Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Review: You may be paying just the right price for this premium gadget

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Review: If you have been waiting for 2023 to upgrade to a smartphone and want to stick to an Android device, Samsung's greatest offering so far is here. The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra does everything for you, from binge-watching your favourite web series to playing games for hours. But the shiny new Samsung Galaxy device comes with a hefty price tag. You can get your hands on the all-new new S23 Ultra at starting price of Rs 1,25,000. So if the price is no bar for you, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has been built to face any challenge you throw its way, and not just today but also 2-3 years down the line. Check out the full review of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra to find out whether this can be the best bet for you in 2023.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra: Design

You will not be able to differentiate between the Samsung Galaxy S22 and S23 at first glance. Hold On. This doesn't mean there's no difference between the two devices. Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra feels much better in hand - despite being so heavy and large. One thing that cannot be overlooked is the fact that this is not going to be a one-handed affair for anyone.

The placement of the camera is exactly the same as Galaxy S22 and it's something that most people love. At a time when most of the smartphones being launched have big camera bumps, the floating camera design of Galaxy S23 looks really soothing to the eyes.

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If you are still craving to know the difference in design from its predecessor, let me tell you that it has a slightly curved display. The front and back both are protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 and offer durability for long-term use. I have already used this device for a couple of days and not using any case. I can tell you that the back of the smartphone is smudge and fingerprint resistant. Even the oil stains can be simply cleaned with the use of a paper napkin. For those who love using smartphones while they devour, this is good news. The body of the Samsung Galaxy S23 is made of aluminium.

Also, the Green shade offered by the company this time is really awesome.

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The look of the Galaxy S23 Ultra is good enough to flaunt and you are obviously going to do that as this is the most expensive android smartphone at the moment.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra: Display and screen

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is not just about design. This phone has much to offer and is capable of performing every task that you can even think of next couple of years. Let's begin with its display. The smartphone has a 6.8-inch edge display with a reduced curvature to create a larger and flatter surface area. This enables the smartphone to offer one of the best visual experiences. This is topped by the 'Enhanced Comfort Feature' that will let you adjust colour tones and contrast levels. As a result, your eyes won't feel strained even after watching the entire movie on this smartphone at night. Also, the AMOLED display offers a 120Hz of refresh rate.

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The screen has a peak brightness of 1,750 nits and therefore it is suitable for both indoor and outdoor video consumption. This is for the first time that Samsung is offering an adaptive vision booster to enhance the quality of video consumption.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra: Software and performance

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor and this is something we have already seen in some of the latest launches this year. Before you jump the gun and think that Samsung has not done much on this front, let me tell you that Samsung calls the chipset - Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy - a custom chipset built only for the Galaxy S23 series. The company claims that it is the fastest Snapdragon available today.

Samsung has left no stone unturned to fulfil the demands of gaming nerds and has therefore introduced a real-time ray-tracing module on the GPU for the first time. GPU or Graphic Processing Unit is the thing that takes care of all your extra demands like effects, videos, etc.

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra's cheapest variant comes with 12GB RAM and 256GB of storage. This is sufficient enough for your regular work and you will most likely not going to need any extra space. Even if you do, there is no option for that as the phone has no MicroSD card space. So choose your variant wisely else you will have no option but to use a cloud-based service.

You can easily play heavy games like Asphalt 9 and can even multitask with YouTube playing in a floating window and letting several apps play in the run in the background. There won't be even an iota of heating issue.

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Also, the Samsung S23 Ultra has a 2.7 times larger cooling vapour chamber than its predecessor. It is also more efficient and helps in longer gaming sessions.  

The phone has Android 13 with One UI 5.1 - the most stable version of the skin. You won't find any pre-installed bloatware but yes Samsung will continuously remind you of its own ecosystem products to a level that it might get on your nerves. From the payment option to Galaxy Store, Samsung will keep pushing for its products.

The best part is that Samsung is offering four generations of OS upgrades and five years of security updates. This is for sure going to give a sigh of relief as these updates will enhance the longevity of the super expensive Galaxy S23 Ultra.

Call quality, 5G connectivity and wifi functions of this smartphone are simply a notch above.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra: Battery and charging

Samsung has increased the capacity of the Galaxy S23. So all those who complained about the battery issues in its predecessor have been heard. The device supports 45W superfast charging but you will not get a charging block with the smartphone - that's the saddest part of this entire Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphone. The company claims that the battery offers around 22 per cent longer usage time than S22 and those using the previous device will definitely feel it.

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Coming back to charging, the device will only come with a Type-C to Type-C charger. It took me around 1:20 hrs to get the device juiced up with a normal 45W charging block. Maybe the one provided by Samsung can charge the device faster. The device also supports 'Fast Wireless Charging'.

5,000mAh battery is sufficient to last for two days in moderate usage conditions and an entire day even when used heavily.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra: S Pen

The embedded S Pen that comes with Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is awesome. The S Pen stylus has a special storage slot on the bottom of the smartphone and can double as a remote to control the camera shutter. I really liked clicking photos using the small button on the stylus - especially selfies - as it keeps your hand steady and hence gives a better image. S Pen is exceptionally well and you can do various things like creating notes, scribbling on the screen and many more.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra: Camera

This is one of the USPs of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. This is for the first time that Samsung has come up with a 200MP camera. This is also the most advanced camera system that has been tailored for every light condition.

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has a 200MP primary camera that is accompanied by 12MP ultra-wide camera, 10MP telephoto camera (with 3X optical zoom) and again a 10MP telephoto camera with 10X optical zoom.

Samsung's ISOCELL HP2 is a new 200-megapixel camera sensor that offers 16 times higher resolution and has a faster autofocus feature. There is almost nothing that you can complain about the images produced by the Samsung Galaxy S23. While in most cases images were very close to natural colour, at times I found them to be a little bit saturated. The skin tone in all the pictures I took was simply fabulous.

For selfies, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has a 12MP camera. Though the company has downgraded the megapixel (from 40MP in S22 to 12 in S23), this is for the first time that the South Korean giant is offering High Dynamic Range (HDR) on the front camera. Also, you will get low-light portrait mode on the front camera. I tried taking selfies in natural and low-light conditions and in both conditions, the images were sharp and vibrant.

Making videos using Galaxy S23 Ultra is going to be fun as it offers better stability when compared to its predecessors.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra: Verdict

While there are minimalistic changes in terms of design, Samsung has made sure that Galaxy S23 Ultra is going to be the most powerful smartphone that will last for years. So much so that it is worth upgrading from Galaxy S22 to S23. Also, this device is capable of doing all the things that you are planning to do over the next couple of years and the four years of OS updates make it perfect for long-term usage.