Samsung unveiled its latest trio of flagship phones. The Galaxy S23, S23+ and S23 Ultra come with incremental improvements that we’ve come to expect from high-end models: a new processor, an updated battery and fancy camera tricks.
The one thing that gets attention — and it’s a big one — is the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s new 200-megapixel main camera sensor. That almost doubles the pixel count of the 108-megapixel camera on the S22 Ultra, which has held the megapixel lead among phones available in the U.S. until now. What gives you more megapixels? More on that later.
Other hardware changes in the lineup include the latest chipset from Qualcomm and new glass from Corning. According to Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is more powerful and power-efficient than previous incarnations, especially for heavy photo, video or gaming workloads.
As the first phones to use Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2, the S23 series may also be more resistant than earlier models to damage from drops and scratches. We’ll verify these claims once we buy samples and send them to our lab, which has a metal tumbler that drops each phone 100 times to see if it cracks. There is also a water tank for immersion phones with claimed water resistance.
The S23 and S23+ also have slightly larger batteries than their S22 predecessors, but for the most part, Samsung sticks to the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” philosophy, with all three phones retaining the premium features seen in previous iterations. These include ultra-clear OLED displays with an adaptive 120 Hz refresh rate for smoother animation and scrolling, 5G connectivity and sleek aluminum bodies.
Despite high inflation, prices remained the same. The phones cost no more than the S22 phones released a year ago, not to mention the S21 series, which debuted in 2021 . The 6.1-inch S23 costs from $800, the 6.6-inch S23+ from $1,000, and the 6.8-inch S23 Ultra with a built-in S Pen stylus from $1,200.
The phones are available for pre-order now and will be in stores Feb. 17. Those who pre-order can get a free upgrade to the next memory level and a $100 Samsung credit when you buy on Samsung.com . Are there enough improvements to justify upgrading your phone? We’ll have to wait for test results from our labs to see if the models really live up to the competition. (As with everything in CR, from air conditioners to zero-turn lawnmowers , we buy the products we test at retail to make sure we’re getting the same products you are.)
But I borrowed samples from Samsung to test new features, including the super-resolution camera on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. Here are my first impressions.
Cameras
For days and nights, I shot indoors and outdoors of buildings, plants, the night sky and, yes, my frugal family at the lowest and highest resolution the cameras allowed. I shot video chasing my puppy stealing sticks and pretending to be an influencer by taking all sorts of selfies and videos.
Although CR technicians, with their trained eyes and equipment, have more to say about the quality of the photos and videos, including color accuracy and noise reduction, I was happy with the pictures I took. They were all in focus and in vivid color (no filters!) and worthy of posting on social media. The S23 and S23+ have the same triple rear camera system as last year’s models: a 50-megapixel main camera, a 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera and a 10-megapixel telephoto with 2x optical zoom and up to 30x digital zoom.There are a few front-facing camera and video changes, which we’ll talk about a little later, but for now let’s focus on the S23 Ultra and its colossal 200-megapixel camera.
It might seem like a trick to pack 200 million pixels when the cameras in the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max have less than a quarter of that (48 megapixels) and are among the best smartphone cameras in CR ratings. More megapixels doesn’t always mean better image quality, especially with small sensors in camera phones. But using software improvements and a technology called pixel fusion (combining multiple pixels into one superpixel), the camera can convey more accurate colors and details even in low-light conditions, Samsung says.
