Galaxy S23 Ultra Review: Good enough for now

[@ameyab930]

Brilliant review as always, Alex!

[@SunsetNova]

Fair balanced review that foregoes the hype surrounding many "reviews" of this phone that's I've seen so far

[@randompiano]

the only reason i would take this phone would be for their trade in deals which drastically reduce the cost of the device, AND allowing the consumer to take the phone on credit for 36 months with 0 interest rate. So the base model of the s23 Ultra (8 gig RAM, 256 storage) would come down to just under £1000, which you pay over 3 years for a phone that has the hardware to remain relevant after 3 years of use if looked after. It is by far the best andriod has this year.

[@bigmaxcc]

Raiden shogun 😍😄 nice yes Alex is a man of culture 👏

[@firisrozley5768]

Don't get me wrong, S23 Ultra is a great phone but it makes me wonder, do I really need those so-called Ultra features in my daily life? Right now, I would rather wait for the release of S23 FE despite the slight chipset downgrade to SD 8+ Gen 1. Also since Samsung discontinued the A70 series phone to be replaced with FE series, a triple camera arrangement of at least 64+12+8MP (main with OIS + ultrawide / macro combo with OIS + telephoto lens) would be more appreciated.

[@nakedeye44]

I think the camera in general and night mode has vastly improved on s32 ultra, plus the very good battery life. phone arena has just compared the last 4 generations on samsung ultra. the camera has diffintly improved.

[@tldr365]

I mean....I've still haven't found a compelling reason to move on from my Note 20 Ultra. Except maybe OS updates. Hate the loss of sd card support on flagships.

[@axhng]

I was still using a Note20 until recently, and was actually still quite happy with it apart from gaming (Genshin) performance. The S23 Ultra is an upgrade in a lot of ways for sure, but a lot of them are just "nice to have" instead of "must have" features for me. So kinda hard to justify the high price personally, especially since it still isn't that great when it comes to playing Genshin anyway. But for sd card support, the only choice now is probably Sony? 😂

[@andyH_England]

Yes, much hype for S23U, but when you drill down to the core, you see that most improvements are from no longer using Samsung-made SD8G1. Moving to TSMC-made SD8G2 gets better performance and battery life. All Androids will have access to these upgrades. As for the cameras, they are excellent, but so are other cameras, and as DXO Mark highlights, not the best despite Samsung Knights' hyperbole (number 11 in 2023 rankings, behind many 2022 phones). It does seem a jump, especially for those suffering the inequity of the 8GB Exynos S22U, which for me, is one of the worst chips versus expectation in the history of smartphones; horrible experience. Therefore, not as some reviewers hype, an iterative upgrade that tries to be more refined, but from my two weeks, has yet to impress me. With the 12GB price now at £1400, it does seem rather underwhelming.

[@axhng]

that's how I felt too. especially since I tested the S23Ultra after the OnePlus 11 with the same chip. SD8G1 was already pretty bad in my experience, can't imagine how much worse the exynos version is. Thankfully it's all SD8G2 this time round and it does perform noticeably better, even though in some games (genshin), it could probably still use more optimisation and tuning to improve the performance.😅

[@helterskelzer3883]

Imagine trusting anything dxomark says

[@baoquoc3710]

Dxomark unfortunately are Chinese-brand-sponsored which frankly made me lose the faith on their camera criteria, which will always find the most funky aspects to drown known brands down the bottom list, especially Samsung since it's notorious for this. S23 Ultra may not perfect for some, but the improvements in photography are hard to argue back.

[@andyH_England]

@@baoquoc3710 It does highlight how subjective camera output is. I still think most flagships are great for daylight photos, and any difference is at night and video. I am not a selfie camera person, so that is moot for me.

[@Sleepymeinsg]

Fingerprint sensor is again unacceptable with a screen protector and NFC performance has taken a step back at least on my standard S23. Requires very specific positioning to get a read. And why does the system need to take up 70GB of storage (I've read some comments saying it's just a partition and not actual usage.. but still). Overall underwhelming for a flagship which I guess is reflected in the heavily discounted prices.

[@helterskelzer3883]

Fp sensor works fine with a tpu screen protector

[@KMKKM007]

Power la. No more shitty Exynos chip for Singapore.

[@axhng]

🤣🤣🤣

[@mjcapo1]

These prices have gotten just obscene. Only tools buy them at these prices and that especially includes apple.

[@keyoke]

First!

[@brendanlee7322]

Samsung S23 Ultra is just a good phone and nothing great at all.. totally ☹️

[@axhng]

😂

[@brendanlee7322]

#samsung better buck up

[@baoquoc3710]

so what other phones great advantage over this year's Ultra? Do they even bother to balance every aspect or just touting specs as the main reason?