Samsung's Galaxy S23 Ultra features a stunning 200MP camera, fast performance, and much longer battery life than its predecessor.
Right now, the Galaxy S23 is one of the best camera phones around - even better than the Pixel 7 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. And yet, the battery life of the device is also improved compared to the predecessor Galaxy S22 Ultra, which can last up to more than 13 hours.
In Vietnam, the price of the device starts at 31.99 million VND (8B RAM version / 256GB ROM). Let's go into a detailed review of this "super product" to see what advantages / disadvantages they have.
Design and color
In terms of design, the rear cameras of the Galaxy S23 Ultra are larger than those of the Galaxy S22 Ultra and the screen is flatter. However, it still has a 6.8-inch screen with gently curved edges, making using the S Pen a bit more comfortable.
Close-up of Galaxy S23 Ultra screen.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra is also built to be sturdier, being the first phone to feature Corning's Gorilla Glass Victus 2, which provides better front and back protection from scratches.
The overall design of the device is not much different from the Galaxy S22 Ultra.
The Samsung flagship comes in 4 standard colors, including: Phantom Black, Botanic Blue, Cream Cotton and Lilac Purple. In addition, the product is also available in 4 color versions exclusive to Samsung.com: Lime Green, Lychee Red, Graphite Gray and Sky Blue.
In addition, Samsung is strongly promoting eco-friendliness in the design of the Galaxy S23 Ultra because the company is using more recycled materials. Overall, the device weighs 234g and has dimensions of 78.1 x 163.4 x 8.9mm – equivalent to the Galaxy S22 Ultra.
Screen
The Galaxy S23 Ultra has one of the best displays on the smartphone market . The screen of the device is very bright and vibrant.
Like the Galaxy S22 Ultra, Samsung's flagship has a 6.8-inch QHD OLED screen with a resolution of 3088 x 1400 pixels and a maximum brightness of 1,750 nits, an adaptive refresh rate of 1 - 120Hz. As a result, the display offers a great experience when displaying images and videos.
Super bright screen, super smooth.
In the lab, the Galaxy S23 Ultra's display averaged 1,225 nits of brightness with HDR content, slightly lower than the iPhone 14 Pro Max's maximum brightness of 1,275 nits. In return, the screen of the Galaxy S23 Ultra delivers more colors, reaching 112% of the DCI-P3 color gamut in Natural mode (iPhone 14 Pro Max only reaches 83%).
And yet, the Galaxy S23 Ultra achieved 0.3 color accuracy in the Delta-E Test (closer to 0 the more accurate), slightly worse than the iPhone 14 Pro Max - 0.26.
Unlike the iPhone, the Galaxy S23 Ultra features an advanced Vision Booster, which allows users to adjust the color and contrast of the image according to the ambient light conditions.
Camera review
The Galaxy S23 Ultra is one of the first few high-end phones to feature a 200MP camera. Notably, the sensor can combine 16 pixels into 1 larger pixel for brighter and more detailed images, especially in low-light situations.
Close-up of the rear camera cluster of Galaxy S23 Ultra.
In addition, when shooting with the 200MP camera, users can arbitrarily crop the image but do not lose details.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra has a new 12MP front camera, down from the 40MP selfie camera of the Galaxy S22 Ultra. In return, Samsung promises its product will bring better overall portrait shots thanks to AI along with an attractive Night Portrait mode.
Photo taken by Galaxy S23 Ultra.
In the rear camera cluster, the new Galaxy S Ultra retains a dual 10MP telephoto lens with 3x and 10x optical zoom and a 30x digital zoom option. Of course, users can make use of the impressive 100x Spatial Zoom capability.
Close-up photo.
Other camera system upgrades include an astro hyperlapse mode, which captures moving clips of stars, enhanced autofocus, and multiple exposure modes to combine multiple frames into one image.
Photo taken in low light.
In terms of video stability, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is still slightly worse than the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Processing performance
Galaxy S23 Ultra uses Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip version with a higher clock speed than the standard version, up to 3.36 GHz. Samsung also promises its products offer the world's fastest graphics capabilities.
Compare performance scores between high-end smartphones.
Experts have conducted a benchmark assessment of the Galaxy S23 Ultra and the results are quite good. In fact, this high-end smartphone "beats" the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max in terms of graphics.
In the Geekbench test that measures CPU performance, both in single-core and multi-core applications, the Galaxy S23 Ultra easily surpassed the Galaxy S22 Ultra. Even so, the A16 Bionic chip of the iPhone 14 Pro is still the fastest.
Battery "buffalo" much more
Galaxy S23 Ultra has the same 5,000 mAh battery as the Galaxy S22 Ultra. But Samsung makes this phone more efficient through the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip.
Compare the battery life of Galaxy S23 Ultra with other flagships.
On the Tom's Guide Battery test - continuous web surfing at 150 nit screen brightness on 5G networks, the premium phone lasted 12 hours and 22 minutes in Adaptive mode (the display can boost its refresh rate to to 120Hz).
Even better, at the 60Hz screen refresh rate, the battery lasts up to 13 hours and 9 minutes.
The previous Galaxy S22 Ultra only lasted 10 hours and 18 minutes in the battery test while the iPhone 14 Pro Max lasted to 13:39.
The device is capable of charging up to 45W as its predecessor.
This year, Samsung still uses the same 45W fast charger for the Galaxy S23 Ultra. In fact, the phone was able to charge 57% of the battery in 30 minutes.
S Pen
In addition to reducing the curvature of the screen edge for more comfortable use of the S Pen, the Galaxy S23 Ultra does not add any new features to the stylus. Still, it's a good tool for taking notes, drawing, and sketching.
In return, the Samsung Notes app adds a new feature, allowing users to share notes and edit simultaneously by different people.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra comes with an S Pen stylus.
Running on Android 13 operating system, the new One UI 5.1 software also helps this high-end smartphone bring some useful improvements.
Conclude
Based on tests, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is the best Android phone this year and also the best phone overall.
Galaxy S23 Ultra standard color versions.
Stunning 200MP camera; The super-fast Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip and more than 13 hours of battery life are significant improvements of this "super product" compared to the Galaxy S22 Ultra.
In addition, if users do not need the S Pen, the Galaxy S23+ will be a more economical option (priced from VND 26.99 million).