Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Enhances the Company’s Camera Strengths

INTRODUCTION

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra 5G is the latest flagship from the Samsung Galaxy S series. The flagship smartphone impresses you with its proportionate design and vibrant colors. Above and above, the massive 200MP main camera with larger lenses steals the show with stunning shooting. The phone ranks first for its speed and performance.

The otherwise long list of figures and features below does not represent significant changes over the previous generation. The battery capacity and charge rating remain unchanged; the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor has not been upgraded to optical; proprietary features such as DeX and Samsung Pay remain, and the display is still the best in the business.

Price when reviewed: $1,730.99 | Check price at Amazon

Galaxy S23 Ultra KEY FEATURES

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra 5G has Consistent camera performance across all functions, resulting in an excellent smartphone imaging allrounder. Very good photo rendering with a great level of detail. Very good autofocus in photography and video, allowing you to catch the moment in most lighting settings. Excellent long-range telezoom performance. Good sound reproduction with both built-in speakers and microphones. Low-light settings result in a loss of visual detail. Shutter lag may occur when shooting in low-light conditions. Exposure and focus instabilities, especially in backlit images. The default recorder app does not provide the same audio quality as the primary camera app.

SAMSUNG GALAXY S23 ULTRA UNBOXING

The Galaxy S23 Ultra arrives in what has become the standard for Samsung high-end phone packaging: a thin as possible black cardboard box with a likeness of the handset printed on the lid in the same color as the actual device inside.

The size of the box ensures there is no charger inside, but there is still a USB-C cable – despite our repeated warnings that ‘this may be the last time you’re getting a cable’, Samsung includes one – does that qualify as winning? There’s also a SIM eject pin, which we generally don’t discuss, but the unboxing part may benefit from more detail.

CAMERA

Reengineered Nightography Camera with numerous features, including upgraded camera sensors with balanced light and decreased noise, to produce the greatest night images yet. Whether it’s a sharp or clear Night Portrait or another subjective shot. Even the videography is quite clear. The OIS and noise-reduction technology add cinematic elements to the footage.

The main camera has a 200MP Samsung HP2 sensor that fits in a 1/1.3″ optical format with small pixels (0.6µm). This image is smaller than the HP1 (200MP, 1/1.22″, 0.64µm), which Samsung offers to other manufacturers like Motorola, but we don’t doubt Samsung kept the best for itself.

The sensor contains a Tetra2pixel RGB Bayer Pattern color filter, which clusters 16 pixels into one and, by default, provides 12MP photos. You’d think 200/16 equals 12.5, and you’d be correct, but the photographs end up at 4,000×3,000px rather than 4,080×3,060px – with a small trim. There is, of course, a 200MP full-res mode (16,320×12,240px) and an intermediate 8,160×6,120px 50MP option, both of which we will look at.

The HP2 features ‘Super QPD’ autofocus, which means it can detect phase shifts in both the horizontal and vertical directions, providing more reliable autofocus across a larger range of situations and application cases. That’s one area where the HP1’s ‘Double Super PD’ falls short, as it only works horizontally.

These DNG files can be edited with Lightroom Mobile, which includes Samsung’s full image data via the built-in lens profile. You can achieve amazing things using Expert RAW, but you need also to be aware of its restrictions. It allows you to manipulate the color and dynamic range considerably more than the default jpeg or their files.

The 200MP imager supports high-resolution stills, and there are 50MP and 200MP modes. In 50MP mode, you will gain some clarity and definition, but there will be no loss of dynamic range. You could conceivably snag one of these and downscale it to 12MP if you want to change the sharpening and clarity, but Samsung’s default settings don’t look unpleasant to us in the first place.

The new 12MP selfie camera, which the S23 Ultra shares with the rest of the family, maybe a minor upgrade on other models, but it is a degradation when compared to the 40MP unit on the S22 Ultra – again, ostensibly. That’s not to imply the S23 Ultra’s selfies are poor; just the contrary. Dynamic range is great, colors and skin tones are correct (no yellow tinge), and noise is significantly reduced compared to the S22 Ultra.

Even maximum zoom or crop cannot hide the subtleties of a photograph. Adaptive pixel technology makes it a reality by reducing noise and making everything crisp even in low light. The Expert Raw function, which includes Ashtrophoto and Multi-Exposure modes, allows you to capture detailed and crisp raw photos of darkness and many objects.

DESIGN AND SCREEN

For all the hype about how the Galaxy S23 Ultra isn’t much different from the previous model, there are some significant and noticeable upgrades to the design. It’s not a night and day difference, and you won’t mistake the S23 Ultra for any other manufacturer’s product, nor is it a drastic departure from the overall Note style, but there are small changes here and there.

The most noteworthy of these is the further flattening of the display. Samsung was a pioneer in curved panels long before the foldable movement, but in recent years, the company has been gradually moving away from them. So much so that only the Ultra has had any form of screen bend in the last two generations, and the 2023 model virtually eliminates it.

