Samsung has officially unveiled the highly anticipated Samsung Galaxy S23 Series smartphones at the Galaxy Unpacked Event. With the launch of Galaxy S23 series, Samsung updates its flagship lineup for the year 2023. The latest smartphone series includes the vanilla Samsung Galaxy S23, Galaxy S23+, and Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphones succeeding Samsung Galaxy S22 Series. These latest Flagship grade handsets come with a customized version of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC. All three handsets sport Dynamic AMOLED 2X Displays.
Samsung Galaxy S23 Series launched
During the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked Event, the company officials claimed that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy smartphones would offer a premium experience. It includes better AI and future-ready mobile gaming features. Also Read – Samsung Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus: First Look; a better option over Galaxy S21 FE
TM Roh, President and Head of Mobile Business at Samsung Electronics, said, “The value of impactful technology is measured, not just by what it enables for people today, but also how it contributes to a better future,”. He further adds, “The entire Galaxy S23 series is the new standard-bearer of trustworthy premium smartphone experiences. We’re trying to redefine peak performance by bringing together powerful, lasting innovations and sustainability.”
As mentioned above, Samsung updates its flagship smartphone lineup for this year with Galaxy S23 Series. This Galaxy S23 Series succeeds the last year’s Samsung Galaxy S22 Series phones. The vanilla Samsung Galaxy S23 is the cheapest of the three handsets.
The Samsung Galaxy S23+ follows it. Both of these Galaxy phones are priced under Rs 1 lakh. As mentioned above, these phones are equipped with a customized version of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 mobile platform for Galaxy.
Samsung Galaxy S23, Galaxy S23+, Galaxy S23 Ultra price
Samsung Galaxy S23 is the cheapest variant out of the three models in the Samsung Galaxy S23 Series. The vanilla S23 starts at USD 799, roughly Rs 65500 in India. The S23 Samsung Galaxy Android smartphone gets the base 8GB RAM and 128GB onboard storage. Also Read – Samsung Galaxy XCover 5, the Samsung rugged smartphone
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Samsung Galaxy S23+ Price
Samsung Galaxy S23+ is the next model under the Galaxy S23 Series. The base variant of Samsung Galaxy S23+ comes with a price tag of USD 999, roughly Rs 81890. The Samsung Galaxy S23+ base variant packs 8GB RAM and 256GB onboard storage.
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Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Price
The top-end model, Samsung S23 Ultra also comes with three storage variants. Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra price starts at USD 1199, roughly Rs 98275 for the base variant. Samsung features 8GB RAM and 256GB of onboard storage on the base variant of S23 Samsung Galaxy Ultra. In India, the Samsung S23 Ultra price is on the higher side. Also Read – Check out Samsung A series phones, What new Samsung phones are coming out?
Samsung Galaxy S23 Series price in India
The Samsung Galaxy S23 price starts at Rs 74999 in India for the base variant with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. Another variant with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage comes with a price tag of Rs 79999 in India. The launch price of vanilla Samsung Galaxy S23 is higher than the launch price of Samsung Galaxy S22.
Samsung Galaxy S22 India price starts at Rs 72999 for the base variant with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. For instance, these days Amazon India is selling the Samsung Galaxy S22 128GB variant with different offers. Samsung Galaxy S22 128GB price starts at Rs 52999 in India.
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Galaxy S23+ Price in India
The base variant of Samsung Galaxy S23+ comes with a price tag of Rs 94999 in India. Here, the base variant of S23+ Samsung features 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. The 8GB RAM and 512GB storage variant of Galaxy S23+ has priced above Rs 1 lakh. It comes with a price tag of Rs 104999. Samsung Galaxy S22 Series price in India starts at Rs 49999 with various bank offers.
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Galaxy S23 Ultra Price in India
The top-end model Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has priced above Rs 1 lakh. The base variant of Samsung S23 Ultra is priced at Rs 124999 with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage. Another variant with 12GB RAM and 512GB storage is priced at Rs 134999. The top-end variant of Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra comes with 1TB of storage. For this 1 TB variant, Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra price is Rs 154999. This Galaxy S23 Ultra succeeds the highly popular Samsung Ultra S22 phone.
