Small phones have been headed towards extinction for some time. Budget, mid-range, or flagship, everything is huge these days, and people who hope that compact phones will have a renaissance probably know deep down that it isn't going to happen.
However, Samsung, Apple, and Google still launch small phones on a yearly basis. Rather, they launch one small phone each, and that's the cheapest model in their flagship Galaxy S, iPhone, and Pixel lineups.
All three manufacturers make some compromises to achieve the smaller dimensions. Battery capacity tends to be lower, and cooling also takes a hit since these smaller flagships use the same chip as their larger models but don't have enough surface area to dissipate heat with the same efficiency.
But there's one important thing that Samsung doesn't compromise on, unlike Apple and Google: the camera experience.
The Galaxy S23 has the same cameras as the Galaxy S23+
The iPhone 15 and Pixel 8, the latest small flagships from the US-based companies, come with a dual camera setup at the back. They don't have a zoom camera, but that's not the case the Galaxy S23, which the Apple and Pixel phones compete with.
The camera hardware on the base Galaxy S23 is identitical to that of the Galaxy S23+, which means it has more versatile imaging capabilities compared to the competition. In addition to a 12MP selfie camera, a 50MP primary camera and a 12MP ultra-wide camera, the S23 sports a 10MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom and digital zoom up to 30x.
The Galaxy S23 also supports 8K video recording, a feature missing from the Pixel 8 and the iPhone 15. The rest of the Galaxy S23's spec sheet is excellent as well, with features like a 120Hz AMOLED display, stereo speakers, the fantastic Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip that is kept cool using a vapor chamber and enables impressive battery life despite the smaller battery capacity, IP68 water and dust resistance, and up to 512GB of built-in storage.
The Galaxy S23 is essentially the best compact flagship on the market, some even though it came out months before the iPhone 15 or Pixel 8. It is also cheaper than those phones in most markets, so if you hit the buy button below to purchase one, know that you are making the right choice.
