Samsung galaxy S23 and S23 ultra

[Technerd108]

Thank you. The Samsung situation is no longer even on our minds much.

My husband managed to secure part of the day off to help me take my mom in to urgent care tomorrow, because her mobility is suddenly reduced as of last week. I can’t help her from my car into a wheelchair on my own. I used to lift and carry my mother-in-law easily in 2018-2019 but my joints have suffered too much inflammation since then.

My mom has got several concerning issues suddenly coming to a head at the same time, yet they seem unrelated. We can no longer wait for medical administrators to get their acts together so we can do the simple act of taking her to a doctor.

Her insurance won’t let us switch from the doctor in her old town an hour away unless we go through some hoops we haven’t had a chance to work through yet. The earliest that doctor was willing to see her was late next month anyway. And my mom is too miserable to wait that long and couldn’t possibly endure an hour ride.

I’ve been trying for months to get her switched to the in-house doctors I was told existed, but I got nothing but a runaround when I tried to get the paperwork to do that initiated. Yesterday my husband spoke to people who gave him the impression there are no in house doctors! I’m stunned. I’m confused. I’m going to have to get to the bottom of what the heck is going on there once and for all and that includes an appalling breakdown in housekeeping.

But finally everything came together well enough we can at least do this for her, see what’s most urgently ailing her and continue to work on getting better permanent doctor care options in place.

I had felt like I’m spinning my wheels in mud the last couple of months and not seeing her often enough or solving her problems fast enough. But today she was very clear headed and she assured me she knew my husband and I were doing our best and she appreciated it. This is a really lovely side of her I honestly didn’t see much of growing up, but see more often now, so I feel this time with her is a gift.

I’m still watching scary movies and monster movies and natural disaster movies. I try to stay in the PG-13 lane so I don’t get grossed out too bad or scared silly. I switch among my 3 big phones. Because of how my days are full of chores and talking to people, I can’t watch a movie all in one sitting. I watch a bit here and there and usually finish by the end of the day or the next day.

I honestly can’t pick an absolute favorite anymore among them when it comes to watching movies. The Dynamic Island doesn’t distract me on the iPhone too much but there was one time I mistook it for a bear in a scene set in a forest.🤣

The little bit of curved edges on the S22 Ultra don’t bother me much either. On the S23 Ultra they’re not even really noticeable. The iPhone 14 Pro Max and the S23 Ultra both do audio so well. I guess sometimes I like the option of seeing some movies in Vivid mode on the S23 Ultra.

But there’s a weird issue I had a couple of times on the S23 Ultra where scenes looked choppy on streaming on Amazon Prime. I didn’t see that on the S22 Ultra or the 14 Pro Max.

I’m going to see if the latest update fixes that. I haven’t really figured out how to troubleshoot it.

Talk about how I have to watch movies in bits and pieces…this post is one I started when the sun was still up before dinner. It’s now heading towards 10:30. We are busy with proms, college admissions, tests, papers that are due. School trips to prepare for. I have to do some sewing on a prom dress. We bought a ripped one to save $200 and I’m fixing it. If my old coworkers could see me now. I used to fix shirt cuffs that had lost buttons with my stapler! 🤣

Now I have to shoot a cat. With insulin.

The doctor situation seems really frustrating. I am so sorry to hear what you are going through.

Seems like they are so booked up all the time you are lucky to see a Primary care physician in month or less and that is for serious conditions.

You may have to think about moving your Mom to another facility. The one I had my Mom in was great at first and after Covid hit it went down quickly. It is a really hard thing to do but it might be necessary. If they said they had an in house doctor and actually don't that is a pretty serious situation. But I am not trying to tell you what to do or but in your situation. Just trying to help and offer a suggestion.

I have had an issue with Hbo Max app for over a year now. Happened on my s22 plus, my s8 tablet and now on the s23u. The video just gets out of sync with the audio and seems to slow down. I have cleared cache, uninstalled and reinstalled, gone in and out of the app and nothing seems to work. I go on the Pixel 7 Pro and no problem.

I don't mind the curved display beyond the fact I can't use a good cheap tempered glass screen protector. In terms of daily use it is fine. I found a film protector that I was able to install with no bubbles. That was a miracle in and of itself. It does slightly affect the fingerprint reader but if it keeps the glass free of scratches it will be worth it for me.

