First to point the tip of its nose in 2023, the Galaxy S23 Ultra marks Samsung’s shift into a new dimension. Coming out of the house Exynos processor, the high-end smartphone from South Korea is equipped with the omnipotence of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. And its effects are immediate.
Photo, autonomy, power… the Galaxy S23 Ultra scores points in all categories to be among the announced stars of the year. Which partly justifies a price that skyrockets to happily exceeding 1,400 euros.
Its advantages
An efficient premium design
The Galaxy S23 Ultra is a stylish smartphone with its large 6.8-inch display. If it is anything like its predecessor, it stands out for its significantly straighter edges and easier handling. Not very heavy for its size (234 g), it does not appear “soapy” despite its shiny aluminum contours. You can hold it well for taking photos with one hand or for writing with the stylus stowed on the bottom edge (see below).
On the back, there are four photosensors that stand out from the colored and matte back (to avoid fingerprints!). If you hold your smartphone in your left hand, you may tend to place your index finger on the bottom sensor.
Thus, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is offered in black, green, cream, and lavender. The set is rather elegant, refined, with premium finishes. It is also IP68 certified to withstand submersion (less than 1.5m for up to 30 minutes).
A beautiful display from every angle
Samsung’s strong point as always, the Amoled QHD screen of the Galaxy S23 Ultra is very pleasant for watching videos, photos, reading on the Internet or drawing thanks to the edges that are sharpened to the maximum to have more space. The panel is very responsive and one of the brightest on the market. The smartphone has a screen refresh rate of 1 to 120 Hz that adapts to your activity (very low and economical when the screen is idle with the mode always activemore dynamic when scrolling in browsing/playback or playing games).
The fingerprint sensor under the screen allows you to quickly unlock the device, but you can also opt for facial recognition. The reinforcement of the glass to resist bumps and scratches (Gorilla Glass Victus 2) finishes everything off.
almighty finally
Goodbye Exynos, hello Dragon mouth. Is a small revolution that is brewing with abandonment by Samsung of its internal processor. All of its Galaxy S23s around the world upgrade to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. Above all, this allows you to take control of a device that is extremely fast in executing its tasks, which can chain tasks without sticking out its tongue.
To put it all to good use, the internal software (One UI 5.1) comes with little welcome home features (focus mode, animations, camera assistant, etc.) on top of Android 13 quality. Plus, Samsung provides four years of system updates and five years of security updates.
Photo: Versatility
With its four photo sensors (200MP main, 12MP 120° ultra-wide angle, 10MP X3 telephoto and 10MP second telephoto), the Galaxy S23 Ultra offers true photographic versatility. Note that the main sensor does not shoot natively at 200 Mpx, but at 12 Mpx combining pixels to maintain excellent quality.
You have to go through the photo menu to select the 200 Mpx mode. This will provide you with very detailed shots, very faithful to reality. The interest then is to zoom in on the image to crop it without loss of quality, or to print it in very high quality. It is possible to change the photosensor to 50 Mpx, which turns out to be an excellent intermediate format.
In low light, even in night mode, rendering improves year after year. The result is a little more realistic, although it is very artificial by creating a light that does not exist. But when analyzing shots, even taken with a very dim light source in the middle of the night, we have to admit that Samsung’s fieldwork is impressive.
For lovers of zoom, the Galaxy S23 Ultra does things in a big way with two telephoto lenses that can go up to x10 in optics and x100 with a digital zoom (which then loses a lot in sharpness and stability, but has the merit of existing).
Portrait mode also takes advantage of zooming to magnify your subject (with built-in beautification settings as a bonus). Only incomprehensible element: by default, the S23 Ultra uses the ultra-wide-angle sensor for portrait mode (absolutely not suitable for exercising), instead of automatically mobilizing the optical zoom. Nonsense, which fortunately can be corrected by the user.
In video, the Galaxy S23 Ultra offers many settings, such as stability on, a director mode to insert a selfie into the video shot, video portrait. The South Korean smartphone can also shoot up to 8K/30 frames per second.
A gigantic autonomy
The Galaxy S23 Ultra lasts a long, long time compared to previous models. This is in particular thanks to the contribution of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 which optimizes the use of the battery according to its uses and limits unnecessary consumption. In the end, this allows for almost two days of worry-free use.
On the other hand, a pity that the device has given up fast charging. It certainly lasts longer, but it recharges slower than before. Wait approximately 1 hour 45 minutes to reach 100% and 45 minutes to recover 50% autonomy.
The S-Pen for the most creative
This is the differentiating advantage of the Galaxy S23 Ultra now that Samsung has drawn a line under its Note range. He is also the only one among the newcomers who is proud of the S-Pen, this stylus that will allow him to write, draw or translate text. You can even write when your smartphone is locked by simply pulling out the stylus to create a note.
If you’re right-handed, you risk criticizing the latter for being too far to the left on the bottom edge, and it’s not necessarily easy to pull out holding with your left hand.
our reservations
Its price
The Galaxy S23 Ultra has an apt name and its price skyrockets. We start at 1,419 euros for 256 GB of storage and 8 GB of RAM. If you go for the maximum version (1 TB of storage and 12 GB of RAM), you will get a beast of the competition, but at 1839 euros.
The utility of the 200 Mpx sensor and 8K
It looks good on the sheet, but is it really useful? This is part of the arguments put forward by Samsung, but in fact, except for the tests to find out that the renderings were WowWe never filmed in 8K nor, of course, did we take photos in 200 Mpx.
Professionals will certainly appreciate it. Others are likely to quickly eliminate the possibilities. You also have to bet on the 200 Mpx option to photograph and, immediately, we always forget. It will also take up more weight in your memory (77 MB for 30 seconds in 8K, 23 MB for a photo taken in 200 Mpx). And 8K still lacks another display support to be truly appreciated.
No charger in the box
Samsung followed Apple’s lead and took the charger out of the box. The Galaxy S23 Ultra arrives with its only USB-C cable. It can handle a 45W load, but you’ll need to find the right compatible power adapter.
Conclusion
By erasing the glaring flaws of its predecessors, the Galaxy S23 Ultra defines the high end of Android. From now on, we can no longer blame him for dragging his leg on autonomy, which was the true Achilles heel of the S22 Ultra and S21 Ultra, nor for running out of breath when it comes to performance.
If in the hand it does not immediately revolutionize things compared to previous models, it is with time that it is much appreciated. It remains superfluous for many, but the winning recipe on Android is still there. As long as you can afford it.
Source: BFM TV
