I've been using the Galaxy S23 Ultra since launch, and I've never had such a good time with any other Samsung smartphone. The Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23+ aren't bad, either. In fact, the Galaxy S23 is the first compact flagship from Samsung that I can see myself using as my primary phone. Compact flagships always have problems with battery life, but the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 ‘For Galaxy' chip and under-the-hood optimizations ensure that all three models last impressively long on a single charge.

The Galaxy S23 user experience continues to excel three updates later

Now, while I love the Galaxy S23 Ultra, I've said before how I'm hoping that Android 14 and One UI 6 will not mess with its battery life and performance. Major software upgrades are notorious for doing that, which is why I naturally have reservations about whether these phones will continue to run so well once it has received a few updates, especially the big one that will arrive in the second half of the year.

Well, the Galaxy S23 lineup has received three software updates since its release (some markets will have received two updates as they got the phones with a newer firmware out of the box), and my Galaxy S23 Ultra is as good as it was on day one. There's no sign of any lag or stutter, but more importantly, battery life is still amazing.

It bears mentioning that the Galaxy S23 series has not been completely free of issues. We've seen reports of issues with the camera, Wi-Fi connectivity, Android Auto, and even the Galaxy Store. But Samsung has been pretty active at addressing those issues with software updates and is working on new updates to fix issues that are still affecting these phones.

I know three updates are not enough to give you a proper idea of how a phone's user experience will hold up over time, but I have a feeling it will hold up quite well on the S23, S23+, and S23 Ultra as people use these phones over the next few months and after a few more software updates have been rolled out.

Of course, just because I feel something will come true doesn't mean it actually will, so the best we can do is keep our fingers crossed and hope Samsung will do all it can to make sure the Galaxy S23 series phones continue to operate as well as they do right now for a long time to come.