The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has today been unveiled after multiple leaks and comes with a similar look as the S22 Ultra with an extra layer of polish. The new flagship has been launched together with the S32 and S32 plus. Compared to last year’s model, it comes with an updated processor, a new 200-megapixel main camera sensor, and a built-in S Pen.
The high-res camera is the start of the S23 Ultra, making the jump from 108 megapixels to 200 megapixels this year. But as we always say, it’s not all about Megapixels, it all comes down to the camera software that comes with the camera sensor. Most of the time, it bins 16 pixels together to improve the light gathering and spits out a much more manageable 12-megapixel image.
You can take a 200- or 50-megapixel image on the, but most of us aren’t making wall-size prints of our photos and don’t need that kind of resolution. Samsung also claims that the main camera’s optical image stabilization is more robust this year, correcting for 3 degrees of shake versus 1.5. We are curious to see how it compares with the iPhone’s iconic video-shooting prowess.
The other three rear cameras remain basically the same: a 12-megapixel ultrawide, plus a 3x telephoto and a 10x telephoto, both with 10-megapixel cameras. In a surprising move, the selfie camera has been downgraded from 40 megapixels to 12 megapixels when compared with the S22 Ultra. If you do the math, there is a total of 244 million pixels between all five of the phone’s camera sensors, which damn lots of pixels in one package.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra comes with the same display specs; it still offers a huge LTPO 6.8-inch OLED that refreshes from 1Hz to 120Hz and 1440p resolution. But there are a couple of small changes you can’t see from the surface. The first is that the display itself includes more battery-efficient materials. Samsung has also taken its vision booster tone-mapping a step further; it doesn’t just optimize the screen for viewing in very bright light — it now adapts to a wider range of lighting conditions throughout the day. Samsung credits this “smarter screen” with some battery performance improvements, which is a huge welcome given the fact that the S22 is a battery guzzler.
Speaking about the battery, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is more battery-efficient thanks to the new chipset — the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy. The phone comes with the latest Android 13 software powered by the company’s One UI 5.1 user interface on top of it.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra also features a very slight exterior redesign. The long edges of the phone are slightly less curved, so there’s more of a flat surface to grip when you’re holding the device. The back panel and the screen also curve around the sides a bit less, so you might be less likely to run your S Pen off the edge of the device, which tended to happen with the more rounded design.
That’s the TLDR of what is new. What’s not new is basically everything else: a 5,000mAh battery, IP68 dust and water resistance, and either 8GB or 12GB of RAM depending on the configuration. You can get storage that ranges from 256 GB, 512GB to 1 TB Your color options this year are phantom black, lavender, green, and cream: the S23 Ultra is up for preorder today and starts shipping on February 17th and the price will depend on the region.
