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What do you do when you need a bigger screen than the one on the base model phone but don't want to pay the hefty price tag of the top-of-the-line variant? You go for the "Plus" version, of course. And on the battlefield called the smartphone market, there are two Plus phones that fight for your love and cash.
At one corner of the ring, we have Apple with its all-new shiny iPhone 15 Plus, and at the other, we have Samsung with its Galaxy S23 Plus. Both phones deliver exceptional performance and are good on their own, but there could only be one best Plus smartphone of 2023. So, we just have to ask: Is it the new and shiny iPhone 15 Plus, or is it Samsung's also quite remarkable Galaxy S23 Plus?
UPDATE: The Galaxy S24 Plus is available now, so stay tuned for another comparison, as the latest Galaxy Plus might be better equipped to take on the iPhone 15 Plus.
We're here to answer this question through our meticulous testing procedures. We've put these two phones through their paces in a series of tests, both synthetic and real-life. We tested how both devices handled in day-to-day scenarios, measured their displays, drained the batteries in the most real-life way, to find out which one is better, and which one deserves your hard-earned money. Here's what we've found.
iPhone 15: save up to $630 via trade-in at Apple
$69
$699
$630 off (90%)
Get the fantastic iPhone 15 straight from the source and save up to $630 with a trade-in. Your minimum trade-in credit amounts to $40. Three percent daily cashback available with Apple Card.
iPhone 15 Plus: $40-$630 off with a trade-in at Apple Store
$269
$899
$630 off (70%)
Looking for the bigger-sized iPhone 15 model? In that case, we suggest you consider the iPhone 15 Plus. The Apple store offers up to $630 off as a trade-in credit on a new iPhone 15 Plus.
The Galaxy S23 Plus and iPhone 15 Plus, as their names suggest, are larger versions of their respective base models, the S23 and iPhone 15. The Galaxy S23 retains the familiar design of its predecessor but now features no camera aisle on the back. The iPhone 15 Plus also follows in the footsteps of its spiritual father, the iPhone 14 Plus.
Both phones offer flat screens, but the iPhone 15 Plus features a more square design, just like its predecessor, while the Galaxy S23 Plus is just a tad more rounded and easy to hold. There's a difference in dimensions and weight too, the iPhone 15 Plus boasts a 6.7-inch OLED screen, while the Galaxy S23 Plus comes with a 6.6-inch AMOLED display. The iPhone 15 Plus weighs 201 grams, while the Galaxy S23 Plus is a tiny fraction lighter at 196 grams.
(Image credit - PhoneArena)
Both phones employ the glass sandwich design, the iPhone 15 Plus has a textured matte finish on the back, as opposed to a more traditional glossy back for the S23 Plus. As for the colors involved, check them out below.
Speaking of the screen, the S23 Plus showcases a 6.6-inch AMOLED display with a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz. The iPhone 15 Plus, on the other hand, comes with a slightly bigger 6.7-inch OLED screen but only at 60 Hz refresh rate. The resolution of the iPhone 15 Plus is also higher, leading to higher pixel density - 460 pixels per inch, compared to S23's 390 PPI.
When it comes to brightness, the Galaxy S23 Plus is rated at 750 nits nominal brightness and up to 1,500 nits peak HDR, while the iPhone 15 Plus can go up to 1,600 nits peak HDR brightness, and a stunning 2,000 nits peak outdoor brightness.
The CIE 1931 xy color gamut chart represents the set(area)of colors that a display can reproduce,with the sRGB colorspace(the highlighted triangle)serving as reference.The chart also provides a visual representation of a display's color accuracy. The small squares across the boundaries of the triangle are the reference points for the various colors, while the small dots are the actual measurements. Ideally, each dot should be positioned on top of its respective square. The 'x:CIE31' and 'y:CIE31' values in the table below the chart indicate the position of each measurement on the chart. 'Y' shows the luminance (in nits) of each measured color, while 'Target Y' is the desired luminance level for that color. Finally, 'ΔE 2000' is the Delta E value of the measured color. Delta E values of below 2 are ideal.
The Color accuracy chart gives an idea of how close a display's measured colors are to their referential values. The first line holds the measured (actual) colors, while the second line holds the reference (target) colors. The closer the actual colors are to the target ones, the better.
