Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra was, and still is, a very capable smartphone. However, it was more about merging the Note line and Galaxy line above anything else. We finally had a well-integrated S Pen in a camera-oriented Galaxy S series smartphone. It was the ultimate Samsung smartphone, with nothing left out, priced from Rs. 1,09,999. Rather than going for a complete overhaul this year with the Galaxy S23 Ultra, Samsung has created a device that will feel very familiar to a Galaxy S22 Ultra user, but with a twist.

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra uses a brand-new primary camera sensor to enable a better imaging experience, and a Qualcomm SoC that has been customised to (hopefully) deliver better performance. However, all of this comes at a higher asking price, which I’m sure fans would not mind coughing up. Should you upgrade to the latest Ultra, or stick to the one that you might have? 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra price in India

Compared to last year’s Galaxy S22 Ultra, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has received a noticeable price bump. It starts from Rs. 1,24,999 for the 12GB RAM and 256GB storage variant which is about Rs. 15,000 higher than the phone it replaces. Then, there’s the next variant with 12GB of RAM and 512GB storage that’s available at Rs. 1,34,999, while the top-of-the-line 12GB RAM and 1TB storage variant is priced at an eye-watering Rs. 1,54,999. This brings the Galaxy S23 Ultra eerily close to the currently available Galaxy Z Fold 4 (Review), which oddly, is available from exactly Rs. 1,54,999.

For an iPhone user looking to switch sides, the iPhone 14 Pro (Review) starts from Rs. 1,29,900, so the Ultra’s higher pricing shouldn’t be a big deal. However, on the Android side of things, this could be a bit worrisome as far as top camera phones go, because Google’s latest and greatest managed to deliver better still photos in our camera shootout with the Galaxy S22 Ultra, and is available at a much lower price of Rs. 80,999.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra design

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra continues to maintain its ‘Ultra’ status in the size department. The phone still looks and feels expensive, but has gained a bit of weight (234g vs 228g) over last year’s model, even though it isn’t noticeably heavier. Regardless of weight (which is still lighter than an iPhone 14 Pro Max), the phone surely feels chunkier thanks to its flatter sides.

Samsung has done this by expanding the width of the metal frame and reducing the curvature of the edges. This makes it appear more like a rectangle with rounded corners, instead of the pill-shaped profile when viewed from the top or bottom. Despite the added thickness over the previous model, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is still quite comfortable to hold as the refreshed design provides a broader, flatter surface on all sides for improved grip.

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra (right) looks very similar to the older Galaxy S22 Ultra (left)

I really wish that Samsung would make a regular-sized Ultra phone, just like Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro, even if that meant ditching the stylus. I think it would definitely find more takers. This is more so, because the company always reserves its best camera hardware for the top model, and unfortunately, it only shows up in one XXL size which is definitely challenging to carry on you. Those with tiny pockets may just have to settle for the smaller Galaxy S23, once again.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra specifications and software

Just like the previous model, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is all about bragging rights when it comes to specifications. There’s a massive 6.8-inch WQHD+ Super AMOLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate and 240Hz touch sampling rate.

Inside, there’s something new in the form of the ‘Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy’, which is Samsung’s branding for a customised Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC. The phone is offered with a maximum of 12GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage. The SIM card tray can hold two nano-SIM cards and supports dual 5G standby, but the phone does not support expandable storage.

Coming to communication standards, there is support for several 5G bands, Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC, Ultra Wideband (UWB) and a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C port. The phone has a 5,000mAh battery and supports 45W fast wired charging and 15W wireless charging, but comes with no charger in the box.

Samsung should really consider a regular-sized Ultra model like Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro

Samsung’s One UI 5.1 offers a slick user interface (UI) with smooth animations and transitions throughout the UI. Expert RAW is now part of the camera app which makes it useful for those who need it. The Gallery app, just like iOS 16, allows users to lift objects, people and pets from the photo and save them as PNG files for sharing. There are two new battery widgets, and an improved dynamic weather widget as well. Broader updates also allow Samsung Galaxy Book laptop owners to use their trackpad and keyboard with their phones. There’s also copy and paste functionality to a supported phone and vice-versa, just like on an iPhone with a MacBook.

The S Pen still works as expected. One can jot down handwritten notes or even convert handwritten notes to characters instantly. Palm rejection when using the S Pen is a bit of a problem though.

Bloatware and third-party apps are surprisingly still a problem on a smartphone that costs this much. The phone comes with Microsoft 365, OneDrive, LinkedIn, Outlook, Facebook, Spotify and Netflix apps preinstalled. Out of these OneDrive cannot be uninstalled. There’s also plenty of Samsung-branded apps, some of which have Google alternatives also present on the device such as Samsung Internet and Google’s Chrome (or Samsung’s Messages app and Google’s Messages app).

The good part is that most of them (apart from the core apps) can be uninstalled. With my usage, I found almost 15 Samsung-branded apps that I did not need or would never end up using.