A comparable painless and trouble-free experience can be recorded with the fingerprint reader, which is quick and dependable. Furthermore, because it is ultrasonic rather than optical, it performs its magic without blinding you with 1000nits of brilliance in the middle of the night. However, some customers have had less than fantastic experiences with even the most recent Samsung ultrasonic sensor implementations, so perhaps ‘your mileage may vary’ is at play. In our office, supporters far outnumber detractors, so let’s go with that. Along with black, Green, Cream, and Lavender will be widely available from merchants and transporters. Samsung.com will also sell four other hues exclusively.

According to the specs and promised figures, the Galaxy S23 Ultra would have the same display as last year’s model. It’s most certainly a different SKU, if only because the edge curvature has altered. But don’t view the lack of change as a negative, because the S22 Ultra’s display was already excellent.

We have a 6.8-inch QHD+ screen with a 19.3:9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 1440x3088px, resulting in a pixel density of 501ppi. It’s a Dynamic AMOLED 2X display, which refers to its 120Hz maximum refresh rate (which is also very adaptable) and HDR10+ certification. There is also S Pen support, which is more of a display feature than a stylus.

Samsung claims 1200nits of maximum brightness in high brightness mode (HBM) and 1750nits of peak brightness. Those are the same numbers we saw on last year’s spec sheet, and the S22 Ultra met them.

As predicted, major streaming apps recognize the S23 Ultra’s HDR10+ capability and offer the necessary files. Naturally, Widevine L1 support enables FullHD broadcasts from DRM-dependent programs such as Netflix.

The S23 Ultra’s otherwise great display specification has one blemish: the panel is 8-bit, which means it can only display 16 million colors. That ‘just’ may appear to be a joke, and for some, this may be an academic argument, but a 10-bit panel with 1 billion color gradations will perform better at presenting smooth color gradients without causing banding.

HOW’S THE PERFORMANCE?

The Galaxy S23 Ultra, like the rest of the family, is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset with a twist: it’s a Samsung-exclusive variant with an overclocked CPU and GPU compared to the standard SD8G2. We believe this version will be released as a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 2 later this year. Furthermore, there is no longer a geographical division with certain countries receiving an Exynos variant; all Galaxy S23 models use the Qualcomm SoC.

The key improvements over the Gen 1 model include 35% higher CPU performance and 40% higher efficiency, thanks in large part to a reworked core configuration (1+2+2+3 instead of 1+3+4), 25% performance and 45% efficiency gains on the GPU side, and support for new, faster memory technologies (LPDDR5X and UFS 4.0). The X3, 2xA715, 2xA710, and 3xA510 Cortex CPU cores on this Samsung-exclusive chip are clocked at 3.36GHz, 2.8GHz, 2.8GHz, and 2.0GHz, respectively. The prime Cortex-X3 core distinguishes the CPU from the ordinary version of the chipset, which runs at 3.2GHz (officially 3.19GHz).

Meanwhile, the Galaxy S23 phones’ Adreno 740 GPU runs at 719MHz, compared to 680MHz in the rest of the SD8G2-powered versions. All Galaxy S23 phones have LPDDR5X RAM, and all but the base Galaxy S23 Ultra has 12GB of it, along with 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of UFS 4.0 storage. The entry-level Ultra model, if you can call it that, has 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Our review unit is the 12GB/512GB configuration.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Aside from the new SoC and camera upgrades (which are quite significant but do not justify upgrading), the current flagship does not provide many new features. However, the Galaxy S23 Ultra performs admirably in all aspects of smartphone usage, and it appears to be a superb all-rounder for anyone looking for a premium flagship, as long as they can stomach the price.

The release of the newer S24 Ultra does not diminish the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra’s status as a strong all-rounder; it has a stellar display, a top-notch stylus experience, blisteringly fast performance, and very good camera performance, even if it can’t quite compete with its replacement’s upgraded telephoto setup. Better yet, the price has reduced dramatically after the debut of the updated model, solidifying its status as a very appealing 2024 phone.

Buy it if...

• Traditional Note form factor, enhanced handling, and as premium as ever.
• S Pen provides a wide range of capabilities for both work and play, making it almost unrivaled.
• Wonderful display.
• Excellent battery life and faster charging than well-known competitors.
• The ultra-grade camera system is one of the best on the market; the primary module is a significant improvement, and the zooming capacity is difficult to match.
• Excellent color fidelity under most lighting settings.
• Excellent autonomy, with approximately 67 hours in moderate use.

Don't buy it if...

• Low flicker frequency and excessive brightness for night reading.
• Under the sun, vibrant stuff lacks subtlety.
• Details and brightness are weak in indoor lighting settings.
• Front-camera performance in low-light conditions