The Galaxy S23 and S23 Plus: A Review of Samsung's Latest Flagship Devices

When it comes to comparing the latest flagship devices from Samsung, Apple, and Google, one thing that stands out is how well they compare when it comes to camera performance. In this review, we'll take a closer look at the camera capabilities of the Galaxy S23 series.

One of the first things you notice when looking at photos taken with the S23 series is the difference in image quality compared to last year's models. Specifically, you can see that the strands of my hair and eyebrows are more crisp and defined in the S23 photos, even when zoomed in. This is particularly noticeable in the S23 Ultra, which offers a 30x digital zoom option. In comparison, the iPhone 14 only has a 1x optical zoom and a 5x digital Zoom, making it clear that Samsung's flagship device has an edge when it comes to camera performance.

To take this further, I took a photo of a "No Parking" sign at 30x zoom with my S23 Ultra. The resulting image is crisp and clear, with details that are hard to spot on the iPhone 14 Pro Max. This level of detail is what makes the Galaxy S23 series stand out when it comes to camera performance.

Another area where Samsung has made improvements is in the design of their flagship devices. Specifically, they've done away with the camera island on the back of the phone and opted for a more sleek and streamlined look. While this may not be an drastic change, it does make the S23 series feel more uniform and cohesive as a whole.

In terms of size, both the S23 and S23 Ultra have 6.1-inch and 6.6-inch screens respectively, which are similar to those found on the iPhone 14 Pro Max. However, despite their large screens, Samsung has managed to make the devices feel more compact and easy to use with one hand.

One of the areas where Samsung's design has improved is in terms of battery life. The S23 series offers longer battery life compared to last year's models, making it a more attractive option for those looking to upgrade their phone. However, if you're still using an older model from a couple of years ago, there's no reason to upgrade - the improvements may not be noticeable enough to warrant a new purchase.

Speaking of which, one area where Samsung has improved is in terms of photography capabilities. The S23 series features a 50-megapixel sensor, which is a significant upgrade over last year's models. This allows for more detailed and higher-quality images, particularly when compared to the Pixel 7 Pro. However, the Pixel 7 Pro still offers excellent camera performance, with some arguing that it has an even better camera.

In terms of value, the S23 series starts at $799 for the regular model, while the S23 Ultra starts at $1,099. The Pixel 7 Pro, on the other hand, starts at a more affordable $899. However, Samsung's partnership with carriers means that they often offer trade-in deals and discounts, making the devices feel more competitive in terms of price.

Ultimately, whether or not the Galaxy S23 series is worth upgrading to depends on your individual needs and preferences. While it offers some significant improvements over last year's models, including a longer-lasting battery and improved camera capabilities, it may not be enough to justify a new purchase for those already using an older model. However, if you're due for an upgrade or want the latest and greatest in terms of flagship device technology, the S23 series is definitely worth considering.

