I have been using the Galaxy S23 Ultra for over two months, and I think it’s one of the best and most versatile camera phones on the market today. If you are looking to upgrade to a better camera phone with extensive productivity features and already own other Samsung devices, S23 Ultra is unquestionably the top choice. The scores of exchanges and other offers from various carriers make the upgrade even more attractive and easier on your wallet.
Note: Make sure to check out my other product reviews here
The best camera system
The camera is one of the most used features on smartphones. And camera performance has become one of the top, if not the top, decision criteria when purchasing smartphones. In my experience, S23 Ultra takes the best pictures of any phone I have ever used. At the heart of its camera system is the new Adaptive Pixel 200MP sensor, which captures content with tens of millions of details for ultra-fine resolution. Pixel binning supports multiple levels of high-resolution processing at once: 50MP combines four pixels into one larger pixel, and 12MP combines 16 pixels into one. The best use of this feature is to zoom in and get close-ups without pixelation, either during the shoot or after.
My wife is an Indian classical dancer and often gives performances. To take close-ups, I have to be always close to the stage. But that is not always possible. With S23 Ultra, I don’t have to. I could be wherever and zoom in and click. Indian classical dance has many intricate postures and moves. When my wife and her students perform together on the stage, it is hard to concentrate on all of them to capture their poses. But with S23 Ultra, I can take pictures of the entire group during the performance and create portraits of each dancer with different postures during editing without sacrificing quality.
I am finding more uses for the 200MP camera as I continue to use the phone. S23 Ultra’s low-light performance is exceptionally better. Its pictures and videos are often even better than I can see with my naked eyes.
The tools that come with S23 Ultra make the pictures look even better and more realistic. The Bokeh effect and the ability to adjust skin tones make portraits pro-grade. The images are crisp with vibrant colors that pop out, especially when viewed on the phone’s bright AMOLED display. Some might think colors are over-saturated, but I love bright colors and deep blacks, for example in the pictures of Disneyland laser show below.
S23 Ultra’s artificial intelligence-based computational photography has gotten some bad rap. However, the function does exactly what it is supposed to: understand the scene and improve the picture to project the scene in the best possible way. That is how you make an ordinary person take professional-grade pictures. If you don’t like the feature, you can easily turn it off.
S23 Ultra takes excellent videos as well. Two examples of how it enhances video performance are “Super stretch” mode, which makes videos crisp even in low-light conditions, and the super HDR Selfie setting for crystal clear video calls. The latter is super helpful for me because I attend numerous conference calls and speak at events, when on the road. S23 Ultra even supports 8K video recording. Although it’s futuristic, I didn’t test it as I don’t have an 8K TV.
Photo enthusiasts have even more options and controls for pro-level editing through Expert RAW. This Samsung Galaxy app supports precise image shooting and editing in RAW and JPEG. There is also a downloadable Camera Assistant app to customize many camera settings.
Seamless Samsung “connected experience”
One major step Samsung has taken this year is providing differentiated experiences within its device ecosystem, which they call “Connected Experience.” It is a suite of features that allows connecting and managing select Samsung devices seamlessly. The “Quick share” feature enables pictures, videos, documents, and other files to be easily shared between other Samsung phones, tablets, and laptops. This is extremely useful when sharing videos and photo albums with friends and family and backing them up on your computer. Another feature in the suite allows S23 Ultra to be controlled by a Samsung Galaxy Book3 laptop through its keyboard and mouse. This is especially useful when chatting on phone-only apps like Kik.
Note: Check out my review of Galaxy Book3 Pro here
The most interesting Connected Experience function on S23 Ultra is the ability to manage its camera through a connected Samsung Galaxy Watch 5. You can even adjust the camera zoom to capture the best frame for your picture or video. I used this often when shooting my wife’s dance performances. I would put the camera on a tripod and manage it through my Galaxy Watch5 Pro. Earlier, on S22 Ultra, I used to use the S-Pen as the remote, but I couldn’t zoom and also had the risk of losing it.
Note: Check out my review of Galaxy Watch5 Pro here
Another useful feature of Connected Experience is using Samsung Galaxy Bud2 Pro with S23 Ultra. You can capture 360-degree audio through the connected buds when recording video on S23 Ultra. For example, if you are taking video at a music concert or other places, you can record, share and enjoy 360 audio with the excellent video captured by the phone. I couldn’t test this feature, as I don’t have Galaxy Bud2 Pro. But I am looking forward to getting them to try this at a future concert.
Goodness of Samsung display, hardware, and software
S23 Ultra is packed with great features, tools, and functions that make using it a pleasure, whether as a regular consumer or an enterprise/productivity user.
One of the unmissable characteristics is its bright (up to 750 nits), 120 Hz, QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X Infinity display. In my view, the pictures and videos captured by S23 Ultra’s fabulous camera are best viewed and experienced on its equally remarkable display.
The importance of the S23 Ultra’s display can be easily felt when using it outdoors on sunny days. Its Vision Booster adjusts the brightness between three levels and combats glare so that the screen is highly visible and readable. On the other hand, at night or during low-light conditions, the brightness, contrast ratio, and color temperature can be set using a unique algorithm to reduce eye strain.
A couple of enhancements to Google Meet are helpful for people on the go. Users can co-watch the host’s screen or live stream from it. It also allows the co-editing of documents on the phone itself. I realized the benefit of co-editing when helping my son with his essay while waiting for my flight at the airport. He would have missed his submission deadline if I had waited till after my flight landed to give my feedback. Also, I had no time to open the laptop before boarding. I could open the document on my S23 Ultra quickly, mark comments with my S-Pen, and co-edit it with him, all before the flight took off.
S23Ultra is one of the best-performing Android phones. It is powered by Industry-leading Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform, optimized for Galaxy. Although details on the optimizations are unavailable, one visible differentiation of this chip compared to its generic cousin is increased peak processor clock rates.
The larger cooling system with a vapor chamber ensures that S23 Ultra can offer sustained peak performance without getting throttled. The 5000 mAh battery lasts more than a day, even with heavy camera usage and video viewing.
I am not a gamer, but some of the popular games, such as Shadow Fight 4 and Shadow Gen Legends, that my son plays worked flawlessly.
In closing
No question that S23 Ultra is a super camera phone. It can take excellent pictures and videos and has tools to edit further and enhance them. It empowers ordinary people to take pro-grade photographs and videos. Samsung’s Connected Experience suite provides a differentiated experience when using other select Galaxy laptops, phones, watches, and tablets. The impeccable performance, the display, and many features and tools make this a great consumer and enterprise device.
If you are looking to upgrade your old smartphone, there is no better option. The many carrier deals make that decision even easier on your wallet.
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