The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is finally official, and it might be the least obvious upgrade in the history of Samsung’s flagship phones. That is, it looks almost identical to the Galaxy S22 Ultra, but it actually isn’t.
The most obvious difference is the color – the Galaxy S23 Ultra comes in three new colors – Green, Lavender and Cream is one of the old Phantom Black.
Well, anything new? Inside the Galaxy S23 Ultra ticks a specially tuned Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 mobile platform for the Galaxy. Samsung went with Qualcomm’s latest SoC for its entire Galaxy S23 lineup, and you won’t get an Exynos-powered S23 in any market this time around.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for the Galaxy S23 Ultra has a Cortex-X3 core running at up to 3.36GHz, up from the usual maximum of 3.2GHz on the SD 8 Gen 2. The Adreno 740 GPU is reportedly clocked at 719MHz , instead of 680 MHz.
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra in Phantom Black, Cream, Green and Lavender
The other big improvement is the main camera. It’s Samsung’s 200MP ISOCELL HP2 sensor, and it’s adaptive. It can combine 16 pixels into one for a final resolution of 12 MP with individually sized 2.4 µm pixels. Or it can combine its pixels 4-to-1, giving you a 50MP image with more detail to work with.
Starting with the Galaxy S23 series, Samsung is moving its Expert RAW app as a mode inside the native camera app, allowing you to shoot RAW images with the benefits of multi-frame processing – higher detail levels, HDR and better noise reduction – of up to 50MP.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra also brings a new Astro Hyperlapse video mode. The new main camera has improved video stabilization compared to the old 108MP main camera thanks to Adaptive VDIS, which analyzes and subdivides movements and recognizes lighting conditions, and the new sensor’s 2x wider OIS angle – compensating for around 3° compared to 1.5° on the S22 Ultra.
The new 200 MP camera, Astrophoto function
There’s a new front-facing camera shared with the Galaxy S23 series – a 12MP f/2.2 unit with autofocus. The other three cameras on the back of the Galaxy S23 Ultra are largely the same as those on the Galaxy S22 Ultra – there’s a 10MP 10x f/4.9 periscope camera, a 10MP 3x f/2.4 shorter telephoto unit and a 12MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera with autofocus.
The screen is another thing that is largely untouched from the previous Ultra, but it was already a masterpiece. The panel is a 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2x with 1440x3088px resolution and 1,750 nits brightness. The display can adaptively refresh from 1Hz to 120Hz.
What has changed is the addition of a smarter Vision Booster that can adjust the color tone and contrast of the screen in three different lighting conditions. The other meaningful upgrade has to do with protection – the Galaxy S23 Ultra premieres the new Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on both the front and back.
The other key specification that carries over from the Galaxy S22 Ultra is the battery. That’s the same 5,000mAh capacity with the same 45W maximum charging speed. Samsung claims the S23 Ultra will reach 65% charge after 30 minutes on the charger.
You can buy the Galaxy S23 Ultra from today in four colors – Phantom Black, Green, Cream and Lavender – and in up to four configurations starting at 256GB this year – 8/256GB, 12/256GB, 12/512 GB and range 12/1TB.
The base Galaxy S23 Ultra starts at €1,400 in Europe, $1,200 in the States and ₹115,000 in India.