Samsung Galaxy S23 Series: Key Highlights
Furthermore, along with its custom chipset, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra features some notable upgrades over its predecessor. Some of the key highlighting features of the Samsung S23 Ultra include custom Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC for Galaxy smartphones and a 200MP camera sensor. According to critics, this year, the South Korean tech giant is mainly focusing on the camera performance of the Galaxy S23 Series.
It means that a major upgrade is coming regarding image quality and other AI enhancements. At the same time, the improved hardware will also offer better performance. Our early impressions showed much improvement in the night video recordings. Moreover, the Space Zoom and Astrophotography feature has been improved.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Series is the second smartphone series to launch with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset. The recently launched iQOO 11 5G is the first smartphone with a custom Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. Also Read – The next new Samsung Phone, the next Note phone
To recall, this Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is the successor to the highly popular Snapdragon 8 Gen 1+ SOC. It is the beginning of February; moreover, the Mobile World Congress (MWC 2023) is also around the corner. Henceforth, we expect more upcoming flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 phones from other competitors.
Samsung Galaxy S23: First Look
The all-new S23 Samsung Galaxy phone is one of the best compact smartphones to launch in the first quarter of 2023. This Galaxy S23 is faster, sturdier and offers more battery backup. With its compact size, the Galaxy S23 is a lightweight and much more attractive handset. Also Read – Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra price, the new Note phone at Samsung unpack Event
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Design
At the Galaxy Unpacked Event, the South Korean tech giant unveiled the redefined design of the new Samsung Galaxy S23. The tech giant erased the contour-cut camera housing. Now, the rear camera setup features just three small rings for lenses. The front and back panels also have Gorilla Glass Victus 2 screen protection. It will improve drop resistance.
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Display
The compact smartphone, Samsung Galaxy S23, features a 6.1-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display. This handset gets an extended 1080p/Full-HD+ display resolution and 120Hz dynamic refresh rate. Furthermore, the peak brightness of this display panel has been improved. Now, the Display glows to a max of 1750 nits. To recall, the last year’s Galaxy S22 offers a peak brightness of up to 1300 nits.
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Hardware
Samsung Galaxy S23 series will make use of a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset. It will be the first Samsung Galaxy S series to use Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC after a long time. Furthermore, the South Korean tech giant will use an overclocked version of the latest Galaxy S23 series. Both the CPU and GPU come with overclocked speeds. Additionally, Samsung-produced next-generation memory chips are used in the latest Galaxy S23 series.
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Camera
The triple camera system on the back offers no improvements. The 50MP primary camera comes with Optical Image Stabilization (OIS). The secondary 10MP telephoto lens offers 3x zoom. At the same time the third sensor is a 12MP ultrawide camera. The camera configuration for the rear camera setup remains the same as the Samsung Galaxy S22.
The South Korean tech giant is offering improvements in the selfie camera. Samsung updates the front shooter from 10MP to 12MP on its new Galaxy smartphone. The front selfie camera is a 12MP shooter. Now, the front camera provides support for Super HDR. Other features include autofocus and 4K video recording, which remains the same as the Galaxy S22 Series.
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Battery
200mAh increase in the battery capacity of the Samsung Galaxy S23. Now, the Galaxy phone packs in a 3900mAh battery. The charging capabilities remain the same as on the Galaxy S22. The newly launched Samsung Galaxy S23 comes with 25W fast wired Charging. The Samsung smartphone also gets wireless and reverse wireless charging options. To recall, the Samsung Galaxy S22 charging capabilities are also similar.
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Connectivity
Regarding connectivity options, the S23 Samsung features the new tri-band Wi-Fi with 6e support. It also gets Bluetooth v5.3. Samsung support and offers the Ultra Wideband Wi-Fi for its Galaxy S23 Plus and Ultra variant. Overall, the Galaxy S23 is much faster than the last year’s Galaxy S22. The Display is much brighter, and the battery backup is also improved. Design is a subjective topic; however, I liked the new beautiful design.
