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Samsung has just lifted the veil on its latest and most anticipated top smartphone, the Galaxy S23 Ultra. The months of non-stop leaks and anticipation are finally over for all fans of the South Korea-based smartphone giant, which is entering 2023 with a pretty serious bang: its most advanced new phone, the Galaxy S23 Ultra!
Pre-order now at Samsung.com with a special discount from our link:
Preorder the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra at $830 off with extra credit!
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With our Galaxy S23 Plus preorder discount the 512GB tier is priced at $500!
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Grab the Galaxy S23 for just $350 with additional preorder bonus and free storage bump!
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The flagship was unveiled alongside the Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23 Plus. Samsung’s previous Galaxy S Ultra phones were synonymous with exceptional performance, camera prowess, and the very verge of phone technology available out of Samsung’s camp, and the Galaxy S23 Ultra is definitely not an exception to this rule, but further solidifies it.
Let’s untangle the knot and find out what makes the Galaxy S23 Ultra such a promising flagship release!
The Galaxy S23 Ultra will start at $1,200 for the entry-level 8GB RAM/256GB storage version and will gradually become more expensive as you move up the RAM and storage combinations.
For example, the 12GB/512GB version would normally cost you $1,380, but as part of a limited time offer you can score this one at the price of the 256GB version. Finally, the top-end version with 12GB and 1TB of storage, which is Samsung.com exclusive, can be yours for $1,620.
The phone is already available for pre-order and will be hitting the shelves on February 17. As usual, Samsung’s own store has a myriad of deals and rebates available, including a free storage upgrade as well as generous trade-ins, even including phones with cracked screens. Pre-ordering the phones by following the links above could also net you some neat discounts along the way and push the price tag even lower.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra mostly reiterates Galaxy S22 Ultra’s design language from last year, but with a few important touch-ups. Interestingly, this is the first time in recent history where Samsung hasn't completely revamped its best flagship phone.
As a refresher, back in 2022, Samsung merged the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note lines, giving us a souped-up Galaxy S Ultra flagship with an S Pen stylus embedded inside, as well as amplifying the general design language of the business-oriented Note flagships.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra now comes with less curvy sides and larger flat area for the display, which make it a bit more comfortable to hold and improve the reassuring grip. The camera lenses are larger and look more imposing and prominent, most likely to hint at the photography prowess of the phone.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra is also the first phone to come with Corning’s new Gorilla Glass Victus 2, which should be very good news for the display’s durability. Beneath it all is a ultrasonic fingerprint scanner, which will hopefully authenticate you quickly and reliably at all times. If you don't want to rely on this biometric sensor, there's also face unlocking, though it's not as secure.
There's the ubiquitous S Pen stylus on deck as well, allowing you to quickly jot down notes, make fancy screenshots, and interact with the interface in various other ways. This year, however, Samsung hasn't introduced any significant improvements to the S Pen functionality, so the essential accessory is just as powerful as ever.
Galaxy S23 Ultra S Pen
The available Galaxy S23 colors are Phantom Black, Cream, Green, and Lavender, all of which look quite classy in person. All models come with black S Pen styluses, with only the clicking button at the top in the color of the body. However, Samsung has some exclusive color hues that are only available if you get the phone through the Samsung store. The exclusive colors are Lime, Graphite, Sky Blue, and Red, and you can only get them at Samsung.com for now.
Galaxy S23 Ultra camera
The main Galaxy S23 Ultra camera is quite improved, equipped with a super-large 1/1.3” 200MP ISOCELL HP2 sensor with a fast f/1.7 aperture and an 85-degree field of view. Yep, 200MP is as detailed as it gets, and the Galaxy S23 Ultra will let you take Super High Resolution photos, as well as capture stunning 8K videos, now at an increased framerate.
Thanks to the Super Quad Pixel technology, all of the main sensor’s 200 million pixels are used for focusing, ensuring tack sharp focus even in the most unfavorable ambient lighting conditions. What’s more, the camera uses a new pixel-binning technology that combines four pixels into one to output 50MP images, or sixteen into one to capture more 12MP shots during extreme low-light scenarios.
Moving on to the rest of the camera loadout, we have the well-known 12MP ultra wide-angle camera with an f/2.2 aperture and a wide, 120-degree field of view. Zooming onto the telephoto cameras, we have a 10MP 3X telephoto with an f/2.4 aperture, as well as the ultra long 10X optical 10MP periscope shooter capable of pushing the zoom slider all the way up to Samsung’s 100X Space Zoom.
Galaxy S23 Ultra camera interface
At the front, Samsung has put a new 12MP selfie camera with f/2.2 aperture and dual phase-detection autofocus, which should ensure quick and accurate zooming in your face even in low-light conditions. The front shooter also enables Selfie Night portraits and Super HDR video recording for a more dynamic range of colors.
