camera system, and long battery life.
Here’s a detailed review of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra:
Design and display
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has a very similar design to its predecessor, the S22 Ultra. It’s a big, heavy phone with a large, flat display. The back of the phone is made of glass, and it has a matte finish that helps to reduce fingerprints.
The display on the S23 Ultra is a 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with a 120Hz refresh rate. It’s one of the best displays on the market, with excellent brightness, contrast, and color reproduction.
Performance and cameras
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, which is one of the fastest mobile processors on the market. The phone also comes with up to 12GB of RAM and 1TB of storage.
The S23 Ultra has a quad-camera system on the back, consisting of a 200MP main sensor, a 12MP ultrawide sensor, a 10MP telephoto sensor with 3x optical zoom, and a 10MP telephoto sensor with 10x optical zoom. The camera system is excellent, and it takes stunning photos and videos in all lighting conditions.
Battery life and software
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has a 5000mAh battery, which should easily last you a full day on a single charge. The phone also supports fast charging and wireless charging.
The S23 Ultra comes with Android 13 and One UI 5.0, Samsung’s custom user interface. One UI 5.0 is a clean and well-designed user interface with a lot of features and customization options.
Pros and cons
Here are some of the pros and cons of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra:
Pros:
- Large and beautiful display
- Powerful processor
- Great camera system
- Long battery life
- Built-in S Pen
Cons:
- Expensive
- Big and heavy
- Bixby is still not as good as Google Assistant
Overall
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is an excellent smartphone. It has a large and beautiful display, a powerful processor, a great camera system, and long battery life. However, it’s also very expensive.
If you’re looking for the best possible Android smartphone and you’re willing to pay for it, then the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is the phone for you. However, if you’re on a budget or don’t need all of the features that the S23 Ultra has to offer, then there are other great Android smartphones available for less money.
Full Specifications
NETWORK
- Technology: GSM / CDMA / HSPA / EVDO / LTE / 5G
LAUNCH
- Announced: 2023, February 01
- Status: Available. Released 2023, February 17
BODY
- Dimensions: 163.4 x 78.1 x 8.9 mm (6.43 x 3.07 x 0.35 in)
- Weight: 234 g (8.25 oz)
- Build: Glass front (Gorilla Glass Victus 2), glass back (Gorilla Glass Victus 2), aluminum frame
- SIM: Nano-SIM and eSIM or Dual SIM (2 Nano-SIMs and eSIM, dual stand-by)
- IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 1.5m for 30 min)
- Armor aluminum frame with tougher drop and scratch resistance (advertised)
- Stylus (Bluetooth integration, accelerometer, gyro)
DISPLAY
- Type: Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 120Hz, HDR10+, 1200 nits (HBM), 1750 nits (peak)
- Size: 6.8 inches, 114.7 cm2 (~89.9% screen-to-body ratio)
- Resolution: 1440 x 3088 pixels, 19.3:9 ratio (~500 ppi density)
- Protection: Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2
- Always-on display
PLATFORM
- OS: Android 13, One UI 5.1
- Chipset: Qualcomm SM8550-AC Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (4 nm)
- CPU: Octa-core (1×3.36 GHz Cortex-X3 & 2×2.8 GHz Cortex-A715 & 2×2.8 GHz Cortex-A710 & 3×2.0 GHz Cortex-A510)
- GPU: Adreno 740
MEMORY
- Card slot: No
- Internal: 256GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 12GB RAM, 1TB 12GB RAM
- UFS 4.0
MAIN CAMERA
- Quad:
- 200 MP, f/1.7, 24mm (wide), 1/1.3″, 0.6µm, multi-directional PDAF, Laser AF, OIS
- 10 MP, f/4.9, 230mm (periscope telephoto), 1/3.52″, 1.12µm, Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS, 10x optical zoom
- 10 MP, f/2.4, 70mm (telephoto), 1/3.52″, 1.12µm, Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom
- 12 MP, f/2.2, 13mm, 120˚ (ultrawide), 1/2.55″, 1.4µm, Dual Pixel PDAF, Super Steady video
- Features: LED flash, auto-HDR, panorama
- Video: 8K@24/30fps, 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/240fps, 1080p@960fps, HDR10+, stereo sound rec., gyro-EIS
SELFIE CAMERA
- Single: 12 MP, f/2.2, 26mm (wide), Dual Pixel PDAF
- Features: Dual video call, Auto-HDR, HDR10+
- Video: 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30fps
SOUND
- Loudspeaker: Yes, with stereo speakers
- 3.5mm jack: No
- 32-bit/384kHz audio
- Tuned by AKG
COMMS
- WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e, tri-band, Wi-Fi Direct
- Bluetooth: 5.3, A2DP, LE
- Positioning: GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO
- NFC: Yes
- Radio: No
- USB: USB Type-C 3.2, OTG
FEATURES
- Sensors: Fingerprint (under display, ultrasonic), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer
- Samsung DeX, Samsung Wireless DeX (desktop experience support)
- Bixby natural language commands and dictation
- Samsung Pay (Visa, MasterCard certified)
- Ultra Wideband (UWB) support
BATTERY
- Type: Li-Ion 5000 mAh, non-removable
- Charging: 45W wired, PD3.0, 65% in 30 min (advertised)
- 15W wireless (Qi/PMA)
- 4.5W reverse wireless
MISC
- Colors: Phantom Black, Green, Cream, Lavender, Graphite, Sky Blue, Lime, Red, BMW M Edition
- Models: SM-S918B, SM-S918B/DS, SM-S918U, SM-S918U1, SM-S918W, SM-S918N, SM-S9180, SM-S918E, SM-S918E/DS
- SAR: 1.12 W/kg (head), 0.92 W/kg (body)
- SAR EU: 0.96 W/kg (head), 1.40 W/kg (body)
- Price: $859.00 / €984.78 / £800.00 / ₹92,990
TESTS
- Performance:
- AnTuTu: 1241531 (v9)
- GeekBench: 4927 (v5.1)
- GFXBench: 67fps (ES 3.1 onscreen)
- Display:
- Contrast ratio: Infinite (nominal)
- Camera:
- Photo / Video
- Loudspeaker:
- -25.6 LUFS (Very good)
- Battery life:
- Endurance rating 126h
