Samsung galaxy S23 and S23 ultra

[5105973]

Someone on Twitter posted this, it looks gorgeous

It's such a bright cheerful color. If my husband were getting one,. Think he'd get lime. He said it ft like Spring.

I'm glad he's interested in colors and dropped the "black or grey phones only" thing he had going on several years ago. The blue Note 7 is still his all time favorite phone in terms of looks. He's got a purple 14 Pro Max and a green Fold 3. And a burgundy S22 Ultra.

I do like black and grey on occasion. I'm still as wild about my Stormy grey Pixel 6 Pro's looks as I was on day one.

 

[Ludatyk]

Someone on Twitter posted this, it looks gorgeous

I would love to see a side-by-side comparison of the cream on S23U and beige on Fold4... the cream looks more yellowish than the beige.

 

[5105973]

I saw some 8k video footage posted on YT by Danny Winget. I was impressed with the details. I'm going to try to shoot some 8k footage in the countryside. I am now glad I changed my order from 512 gb to 1 TB.

Especially given that I want this to hold me for two years.

 

[Dave245]

It's such a bright cheerful color. If my husband were getting one,. Think he'd get lime. He said it ft like Spring.

I'm glad he's interested in colors and dropped the "black or grey phones only" thing he had going on several years ago. The blue Note 7 is still his all time favorite phone in terms of looks. He's got a purple 14 Pro Max and a green Fold 3. And a burgundy S22 Ultra.

I do like black and grey on occasion. I'm still as wild about my Stormy grey Pixel 6 Pro's looks as I was on day one.

I've got the Purples iPhone 14 Pro Max and the Burgundy S22 Ultra, they both look great. However I do feel like the S22 Ultra is the better design, that's just my personal opinion tho.

 

[5105973]

I've got the Purples iPhone 14 Pro Max and the Burgundy S22 Ultra, they both look great. However I do feel like the S22 Ultra is the better design, that's just my personal opinion tho.

I agree. It's lighter in the hand without feeling "cheap" and the cameras are far less obtrusive than the big bump. As meticulous as I try to be I can't keep my iPhone lenses clean like I used to. I don't have any problems with the S22 Ultra.

I can't wait to see what they do with iphone 15 especially if they switch to lighter metal for the frame and tweak the curves. I don't plan to get one, but I hope it all goes in a direction that will make me excited for iphone 16.

 

[SteveJUAE]

I guess we will have to wait and see what happens with the S23 Ultra tests I guess. I know a lot of people aren't happy with the trade ins, but I think the UK ones are not too bad. For example I get £620 for my 512 GB S22 Ultra, and for some reason another £100 off in the basket (I posted further on up about that, I'm not sure if its a website bug or not)

I dont thinks its a bug and as far as I can tell the Malay site offers similar pricing on trade-ins plus a voucher, so bite their arm off IMO

 

[Dave245]

I don’t know how true this is! But I have just seen it on Twitter, another person claiming the S23 Ultra has the same battery life (ish) as the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

 

[jamezr]

I don’t know how true this is! But I have just seen it on Twitter, another person claiming the S23 Ultra has the same battery life (ish) as the iPhone 14 Pro Max.

I have seen a few others on social media post similar results. They say the S23 Ultra is a beast on battery and super silky smooth as well. The display is said to have 30% less of a curve than the S22U. So almost flat

 

[keithop]

I've got the Purples iPhone 14 Pro Max and the Burgundy S22 Ultra, they both look great. However I do feel like the S22 Ultra is the better design, that's just my personal opinion tho.

I agree with that. The iphone 14pm feels heavy and clunky as a design next to the S22 (or even my old note10)

 

[keithop]

I saw some 8k video footage posted on YT by Danny Winget. I was impressed with the details. I'm going to try to shoot some 8k footage in the countryside. I am now glad I changed my order from 512 gb to 1 TB.

Especially given that I want this to hold me for two years.

Im really hoping so.. because the S22u video comparisons against the 14pm were dire tbh... jumpy and 'orrible. I cant wait to see if the initial reviews are right because if so, I think samsung have a real winner this year.

 

[aggie99]

Surprise! I caved and preordered. No trade in as I'm not giving up my fold 4, P7P or 14PM. 😂 Excited to give it a spin. I need to stop watching videos after devices are announced.

 

[Supersonicc]

The S23 Ultra is shaping up to be a real best in class / alpha predator this year! I'm late to the party but enjoyed the Unpacked event. For me, it initially felt like a stealth upgrade over the S22 Ultra but the new upgrades are much more than that when delving deeper. I've watched too many YouTube videos now!