Samsung Galaxy S23 Specs in Brief
- Body: 146.3×70.9×7.6mm, 168g; Glass front (Gorilla Glass Victus 2), glass back (Gorilla Glass Victus 2), aluminum frame; IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 1.5m for 30 mins), Armor aluminum frame with tougher drop and scratch resistance (advertised).
- Display: 6.10″ Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 120Hz, HDR10+, 1750 nits (peak), 1080x2340px resolution, 19.5:9 aspect ratio, 422ppi; Always-on display.
- Chipset: Qualcomm SM8550-AC Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (4 nm): Octa-core (1×3.36 GHz Cortex-X3 & 2×2.8 GHz Cortex-A715 & 2×2.8 GHz Cortex-A710 & 3×2.0 GHz Cortex-A510); Adreno 740.
- Memory: 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM, 512GB 8GB RAM; UFS 3.1 – 128GB only, UFS 4.0.
- OS/Software: Android 13, One UI 5.1.
- Rear camera: Wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.8, 24mm, 1/1.56″, 1.0µm, Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS; Telephoto: 10 MP, f/2.4, 70mm, 1/3.94 “, 1.0µm, PDAF, 3x optical zoom; Ultra wide angle: 12 MP, f/2.2, 13mm, 120Ëš, 1/2.55” 1.4µm, Super Steady video.
- Front camera: 12 MP, f/2.2, 26mm (wide), Dual Pixel PDAF.
- Rear camera Video: 8K@24/30fps, 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/240fps, 720p@960fps, HDR10+, stereo sound rec., gyro-EIS.
- Front camera Video: 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30fps.
- Battery: 3900mAh; Samsung 25W wired, PD3.0, 50% in 30 min (advertised), Wireless (Qi/PMA), 4.5W reverse wireless.
- Misc: Fingerprint reader (under Display, ultrasonic); NFC; stereo speakers; Samsung DeX, Samsung Wireless DeX (Samsung support for Wireless desktop experience); Bixby natural language commands and dictation; Samsung Pay (Visa, MasterCard certified).
Samsung Galaxy S23 Unboxing
The all-new S23 Galaxy smartphone comes inside a thin paper box. The retail package contains the handset, a USB Type-C Cable, and a SIM Ejection Pin. Following the previous trends, the South Korean tech giant removed chargers and earphones from the retail box. It means the customers need to buy the Samsung 25W adapter separately. Now, let’s take a deep look at the design of the vanilla Galaxy S23 smartphone. Also Read – Samsung Galaxy S23 FE live image tipped with slower wireless charging capacity
Samsung Galaxy S23 Design
Samsung Galaxy S23 is a beautiful smartphone with an excellent design. The newly launched handset comes with a sturdy, waterproof and lightweight design. All these features make this vanilla variant a winning package. With a cleaner design, the South Korean tech giant offers this Galaxy S23 in six distinct colour combinations – Cream, Graphite, Green, Lavender, Lime and Phantom Black.
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Screen protection on Galaxy S23
The Lavender colour option is pleasing to my eyes. This colour option is less common in the domestic market. The new Galaxy S23 comes with an armored aluminum frame in terms of build quality. The Samsung Galaxy S23 display gets Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 panels. Removing the contour-cut camera panel allows the company to offer a clean flat-back design.
Remember, the curved display panel is exclusive to the top-end Galaxy S23 Ultra model. At the same time, the vanilla Galaxy S23 has a flat front and rear side. Furthermore, the new Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protection has improved the drop performance against uneven and rough surfaces such as concrete, terracotta and granite. The armored aluminum frame also provides additional drop and scratch resistance.
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In-hand experience
Like many previous Samsung Galaxy S series phones, the vanilla Galaxy S23 also gets IP68 protection. This Galaxy S23 series handset can survive in up to 1.5m deep water for half an hour. Looking at the design and build quality, my first impressions are quite positive. For in-hand experience, the handset offers a good grip. Its compact size is quite lovable.
