Alert, Galaxy A54 and Galaxy S23 series deals available! | Follow SamMobile on Google News now!

SamMobile has affiliate and sponsored partnerships. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn a commission. Learn more.

Galaxy S23 Ultra hands-on: The cameras are out of this galaxy!

Phone
By 

Last updated: February 1st, 2023 at 19:03 UTC+01:00

It’s been a while since Samsung shelved the Galaxy Note smartphone series, and a new spiritual successor with a built-in S Pen just got announced at Unpacked. It’s the Galaxy S23 Ultra: Big, beautiful, and massively upgraded in some areas. The Galaxy S23 Ultra brings one of the most significant camera upgrades yet for these series.

The new setup isn’t just out of this world, it’s out of this galaxy (pun intended). We got to spend some time with the new flagship S-series phone for our early impressions and hands-on video below, and we think it might just be the best Galaxy Note ever made.

Like the rest of the Galaxy S23 series and the Galaxy S22 Ultra from last year, Samsung’s new flagship sports a series of circular cut-outs on the back panel, one for each rear-facing camera. It’s the same design language we endorsed last year, but the Galaxy S23 Ultra seems to bring some, albeit small, refinements. It now has flatter surfaces, which makes for a better grip and S Pen experience.

Although the Galaxy S23 Ultra may look too similar to its predecessor, this is one of those “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” situations. The S Ultra series appears to have peaked, and given the high standard set by the S22 Ultra last year, too many design changes for the 2023 model could have been for the worse. Check out our hands-on video below for a closer look at this beautiful smartphone with a new bonkers camera.

Features: Some old, some new, and a few key upgrades

The same feeling of sameyness goes beyond the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s exterior design and touches some hardware areas. Because, indeed, some features haven’t changed much from last year’s model. The S Pen and digitizer are virtually the same, and the Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel shares its peak brightness level and refresh rate capabilities with the 2022 model.

But beyond the surface, Samsung brought a few significant changes to the Galaxy S23 Ultra. One of them is the new 200MP ISOCELL HP2 camera, which has too many advanced features to count. There’s 16-to-1 pixel binning, [email protected] recording with a wider FOV, and improved astrophotography capabilities, to name a few.

Furthermore, the Galaxy S23 Ultra now sports the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, and there’s no Exynos variant anywhere in the world, ending the eternal conflict between Exynos and Qualcomm. The phone also brings the new UFS 4.0 storage standard and 256GB minimum, along with faster LPDDR5x RAM. Performance-wise, this phone is a beast, but we’ll talk more about that — and One UI 5.1 — in our upcoming full review.

Until then, check out the Galaxy S23 Ultra in our hands-on video below, and subscribe to our YouTube channel if you don’t want to miss out on future content.

Phone Galaxy S23Galaxy S23 Ultra
Load 0 comments

You might also like

Exclusive Galaxy S23 feature will soon come to older phones

Exclusive Galaxy S23 feature will soon come to older phones

Samsung’s One UI 5.1 update, introduced alongside the Galaxy S23 series, added a handful of new features to the Gallery app, such as the Image Clipper, which so far remained exclusive to the latest flagship phones. But not for long. The Image Clipper will supposedly land on older Galaxy phones soon. The Galaxy S22 and […]

  • By Mihai Matei
  • 1 hour ago
Samsung hacks photo booth to demonstrate the power of 200MP

Samsung hacks photo booth to demonstrate the power of 200MP

Samsung created a new clever marketing campaign to promote the Galaxy S23 flagship series, wherein the company used its powerful ISOCELL HP2 200MP sensor for a candid camera moment. The company hacked a photo booth with its 200MP image sensor and prepared a huge surprise — quite literally — for the people who stepped inside […]

  • By Mihai Matei
  • 2 hours ago
Tests show the Galaxy S23 is a better 5G phone than Galaxy S22

Tests show the Galaxy S23 is a better 5G phone than Galaxy S22

One of the ways in which the Galaxy S23 series is technically superior to the Galaxy S22 lineup is through a new Qualcomm modem. The 2023 flagships sport the Snapdragon X70, which should be an upgrade over the S22’s Snapdragon X65 chip. At least on paper, according to the manufacturer. But what about performance in […]

  • By Mihai Matei
  • 3 hours ago
Galaxy S23 drop test shows sustainability doesn’t have to compromise durability

Galaxy S23 drop test shows sustainability doesn’t have to compromise durability

One more Galaxy S23 drop test has emerged, testing the durability of the sustainable designs of the three phones in the lineup. Allstate Protection Plans (formerly SquareTrade) has published a video that shows how the Galaxy S23, Galaxy S23+, and Galaxy S23 Ultra held up after dropping them on their back and face from a […]

  • By Asif Iqbal Shaik
  • 9 hours ago
Daily deal: Get a $180 discount on the Galaxy S23 Ultra

Daily deal: Get a $180 discount on the Galaxy S23 Ultra

What if you could buy the best Samsung phone on the market right now at a great discount? No need to wonder about that anymore, as today you have the perfect opportunity to do so. The Galaxy S23 Ultra can be yours today for a great price! The Galaxy S23 Ultra is Samsung’s latest flagship […]

  • By Adnan Farooqui
  • 21 hours ago
Ex-Pebble’s ‘compact’ phone may not measure up to the Galaxy S23

Ex-Pebble’s ‘compact’ phone may not measure up to the Galaxy S23

The Android smartphone market doesn’t offer compact phones anymore. Samsung doesn’t sell “Mini” Galaxy handsets, either. But Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky and a few other people are leading a “Small Android Phone” petition that might try to revive the compact smartphone through crowdfunding. The petition earned more than 38,000 signatures, which may or may not […]

  • By Mihai Matei
  • 4 days ago