The camera and video improvements (especially 8K video) are major, near-flat screen, the early battery life tests with Gen 2 Qualcomm and One UI 5.1 upgrades are all are ticking my boxes.

The iPhone 14 Pro incremental upgrades didn't offer enough extra compared to the 13 Pro for me to switch back to Apple. No initiative with a new design. They are missing Jonny Ive. The new Dynamic Island is not my cup of tea. Battery life sounds worse than the 13 Pro. I'm hoping Apple can really step up with the 15 Ultra, they need to.

I've been happily rocking a beige Fold4 1TB since pre-order. Using it has replaced much of what I do on my Macbook & iPad. However the Z Fold4 battery at 4400mAh has not performed particularly well for all day usage and, whilst I've taken some great photos and videos, the camera lenses & set up are not top of Samsung's drawer. Also the front screen is decent & better than the Z Fold3 but still too slim and no internal S-Pen

I didn't think I'd be giving up the screen real estate on the Fold4 but I'm about to pre-order an S23 Ultra either on Samsung UK or Samsung Italy. The European deals are not as competitive; the UK is offering an extra 10% off if a case is thrown in on top of the £200 discount for the 1TB version. No trade in options for the Fold4 means the only choice is to sell myself. Or use both!

Choosing a colour from the options is tricky! The beige & gold on my Z Fold4 looks classy. So I was tempted to go for Cotton White. The hero Botanic Green colour also looks decent but it's time to go for an exclusive colour; I'm choosing between the Sky Blue, Red or Graphite. Lime would be interesting to see in person. Noticed the Sky Blue has a silver edge & lenses compared to black on the S22 Ultra. Next year I'd like Samsung to stop with the tame pastels and do some punchy/vivid colour options for the flagship.

 

[keithop]

by the way.... how ironic that this has been the best samsung s23u thread that I've read so far and it's on a mac site LOL well done folks, cya again for the zfold5 ;-)

 

[hockeyfan81]

Surprise! I caved and preordered. No trade in as I'm not giving up my fold 4, P7P or 14PM. 😂 Excited to give it a spin. I need to stop watching videos after devices are announced.

Holy four phones! 🤑

 

[5105973]

Holy four phones! 🤑

“Hold my beer”. 🤣—a lot of the people on this forum

 

[5105973]

Okay a bit of cold water from SuperSaf in that he thinks there’s shutter lag that will affect pet photos. But I’m not convinced that his way of testing that proves it.

We need a real cat. I have many. I’ll judge for myself if lag is a problem.

My husband just texted me that MrWhosetheboss says the camera is faster.

 

[Dave245]

Okay a bit of cold water from SuperSaf in that he thinks there’s shutter lag that will affect pet photos. But I’m not convinced that his way of testing that proves it.

We need a real cat. I have many. I’ll judge for myself if lag is a problem.

My husband just texted me that MrWhosetheboss says the camera is faster.

Anything mentioned about battery life? That’s the big thing for me.

 

[mjschabow]

Okay a bit of cold water from SuperSaf in that he thinks there’s shutter lag that will affect pet photos. But I’m not convinced that his way of testing that proves it.

We need a real cat. I have many. I’ll judge for myself if lag is a problem.

My husband just texted me that MrWhosetheboss says the camera is faster.

Unfortunately I've seen enough videos already that mention the shutter lag. It's still there.

The one thing that I will say can help is the "Single Take" mode, but you have less control over what shot it chooses. But I have gotten really nice results from it before.

 

[Dave245]

The first battery test. If accurate this is quite impressive.

 

[Technerd108]

The first battery test. If accurate this is quite impressive.

Interesting. I have never noticed much camera shutter lag on my s22 plus. I recently tried the camera out and it seems fine to me? It seems almost instantaneous? I am not making any wild adjustments, just regular camera mode, point and shoot?

Maybe it is specific to the Ultra?

In terms of battery life the s23 ultra looks awesome. I would have liked to see the s23 and s22 plus in there but overall a pretty good test. My poor Pixel 7 Pro didn't do too well....still 8 hours SOT is not terrible. It would be nice to know the test parameters though like screen brightness, adaptive Battery, etc.

I don't know but I think initially when any new device is released all the YouTube reviewer's try to find some flaw. Or they over hype a device like it is the best thing since sliced bread.

I am pretty sure that the s23 series and specially the s23 ultra with 12gb ram and 512gb ufs 4.0 should be pretty great no matter what is said.

Performance should be up anywhere from a low estimate of 25% to a high of 40% CPU and similar results with GPU. There should be a 10-20% battery efficiency gain as well. From a performance standpoint that is pretty significant and I bet thermals are much better as well.

