Samsung galaxy S23 and S23 ultra

[5105973]

I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface with its possibilities. I am diving deep in the software and really having a good time with it. I’ve found so many “oh that’s cool” features!

Even after being on Android a few years I still feel that way. Samsung in particular really did a good job evolving from TouchWiz.

 

[5105973]

Spigen

case has arrived

That case is amazing. I almost got it but wasn’t sure how it would look on a lavender phone, where just a tiny bit of color showing through can still look out of place. It’s good on black and clearly on white for sure.

 

[keithop]

Even after being on Android a few years I still feel that way. Samsung in particular really did a good job evolving from TouchWiz.

yeah definitely ! I have a good friend who has stuck by samsung for years after I ditched them because of touchwiz and bixby. He had a good giggle at me loving on the s23ultra.

but yeah, it's unusual for a tech company to realise what it's doing wrong and right the ship.

 

[keithop]

So now trying an app called wutsapper. Feeling a bit deflated, hoping once this is sorted I can actually enjoy the phone as currently it’s frustration more than anything else. Haven’t even got onto setting up the watch yet

let me know how it goes with wutsapper because I really could do with my whatsapps across from the iphone

 

[three]

Even after being on Android a few years I still feel that way. Samsung in particular really did a good job evolving from TouchWiz.

I’ve always had a bad taste in my mouth with Samsung software. I’ve tinkered with their products over the time but I’ve always been quick to run back to a Pixel or an iPhone. I’m now just finally willing to really give Samsung a chance with the S23 Ultra. I’m going all in on the ecosystem.

 

[Supersonicc]

Spigen

case has arrived

Thanks for the pic, that Spigen does look bang on. Time to order one!👍

 

[keithop]

I’ve always had a bad taste in my mouth with Samsung software. I’ve tinkered with their products over the time but I’ve always been quick to run back to a Pixel or an iPhone. I’m now just finally willing to really give Samsung a chance with the S23 Ultra. I’m going all in on the ecosystem.

yep I feel the same.

The only thing I'm really missing from the iphone is the notification setup.

Ironic since everyone seems to say the android notification system is better! but it's things like I'm in some app on android and an important email comes in. On the iphone, there's a large notification across the top of the screen, on the s23, all I seem to get is a little icon added to the too small to see top row. Unless I swipe down to see the notification centre, I could miss it.

....but WOW I'm loving the camera app I mean I'm so in love I've already offered to buy it a prius and let it move in without a prenup.

 

[keithop]

Thanks for the pic, that Spigen does look bang on. Time to order one!👍

I ordered the spigen with the magsafe ring but I'm not really sure why LOL that one looks really brilliantly techie

 

[5105973]

For anyone deciding on the exclusive colours, this YT video shows them all unboxed. Non-english language but a decent show case.

My Fold4 is beige with gold so I wanted to go back to a dark tone on the S23 Ultra. If I hadn't gone for Phantom Black this year, Graphite or Green would be my choice. Sky Blue looks stunning but I'd prefer black edges like the S22 Ultra Sky Blue. Red is more salmon than fire red again. Lime looks unusual, with black edges that would pop!

When I was a little girl and a teen, my parents and I picked different colors at different stages of my life for my bedroom. I loved color, but would pick the most intense one from the swatch, not realizing that when the paint goes up in a room that color will eat you up.

My mom and dad had made that mistake with the yellow they chose for a spare bedroom. Imagine a room painted in the color of a Yellow iPhone XR. They were horrified but also transfixed and actually lived with that mistake for years. They’d also made that mistake with a pink they chose for my bedroom when I was 2 years old. I lived with THAT mistake for years.

So when it came time to repaint my room when I was leaving elementary school and later toward my college years, they tried to guide me to pick the swatches that had just a hint of the color I liked. But as an overexcited kid and later as a know it all older teen, I didn’t listen.