I love watching streaming content with this phone. With my old eyes every other large phone just wasn't good enough. With the rectangular shape and large screen it is just enough although I still prefer a tablet. The speakers on this thing are seriously good. I adjusted the sound and it is almost as good as the s8 tablet which is really impressive for a phone.

Enjoy your movies and I will be hoping everything works out with the assisted living facility and doctor situation.

And you can be sure your Mom appreciates everything you do more than you know!!

 

[aggie99]

I've had this phone for three weeks now and I don't miss my iPhone at all.

Also, I absolutely love Eye Comfort Shield. I have mine on automatic and it works just as well as Apple's True Tone, which is always on on my iPhone (13 Pro Max) and my MacBook.

Samsung knocked it out of the park.

I always love my Samsung phones but there's always one little thing that bothers me on each device. But not this time. You are absolutely right, Samsung has finally knocked it out of the park. I still prefer the Pixel experience over OneUI. Especially the notifications and the music player widget in the notification drop-down but right now the overall package of the S23U is just hard to top. The performance of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and the refinements Samsung has made to the device (less defined curve on the edges) have really set it apart. This might be the device I finally stick with for a year or more. 🤔

 

[daveathall]

Thank you. The Samsung situation is no longer even on our minds much.

My husband managed to secure part of the day off to help me take my mom in to urgent care tomorrow, because her mobility is suddenly reduced as of last week. I can’t help her from my car into a wheelchair on my own. I used to lift and carry my mother-in-law easily in 2018-2019 but my joints have suffered too much inflammation since then.

My mom has got several concerning issues suddenly coming to a head at the same time, yet they seem unrelated. We can no longer wait for medical administrators to get their acts together so we can do the simple act of taking her to a doctor.

Her insurance won’t let us switch from the doctor in her old town an hour away unless we go through some hoops we haven’t had a chance to work through yet. The earliest that doctor was willing to see her was late next month anyway. And my mom is too miserable to wait that long and couldn’t possibly endure an hour ride.

I’ve been trying for months to get her switched to the in-house doctors I was told existed, but I got nothing but a runaround when I tried to get the paperwork to do that initiated. Yesterday my husband spoke to people who gave him the impression there are no in house doctors! I’m stunned. I’m confused. I’m going to have to get to the bottom of what the heck is going on there once and for all and that includes an appalling breakdown in housekeeping.

But finally everything came together well enough we can at least do this for her, see what’s most urgently ailing her and continue to work on getting better permanent doctor care options in place.

I had felt like I’m spinning my wheels in mud the last couple of months and not seeing her often enough or solving her problems fast enough. But today she was very clear headed and she assured me she knew my husband and I were doing our best and she appreciated it. This is a really lovely side of her I honestly didn’t see much of growing up, but see more often now, so I feel this time with her is a gift.

I’m still watching scary movies and monster movies and natural disaster movies. I try to stay in the PG-13 lane so I don’t get grossed out too bad or scared silly. I switch among my 3 big phones. Because of how my days are full of chores and talking to people, I can’t watch a movie all in one sitting. I watch a bit here and there and usually finish by the end of the day or the next day.

I honestly can’t pick an absolute favorite anymore among them when it comes to watching movies. The Dynamic Island doesn’t distract me on the iPhone too much but there was one time I mistook it for a bear in a scene set in a forest.🤣

The little bit of curved edges on the S22 Ultra don’t bother me much either. On the S23 Ultra they’re not even really noticeable. The iPhone 14 Pro Max and the S23 Ultra both do audio so well. I guess sometimes I like the option of seeing some movies in Vivid mode on the S23 Ultra.

But there’s a weird issue I had a couple of times on the S23 Ultra where scenes looked choppy on streaming on Amazon Prime. I didn’t see that on the S22 Ultra or the 14 Pro Max.

I’m going to see if the latest update fixes that. I haven’t really figured out how to troubleshoot it.

Talk about how I have to watch movies in bits and pieces…this post is one I started when the sun was still up before dinner. It’s now heading towards 10:30. We are busy with proms, college admissions, tests, papers that are due. School trips to prepare for. I have to do some sewing on a prom dress. We bought a ripped one to save $200 and I’m fixing it. If my old coworkers could see me now. I used to fix shirt cuffs that had lost buttons with my stapler! 🤣

Now I have to shoot a cat. With insulin.