Samsung Galaxy S23 Build quality
The front Display of Galaxy S23 gets a 6.1-inch 1080p AMOLED screen. This is the same display panel that is already present on Galaxy S22. However, the Samsung Galaxy S23 offers improved brightness. Looking at the front design, I cannot differentiate between the Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S22. The Thin screen bezels and the camera cutout looks decent.
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Front Panel
As mentioned above, the selfie camera has been upgraded on the Galaxy S23. Instead of a 10MP camera, the Galaxy S series handset uses a 12MP sensor. Even though the camera configuration is improved, the cutout size did not grow any larger. Furthermore, the front camera still supports Dual Pixel Autofocus (DPAF).
The biometric authentication is identical to the Galaxy S22. Samsung S23 also comes with an under-display fingerprint scanner. The fingerprint sensor is outstandingly accurate and offers great speed. It also works perfectly fine with screen protectors. In terms of audio, the top speaker doubles up as an earpiece. This top speaker sits inside a razor-thin outlet just above the camera.
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Back Panel
The back panel offers major design changes, and the metal housing enveloping the triple camera layout is gone. The triple camera is still not flushed with the glass back. Small metal rings surround the new camera lens. With the new camera layout, the Samsung Galaxy S23 wobbles a lot less than its predecessor. The LED Flash is a single-colour flash just like the one on any other Galaxy phone.
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Side Edges
The volume rocker and power button sit on the right edge. These keys get enough surface for easy operation and offer excellent feedback. The top edge gets the secondary noise-cancellation microphone. The bottom edge is overcrowded. It receives a dual SIM slot, the primary speaker and a USB C Samsung port for Charging and data transfer.
In terms of my verdict, the Samsung S23 is one of the most compact modern phones. It comes with beautiful looks and a decent grip for most users. I liked the new, improved glass design. Removing the thick camera housing is an excellent step. Samsung Galaxy S23 deserves full marks for its design and handling.
Samsung Galaxy S23 Display
The newer 6.1-inch AMOLED Display comes with notable improvements. The 2X AMOLED Display offers 35% higher peak brightness. This AMOLED panel offers a 2340*1080 pixels resolution. The Display gets 422 ppi pixel density. Henceforth, everything looks sharp. The all-new Samsung Galaxy S23 display also supports a 120Hz dynamic refresh rate, a wide colour gamut, and HDR 10+.
Although, the South Korean tech giant must focus on improving the HDR streaming experience. Moreover, Samsung is yet to offer more than 16 million colors on its smartphones. To recall, most flagship smartphones come with 10-bit and even 12-bit colour depth. However, the most user can’t tell the difference.
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Color Accuracy
In my experience, the Auto brightness works flawlessly. It now offers up to 1200 nits of peak brightness on the Galaxy S23 screen. The minimum brightness can drop to just 1 nit. Samsung Galaxy S23 offers two colour modes – Vivid and Natural. In terms of colour accuracy, both ways are consistent. Both modes are accurate towards DCI-P3 and sRGB.
While using the handset in Vivid mode, I noticed a bluish tinge over the white and grey background. To remove this bluish tinge, I made some tuning in RGB saturation. Along with Dynamic Refresh rate, the screen also supports fixed refresh rates – 10Hz, 24Hz, 30Hz, 48Hz, 60hz, 96Hz and 120Hz.
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Adaptive Refresh Rate
The screen uses a 120Hz refresh rate across the interface in adaptive mode. In the static picture, the software usually drops down to 24Hz in most cases. For video streaming, the refresh rate switches adaptively. The Always-on-display works with a 24Hz refresh rate.
In standard mode, the refresh rate behaves as in adaptive. We can switch between 24Hz, 30Hz and 60Hz, wherever applicable. If Standard is chosen, 120Hz modes will not be used during game and video playback. Furthermore, the Samsung Galaxy S23 display also supports HDR10+. Moreover, thanks to its Widevine L1 support, all the streaming apps allow 1080P HDR10 content streaming.
