We all know that the current top iPhone is the 15 Pro Max, but what would you say is the Android equivalent? We could narrow it down to only two options: the Google Pixel 8 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra.
Given Android’s intrinsic openness and the sheer number of manufacturers producing excellent premium phones, it’s a difficult decision. But these two Android phones have the strongest claims to the throne. The Pixel 8 Pro is nothing short of the current standard bearer for Android, built by the same firm that creates the world’s most popular mobile operating system. The Galaxy S23 Ultra is the newest in many top-tier Android smartphones.
The Google Pixel 8 Pro builds on Google’s AI focus with new photo, video, and editing features, including one that entirely replaces your face with a happier version of yourself, and embraces generative AI with features such as AI wallpaper creation. On the other hand, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is Samsung’s one-stop shop for productivity and photographic performance. It has four rear cameras with variable levels of magnification and S Pen functionality, allowing you to take notes and draw as you choose.
GOOGLE PIXEL 8 PRO VS GALAXY S23 ULTRA: SPECS COMPARISON
The Pixel 8 Pro boasts a fantastic screen and brilliant cameras. AI smarts provide benefits, but they excel at photo and video editing. However, it lacks Samsung’s power. If you aren’t put off by the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s high price, you’ll receive one of the best phones on the market. It makes up for what it lacks in Google’s AI abilities with brute power.
The Pixel 8 Pro may be Google’s display of what an Android smartphone should be, but the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra represents a competing school of Android greatness. The Galaxy isn’t technically new – it’s been out for about a year – but for the next few months, until its successor arrives, it will remain the most capable option to the Pixel this side of the OS split.
CAMERA
Samsung phones are known for having excellent cameras, and the Galaxy S23 Ultra is no exception. It features a 200-megapixel main sensor, a 12MP ultrawide lens, and dual 10MP telephoto lenses with 3x and 10x optical zoom, respectively. We discovered that the Galaxy S23’s 200MP camera exceeded expectations, performing well in both well-lit and low-light situations, with the latter producing some of the greatest results we’ve seen from a smartphone so far. Shots were well-lit, with remarkable HDR performance that added significant brightness and information to the darkest and lightest areas of the photo, as well as enough color to appear vivid without being overly contrast-heavy or artificial.
The Pixel 8 Pro has a 50MP main sensor, a 48MP ultrawide lens, and a 48MP telephoto sensor, all with 5x optical zoom and support for Super Res Zoom up to 30x. We believe that this arrangement provides one of the greatest camera phone experiences on the market right now; highlights are pushed to create outstanding shots, with colors that are restrained yet accurate and bright.
Images from both secondary cameras were excellent, though we did observe that the zoom skills may not be as good as the Galaxy S23 Ultra in terms of range, but the 5x zoom puts you near enough to a subject while retaining lots of clarity. The useful AI tools are another pleasant addition, with Magic Eraser allowing us to erase undesired individuals or items from photos’ backgrounds and Best Take providing different facial expressions for group shots.
DESIGN AND DISPLAY
Make no mistake, these are two large phones, but the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is larger in every way. It also weighs 31g more, at 234g. That’s a rather significant change.
Rather pleasantly, these two paragons of Androidhood don’t resemble one another. While adhering to their predecessors’ design language, they offer two contrasting visions of how a modern phone should appear and feel. The Google Pixel 8 Pro is all curves and swooping lines, even though its display no longer has the Pixel 7 Pro’s noticeable dual-curved edges. This is highlighted with a wide camera ring that blends perfectly into the polished aluminum frame.
In the opposite corner, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has a far more austere – some might say ‘industrial’ – appearance. The top and bottom edges are completely flat, whereas the left and right edges curve around dramatically. It’s a much blockier phone. Samsung has taken away any sense of camera module theatrics with a brutally simple ‘floating island’ design, with each component protruding through the bare Gorilla Glass Victus 2 surface – a strong glass material used on both phones’ front and back.
Both phones offer standout design elements. The S-Pen stylus, which is placed on the bottom edge, is the obvious choice for the Galaxy S23 Ultra. With this, the S23 Ultra becomes a versatile and powerful writing and sketching instrument. Google’s standout feature, a temperature sensor on the rear camera ring, is even more gimmicky. With no officially recognized health applications, use case scenarios are currently limited.
enormous flagship phones demand enormous OLED screens, with the Galaxy S23 Ultra sporting a 6.8-inch display and the Pixel 8 Pro coming in a little smaller at 6.7 inches. Both displays can automatically alter their refresh rates between 1 and 120Hz, and they both feature always-on capabilities.
Interestingly, the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s screen is slightly sharper at 1440 x 3088 when compared to the Pixel 8 Pro’s 1344 x 2992. In practical terms, the difference is minor, with the Pixel at 489ppi and the Galaxy at 500ppi. Both of these displays may go quite bright, but the Pixel 8 Pro boasts a higher peak brightness of 2,400nits than the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s 1,750nits. In practical use, they both become exceedingly brilliant. We have no complaints about any display. They are both large, bright, sharp, and highly color-accurate.
HOW’S THE PERFORMANCE?
Samsung chose to include the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy inside the Galaxy S23 Ultra, a specialized version of Qualcomm’s previous-generation CPU. It may be configured with 8 or 12GB of RAM and 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of UFS 4.0 storage.
We found that this handset seemed extremely fast and snappy in usage, thanks in part to the 120Hz refresh rate. Even with ray tracing enabled, the latest AAA mobile games were playable, and photos were shot quickly. Our reviewer stated that the Galaxy S23 Ultra provides a high-quality experience, making it excellent for someone who values raw power.
The Pixel 8 Pro features Google’s own Tensor G3 chipset, which is also featured in the Pixel 8. It may be configured with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB or 1TB of storage.
In line with previous Tensor processors, the G3 maintains Google’s emphasis on AI talents rather than performance and overall speed as essential attributes. After a few glitches at the start of our evaluation, including a lot of lagging and delayed loading times, the Pixel 8 Pro settled in to offer a speedy performance in everyday use after around two weeks.
The Pixel 8 Pro does not perform well in gaming, with repeated frame rate drops in intensive titles like COD Mobile and even some lag in top-down titles like Survivor.io. Everything was playable, but we saw that it couldn’t match the performance of the Galaxy S23 Ultra, making it less appealing to ardent mobile gamers.
GET THE GOOGLE PIXEL 8 PRO FOR:
- The’stock’ Android experience.
- Exclusive Google AI features.
- If you like a 5x focal length, this is the camera for you.
- The general pixel appearance of photographs.
GET THE GALAXY S23 ULTRA FOR:
- The S-Pen and DeX are compatible.
- Better battery life.
- If you prefer 3x or 10x zoom over 5x, you have those options.
