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The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is the latest flagship smartphone from the South Korean tech giant, and it comes packed with a few upgrades and a renewed focus on sustainability - the latest corporate buzzword. I’ve had my hands on this device for a long-term review and here’s my experience with what is possibly one of the most powerful smartphones available today.
Design
The Galaxy S23 Ultra continues to measure 6.8 inches across - elegant, but still brick-like - and a tad too big for my liking. But for those of you with bigger hands - and deep pockets - this one might be a good fit. The dynamic AMOLED 2X display comes alive beautifully across the vast screen space. With a resolution of 3088 x 1440 (Quad HD+) and up to 120 Hz of refresh rate, gaming, watching media, and heck, even checking office e-mails on this is a joy! The screen is incredibly sharp, and the colours are vivid and accurate.
Camera
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra features a 200-megapixel primary wide-angle camera which delivers fairly stunning images - excellent detail, colour accuracy, and dynamic range.
The smartphone continues the dual telephoto lenses with 3x and 10x optical zoom each, and a 12 MP ultra-wide camera.
The rear panel of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra | Photo Credit: Bijoy Ghosh
But the most thrilling - and now controversial - of it all is the 100x space zoom feature. I tried this out on a full moon night and you can see the slightly blurry but admittedly impressive results here. There are definitely heavy AI post-processing improvements on the shot, which was a bit tricky to capture because of how unsteady the frame gets when you zoom in 100x.
A full moon captured from the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra at 100x zoom. | Photo Credit: Mahananda Bohidar
A thin sliver of the moon, with Venus shining beneath, captured on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra | Photo Credit: Mahananda Bohidar
The camera app also offers Director’s View that lets me switch between different lenses while recording video, and Pro Video mode that lets me manually adjust settings such as ISO and shutter speed.
While the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s front camera boasts a 40 MP resolution, the S23 Ultra features a 12 MP front camera, which sounds like a technical downgrade, but isn’t necessarily one in terms of output. I’ve had no complaints about the selfie cam, which delivers rich colours, accurate skin tones, and lovely portraits with better AI tweaks.
Also read: Review. A classy, compact companion: Samsung S23
Performance
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is powered by the flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 mobile platform. Customised for the Galaxy smartphone, this chipset makes multitasking a breeze. It also supports a tonne of AI capabilities integrated into the smartphone. The device also has a sizeable 12 GB RAM and could handle all apps and games I ran, with ease. I was particularly impressed with the device’s gaming performance, as it handled even the most graphics-intensive games without any lag or stutter. The unit I reviewed had 256 GB storage, although you can get 512 GB or 1 TB variants too.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra’s (grey) dimensions against the compact Galaxy S23. | Photo Credit: Bijoy Ghosh
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has a massive 5,000mAh battery - the same as the last two flagships - the GalaxyS 22 Ultra and S21 Ultra. But somehow, this one goes on for longer than its predecessor. With 2-3 hours of total usage each day - Netflix, Spotify, emails, and the occasional Google Maps - with the mobile hotspot on for almost 5-6 hours, the battery easily lasts 1.5 days. However, the charging time is just shy of 1.5 hours from zero.
All the software utilities designed for the S-Pen | Photo Credit: Bijoy Ghosh
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra runs on the latest Android 13, with Samsung’s One UI 5.1 skin on top. The interface remains easy to navigate, complemented by the S-Pen. Unfortunately, there are no new software upgrades launched that take the S-Pen’s capabilities to the next level. But for those who like having a stylus, there are enough apps integrated to optimise the hardware.
The nifty little slot for the S-Pen | Photo Credit: Bijoy Ghosh
Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy 23 Ultra is one of the most powerful, flawless devices from a user perspective. The device looks elegantly professional, the camera delivers impressive images and the device has excellent battery life. The only downside to this device is its high price tag, along with the fact that someone who might need an S-Pen-enabled flagship might still find the form factor too bulky. However, if you are looking for a feature-packed, top-of-the-line smartphone with a great camera, the Samsung Galaxy 23 Ultra is definitely worth considering.
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