Samsung prides itself on the improved “nightography” of the Galaxy S23 Ultra, which is reportedly way better than what we got on the Galaxy S22 Ultra. Bright and detailed shots are promised when shooting photos once the lights go dark. The
And here are our very first camera samples taken with the Galaxy S23 Ultra:
We know you're eager to see a 200MP sample, and we have one, though the version below has been resized for the sake of your internet connection. The full 200MP photo can be viewed here.
Galaxy S23 Ultra 200MP camera sample
In fact, the Galaxy S23 Ultra comes with a range of software features that would make you go out at night and try stuff out, like advanced AI-powered Night Portrait shots, twice as better optical image stabilization, and vastly improved noise reduction algorithms powered by the Snapdragon chipset to ensure for detailed night videos. You can even shoot star trails with the new 300X Hyperlapse mode in the camera app.
Speaking of video, the Galaxy S23 Ultra can now capture 8K videos at up to 30fps, an improvement over the 24fps that the Galaxy S22 Ultra was capable of last year. The field of view while shooting 8K videos is also wider than before, giving you more creative control over your cinematic masterpieces.
Galaxy S23 Ultra Hardware and specs
Up front, the Galaxy S23 Ultra doesn’t bring any changes in comparison with the Galaxy S22 Ultra. The new phone is outfitted with the same big and bright Dynamic AMOLED QHD+ display, with a punch-hole and an adaptive refresh rate ranging from 1 to 120Hz, with a screen touch sampling rate of 240Hz in game mode. The peak brightness of the flagship can reach up to 1,750 nits in the right lighting conditions, similar to the Galaxy S22 Ultra while the display is tack sharp at exactly 500 pixels-per-inch, an above average display sharpness.
Specs
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
Size and Weight
3.07 x 6.43 x 0.35 in, 8.25oz (78.1 X 163.4 X 8.9mm, 234gr)
Display
6.8-inch, QHD+, 500ppi, 1-120Hz Dynamic AMOLED 2X Infinity-O, 240Hz Touch sampling rate, Gorilla Glass Victus 2, 1750 nits max
5G (sub6, mmWave), LTE, Wi-Fi 6E, Wi-Fi Direct Bluetooth 5.3
Battery Size
5,000mAh
Charging Speeds
45W wired charging, Fast wireless charging
Price
starting from $1,199
What’s different about the new Galaxy, however, is the hardware beneath. For the first time in recent history, Samsung has decided against outfitting the Galaxy S23 Ultra with different chips depending on the region. No longer do we have an Exynos and a Snapdragon variant of the same phone; Samsung instead fully relies on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for the Galaxy S23 Ultra, with (thankfully) no Exynos version in sight.
It’s not a regular Snapdragon chipset, mind you, as it’s a tuned up variation of Qualcomm’s latest pride and glory dubbed “Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy”. It is ever so slightly faster than the regular Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which could be just enough to make it out-maneuver the competition.
This has allowed Samsung to unleash the graphical prowess of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which seemingly makes it an excellent gaming beast. Here's to hoping that the thermal management will be up to par and aid the sustained performance during gaming.
Galaxy S23 Ultra gaming prowess
In terms of storage, the Galaxy S23 Ultra comes with either 8 or 12GB of RAM, as well as storage capacities ranging from 256GB to 1TB. It’s not possible to expand the available storage via a microSD card slot, so choose wisely.
In terms of battery and charging, the Galaxy S23 Ultra battery clocks in at 5,000mAh, which that would probably provide upwards of a day of heavy usage. When it comes to charging, the phone supports up to 45W charging speeds, which means that you could top it up to about 65% in 30 minutes. Faster Wireless charging and reverse power sharing are also on deck.
So, overall, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is shaping up to be quite the outstanding flagship phone for Samsung, and we can't wait to tell you our impressions with the handset! To check those out, make sure to head to our Galaxy S23 Ultra preview.
Galaxy S23 Ultra software and functionality
The Galaxy S23 Ultra comes with the promise of four years of software updates. This will let you enjoy the new software features that all Android and One UI versions up to Android 17 will bring to the table, which is awesome. If that's not enough, you will also get the essential security patches for a year longer.
One UI 5.1, which is the software of choice on the Galaxy S23 Ultra, is based on Android 13, and comes with multiple improvements over the One UI 5 software that's available on all of Samsung's flagships already. Some features of One UI 5.1 include image isolation and copying a la iOS 16, as well as improvements to Bixby, improvements to DeX, Gallery, and a few new widgets.
One UI 5.1 won't be exclusive to the Galaxy S23 Ultra, no; Samsung will be releasing the next software update to the rest of the flagship lineup very soon, so you will be able to experience it on your Galaxy S22 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold 4, Galaxy Z Flip 4, and more.
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Peter, an experienced tech enthusiast at PhoneArena, is captivated by all things mobile. His impartial reviews and proficiency in Android systems offer readers valuable insights. Off-duty, he delves into the latest cryptocurrency trends and enjoys sci-fi and video games.
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