So I went bold with the colors of purple when I was a kid and mint green when I was a teenager. 🤪

So, by the time my husband and I were married adults redoing this absolutely wretched fixer upper we had bought in a great neighborhood, I’d learned my lesson from my earlier mistakes. We chose our colors by choosing from swatches that were essentially white, with just hints of the actual colors we wanted. And it worked out. I chose what looked like a white with a slight hint of blue for my office. The room as a whole turned out satisfyingly blue. We chose an off white very much like this year’s white S23.

So when I see these colors, I am very much reminded of the paint swatches we looked at when we were young and starting out.

They really strike me as mostly white with a hint of color. But I’m sure if I were to paint a room in any of those colors it would look pretty bold. That lime looks like it could make a statement.

 

[Technerd108]

Galaxy S23 Ultra vs the iPhone: Incredible graphics with 2020 speed

Benchmarking the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in Samsung's newest phone against Apple's last three iPhone chips.

www.macworld.com

Someone must be feeling a bit threatened by Qualcomm. Lol.

The last line of the article is at least an s24 will beat a iPhone 13. Like that is not a dig is it?

Meanwhile the GPU in the 8 gen 2 beats a16 in Apple but they just gloss over that part.

I wish tech articles didn't say stupid things like this article. Geekbench scores are nice for a baseline CPU only reference but don't test anything close to real world performance.

The thing is as much as I love iPhones the a16 performance is mostly a waste in iOS 16. It doesn't multitask very well, Nothing like Dex on it so all that power is mostly wasted on an OS that is limited.

Also Samsung is using ufs 4.0 vs iphone ufs 3.1 and Samsung is using faster ddr5 ram and in the ultra you get 12gb of it which should offset some of the difference in processor.

 

[keithop]

Galaxy S23 Ultra vs the iPhone: Incredible graphics with 2020 speed

Benchmarking the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in Samsung's newest phone against Apple's last three iPhone chips.

www.macworld.com

I wish tech articles didn't say stupid things like this article. Geekbench scores are nice for a baseline CPU only reference but don't test anything close to real world performance.

The thing is as much as I love iPhones the a16 performance is mostly a waste in iOS 16. It doesn't multitask very well, Nothing like Dex on it so all that power is mostly wasted on an OS that is limited.

Exactly!!!

I have my iphone 14pm next to my s23ulra and the s23 feels faster in the UI and in use generally!

I don't know how they do in games since I don't game but in every way I use the phones, I can't fault the s23 speed

Now I DO think the apple silicon is a game changer for apple and very clever. To move so easily (from a user pov) to a completely new architecture and one which they control is amazing but to throw out some benchmarks and say there you go is exactly the same as the pixel peeeping youtubers. It's not related in any way to how well the phones work in real life.

Ah well, they gotta earn a buck I guess I'm back out tonight with the s23 and astro mode to see what I can do.

 

[Technerd108]

When I was a little girl and a teen, my parents and I picked different colors at different stages of my life for my bedroom. I loved color, but would pick the most intense one from the swatch, not realizing that when the paint goes up in a room that color will eat you up.

My mom and dad had made that mistake with the yellow they chose for a spare bedroom. Imagine a room painted in the color of a Yellow iPhone XR. They were horrified but also transfixed and actually lived with that mistake for years. They’d also made that mistake with a pink they chose for my bedroom when I was 2 years old. I lived with THAT mistake for years.

So when it came time to repaint my room when I was leaving elementary school and later toward my college years, they tried to guide me to pick the swatches that had just a hint of the color I liked. But as an overexcited kid and later as a know it all older teen, I didn’t listen.

So I went bold with the colors of purple when I was a kid and mint green when I was a teenager. 🤪

So, by the time my husband and I were married adults redoing this absolutely wretched fixer upper we had bought in a great neighborhood, I’d learned my lesson from my earlier mistakes. We chose our colors by choosing from swatches that were essentially white, with just hints of the actual colors we wanted. And it worked out. I chose what looked like a white with a slight hint of blue for my office. The room as a whole turned out satisfyingly blue. We chose an off white very much like this year’s white S23.

