Review | Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review: a 200-megapixel camera, but is it worth U$$1,199? What the phone does that sets it apart from the competition
- The market leader in Android phones has raised its game with a premium handset featuring a 200-megapixel camera that comes into its own in low-light conditions
- Battery life is good and the display vibrant. If you are looking to upgrade from an older Android phone, the S23 Ultra’s camera could make it a lot of fun
The race to make the smartphone camera with the highest megapixel count is back on. A few months after Apple upgraded the high-end iPhone’s long-standing 12-megapixel camera to a 48-megapixel shooter, Samsung’s newest flagship phone, the Galaxy S23 Ultra, has a whopping 200-megapixel camera.
It’s not the first, Motorola having launched the X30 Pro with a 200-megapixel sensor – from Samsung – in August 2022, but the South Korean firm is the dominant player in the Android phone market and the S23 Ultra’s camera has an updated sensor.
So what can you do with that many pixels – 200 million of them? Let’s find out.
Performance and battery life
Like all modern smartphone cameras, the 200-megapixel sensor here is not really meant to be capturing full resolution 200-megapixel photos. Instead, the phone uses a computational photography trick known as pixel binning that combines multiple pixels’ worth of data into one, creating a “super pixel”.
Most phones, including the iPhone 14 Pro, use four-in-one binning. The S23 Ultra does 16-in-one binning, turning 200 megapixels worth of image information into a roughly 12-megapixel photo.
The extra image information helps create sharper details and better dynamic range. This is most noticeable in low-light situations, where smartphone sensors, being relatively small, need to compensate by using software for sharpening and noise removal.
With essentially 16 times more information than a conventional 12-megapixel smartphone photo, the S23 Ultra’s night shots do look noticeably cleaner, more crisp, and free of noise.
The S23 Ultra can also shoot a true 200-megapixel photo, after which you’ll be able to crop into the photo and examine more details than you normally can. However, don’t expect miracles: while you can crop much further into an image, the image isn’t razor sharp.
It’s a good trick to have if you are snapping photos of intricately detailed subjects and want a closer look on a larger monitor.
Otherwise, performance is absolutely no issue, and battery life is good considering all the tech crammed into the phone.
You can expect to be able to use the S23 Ultra for 13 to 14 hours on a single charge, which is enough to last a normal day for most.
Software and features
The S23 Ultra runs Android 13 with Samsung’s OneUI skin on top. Animations are noticeably faster than in years past, and the software experience is enjoyable overall, with ample customisation possible and multitasking capabilities.
If you’ve previously used a Samsung phone with a stylus you should know what to expect here. As soon as you pull out the stylus, housed on the phone’s bottom left side, a menu pops up showing all the things you can do with it. In addition to sketching and jotting notes, you can use it as a remote control to snap photos or navigate through a photo album.
The quad-camera system has ultra-wide, wide-angle, telephoto, and 10x zoom focal length lenses as before and, other than the new 200MP wide-angle lens, the others are identical to those on last year’s Galaxy S22 Ultra.
Design and hardware
The S23 Ultra looks very similar to the Samsung S22 Ultra, sporting the same towering monolith design with hard, pointy corners and camera lenses on the phone’s back.
However, Samsung made one change that is visually subtle but noticeable when you hold the phone: the 6.8-inch screen’s curvature has been reduced, making the handset’s sides flatter and its display slightly wider. This is a welcome change, given that one of the selling points of this phone is that it comes with a stylus.
There’s the usual annual processor upgrade, to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. This isn’t newsworthy for consumers in the United States, China or Hong Kong, who have been getting Qualcomm-powered Samsung phones for years. But in Europe and Southeast Asia this is a big change, because Samsung devices sold in those regions had previously used the company’s own Exynos chip.
Qualcomm’s chip has almost always proven superior, but this is the first time a Galaxy S series flagship phone is shipping with the same chip processor in all markets.
The OLED screen is bright and vibrant, and the S23 Ultra’s glass-and-metal construction feels sturdy. It feels every bit like the premium, expensive gadget it is meant to be.
Conclusion
The Galaxy S23 Ultra is Samsung’s “kitchen sink” phone; the South Korean tech firm has thrown everything it has into making a cutting-edge mobile device.
While I am impressed with the main camera, I do think last year’s S22 Ultra was already a tremendous device, so I’m not sure the year-on-year improvement is large enough to justify the S23 Ultra’s price.
However, if you’re using an older Samsung phone, or another Android device with a measly 12- or 48-megapixel camera, the 200-megapixel camera is going to be very fun to play with, and occasionally jaw-dropping.
This is a premium phone made for those with money to spend, and Samsung delivers.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra costs from HK$10,698 in Hong Kong, and US$1,199 elsewhere. Pre-orders have begun and the devices will go on sale by the end of February.