In conclusion, the Galaxy S23 and S23 Plus offer some significant improvements over last year's models, including better camera performance, longer battery life, and a more streamlined design. While they may not be enough to justify a new purchase for those already using an older model, they are certainly worth considering for anyone looking to upgrade their phone.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enforeign Samsung's newest Flagship phones that just launched on February 17th the s23 starts at 800 while the s23 plus starts at one thousand dollars compared to last year's phones these new devices have bigger batteries faster performance a better selfie camera and a slightly different design now you might notice I didn't mention anything about the camera that's because the camera is largely the same as the s22s for once the camera takes a back seat to battery life and performance and that's not necessarily A Bad Thing smartphone cameras have already gotten so good that we can't always expect massive year-over-year upgrades instead Samsung focused on improving one of the biggest areas that counts battery life so compared to the s22 both phones have slightly larger batteries the regular s23 now has a 3900 milliamp battery while the s23 plus has a 4700 milliamp battery for comparison's sake the s22 had a 3700 milliamp battery while the s22 plus had a 45 milliamp battery and it's not just about the size of the batteries both phones also have a new processor A specialized version of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor that was optimized specifically for these phones that also makes them a bit more power efficient now I've only had these phones for a few days but I can already tell that there's a difference in battery life so with the s22 if you read my review from last year you probably know that battery life is one of my biggest concerns but so far I'm seeing an improvement with the s23 so for example I had a really busy day with heavy usage where I was running benchmark taking photos for this review recording some videos making a video call and I still had 46 percent of the s23s battery left by around 9 45 pm now compared to the s22 I would probably have about I would say 30 to 40 battery life at the end of the day around 9pm after a really busy day at the office so even though that might not sound like a huge leap and it's not an Apples to Apples comparison it does show that Samsung has made some progress when it comes to battery life so to really get a better sense of how Samsung has changed the battery this year I performed a couple of other tests as well one test that I did was this 45 minute endurance test where we do a little bit of everything that we think most people would be doing on their phones so that includes playing video games making a quick video call streaming videos on YouTube you know a variety of things that we think people are probably using their phones for in most scenarios and at the end of that 45 minute test period both the Galaxy s23 and s23 plus had about two to three percentage points higher in their battery life compared to the s22 and s22 plus so again not a massive Improvement but still shows that there is progress being made in this area now another test that I did was I cranked the screen brightness all the way to 100 and played a video on YouTube for three hours and at every hour I checked the battery percentage to see how much the battery was draining so at the end of that three hour period the s23 still had 81 percent of its battery left whereas the s22 had 71 percent of its battery left so that's a pretty big jump for the s23 plus that phone had 84 percent of its battery left while the s22 plus had 79 left so again this is a somewhat significant Improvement that we're seeing again we've only had the phone for a few days the real test will be how it holds up over time but so far we're really pleased with the battery improvements we're seeing so far now the one complaint that I do have as it relates to battery life is that Samsung hasn't really pushed anything forward when it comes to charging speeds the s23 still charges at 25 watts whereas the s23 plus still charges at 45 watts and that's the same as last year's phones which isn't a huge deal it's not a deal breaker I think most people tend to charge their phones overnight anyway but it still would have been nice to see Samsung kind of push that forward especially since a few of its competitors like xiaomi and OnePlus have really been making bigger strides and speeding up the charging time now battery life is only one area where that new processor comes into play we're also seeing some faster performance on these devices so far and again in day-to-day use any modern phone processor can keep up with things like playing games scrolling through social media a lot of those basic tasks but the biggest area where I saw a performance boost was when I was exporting 4K video so I exported a 30 second clip in 4k to 1080P and I noticed that these new phones the s23 and s23 plus were a few seconds faster than last year's s22 Ultra so again this might not be a deal breaker for most people but if you do edit some video on your phone you might appreciate that boosting performance we also saw an increase in performance when it comes to Benchmark tests as well and we've run a couple of benchmarks geekbench 5 if you're familiar with that and 3D Mark wildlife and these benchmarks are really meant to test general computing performance but also performance in short intense bursts which is meant to kind of simulate intense Mobile gaming and things like that and in both of those those benchmarks the s23 and s23 plus did outperform last year's phones now moving on to the camera so the camera is pretty much the same as the s22's camera so that means you get a 50 megapixel main camera a 12 megapixel Ultra wide camera and a 10 megapixel telephoto lens you also get that same three times optical zoom and 30 times digital Zoom so again there isn't much that's new or different this year the one thing I noticed was that low light photography is a little bit better compared to the s22 Samsung did make some improvements on the back end partially thanks to that new