Galaxy S23 Ultra or S22 Ultra: Which ‘Note’ Do You Actually Want?
If you put the Galaxy S23 Ultra and S22 Ultra on a table and stand a few feet back, you’d be forgiven for mixing them up. Same squared-off Note silhouette, same camera dots, same “this costs way too much to drop” energy. But using them side by side makes one thing very clear: this is not just a lazy re-skin.
Samsung didn’t rip up the formula; it quietly fixed pain points. You’re getting a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 tuned specifically “for Galaxy,” a jump to a 200MP main sensor, better thermals, and massively improved endurance — all wrapped in a body that’s a little flatter, a little friendlier, and still unapologetically huge.
Design: The Same, Until You Actually Hold It
On paper, the S23 Ultra reads like a copy-paste of the S22 Ultra. In hand, the differences are subtle but real. Samsung has flattened the display even further and reshaped the back glass to match, leaving you with almost flat sides and gentler curves.
For anyone who hated accidental touches on old Samsung “waterfall” screens, this is the best compromise so far: you keep the premium feel of soft edges without the constant mistouch roulette. The bezels are still extremely slim, and despite the width, testers reported no real issues with ghost inputs.
The frame is Samsung’s “Armor Aluminum,” and both front and back use Gorilla Glass Victus 2. That’s supposed to survive drops on rougher surfaces, like concrete, better than the Victus+ generation. Real-world testing backs that up for the glass — a week of bare usage on different hard surfaces kept the panels pristine — though the corners of the frame can still pick up tiny dings if you like to slide your phone across desks.
Weight creeps up slightly from around 228g on the S22 Ultra to 234g on the S23 Ultra. You won’t really feel that, but you will notice that this is still a brick. It’s lighter than an iPhone 14 Pro Max, but noticeably heavier than something like a Pixel 7 Pro.
Camera rings are more pronounced this year, which also means your S22 Ultra cases probably won’t align properly. Colors are familiar Samsung fare: Phantom Black, Green, Cream, and Lavender in general channels, with extra shades gated to Samsung’s own online store.
Display: Basically the Same, Still One of the Best
The panel is a 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X, QHD+ (1440 x 3088) at about 501 ppi, 120Hz adaptive refresh, HDR10+ support, and S Pen input. Spec-wise, it’s essentially the S22 Ultra’s screen, just in a slightly flatter package.
Measured brightness hits around 1,274 nits in high brightness mode on a typical window, and roughly 1,747 nits peak on a small area — almost exactly what Samsung promised and what last year’s model did. It’s not the brightest thing you can buy anymore; an iPhone 14 Pro Max can push around 1,760 nits in the same “standard swatch” scenario, while the Galaxy lags by roughly 500 nits there. Either way, in normal outdoor use, this thing is absolutely readable. The numbers war is academic.
Vision Booster gets a three-level implementation this year, tweaking tone mapping based on ambient light to lift shadows and punch up contrast. It works for legibility in brutal sunlight but will skew colors; if you care about color-critical work, don’t do it on a beach at noon.
Color modes are standard Samsung: Vivid (wide gamut) with sliders and Natural (sRGB-accurate) with no extra tuning. Refresh rate behavior is sensible: Adaptive mode goes up to 120Hz and drops down to 24Hz when idle, maintaining higher rates for scrolling and appropriate multiples for video (24/30/48/60fps). Samsung advertises 10Hz as the floor, but externally you’ll only see 24Hz.
One nitpick: this is still an 8-bit panel (16.7M colors), not 10-bit. A lot of competitors now quote “1B colors.” In real life, only people obsessed with banding will care, but on a phone this expensive, the omission is fair to point out.
S Pen, One UI 5.1, and the Productivity Angle
If the S23 Ultra is really the “Note that isn’t,” the S Pen is the reason why. The stylus docks into the bottom left, just like on the Note 20 Ultra and S22 Ultra. Placement still feels odd for right-handers but is great if you’re left-handed.
