For me, let me clarify that from the outset. I feel that I won't get much use out of the Galaxy S23 Ultra, and thus it won't make much sense to leave my existing device for it. There's undeniably a lot of hype surrounding the Galaxy S23 Ultra. It's Samsung's first flagship smartphone of 2023 after all.
The Ultra model also tends to be Samsung's everything and the kitchen skin device. It will offer the best of everything from the chipset to the memory and cameras. Samsung would hope that's enough to entice customers to part with more than a thousand dollars to buy this smartphone.
If the rumors are to be believed, there's a lot that the Galaxy S23 Ultra will have to offer. It will be powered by Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset with up to 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and up to 1TB of internal storage. It's certainly going to have more power than what you'd be able to truly utilize.
The cameras have always been a major selling point for Samsung's Ultra models. The Galaxy S23 Ultra won't disappoint. It's likely going to be the first Samsung flagship phone to feature a 200-megapixel primary sensor. This will be in addition to the two telephoto sensors of 10MP with 3x and 10MP with 10x optical zoom. There may also be a 12-megapixel ultra-wide sensor.
This is in addition to the Galaxy Note-like DNA of this smartphone. It will also have an S Pen that has by far remained one of my most loved attributes of a Samsung flagship. All of this should be enough for me to hop on over to Samsung's website and reserve a Galaxy S23 Ultra to get $100 in Samsung Credit, at least that would help make the price more affordable.
Given the line of work I'm in, a capable phone is of considerable importance for me. It needs to handle everything that I can throw at it. My current phone, the Galaxy Z Flip 3, is able to do that very well. While it's possible that the Galaxy S23 Ultra's chipset will deliver improvements in performance and efficiency in the 10-20% range, but it won't be in stark contrast to what the phone I'm using now can achieve.
While I frequently have use for a good camera setup, the Galaxy S23 Ultra's full potential would remain unutilized. I know because I used the Galaxy S20 Ultra for a year and maybe used its marquee feature of 100x Space Zoom maybe once or twice. It was a similar story the following year with the Galaxy S21 Ultra and the year after that with the Galaxy S22 Ultra. All of that potential remained unutilized because it was simply more than what I needed.
The fact remains that my existing device is still quite capable of handling both the professional and personal use cases that I have. Even if I were to upgrade, it would still make little sense to go for an all-out device like the Galaxy S23 Ultra, as even the base model would suffice. It would only require going back from the foldable form factor which is a downgrade in my view, but that's a separate discussion.
We often speak of our wish to lead more sustainable lives and to contribute more towards saving the planet. Every action we do has a bearing on that. So many of us have this habit of buying devices just because they're the latest models or because we want to be seen owning the latest and greatest technology, even when there's no way we can extract their full potential. It is incumbent upon us all to do more, to walk the talk, and to distinguish how our needs and wants tend to have a wider impact.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra will be a great device for customers who can take proper advantage of everything that it has to offer. There's no doubt that it's going to be the Android flagship to beat in 2023. I'll be happy to cheer it on from the sidelines.
