Samsung has officially unveiled one of the much-awaited smartphones of the year, the Galaxy S23 Ultra, at the Unpacked 2023 event. The flagship device takes design inspiration from its predecessor, Galaxy S22 Ultra. It brings together the goodness of Samsung's flagship and Note, which is officially dead. Though the design of the new Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is more or less similar to the S22 Ultra, Samsung has made some tweaks in the form factor and that helps improve the overall user experience.
When compared to the Galaxy S22 Ultra, the new Galaxy S23 Ultra is comfortable to use. It doesn't feel too broad in the hands. The sides of the phone are slightly curved, which makes it easy to hold and use the phone with one hand. I must also mention that the weight of the S23 Ultra is also quite balanced and evenly divided. The flagship phone also offers a sturdy design and comes in four colour options - phantom black, green, cream and lavender. The model you see here is the green colour option.As far as the design is concerned, the Galaxy S23 Ultra offers more or less the same design with quad rear camera system and a single camera on the front that sits inside the hole punch on the display. The S-Pen is placed at the bottom just like the Galaxy S22 Ultra and the older Note devices. On the sides are the volume and lock buttons, which are very easily reachable. Overall, though the device hasn't changed a lot in terms of design, it looks quite clean and subtle.
Samsung is highlighting three aspects of the Galaxy S23 Ultra. One, camera. Second, performance. Third, battery.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra offers an in-house developed 200-megapixel ISOCELL HP2 camera coupled with two 10-megapixel telephoto cameras and 12-megapixel ultrawide angle camera. On the front, the phone includes a 50-megapixel camera that sits inside the hole punch display. I used the Galaxy S23 Ultra for around 30 minutes and clicked few photos inside a room with limited and tricky lighting conditions. The phone was able to click photos with stunning details and less noise. The phone also managed to capture colours pretty well. I also clicked few selfies using the S23 Ultra and it does a good job, however, the photos added an extra layer of beautification even in natural mode. I will have more to talk about the Galaxy S23 Ultra camera and the modes it offers including astrophotography, pro mode and many more.
The next aspect that the company is highlighting is the performance. The Galaxy S23 Ultra is powered by customized version of Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor coupled with up to 12GB RAM and 1TB of internal storage. The device comes in three variants - 8GB RAM + 256GB storage, 12GB RAM + 256GB storage, 12GB RAM + 512GB storage and 12GB RAM + 1TB storage. Samsung claims that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor powering the S23 Ultra is optimised to offer 40 per cent faster GPU and NPU performance.
The phone also supports real time Ray Tracing and Vapor Cooling Chamber, which the company claims enhances the overall gaming performance. In my limited time of using the phone, the touch felt smooth and switching between one screen to another was also pretty smooth. I will have more to talk about the performance in our full review in the days to come. On the software front, the phone runs on Android 13 with custom One UI 5.1 skip on top.
Now, the third aspect that Samsung is highlighting is the battery. The Galaxy S23 Ultra is backed by a 5000mAh battery with support for wired as well as wireless fast charging out of the box. Samsung claims that the smartphone lasts one full day on a single charge.
We will have more to talk about the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra in details in our full review in weeks to come. Stay tuned to India Today Tech.