The cameras on Samsung have always been about the most megapixels and that number doesn't always translate into the best shots. The other camera sensors don't seem that different from the 200mp wide. I would really like to see Samsung focus on quality of the shots in post processing and using the AI features of these new chips. I think that Samsung has some of the best hardware and if they just focus a bit more on the software they could have one of the best cameras in a smartphone and the highest megapixel count.

To those that pre order I will be really interested in your real world impressions and tests.

For now the s23 is out of my budget but who knows what will happen in a few months.

By the way I really like the Lime color! Reminds me of a case I had for a previous galaxy that was neon yellow. Never misplaced that phone. 😂

 

[mjschabow]

Interesting. I have never noticed much camera shutter lag on my s22 plus. I recently tried the camera out and it seems fine to me? It seems almost instantaneous? I am not making any wild adjustments, just regular camera mode, point and shoot?

Maybe it is specific to the Ultra?

I don't know but I think initially when any new device is released all the YouTube reviewer's try to find some flaw. Or they over hype a device like it is the best thing since sliced bread.

I am pretty sure that the s23 series and specially the s23 ultra with 12gb ram and 512gb ufs 4.0 should be pretty great no matter what is said.

Performance should be up anywhere from a low estimate of 25% to a high of 40% CPU and similar results with GPU. There should be a 10-20% battery efficiency gain as well. From a performance standpoint that is pretty significant and I bet thermals are much better as well.

The cameras on Samsung have always been about the most megapixels and that number doesn't always translate into the best shots. The other camera sensors don't seem that different from the 200mp wide. I would really like to see Samsung focus on quality of the shots in post processing and using the AI features of these new chips. I think that Samsung has some of the best hardware and if they just focus a bit more on the software they could have one of the best cameras in a smartphone and the highest megapixel count.

To those that pre order I will be really interested in your real world impressions and tests.

For now the s23 is out of my budget but who knows what will happen in a few months.

By the way I really like the Lime color! Reminds me of a case I had for a previous galaxy that was neon yellow. Never misplaced that phone. 😂

The shutter lag has been a real problem on every Samsung phone compared to iPhones and Pixels, primarily present when taking pictures of moving kids and pets. The other phones are just better at taking a still image in those scenarios than Samsung phones.

 

[Technerd108]

The shutter lag has been a real problem on every Samsung phone compared to iPhones and Pixels, primarily present when taking pictures of moving kids and pets. The other phones are just better at taking a still image in those scenarios than Samsung phones.

I will have to try some motion tests and see the results between my old s22 plus and my Pixel 7 Pro. Hopefully it is something Samsung can fix with a software update. It is odd with OEMs on Android or Apple when they have a software issue like what you are describing they seem to be really slow at fixing it and never admit there is an issue at all and then one day and one update later it gets resolved??

 

[mjschabow]

I will have to try some motion tests and see the results between my old s22 plus and my Pixel 7 Pro. Hopefully it is something Samsung can fix with a software update. It is odd with OEMs on Android or Apple when they have a software issue like what you are describing they seem to be really slow at fixing it and never admit there is an issue at all and then one day and one update later it gets resolved??

Oh that happens all the time with all manufacturers, gotta love the transparency!

 

[three]

Confession, I wasn’t planning on buying any S23… however, after a combination of reading through this thread, appreciating but being bored with my iPhone 14 Pro and wanting to throw a Pixel 7 / 7 Pro through a wall, I just ordered a S23 Ultra… I didn’t reply to any one, but I read all of your comments regarding One UI and I’m really willing to give it a shot. The S23 Ultra looks to be phenomenal and a really good phone. I’m very excited and I’m willing to go “all in” if I like it. I got the $100 credit, so, I grabbed the official leather case and the silicone case with the strap. I also just ordered the Spigen Ultra Hybrid with MagSafe (which I LOVE that Spigen brought MagSafe to this case, I buy the Ultra Hybrid for all of my phones, so this is a bonus!) and got a free screen protector, too.

I wasn’t expecting to do this, but this will be fun! People and reviews seem to be very positive about the S23 in particular. I’m also excited to try the S Pen! I take so many notes as is!

 

[5105973]

I’ve seen so many improvements quietly happen on my S22 Ultra since I got it that I’m not too worried even if the lag never gets fixed. Some real cameras I’ve used have been plagued with shutter lag or are just slow for the photographing of cats and kids in other ways. Like slow to focus or something else.

For many months my fingerprint sensor seemed almost useless. Now nobody hears me mentioning it because it works for me very well now. One day it just started being as good as the one on my Pixel 6 Pro which was outstanding, despite most other people’s experience with the Pixel 6 sensors.

I’m even comfortable using it for authentication of my accounts and not just unlocking the phone.

My fingerprints certainly didn’t improve!