I'm really sorry. You are having such a hard time and can't seem to catch a break, it must be awful and my heart goes out to you. Things will get better. Trust me.

 

[Tulani]

Samsung teases modular Galaxy S23 camera accessories

The two new phone mounts work with Samsung’s Gadget Case.

www.theverge.com

 

[5105973]

I've had this phone for three weeks now and I don't miss my iPhone at all.

Also, I absolutely love Eye Comfort Shield. I have mine on automatic and it works just as well as Apple's True Tone, which is always on on my iPhone (13 Pro Max) and my MacBook.

Samsung knocked it out of the park.

I'm so happy it's working out so well for you! What message/text arrangement are you using to communicate with friends and family? So far I'm just using Google Messenger which I believe is using RCS on At&t. It's just between me and my husband so far. I want to eventually expand to include the rest of the family.

 

[5105973]

The doctor situation seems really frustrating. I am so sorry to hear what you are going through.

Seems like they are so booked up all the time you are lucky to see a Primary care physician in month or less and that is for serious conditions.

You may have to think about moving your Mom to another facility. The one I had my Mom in was great at first and after Covid hit it went down quickly. It is a really hard thing to do but it might be necessary. If they said they had an in house doctor and actually don't that is a pretty serious situation. But I am not trying to tell you what to do or but in your situation. Just trying to help and offer a suggestion.

I have had an issue with Hbo Max app for over a year now. Happened on my s22 plus, my s8 tablet and now on the s23u. The video just gets out of sync with the audio and seems to slow down. I have cleared cache, uninstalled and reinstalled, gone in and out of the app and nothing seems to work. I go on the Pixel 7 Pro and no problem.

I don't mind the curved display beyond the fact I can't use a good cheap tempered glass screen protector. In terms of daily use it is fine. I found a film protector that I was able to install with no bubbles. That was a miracle in and of itself. It does slightly affect the fingerprint reader but if it keeps the glass free of scratches it will be worth it for me.

I love watching streaming content with this phone. With my old eyes every other large phone just wasn't good enough. With the rectangular shape and large screen it is just enough although I still prefer a tablet. The speakers on this thing are seriously good. I adjusted the sound and it is almost as good as the s8 tablet which is really impressive for a phone.

Enjoy your movies and I will be hoping everything works out with the assisted living facility and doctor situation.

And you can be sure your Mom appreciates everything you do more than you know!!

Thank you always for your kindness. I'm not experiencing the weird choppiness on the S22 Ultra. I'm going to try some of the things you tried that unfortunately didn't work for your situation.

I do like my Amazon Fire tablet for watching Amazon prime movies, but that's when I'm able to sit down and chill with snacks.

Currently, I appreciate being able to watch movies on my smaller devices, aka the phones. Lol I'll be standing there waiting for the washer to turn off so I can move the laundry to the dryer and I'll pull out the phone and catch a scene. Lol it's actually a good way to watch a scary movie. I fall for the jump scares every time!

I like other kinds of movies, too, but scary and suspense is what I'm inexplicably craving right now.

I'm not sure what to do about moving my mom. They seemed to have had a massive staff turnover and I'm waiting to see what happens when/if it settles. This has been the consistently highest rated facility in the state. I shudder to think what other places are like if that's the case.

Most of my life my problem was I couldn't afford good medical care. Now I have decent insurance and money for normal medical bills (I know I'm very fortunate in that regard) but now doctor availability is a problem.

Clearly it's a problem for everyone because we are here sitting in Urgent Care and it's packed. We will be here for hours. My poor mom! I hope we don't catch something while we are here. So many people are coughing so hard.

These are all people with issues (as far as I can see and overhear) who would at one time have gone in to see their family doctor.

 

[5105973]

I'm really sorry. You are having such a hard time and can't seem to catch a break, it must be awful and my heart goes out to you. Things will get better. Trust me.

Thank you so much. In talking with friends I realize nobody has been able to catch a break in a long time. We really are very fortunate in so many respects.

I do consider it a fortunate break my husband was able to get away from work and help get us here to the Urgent Care today. We're waiting for a doctor.

I was beyond ecstatic to see that the nurses kept their promise and had all my mom's medical records organized and ready to go when I picked her up. They're really worried about her. They didn't know the administrative roadblocks I've been dealing with and were getting frustrated with me for not getting her to the doctor sooner.