processor so one of my favorite examples of this is this photo that I took in a dim restaurant of my husband on Valentine's Day both of these photos are pretty clear but if you look at the s23s you can see that there's a bit more clarity in his face and his face is a little bit brighter now compared to other phones like the pixel 7 Pro and the iPhone 14 I generally feel like Samsung exaggerates color or sometimes makes colors look a bit too bright so this isn't necessarily A Bad Thing it really depends on your preferences and it also depends on the photo in some circumstances I think the extra color can make the photo look more flattering in others it makes the photo look a bit washed out or overblown and one example that I noticed is this photo of a stop sign when I looked at it on a big monitor I did notice that the shade of red and the pixel 7 Pro and the iPhone 14s photo seemed more realistic while the Galaxy s23 kind of made it look a bit too bright so again this kind of depends on your preference some people might prefer the more natural color that you get with the pixel and iPhone others might want that brighter color that you get with Samsung but one area where I do think Samsung performed better than its competitors was when taking selfies in low light so Samsung did improve the front facing camera this time around there's a 12 megapixel front-facing camera compared to the s22 which had a 10 megapixel and to be honest I didn't really notice much of a difference compared to the s22 when it comes to regular selfies but I did see some improvements in low light compared to the s22 and also the iPhone 14 and pixel 7 Pro so you have to look really closely to see it but if you look at this photo you'll notice the strands of my hair and my eyebrows things like that are a bit more crisp in the s23s photo now when it comes to zoom like I mentioned you get the same Zoom options as you got with last year's s22 which is a lot more than you get with the iPhone 14 that phone only has a one times optical zoom and a five times digital Zoom but the pixel 7 Pro honestly does a lot better than Samsung in this Regard in my experience and take a look at this photo that I took of a No Parking sign at 30 times Zoom you can just see the pixel 7 Pros is much more crisp and clear and detailed other than the improvements to Performance and battery life we're also seeing a little bit of a new design design with the s23 it's not radically different I would say this is just kind of a refinement of the design that Samsung introduced last year but the only difference you'll really notice is when you look at the back of the phone you'll notice that the cameras look a bit different you kind of have that floating camera style that you get on Samsung's Ultra phones Samsung did away with the camera Island and honestly I do like this new look I think it looks a bit more crisp and clean and it kind of makes the whole product line feel a bit more uniform so I do think this is an improvement but again it's really small Improvement this is really an iteration on last year's design and otherwise you do get the same size options as you got with last year's phones so this phone has a 6.1 inch screen this is the regular s23 and then on the s23 plus you get that 6.6 inch screen once again and to be honest I think Samsung does a really good job of packing these large screens into devices that still feel Compact and easy to use with one hand this is almost the same size as the iPhone 14 pro Max and the pixel 7 Pro but it feels smaller for some reason it just feels easier to manipulate with one hand so I think if you're trying to decide between the pixel 7 Pro and the Galaxy s23 plus that is one thing to consider I do think this feels more manageable when you're using it so overall the s23 and s23 plus are really small improvements over the s22 but Samsung did pay attention to areas that count the most like battery life if you have an s22 there's no reason to upgrade that phone is probably still has a lot of life in it and you're really not going to notice much of a difference when upgrading I think this will be a really big deal for people who are upgrading from a phone that's a couple of years old especially if you're coming from an s20 or earlier because not only do you get the longer battery life but you also get a lot of the photography improvements that Samsung made with the s22 series last year that was the year that Samsung made the jump to the 50 megapixel sensor so that's a bit more of a bigger deal so if you're upgrading from an older phone you'll definitely notice a difference and you know my biggest complaint about these phones isn't really so much that there's anything wrong with these phones it's just that the pixel 7 Pro seems like such a great value in comparison because it costs 900 which is right between the price of the s23 and the s23 plus and in my opinion it has a really really good camera one that's possibly better than the Galaxy s23s to be honest depending on what your preferences are so that does make the case for the s23 and s23 plus a little bit of a tough sell but that said Samsung has made some improvements that do Boost the value that you get from these devices so with the s23 plus and s23 Ultra Samsung is actually starting at 256 gigs of storage instead of 128 so that's double the storage that you get at the same price that you would have paid for the 128 gig model last year which is a nice Improvement the regular s23 unfortunately still only starts at 128 gigs and also even though these phones are better expensive these are definitely premium phones you can definitely find cheaper devices out there even though they're towards the high end Samsung does partner with carriers a lot to offer trade-in deals so there is a chance that you could find these devices pretty cheap which could make them a better value overpaying for the pixel 7 Pro at full price so there you have it there's our review of the Galaxy s23 and s23 plus don't forget to check out our written review as well for even more comparisons with the iPhone 14 and pixel 7 Pro and also don't forget to subscribe so that you don't miss our future reviews thanks for watching and I'll see you next time\n"