So when I see these colors, I am very much reminded of the paint swatches we looked at when we were young and starting out.

They really strike me as mostly white with a hint of color. But I’m sure if I were to paint a room in any of those colors it would look pretty bold. That lime looks like it could make a statement.

If I could have afforded to order through Samsung I would have certainly gotten the Lime color. I like it a lot. I just wish Samsung would color match the aluminum frame on all the colors.

In the standard color choices I really liked Lavender but I like Purple and not a fan of washed out pinks. I like saturated pinks even being a guy. I do really like how the aluminum frame looks on the Lavender but I decided to go with the military green option.

I have seen the green color in more videos now and I actually like it better than last year's green. It has a feeling it seems to invoke like being out in nature and I like that. I originally thought it looked more like a 60's pea green but it is more charcoal than that. The color is growing on me but if I choose any color it would be the Lime.

I also like the graphite. It looks like a nice grey. My Pixel 7 Pro is obsidian which the back glass under light looks more grey than black and I like it.

 

[mjschabow]

Couple quick questions for those who have it:

- Is it true that OneUI now allows you to use any icon packs from the Play Store?

- Is Fortnite still on Android?

 

[Technerd108]

Exactly!!!

I have my iphone 14pm next to my s23ulra and the s23 feels faster in the UI and in use generally!

I don't know how they do in games since I don't game but in every way I use the phones, I can't fault the s23 speed

Now I DO think the apple silicon is a game changer for apple and very clever. To move so easily (from a user pov) to a completely new architecture and one which they control is amazing but to throw out some benchmarks and say there you go is exactly the same as the pixel peeeping youtubers. It's not related in any way to how well the phones work in real life.

Ah well, they gotta earn a buck I guess I'm back out tonight with the s23 and astro mode to see what I can do.

I am jealous of your iPhone Pro Max 14. I really wanted to get one in that awesome purple color. I would say that is my favorite color of the year for smartphones and I like the design of the current iphone line up.

The thing I don't get is people obsess over one metric like Geekbench and that determines everything for them. The iPhone Pro Max is a great phone with excellent speakers, sapphire crystal on the cameras, anti reflective screen, super smooth UI maybe after a few more updates to iOS 16-Lol.

But there is so much more to the iPhone than Geekbench scores.

And the same can be said of the Samsung s23 ultra. The beautiful large screen, improved speakers, s pen, multi tasking, endless customization and Samsung has done a really good job optimizing oneUI 5.

On my s22 plus I put a Godzilla gif on my lock screen and had a different Godzilla gif on the AOD. It is nothing important but it makes the phone so much more fun and personal. Those are the customization features I love about Samsung.

 

[Technerd108]

Couple quick questions for those who have it:

- Is it true that OneUI now allows you to use any icon packs from the Play Store?

- Is Fortnite still on Android?

I don't know about any icon pack but there is a huge amount of available options.

You can customize the themes, icons, lock screen, AOD to your heart's content. You can put animated gif on your lock screen.

I think Fortnite is available from their online store but not through Google play.

https://www.fortnite.com/mobile/android/new-device

 

[Technerd108]

yep I feel the same.

The only thing I'm really missing from the iphone is the notification setup.

Ironic since everyone seems to say the android notification system is better! but it's things like I'm in some app on android and an important email comes in. On the iphone, there's a large notification across the top of the screen, on the s23, all I seem to get is a little icon added to the too small to see top row. Unless I swipe down to see the notification centre, I could miss it.

....but WOW I'm loving the camera app I mean I'm so in love I've already offered to buy it a prius and let it move in without a prenup.

Well you get a notification that shows a preview of the email as it comes in and then just a Gmail icon.

It would clutter everything up if you had larger notification specially if you have multiple email accounts logging in notifications.

Just add the notification sound to your phone and maybe that will help alert you.