 

[5105973]

Okay so basically I found out that the care home ignored a food intolerance that I had noted on her records and should have been communicated to the kitchen staff. She has been consuming this class of foods that make her sick and has gotten so sick her kidneys are not functioning properly so we are here for a while and see if they can get her back to normal. Sorry not a good explanation but I'm having to type fast. That's the main issue. It looks like I'll look for a new facility. My husband wants further discussion.

Obviously this isn't a good place to continue discussion of this so I'll be dropping out for awhile. I'm sure she will be fine. The doc said so and that we got her here in time.

Thanks for the kind thoughts and words.

Lol the S23 Ultra is performing like a champ and getting signal everywhere!

 

[Technerd108]

Okay so basically I found out that the care home ignored a food intolerance that I had noted on her records and should have been communicated to the kitchen staff. She has been consuming this class of foods that make her sick and has gotten so sick her kidneys are not functioning properly so we are here for a while and see if they can get her back to normal. Sorry not a good explanation but I'm having to type fast. That's the main issue. It looks like I'll look for a new facility. My husband wants further discussion.

Obviously this isn't a good place to continue discussion of this so I'll be dropping out for awhile. I'm sure she will be fine. The doc said so and that we got her here in time.

Thanks for the kind thoughts and words.

Lol the S23 Ultra is performing like a champ and getting signal everywhere!

OMG! Wow that is scary.

Glad she will be okay and that she has you to look out for her!

We will miss your posts but completely understand. Family first. Forum is not important but thanks for the update.

 

[5105973]

OMG! Wow that is scary.

Glad she will be okay and that she has you to look out for her!

We will miss your posts but completely understand. Family first. Forum is not important but thanks for the update.

Thanks so much. We're still here. Kind of used to the hospital vigils honestly.

My mom has been surprisingly chatty. But she's sleepy so I got a chance to quickly read and found this discussion about the video stutter I have been seeing.

 

[Technerd108]

Thanks so much. We're still here. Kind of used to the hospital vigils honestly.

My mom has been surprisingly chatty. But she's sleepy so I got a chance to quickly read and found this discussion about the video stutter I have been seeing.

I am glad you are able spend time with her in a good mood!

I love Southpark and HBOMax has all 26 seasons. I will start watching and within a few minutes Cartmen will say something and his mouth is like in slow motion. Then it seems okay and then slow motion like the sound and video are not in sink.

It only happens with HBO Max. Happens on my s8 wifi only tablet and my s23u and my previous s22 plus.

It is so annoying.

 

[5105973]

I am glad you are able spend time with her in a good mood!

I love Southpark and HBOMax has all 26 seasons. I will start watching and within a few minutes Cartmen will say something and his mouth is like in slow motion. Then it seems okay and then slow motion like the sound and video are not in sink.

It only happens with HBO Max. Happens on my s8 wifi only tablet and my s23u and my previous s22 plus.

It is so annoying.

Yeah I haven't tried this yet with anything other than Amazon prime. That's where I'm noticing it.

Ugh I have to stay here all night into goodness knows when tomorrow. I'm sending my husband home to take care of the pets and my mom's cat and get some sleep. Gonna be up all night. Kind of surprised they won't let me leave but this is not a hospital it's urgent care and the regulations are different..good thing I have both my big phones 14 Pro Max and s23 Ultra. Ultra is at 55% battery right now.

It's a good thing I had a good breakfast but unfortunately at 6 am. I have a medical issue myself so I can't eat while I am here. I get water and possibly one cracker. Today unfortunately was a bad day for what autoimmune disease does to my digestive tract so I had to take medicine this morning.

But I've done worse vigils. My body sort of goes into a suspended mode. I'm not even hungry. And no I don't get to sleep. Lol you should see the chairs in this place!

I'm hoping my mom will sleep so I can read or watch a video or something. She is now convinced she's dying and I'm lying to her. I AM tempted to yeet her out the window so she is risking that. 🤣

She is fine. She just has to stay overnight to get all the stuff in her iv drip and get more tests in the morning.

 

[Technerd108]

Yeah I haven't tried this yet with anything other than Amazon prime. That's where I'm noticing it.