The hardware itself hasn’t changed in years: 4096 pressure levels, around 2.8ms latency in Samsung Notes thanks to prediction, and an active, battery-powered pen that charges in the silo. All S Pens are black; only the clicky cap is color-matched.
Functionality is also basically unchanged — which is fine, because it was already loaded:
- Screen-off memo to jot notes straight from standby.
- Air Command shortcut panel when you eject the pen.
- Smart Select for shaped screenshots, text extraction, or GIFs.
- Screen Write for full-page annotation.
- Air actions using the built-in gyro and Bluetooth to control the camera, gallery, or browser with gestures.
Handwriting recognition supports around 100 language options, and translation can handle 39 source languages into 108 targets. Expert users can go deeper with split-screen and pop-up windows; on a canvas this big, multi-window actually feels usable rather than gimmicky.
The S23 Ultra ships with Android 13 and One UI 5.1. It’s an incremental update over 5.0, with familiar tweaks like more flexible lockscreen customization and quality-of-life features. Samsung promises four major OS versions and five years of security patches for the S23 line, which, on paper, is better than what Google is doing with current Pixels.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy: Cooler, Faster, Actually Efficient
Under the hood, Samsung ditches Exynos entirely and goes all-in on Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, but with a twist: this is a custom “for Galaxy” variant. CPU clocks are bumped, and the Adreno 740 GPU runs faster than in generic 8 Gen 2 phones.
Core layout is the updated 1+2+2+3 configuration: one Cortex-X3 at 3.36GHz, two Cortex-A715 at 2.8GHz, two Cortex-A710 at 2.8GHz, and three Cortex-A510 at 2.0GHz. The GPU clocks at 719MHz versus ~680MHz on regular 8 Gen 2 devices. Memory is LPDDR5X, storage is UFS 4.0 across the Ultra range, with 12GB RAM on most SKUs and 256/512GB or 1TB storage options (the true base model has 8GB + 256GB).
Benchmarks show what you’d expect:
- GeekBench single-core: a noticeable bump over other 8 Gen 2 phones thanks to the higher X3 clock.
- Multi-core: the S23 Ultra is basically in line with other 8 Gen 2 devices.
- AnTuTu and 3DMark: it trades blows with iQOO 11 and OnePlus 11; the gap is mostly academic.
Against last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and Exynos chips, though, the difference is real. Performance is up (Qualcomm quotes ~35% CPU and ~25% GPU gains, with sizable efficiency jumps), and more importantly, thermals are under control. The S23 Ultra handles sustained load better than the S23 and S23+, staying more stable in CPU stress tests.
Storage performance is where Samsung fumbles slightly. The UFS 4.0 here isn’t as fast in write speeds (sequential and random) as implementations like the iQOO 11. You’re still getting next-gen speeds, just not the best numbers we’ve seen from this standard.
Battery and Charging: Same 5,000mAh, Very Different Story
Samsung kept the S23 Ultra at 5,000mAh, but the 8 Gen 2 efficiency and power stack upgrades change the experience in a big way. Lab tests peg the endurance rating around 126 hours, with more than 39 hours of voice calls, over 21 hours of Wi‑Fi web browsing, and 23+ hours of offline video playback. That’s a big jump over the Exynos-based S22 Ultra and better than several 2023 flagships like Google’s Pixel 8 Pro or Sony’s Xperia 1 V.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max (and even the 14 Pro Max) still leads in some on-screen tests despite smaller batteries, but Samsung closes the gap while pulling ahead on standby and calls.
Charging remains a mixed bag. The phone supports up to 45W wired and around 15W wireless, plus reverse wireless charging. Using Samsung’s 45W brick, you’re looking at ~68% in 30 minutes and a full charge in just under an hour. That’s slightly faster than the S22 Ultra and clearly better than current iPhones and Pixels, but nowhere near the crazy 80–150W solutions from Chinese brands.
Interestingly, good third-party USB-PD chargers can outperform Samsung’s own 25W brick by a decent margin, and there’s even a quirky data point where a 65W third-party adapter hit 74% in 30 minutes (better mid-charge performance), but finished 100% slightly slower than Samsung’s 45W adapter.