The minor design differences between the Galaxy S22 Ultra (top) and the new Galaxy S23 Ultra (bottom)

Thankfully, despite the tonne of bloatware, I did not get bombarded with any spammy notifications during the review period. I feel Samsung needs to work on reducing the bloatware on its premium lineup given that Google’s Pixel does not come with a single third-party app preinstalled. Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro which is a direct competitor, also does not come with a single third-party app preinstalled.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra performance

Samsung’s display on the Galaxy S23 Ultra hasn’t changed much in terms of proportions or resolution, but the company says it has worked to deliver better colours using an improved adaptive ‘Vision Booster’ technology. It claims to allow the display to produce better colours and contrast when viewed under bright lights or outdoors.

The company also claims to have bumped up the screen’s brightness to up to 1,200 nits and a peak brightness of 1,750 nits. I’m happy to say that all these efforts really show in real-world use. Whether I was using the phone to snap photos in bright daylight or while viewing HDR10 content, everything looked fantastic on this large display.

While the regular Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC offers a maximum clock speed of 3.2GHz, Samsung’s customisations pushes this speed to 3.36GHz. In benchmarks, the Galaxy S23 Ultra managed 11,79,528 points in AnTuTu along with 1,513 and 4,626 points in Geekbench 5’s single-core and multi-core tests, respectively. For context, the iQoo 11 5G and the OnePlus 11 5G managed scores of 12,63,366 and 10,16,772 in AnTuTu, respectively.

In terms of graphics, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra managed 64fps in GFXBench’s Car Chase test, compared to the 111fps and 56fps on the iQoo 11 5G and the OnePlus 11 5G respectively. While comparing scores, one also needs to keep in the mind the higher display resolution offered by the Galaxy S23 Ultra and the OnePlus 11 5G.

Samsung has gone with a flatter Super AMOLED panel this time around

Samsung’s customised processor offers several benefits for its Galaxy S23 lineup, apart from better benchmark numbers. Samsung claims that its customised SoC should be able to deliver better AI processing speeds, along with better low-light videos and photos.

Most games ran at the highest possible resolution and with no instances of visual stuttering or dropped frames on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. Overheating was not a problem either, thanks to the bigger vapour chamber cooling area, even during intense gaming sessions (like running Genshin Impact at ‘Maximum’ graphics settings) or when recording 4K 60fps video back to back. Compared to the Galaxy S22 Ultra, I would consider the heat management to be a big leap forward indeed.

While the phone is good at running games, I didn’t find any useful granular adjustments for individual games like you get on other flagships. The touch sampling rate for instance is something I did not find to be impressive in games such as Call of Duty: Mobile, and there’s no way to boost or improve it either. It would have been nice to have such tools in its Game Booster Plus plugin, which has very limited customisation options. 

The S Pen has not recieved any noticeable upgrades this year

Battery life on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra was quite impressive given that it has a massive display to power. During the review period, I set the display at its maximum WQHD+ resolution with the screen’s refresh rate set to ‘Adaptive’, which automatically cycles between 1Hz-120Hz. The phone managed to run for 21 hours and 7 minutes in our HD video loop battery test, which is quite impressive.

Even with heavy camera usage, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra easily managed to last a full day, with about 30 percent left on average. With casual use, you should expect this phone to last a day and half without breaking a sweat. Dropping the display’s resolution down to full-HD+ also adds a few extra hours to the phone’s battery life.

Since the phone does not come with its own charger, I plugged it into a 61W USB PD charger. The Galaxy S23 Ultra managed a 34 percent charge in 30 minutes, 64 percent in an hour, and fully charging the phone in 1 hour and 51 minutes, which is quite slow for flagship standards.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra cameras

Another highlight of this year’s Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is the new Samsung-made 200-megapixel sensor for the primary camera. The sensor has the same 1/1.3-inch size as a 108-megapixel sensor, which is how the S23 Ultra has similar dimensions as its predecessor. Called the ISOCELL HP2, it is a bit smaller than the HP1 (also made by Samsung) present on the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra, but offers a 16-to-1 pixel binning system which captures 12-megapixel images by default.

You can also capture photos at the full 200-megapixel resolution. Compared side by side, the 200-megapixel crop definitely is quite usable and packs in a tonne of details compared to the standard binned image. However, there is also a large difference in file size (5MB vs 35MB, per image) and the former also has a softer appearance. 

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra comes with four rear-facing cameras

A bigger upgrade is the new autofocus system, which Samsung calls “Super QPD”. According to Samsung, it basically allows the camera to use all the 200 million pixels (grouped by four adjacent pixels) as focussing agents. Unlike the HP1 sensor which could only track changes horizontally, the HP2 is able to detect phase changes in the vertical direction as well.

In theory, this should enable much faster autofocus over the previous model. There’s also a new 12-megapixel selfie camera which has autofocus, and an 80-degree field of view. This new selfie camera thankfully, also makes it to the rest of the Galaxy S23 lineup this year. The rest of the rear cameras include two telephoto cameras and an ultra-wide-angle camera, and these remain the same as last year’s Galaxy S22 Ultra.

The camera interface is the same as before, with the addition of the Expert Raw mode, which now shows up under the “More” tab in the camera app. While it seems like a neat integration, tapping on Expert RAW in the camera app will take you to the download page for the Expert RAW app in the Galaxy store. It’s basically just a shortcut to the separate app, but still a convenient one. The Expert RAW app also features the new Astrophotography modes as well.

The photo samples shown below have been shot with the ‘Scene…