Ugh I have to stay here all night into goodness knows when tomorrow. I'm sending my husband home to take care of the pets and my mom's cat and get some sleep. Gonna be up all night. Kind of surprised they won't let me leave but this is not a hospital it's urgent care and the regulations are different..good thing I have both my big phones 14 Pro Max and s23 Ultra. Ultra is at 55% battery right now.

It's a good thing I had a good breakfast but unfortunately at 6 am. I have a medical issue myself so I can't eat while I am here. I get water and possibly one cracker. Today unfortunately was a bad day for what autoimmune disease does to my digestive tract so I had to take medicine this morning.

But I've done worse vigils. My body sort of goes into a suspended mode. I'm not even hungry. And no I don't get to sleep. Lol you should see the chairs in this place!

I'm hoping my mom will sleep so I can read or watch a video or something. She is now convinced she's dying and I'm lying to her. I AM tempted to yeet her out the window so she is risking that. 🤣

She is fine. She just has to stay overnight to get all the stuff in her iv drip and get more tests in the morning.

Wow, I am so sorry. That doesn't sound fun.

I have been in similar situations and have my own health issues so I understand a bit of what you are going through.

Urgent care can be rough. You are going to need a day or two of rest afterwards which I am sure will prove difficult with your family and their needs.

Hang in there. We all feel for you.

 

[5105973]

I am still where I was last night. I hope to be home in a few hours. It's hard to get anyone to commit to a time in these places.

The S23 Ultra should get me there. The S23 Ultra endurance is phenomenal with 1 Day 7 hours and 30% left. Screen on time 6h 40 minutes. Nearly 3 hours of that video! What really impresses me is that I am in a low signal area, 1-2 bars of signal, that drained my 14 Pro Max that I was using for iMessage and not much else. I did put the iphone in low power mode, but I was late to remember to do, but still it was draining noticeably fast. I was using my S23 Ultra for messages, too. MMS.

I am so glad I brought the S23 . I did shove it in with the 14 Pro max and there was a scratch on the display film but it self healed and looks flawless. This is the Samsung branded film.

My husband did leave me with an ipad mini which I read a little on, but mostly it was the S23 Ultra. It's now field tested at last, for the purpose I have been keeping two lines and Android and iOS running together. And why I upgraded. I love my S21 Ultra a lot and it's so close to what the S23 Ultra is that one would be fine to question upgrading. But the S21 Ultra would not have lasted me like this! 👍

Edit to add: this kind of event sadly has dominated my life for several years now. I've mentioned it's why these phones are so important to me. I normally don't share in real time as I'm going through something. I'm not sure why I did this time.

 

[Berries-A-Million]

Anyone have issues with the Lowe's app crashing? I try to open and it just crashes at the main screen in the app. Reinstalling it doesn't seem to help either.

 

[5105973]

Anyone have issues with the Lowe's app crashing? I try to open and it just crashes at the main screen in the app. Reinstalling it doesn't seem to help either.

Lowe's hardware app? (There's other Lowe's apps like for food) It's working for me. I'm logged in as guest though. I haven't set up my account yet.

 

[5105973]

Home at last! 19% battery left. The only thing I did last night was turn my AOD off. I have to hand it to Samsung, they did it!

I didn't have stutter on video that I downloaded. I'm probably going to pick up a new SIM at some point and see if that helps eliminate any oddities on playback of streamed Prime movies. I'm definitely NOT willing to go to e sim on my Android line yet.

I was impressed with the speed with which the phone downloaded the video on highest quality over just 2 bars of 5G.

 

[Technerd108]

I am still where I was last night. I hope to be home in a few hours. It's hard to get anyone to commit to a time in these places.

The S23 Ultra should get me there. The S23 Ultra endurance is phenomenal with 1 Day 7 hours and 30% left. Screen on time 6h 40 minutes. Nearly 3 hours of that video! What really impresses me is that I am in a low signal area, 1-2 bars of signal, that drained my 14 Pro Max that I was using for iMessage and not much else. I did put the iphone in low power mode, but I was late to remember to do, but still it was draining noticeably fast. I was using my S23 Ultra for messages, too. MMS.

I am so glad I brought the S23 . I did shove it in with the 14 Pro max and there was a scratch on the display film but it self healed and looks flawless. This is the Samsung branded film.