There’s also a battery-bypass mode for gaming — the phone can draw power directly from the charger instead of constantly topping up the battery, reducing heat and wear. It’s controlled via a toggle in Game Booster (Pause USB Power Delivery), though it wasn’t live on early software and is expected via update.
Bottom line: it’s not “shower and you’re at 80%” fast, but with this kind of endurance, most people won’t care.
Cameras: 200MP Marketing, Real-World Upgrades
The headline change is the move from 108MP to a 200MP main camera using Samsung’s HP2 sensor — 1/1.3″ size, 0.6µm pixels, with 16-in-1 binning to 12MP by default and an f/1.7 stabilized lens at 23mm equivalent. It uses “Super QPD” AF, meaning phase detection works in both horizontal and vertical directions for more reliable focusing.
You also get:
- 12MP ultrawide with 1/2.55″ sensor, 1.4µm pixels, dual-pixel AF, 120° FoV, f/2.2.
- 10MP 3x tele (about 69mm), IMX754, OIS, f/2.4.
- 10MP 10x periscope (about 230mm), IMX754 again, OIS, f/4.9.
- 12MP selfie (S5K3LU, ~1/3.24″, 1.12µm), f/2.2, AF, ~26mm.
In daylight, the main camera doesn’t just add pixels; it changes the look. Compared to the S22 Ultra, the S23 Ultra leans warmer, pushes saturation more, and lifts shadows, giving images extra “pop.” It’s a bit of a throwback to classic Samsung processing, where the S22 Ultra was more restrained and “photographic.”
The upside: images are sharper across the frame, with better corner detail and significantly improved noise performance, especially in shadows and out-of-focus areas. For enthusiasts, there are 50MP and 200MP modes. The 50MP mode actually makes sense, giving you more detail without trashing dynamic range. The 200MP mode is more of a niche tool: file sizes balloon, DR suffers, and the detail gain rarely justifies the hit.
The ultrawide’s hardware is slightly refreshed, and the main real-world win is lower noise. Detail is marginally better, colors are consistent, and AF lets it double as a macro lens — something the regular S23 and S23+ still don’t get.
Telephoto performance is mostly an evolution, not a reset. At 3x, the S23 Ultra is a bit grainier than the S22 Ultra if you pixel-peep, but it’s also crisper, likely due to less aggressive noise reduction. HDR is clearly stronger, lifting shadows more aggressively. At 10x, detail remains solid, with broadly similar behavior.
Portrait mode benefits a lot from Samsung’s depth mapping tweaks. At 3x, portraits are noticeably sharper and better in low light than the S22 Ultra’s, with cleaner edge detection and improved handling of glasses frames — a pain point on many phones. At 1x, oddly, the S22 Ultra sometimes resolves subject detail better, but the S23 Ultra still wins on separation and consistency.
Skin tones are where Samsung regresses slightly: the S23 Ultra tends to push warmth and a yellowish tint more than the S22 Ultra, especially in portraits. Regular people will call it “flattering,” but if you care about accuracy, it’s a step back.
The front camera drops from 40MP to 12MP on the Ultra, aligning with the rest of the S23 family. In practice, quality is roughly similar. You don’t get a notable gain or loss; the new sensor brings good dynamic range, controlled noise, and accurate skin tones without the yellow bias that creeps into rear portraits. Detail is comparable to the old 40MP binned output.
Low Light, Video, and the Telephoto Story
In low light, the main camera leans on Auto Night Shot, which decides when to apply extra multi-frame processing. A crescent icon tells you when it’s going to fire, and you can disable it if you want straight-up auto.
The default behavior already delivers balanced exposures with minimal highlight clipping, solid shadow detail, and accurate white balance in warm and mixed scenes. Dedicated Night mode pushes it further, cleaning up noise and lifting dark areas at the cost of slightly more processed-looking detail.
Against the S22 Ultra, the S23 Ultra brings clearly better detail and lower noise from the main camera at night, with broadly similar dynamic range and color.