The amount of emails I get I would be hearing a tone every few seconds. Lol

 

[mjschabow]

I don't know about any icon pack but there is a huge amount of available options.

You can customize the themes, icons, lock screen, AOD to your heart's content. You can put animated gif on your lock screen.

I think Fortnite is available from their online store but not through Google play.

https://www.fortnite.com/mobile/android/new-device

Nice! Yeah in the past with Samsung devices, my only complaint was that the Icon Packs would only support Samsung apps and not all the apps. So theming always looked half baked because 3rd party app icons staying the same.

 

[Technerd108]

Nice! Yeah in the past with Samsung devices, my only complaint was that the Icon Packs would only support Samsung apps and not all the apps. So theming always looked half baked because 3rd party app icons staying the same.

I think it really depends on the icon pack you get. Some are more complete than others and generally those cost a fee.

Personally I like default icons but like different themes and wallpapers.

 

[aldo82]

So for anyone wondering, the Wustapper app (or whatever it was called) did get my WhatsApp conversations across but cost me £20.99 for the privilege. Wasn't too happy about that but having wasted all evening messing around with smart switch and failing badly I just wanted it sorting out. Disappointed with the whole experience and not enjoying the phone yet but hopefully will recover over the weekend! Looks like smart switch have me 30 days of text messages. Not the whole history. Was pretty pointless tbh

 

[Healer Flame]

This thread has been very bad for my sense of satisfaction haha.

Most of us have s22 ultra & Fold4 so not much appetite for s23. I am following up all reviews and opinions from proffs and users then go for it.

 

[keithop]

Well you get a notification that shows a preview of the email as it comes in and then just a Gmail icon.

hmmm ok well I'm using outlook at the moment perhaps that's the issue but I don't get a preview of the email or anything all that happens at the moment is the outlook icon in the very small top line.

perhaps I should try gmail.

It would clutter everything up if you had larger notification specially if you have multiple email accounts logging in notifications.

Just add the notification sound to your phone and maybe that will help alert you.

The amount of emails I get I would be hearing a tone every few seconds. Lol

haha yeah well I do know what you mean but somehow it really wasn't like that on the iphone. I have two very active email accounts and the notification would show at the top of the screen no matter what I was doing for a few seconds and disappear.

 

[keithop]

So for anyone wondering, the Wustapper app (or whatever it was called) did get my WhatsApp conversations across but cost me £20.99 for the privilege. Wasn't too happy about that but having wasted all evening messing around with smart switch and failing badly I just wanted it sorting out. Disappointed with the whole experience and not enjoying the phone yet but hopefully will recover over the weekend! Looks like smart switch have me 30 days of text messages. Not the whole history. Was pretty pointless tbh

so I've moved the sim card from iphone to Samsung.... I just connect them with a cable, buy wustapper and it'll pull over all the conversations for 20 quid?

When you say 30days of texts... including imessages?

 

[keithop]

I think it really depends on the icon pack you get. Some are more complete than others and generally those cost a fee.

Personally I like default icons but like different themes and wallpapers.

I know it's silly but I'm a huge christmas fan and I started messing with themes on my zflip4. I had an animated christmas theme with little shops, people walking by with gifts and snow LOL + it would have sunset/sunrise for like 1.99 I think. no way that was happening on an iphone.

ok, it's daft, I know, but somehow it made it more MY phone

 

[mjschabow]

I know it's silly but I'm a huge christmas fan and I started messing with themes on my zflip4. I had an animated christmas theme with little shops, people walking by with gifts and snow LOL + it would have sunset/sunrise for like 1.99 I think. no way that was happening on an iphone.

ok, it's daft, I know, but somehow it made it more MY phone

Oh yeah, themes can be a lot of fun! Also, check out some live wallpapers by maxelus.net on the Play Store.

 

[jamezr]

Is there one for the pro max? I only see it for 14 pro in UK store. Unless US has more options

yep Amazon has one for the 14PM