My husband did leave me with an ipad mini which I read a little on, but mostly it was the S23 Ultra. It's now field tested at last, for the purpose I have been keeping two lines and Android and iOS running together. And why I upgraded. I love my S21 Ultra a lot and it's so close to what the S23 Ultra is that one would be fine to question upgrading. But the S21 Ultra would not have lasted me like this! 👍

Edit to add: this kind of event sadly has dominated my life for several years now. I've mentioned it's why these phones are so important to me. I normally don't share in real time as I'm going through something. I'm not sure why I did this time.

Hope you can get home soon!

The S23u is so far an endurance king. I think all of the changes Samsung made under the hood have culminated in such great battery life.

I am glad the s23u was helpful during the marathon caregiving through the night Urgent care stay.

I think you gave a good illustration of what happens to real people in real life situations and how we use our phones and why certain features are important to us. The phone can keep us connected to family in an emergency situation, while also helping us pass the time. Battery life can really be critical in these situations. Same with reception. I have been in hospitals and couldn’t get any reception. I was cut off from the outside world which was terrible when you are trying to relay information to family.

Thank you for sharing. To me it makes these forums more personal and more meaningful than they would otherwise be if all we talked about was just devices with no context in how we use them in our real lives.

Hope you get to rest and recharge both yourself and your phone.

 

[5105973]

Hope you can get home soon!

The S23u is so far an endurance king. I think all of the changes Samsung made under the hood have culminated in such great battery life.

I am glad the s23u was helpful during the marathon caregiving through the night Urgent care stay.

I think you gave a good illustration of what happens to real people in real life situations and how we use our phones and why certain features are important to us. The phone can keep us connected to family in an emergency situation, while also helping us pass the time. Battery life can really be critical in these situations. Same with reception. I have been in hospitals and couldn’t get any reception. I was cut off from the outside world which was terrible when you are trying to relay information to family.

Thank you for sharing. To me it makes these forums more personal and more meaningful than they would otherwise be if all we talked about was just devices with no context in how we use them in our real lives.

Hope you get to rest and recharge both yourself and your phone.

Oh thank you. Yep I am finally home!

I want to sleep but I finally just ate and can't lie down after eating. But I am putting my phones on their chargers so they get their naps at least.

My husband did some chores for me last night so the house is in good shape. I just had a few chores to do and now I am done! Yay!

A couple years ago I went through something similar with my 12 mini. It was accidentally the only phone on me. We were headed out to a vacation when we got the call that my father-in-law needed us.

Skipping details and explanations how I ended up with my smallest phone on a grueling day, suffice it to say I was impressed with the 12 mini and the battery life was okay but I was able at that time to charge it in our truck. And I definitely had to.

Comparing that experience to this one, I did realize there's a lot to be said for a big slab phone.

 

[Technerd108]

I feel like Arnold schwarzenegger in Total Recall the original movie, 2 weeks, 2 weeks. I have a little over 3 months, 3 months to use my s23u exclusively on Google Fi to fulfill my promotional requirements.

I am normally a sim swap junkie going back and forth between 2 phones every week or so. I am getting a cheap $10 a month line for my Pixel 7 Pro but it will have a new number that isn't my main number so I will use it much less. I can’t swap out the sim in my s23u until after the promotional period expires. I know, I know a bunch of you say I can and as long as I don't activate another Sim in the s23u and keep my Fi line active I should be fine but I want to use the Fi Sim in my Pixel 7Pro and that I am pretty sure would violate the terms of the promotion.

So it is going to be 3 months of just my s23u.

I am going to test everything I can about the phone over that time and push it to it's limits.

I may just keep using the Ultra and sell my Pixel 7 Pro because I am really interested in the Pixel 8 Pro.

I have one issue that I would like to ask others. On the Bixby text to speech for call screening it seems it doesn't work on wifi calling? I don't understand why but that is what I was told on Samsung Members forum. Anyone try using Bixby call screening on wifi calling? Does it work?

I have a feeling it is something else but I thought I would ask. I get a great signal from Fi so I don’t need wifi calling but I like to keep my SAR exposure as low as possible and use WiFi calling whenever I can. On my Pixel 7 Pro call screening works fine on wifi calling. Can anyone here confirm?

Thanks

 

[petvas]

I was out yesterday and took both my iPhone 14 Pro Max and S23 Ultra with me. I took some videos under the same (dark) conditions. The iPhone produced much better colors and less noise. The difference was very big in my eyes. That's definitely a reason for me to not switch to the S23 Ultra as my main driver. I was also disappointed to see how the S23 Ultra converts the video when uploading to Instagram, in comparison with the iPhone's Instagram app, which did a much better job. Overall, the iPhone is still the king of video. Samsung is going to bring an update for the camera by the end of the month. Maybe that will change things. We will see.