The ultrawide in low light is “fine” in Auto Night, but you really want full Night mode. That’s where noise drops significantly, detail improves, and DR widens. Side by side, S23 Ultra’s ultrawide Night mode beats the S22 Ultra’s, while both are underwhelming in Auto.
The 3x tele in low light is heavily dependent on Night mode as well. Auto can get blotchy; Night mode cleans it up a lot, giving acceptable shots with better shadow detail and mostly controlled noise. It’s a meaningful upgrade over the S22 Ultra at this focal length.
The 10x periscope remains the weak link in the dark. The phone sometimes falls back to the 3x and digitally crops to 10x, which looks predictably bad. When it does use the native 10x hardware and there’s enough light, Night mode can salvage decent detail shots of illuminated buildings or signs, but it’s not a low-light monster.
For video, Samsung finally fixes one of the bigger spec annoyances: 8K now records at 30fps instead of 24, with a wider field of view and better detail than the S22 Ultra’s 8K. It still feels like a niche feature with massive files and few practical benefits, but technically, it’s improved.
The more interesting part is 4K. All five cameras can do up to 4K60, and 4K30/60 footage from the main camera is detailed, clean, and consistent. Noise is well-controlled, dynamic range is strong, and color is punchy without getting cartoonish.
The ultrawide takes a step back in video sharpness compared to the S22 Ultra, which wasn’t class-leading to begin with. Telephotos do well in 4K, with both 3x and 10x producing good-looking footage at 30 and 60fps, only slightly softer at the long end.
Stabilization is excellent on the main and ultrawide cameras, handling walking and panning gracefully. The teles show less micro-shake than on the S22 Ultra, giving zoomed video a “floating” look instead of jitter.
Low-light video from the main camera is genuinely impressive: wide DR, controlled highlight blooming, and clean shadows. The ultrawide is acceptable at night — not as sharp as the main, but competitive with other flagships. Telephotos get noisy but the 3x is still usable. Selfie video quality is high, with reliable AF and good stabilization, though the crop can feel tight in landscape.
Who Should Actually Buy the S23 Ultra?
In its price bracket, nobody is buying the S23 Ultra as a value play. The obvious competitors from the source material are Samsung’s own Galaxy Z Fold4, Xiaomi’s camera-focused flagships, Google’s Pixel 7 Pro, and Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro Max.
The Fold4 is objectively more “wow,” with a massive inner display, taskbar-style multitasking, and optional S Pen support — but it lags the Ultra in camera quality, especially zoom. If your priorities are productivity canvas and form factor flex, the Fold wins. If you care more about camera reach, durability, and a built-in stylus, the S23 Ultra is the safer, more rounded choice.
The Pixel 7 Pro remains cheaper by a huge margin (around $500/€500 less) while still offering excellent photos and a strong 5x telephoto. But on raw performance, battery life, and long zoom, it’s behind. Google’s Tensor G2 isn’t in the same league as Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in synthetic tests, and it shows in efficiency.
The iPhone 14 Pro Max is still the default choice for people who care about video above all else. It edges the S23 Ultra in certain battery tests and is competitive in camera quality, but can’t touch Samsung’s 10x optical reach. Then there’s the platform lock-in, ecosystem perks, and status factor — things specs can’t solve.
Compared strictly to the S22 Ultra, the S23 Ultra is a refinement pass that actually matters: much better endurance, cooler sustained performance, more versatile main camera output, cleaner loudspeakers, and subtle but welcome ergonomics improvements. It’s not a generational leap, because the S22 Ultra was already excellent.
So no, the Galaxy S23 Ultra doesn’t rewrite the playbook. It tightens the screws: faster where it counts, cooler under load, longer-lasting, and better at what this series already did well.
If you’re still on a Note 20 Ultra, S21 Ultra, or anything older, this is the “Note” upgrade you were waiting for. If you own an S22 Ultra, it’s only worth it if you specifically want the endurance boost, cooler thermals, and a more aggressive camera profile. Everyone else gets one of the most complete — and yes, one of the most expensive — Android slabs of 2023.
Stay tuned to IntoDroid for more Android updates.