The Grayscale accuracy chart shows whether a display has a correct white balance(balance between red,green and blue)across different levels of grey(from dark to bright).The closer the Actual colors are to the Target ones,the better.
All in all, both phones have gorgeous displays with the display refresh rate being the biggest difference. If you want a smooth 120Hz display, the S23 Plus is your phone, if you don't care for high refresh rates, you'd be happy with both phones.
Performance and Software
A16 vs Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
The Galaxy S23 Plus sports the latest and greatest Qualcomm has to offer - the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. And while the gap between the A-series Apple chipsets and the Snapdragon flagship processors has shrunk over the years, the advantage for the iPhone 15 Plus is there, at least when we talk about CPU synthetic benchmarks.
The graphics benchmark paints a different picture with advantage for the Galaxy S23 Plus, but to be fair, you probably won't notice any difference in real life scenarios - both phones are blazing fast with everything you can throw at them.
It's difficult to compare the hardware between an Android and iOS device, these are different ecosystems, and they are differently optimized. If we want to nitpick, the Galaxy S23 Plus comes with more RAM (8 GB compared to the 6GB on the iPhone 15 Plus), but it really won't make any difference in speed, both have fast LPDDR5 memory.
Now, when it comes to onboard storage, the Galaxy S23 Plus base model starts at 256GB, while the iPhone 15 Plus kicks things off at 128GB, but then again, the iPhone is also expected to be cheaper, so things level out when we factor in the price, memory-wise.
As far as software goes, the iPhone 15 Plus ships with iOS 17 out of the box. Check out our detailed iOS 17 coverage, as well as our dedicated iOS 17 review to learn everything you need to know about Apple's latest mobile OS, including cool new features, such as NameDrop, all the iMessage and Phone updates and more. There's already an update (iOS 17.2) rolling out to the iPhone 15 Plus, bringing AirDrop over the internet, along with other improvements in StandBy and Apple Music, as well as the ability to record Spatial Video (only for the Pro models). Check out our detailed article for a deep dive.
The Galaxy S23 Plus is running Android 13 but it will get the next version toward the end of the year. So, be sure to check out our Android 14 hub to see what to expect from Google's next big mobile OS update.
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Camera
Pure mathematics
(Image credit - PhoneArena)
There are three cameras on the back of the Galaxy S23 Plus. Those are a 50-megapixel main camera, a 12-megapixel ultrawide one, and a 10-megapixel telephoto with 3x optical zoom. Three is more than two, that's simple math, and the iPhone 15 Plus features a dual camera setup, just like its predecessor, albeit an upgraded one - the main camera now has a 48MP sensor taken from last year's iPhone Pro models.
The images taken with the main cameras of both phones look pretty similar. The level of detail, dynamic range, exposure and color tonality are all very similar and in our eyes there's no clear winner here. You can get quality results from both phones, when it comes to the main camera.
The ultrawide snapper on the iPhone 15 Plus is the same as the one found on the iPhone 14 Plus, a 12MP sensor with similar aperture and focal length to the ultrawide camera inside the S23 Plus. Unsurprisingly, the results are again very similar, especially considering the field of view and aperture.
Having a 3X optical zoom is super useful for framing faraway objects, getting better portrait shots, etc. Even though the iPhone 15 Plus now features that Optical-quality 2X telephoto (which really is a 12-megapixel crop from the main sensor), the Galaxy S23 Plus maintains a clear advantage when it comes to zoom shots. This advantage is present even at 2X zoom ranges but becomes even more evident at 3X and 10X.
The iPhone 15 Plus comes with upgraded Portrait mode to assist that 2X crop images and it shows. Both in 1X and 2X modes the iPhone 15 Plus performs on par with the Galaxy S23, producing detailed and color-accurate portraits with convincing levels of bokeh.
The selfie camera on the Galaxy S23 Plus has been yielding some impressive results ever since the phone was launched earlier this year. Even though we're talking about the same megapixel count, it seems that the S23 Plus still have an advantage over the iPhone 15 Plus, when it comes to selfie shots.