 

[5105973]

I feel like Arnold schwarzenegger in Total Recall the original movie, 2 weeks, 2 weeks. I have a little over 3 months, 3 months to use my s23u exclusively on Google Fi to fulfill my promotional requirements.

I am normally a sim swap junkie going back and forth between 2 phones every week or so. I am getting a cheap $10 a month line for my Pixel 7 Pro but it will have a new number that isn't my main number so I will use it much less. I can’t swap out the sim in my s23u until after the promotional period expires. I know, I know a bunch of you say I can and as long as I don't activate another Sim in the s23u and keep my Fi line active I should be fine but I want to use the Fi Sim in my Pixel 7Pro and that I am pretty sure would violate the terms of the promotion.

So it is going to be 3 months of just my s23u.

I am going to test everything I can about the phone over that time and push it to it's limits.

I may just keep using the Ultra and sell my Pixel 7 Pro because I am really interested in the Pixel 8 Pro.

I have one issue that I would like to ask others. On the Bixby text to speech for call screening it seems it doesn't work on wifi calling? I don't understand why but that is what I was told on Samsung Members forum. Anyone try using Bixby call screening on wifi calling? Does it work?

I have a feeling it is something else but I thought I would ask. I get a great signal from Fi so I don’t need wifi calling but I like to keep my SAR exposure as low as possible and use WiFi calling whenever I can. On my Pixel 7 Pro call screening works fine on wifi calling. Can anyone here confirm?

Thanks

Sorry I can't help. I just turned WiFi calling on shortly after my last post. And I actually did that by accident! I have not tried Bixby call screening yet.

Do you turn cellular off around the home to reduce your SAR exposure?

I finally tried the Netflix app. Streaming a movie on wifi works fine so far on that app. I am just starting to watch a series called iZombie. But I think my husband would like to watch it too so I'm quitting for the night. Or morning. I had no idea it's 3:40 am. I woke up at 9 pm after a nap. My body clock is going to be a mess now. Pushing the clocks ahead an hour was already messing with my mind.

I'm going to try the Bixby calling id next. I don't get many calls on this number anymore though.

I'm still setting the S23 Ultra up, believe it or not. My apps are so disorganized already. My 14 Pro Max is a mess like that and so I am going to have to organize both phones. I don't even know how that happens. I started off so orderly and precise.

 

[5105973]

I was out yesterday and took both my iPhone 14 Pro Max and S23 Ultra with me. I took some videos under the same (dark) conditions. The iPhone produced much better colors and less noise. The difference was very big in my eyes. That's definitely a reason for me to not switch to the S23 Ultra as my main driver. I was also disappointed to see how the S23 Ultra converts the video when uploading to Instagram, in comparison with the iPhone's Instagram app, which did a much better job. Overall, the iPhone is still the king of video. Samsung is going to bring an update for the camera by the end of the month. Maybe that will change things. We will see.

Oh wow thanks for posting about that. I haven't had a chance to compare their video capabilities yet.

Yeah Apple still has the edge in low light still photography from what I can see, in terms of image focus and keeping noise down. Just sometimes it can cool the color temperature of lamp light a little too much and ruin the ambiance.

Were you able to compare audio and if so, did you find any significant differences? I've been very curious about that. I couldn't really tell from the quick tests videos I tried to make.

 

[super chimp]

Seems like this is an issue with a lot of users regardless of brand or platform.

It might be that Samsung users are a little tired of the endless unreasonable and pointed criticism that some people make towards Samsung that they don't seem to apply to their favorite brand or platform.

I am not defending the person you are responding to but just making a general observation in this thread and forum section on alternatives to iOS in general.

Agree and leads to these kind of discussions being less productive than they should be. People need to acknowledge the fact that all phones have faults, heck knows there are things I would improve on my 13 Pro & OnePlus 6.

 

[super chimp]

Who cares? It's a photo of the moon! It's not like they are using AI to make your kids look better or your partner look much prettier. Mind you that might be a good idea!

But it’s a less than honest way of doing things, something that certain posters on here don’t want to acknowledge.