(Hands On) Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and S23+ First Impressions Review!😲

By Shawn Chung & Aaron X - Singapore

Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked 2023 is with us, and if you’ve read any of the rumors, then you know that the Galaxy S23 has been almost totally uncovered, from its processor specs, to actual press images, so what else is there to unpack?

Quite a bit actually, so let’s go into a quick update on the devices launched - the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, the Samsung Galaxy S23+ and S23, as well as Aaron's own hands-on impressions of the S23 Ultra and S23+.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

First up, the new Galaxy S23 phones have a new industrial design, with the S23 Ultra using a separate design from the S23+ and S23 that is more monolithic and deliberately follows the S22 Ultra’s design, which itself was inspired by the Galaxy Note 20, so yes, the S Pen is retained to enable you to write and draw on the S23 Ultra’s large flat 6.8 inch display, which has reduced curvature from its predecessor.

The 6.6-inch S23 and 6.1-inch S23+, like the S23 Ultra, use Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 for enhanced durability and uses about 22% recycled glass, with Samsung increasing the use of  recycled materials, including pre-consumer recycled aluminum and glass and post-consumer recycled plastics sourced from discarded fishing nets, PET bottles and water barrels.

Samsung Galaxy S23+

All S23 devices now use a ‘clean and linear’ design for the cameras, and is less obtrusive than the Contour Cut camera housing on the S22 family.

Two major features stand out with the Galaxy S23 family. The first is the exclusive use of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy. Now some rumors have stated that this processor is a bespoke design solely for Samsung, but we have clarified that Samsung has ‘6 months exclusivity’ on this processor, and other smartphone manufacturers can use this processor later in the year. With the new processor, the Galaxy S23 series has about 30% faster processing ability that the Galaxy S22 family, while upgraded NPU architecture and an optimized GPU enable ray-tracing for mobile games and better low light photography.

Samsung Galaxy S23

The second major feature is the use of Samsung’s new 200 Megapixel Image Sensor on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. The 200MP Adaptive Pixel sensor uses pixel binning to support multiple levels of high-resolution processing at once, with 200MP, 50MP and 12MP output options. Galaxy S23 series also offers Super HDR selfie camera, an Expert RAW app, Astrophoto settings for incredible low-light/low-noise performance.

The Samsung Galaxy S23 series is now available for pre-order, with sales starting on February 17, 2023 from carriers and retailers, and on https://samsung.com.

Aaron’s First Impressions

Hey what’s up!

I’ve had the opportunity to try the Galaxy S23 Ultra and the S23+ at a preview of Samsung’s Galaxy Experience Spaces in Singapore, one of five global venues to showcase the new 2023 Galaxy devices immediately on launch.

My first impressions include something that I did not expect with the S23+, but more on this in just a bit. 

But first, even though Samsung always pack a slew of improvements in the previous Galaxy models, if I’m being honest, just holding the new smartphones in my hand, both the S23 Ultra and the S23 Plus don’t look or feel very different from last gen. For example, for the S23 Ultra it’s that same Note inspired design, same screen size, same S-pen, but it’s maybe a little lighter with the screen having a flatter edge on the bezel. But aside from that it’s easy to mistake it for the S22 Ultra. 

That being said, there are a few major upgrades, such as a tougher Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 screen, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy processor which supports Ray Tracing for certain games, and is up to 40% faster performance than the S22 Ultra. 

It also comes with improved image stabilization - Samsung says the S23 Ultra has 2x wider OIS than the S22 Ultra so it’s easier to get a crisp sharp picture even when zoomed in. And of course, that new 200MP rear camera sensor. 200MP is a lot, but do you really need that many pixels? Well, if you ask anybody who shoots professionally in any capacity, they’ll say that having that many pixels isn’t necessary unless you’re shooting for large canvases, something big to hang in a gallery, then you’ll want that ability to blow up images without losing resolution. That’s the standard answer, but it won’t really apply to the S23 Ultra because although we have a 200MP count, it’s 200MP with 4x pixel binning. So it’s like combining four 50MP images together creating one 200MP image to improve image quality and resolution. The S23 Ultra does this because each individual pixel captures very little light, which is a problem in low light situations. So pixel binning 50MP into 200MP images quadruples the amount of light the camera’s able to capture resulting in better low light performance. 

However, it’s important to note that it doesn’t shoot 200MP by default, you’ll actually have to activate it. And looking at this test shot, at 200MP it is able to resolve fine details in the subject’s skin, and colors appear natural. If you zoom into the shot, you can see that the results are quite good, the creases on his shirt look crisp. It’s only when you blow up the picture 30 times that it becomes fuzzy, which is still quite impressive. But judging from that shot alone it seems like that sensor does capture sharp images with a reasonably good amount of detail. Even just shooting casually in its default settings, I noticed the improved NPU is pretty good at resolving the image after the shot. Zooming in 10 times, 30 times, even a hundred times, the S23 Ultra is quite capable of resolving the image so that pictures look sharp and clean. And for videos, it does look pretty good too, even at 30 times zoom it’s well stabilized. Although you can see it struggling to clean up the fuzz in darker areas, the on-air sign looks clean and sharp. Overall it does seem like a big upgrade over the S22 Ultra. Of course, as soon as I get a review unit, I’ll be shooting some dark scenes with the S23 Ultra, so that we can analyze its low light performance compared to other phones.

The S23 Plus has a bigger battery, 200mAH more than the previous model. Also the base plate of the rear cameras is gone, but it doesn’t mean that there’s no camera bump. It’s still there, and comparing them side by side it looks quite similar to the S22+ in terms of thickness or weight.

Since I did bring my own S22+ to this hands-on session, I was able to compare their cameras side by side. And, well, I did not expect the results. Shooting the same picture side by side on the same settings, they seem quite comparable at first. The newer S23+ seems to have the upper hand in terms of color contrast, as in it looks more true to life, but the S22+ seems to resolve zoom shots better. Here you can see this signage looking cleaner on the S22+ compared to the S23+. I wish I was able to compare them in depth but there was too little time, and we weren’t able to bring the phones outside. 

So once I get some review units in, do expect another video to follow, with an in depth comparison between the S23 and S22 Plus variants. To stay notified of these reviews, please subscribe to my YouTube Channel. You may also pre-order them through the Amazon links below. Shipping starts from February 17th 2023.