Galaxy S23 Ultra

A phone that wants to be so much more, Samsung's flagship Android device has a lot going for it.

This kind of power in your pocket means you don’t necessarily have to wait until you get home to carry out a computing task, you don’t need a compact camera for photos, or a mirrorless for 8K video, and you don’t need to carry a charger with you if you’re staying out for the night. It has a unique feature in the S Pen, the ability to convert into something approaching a desktop PC thanks to DEX mode, and the camera setup is capable of producing some excellent images. While it’s a bit large and heavy, this is one of the best - if not the best - phones currently available, easily rivalling the greatest that Apple, Google and Sony have to offer. There's a lot of camera on the back of the S23 Ultra. In fact, this is a special version of the Snapdragon chip made especially for Samsung, with a single slightly faster processor core and an overclocked GPU. It’s as bright and colourful as you’d expect, but the size means this isn’t a phone that’s particularly easy to use in one hand, even with the particularly large paws of the human model we used for testing. And in single-core benchmarks the A16 Bionic trades blows with the M2 from the MacBook Air and Mac mini. Carry a portable monitor with you, and you can leave your laptop at home for catching up with email and writing proposals for clients on the train. The phone feels premium, powerful, and comes with what’s likely the best camera setup currently available on a phone. There's no camera bulge on the S23 Ultra, so the lenses protrude directly from the back of the phone, which is a really nice touch. The S Pen sets the S23 Ultra apart, but the rest of the phone is extremely familiar. A big, heavy, expensive Android phone like the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra needs something special to make you want it instead of an iPhone or something more reasonably sized and priced.

The Samsung S23 line-up was impressive. We compare two smartphones from the line-up and see what differentiates them and which one is ideal for you.

If you're looking for a more affordable option, the S23 is a great choice with a smaller display, a slightly lower camera setup, and a lower price tag. The performance of the S23 Ultra looks better due to the bigger size and better thermal performance. The S23 Ultra also has a built-in heart rate sensor. However, if you're willing to spend more for a larger display, better camera setup, and additional features like the S Pen, then the S23 Ultra is the way to go. The S23 has a 6.1-inch display, while the S23 Ultra has a larger 6.8-inch display. However, the S23 Ultra also has a 12GB RAM variant. The 12 GB RAM variant of the S23 Ultra adds more performance to the phone, but the overall performance is similar for both phones. The Samsung Galaxy S23 is the base phone in the line-up. There are not a lot of compact phones in the market today, and the Galaxy S23 fits the needs of people who want a smaller phone. Both displays are smooth and provide an enjoyable experience to the user. The content viewing experience is immersive, and the colours are vibrant. The S23 features a Full HD+ AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels, while the S23 Ultra comes with a QHD+ AMOLED display with a resolution of 1440 x 3088 pixels.

We're putting Samsung's Galaxy S23 Ultra and Galaxy Z Fold 4 head-to-head to help you decide which flagship smartphone is best for you.

Bigger display and much better battery life on the middle sibling than the smaller S23 I reviewed Samsung's Galaxy S23 Ultra and S23 just a while back, ...

It’s a bigger version of the S23 with a longer battery life and a larger display that both do a good job. The call quality here is top notch and so is the GPS performance for reliable quick lock-in. The battery life is nearly as good as the S23 Ultra, though not exactly as much, but significantly better than the S23. Camera: For photography, you get a familiar triple camera setup on the back -- a 50MP (f/1.8) main camera, a 12MP (f/2.2) ultra-wide camera, and a 10MP (f/2.4) telephoto camera. In terms if customization and added features, One Ui doesn’t disappoint – whether it’s added options with the Gallery app or the handy file manager or Good Lock add-on that is a must try app from the Galaxy Store if you have a Galaxy device today. Display: The phone sports a full HD+ (2340x1080) AMOLED display that supports refresh rates of up to 120Hz.

How does the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra's camera compare vs the S22 Ultra in low-light scenes and when zooming? We put the two to the test.

Moving to the 10x cityscape comparison, the S23 Ultra does a good job of taming noise in the sky, while also lifting darker shades. Shooting at 5x is a major challenge for the S22 Ultra and S23 Ultra. Our first takeaway is that the S22 Ultra pumps the contrast again while the S23 Ultra brings a comparatively washed-out look. Going into this shootout, we thought the S23 Ultra would’ve been able to deliver steady gains over the S22 Ultra. But Samsung’s processing on the new phone seems to be a mild upgrade at most, at least compared to the Exynos S22 Ultra we’re using. Starting with 10x, the answer is “mostly.” Our first comparison shows that the Galaxy S23 Ultra delivers a major improvement to white balance accuracy and a sharper, less noisy image overall. There’s adequate detail but both phones also display noise in the sky if you crop in a little. The situation is very different when we take a look at the second set of images, which takes place in dimmer light. To test, we pit Samsung’s latest S23 Ultra camera vs the S22 Ultra. But the street scene does give us more to go on when we pixel-peep. You can find the full-res snaps at this [Google Drive link](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1S4W_ds3rDxuPcTKEqx46uoscERFsS3dn?usp=sharing). Samsung has also upgraded the main camera hardware, going from the S22 Ultra’s 108MP shooter to a 200MP primary sensor.