The difference isn't huge, though. The S23 Plus produces softer selfie shots with more natural colors, while the iPhone 15 Plus images seem a bit over sharpened. Both will do the job nicely if you like to snap a lot of selfies.
Video Quality
Do you see a big difference in video quality between the two? Most of the differences that were present in still images can be seen in the video sample. Again, if you like to zoom when recording your videos, the S23 Plus has an advantage thanks to its dedicated telephoto lens.
Audio Quality
Samsung seems to have made significant improvements to the speakers of the Galaxy S23 Plus compared to its predecessors, although the speaker arrangement remains unchanged, with a bottom-firing speaker working alongside the earpiece to produce a stereo effect while gaming or watching movies in landscape mode.
Moving on to the iPhone 15 Plus, it features the same bottom-firing speaker and an earpiece as its predecessor, and just like the iPhone 14 Plus, the new model outputs rich, detailed and loud audio, without distortion even at high volume levels.
Naturally, neither of these phones include a headphone jack, which is hardly surprising in today's smartphone landscape. Nevertheless, you can still enjoy your favorite Bluetooth headphones or speakers with ease, or alternatively, you can opt for a dongle as a backup solution.
Battery and Charging
Numbers don't tell the whole story
The Galaxy S23 Plus comes with a big 4,700mAh battery and 45W fast charging support. The iPhone 15 Plus, on the other hand, bumps up the battery capacity of its predecessor slightly, (4,383mAh vs 4,325 mAh). One would expect the Galaxy S23 Plus to destroy the iPhone 15 Plus but our battery benchmarks tell a different story.
The iPhone 15 Plus not only managed to stay on par with the S23 Plus (in the browsing test) but obliterated the Samsung when in the gaming and YouTube tests. This might have something to do with the variable refresh rate of the Galaxy, after all the iPhone 15 Plus is stuck at 60Hz and that might be helping, especially in gaming scenarios.
Charging used to be a big unknown due to the new port on the iPhone 15 Plus. Apple was more or less forced to switch from Lightning to USB-C but the irony is that the iPhone 15 Plus uses USB 2.0 and the charging and transfer speeds somehow remained the same. So, the Galaxy S23 Plus has an advantage when it comes to charging speeds, and you can see exactly how much of an advantage that is in the charging benchmark results above.
Specs
iPhone 15 Plus
Galaxy S23 Plus
Size, weight
160.9 x 77.8 x 7.8 mm, 201 grams
157.8x76.2x7.6mm, 196
Screen
6.7" OLED 60Hz
6.6" AMOLED 120Hz
Processor
A16 Bionic 4nm
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 4nm
RAM, Storage
6/128GB 6/256GB 6/512GB -
LPDDR5
8/256GB 8/512GB -
LPDDR5
Cameras
48MP main 12MP ultra -
12MP front
50MP main 12MP ultra 10MP telephoto -
12MP front
Battery
4383 mAh
4,700mAh
Charging
USB-C 20W wired 15W wireless MagSafe
USB-C 45W wired 10W wireless
Summary
We're looking at two very different devices here, despite their similarity in the naming scheme. For one, there's the Android vs iOS debate, and it's not something to be taken lightly. If you don't want to switch platforms, then you'll be better off staying with what you currently use, so either of these phones will do the job.
If you're looking to switch, the Galaxy S23 Plus offers more on paper, with one extra telephoto camera, a bigger battery, and faster charging. Let's not forget the faster and smoother display refresh rate on the Galaxy S23 Plus as well.
But then again, if you're an Android user looking to dip your toes in Apple's ecosystem, the iPhone 15 Plus could be a great gateway device to do so, especially if you're used to big-screen phones. There's no right or wrong here, and to make things even more difficult, the price tag is also quite similar on both devices.
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Mariyan, a tech enthusiast with a background in Nuclear Physics and Journalism, brings a unique perspective to PhoneArena. His childhood curiosity for gadgets evolved into a professional passion for technology, leading him to the role of Editor-in-Chief at PCWorld Bulgaria before joining PhoneArena. Mariyan's interests range from mainstream Android and iPhone debates to fringe technologies like graphene batteries and nanotechnology. Off-duty, he enjoys playing his electric guitar, practicing Japanese, and revisiting his love for video games and Haruki Murakami's works.
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