Samsung Galaxy S23 Battery Life
The newly launched Galaxy S23 packs in a 3900mAh battery. This handset gets 200mAh more capacity than its predecessor Galaxy S22. Regarding battery life, the Samsung Galaxy S23 offers outstanding performance across all tests. I tried making calls, web browsing, and online video streaming. It offers better battery backup over its competitors like Samsung Galaxy S22, iPhone 14 and others.
The standby performance of the Samsung Galaxy S23 is slightly improved compared to the Galaxy S22. The recently launched Galaxy S23 offers 251 hours of Standby time. Whereas the predecessor, Galaxy S22, provides 239 hours of standby time.
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Charging Speeds
The Charging power of the newly launched Galaxy S23 is limited to 25W fast wired support. It is same as the Samsung Galaxy S22 charging power. The Galaxy S23+ and S23 Ultra have up to 45W fast-wired charging support. This means that Charging a Samsung Phone S23 could take more time than charging Samsung Galaxy S23+ and Galaxy S23 Ultra. Like the other two, the vanilla handset also supports fast wireless Charging. Moreover, the Samsung S23 also gets reverse wired and wireless charging support.
We are discussing the negatives; this Samsung Galaxy Android smartphone ships without a charger. Therefore, you must buy the Samsung 25W power adapter separately for the best results. Moreover, You can also use any previous Samsung Android Charger for charging this smartphone.
This Samsung adapter will charge 30% of the Samsung Galaxy S23 battery in just 15 minutes. While another 15 minutes of Charging will get 57% of battery life. The smartphone will fully charge in 74 minutes. With Samsung Galaxy S22 charger, it took around 80 minutes to charge the Galaxy S23 from 0 to 100 per cent.
Samsung Galaxy S23 Audio
The all-new Samsung Galaxy S23 ships with dual stereo speakers. One lies at the bottom, while the other sits on top with the earpiece. This audio setup is usually termed a Hybrid setup. The top speaker doubles as an earpiece. Furthermore, the S23 Samsung support Dolby Atmos enhancement for Galaxy phones.
The Dolby Atmos feature can be turned on from Settings. You can choose the Dolby Atmos Audio settings between Auto, Movie, Music or Game Sound Mode. In my experience, the Samsung Galaxy S23 offers excellent loudness. The loudness is enough to satisfy most of the users. Even the audio quality is up to the mark.
OneUI 5.1 on Galaxy S23
Samsung Galaxy S23 series is the first smartphone series to launch with the new OneUI V5.1. The latest version of OneUI is based on the Android 13 OS. This new skin is built on One UI with new widgets. The latest skin brings improvements in the gallery and connectivity options. Besides these features, the One UI is the same as many other Samsung phones. To recall, this new One UI 5.1 overtakes the Samsung UI 5.
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Notifications and Alerts
With One UI 5.1, Samsung is intelligently implementing the core Galaxy Android features. Many other manufacturers sometimes neglect these features. The South Korean tech giant mainly focused on privacy and notification-based improvements. On OneUI 5.1, once you install the apps for the first time. The system will ask whether you want its notifications to want to keep them disabled.
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Visual Enhancements
Notifications-related controls are much easier to access on the Samsung UI 5.1. The notifications will always appear at the top of the system menu. In terms of privacy, Android 13 now deletes messages from malicious apps. As for other changes, the new visual enhancement includes better contrast. One UI5.1 brings new icons and illustrations across the system menus. Henceforth it is easier to recognize apps and read text.
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Other features
Like OneUI v5, the accent colour palette is automatically generated based on the wallpaper. Now, the system offers a wider choice of colour combinations. Widgets are now better stacked. We can now switch between stacked devices with a simple swipe.
The default dialer now gets animated backgrounds for each contact. Henceforth, it is easier to identify who’s calling. Moreover, you can also assign AR emojis, stickers or photos to your favorite contacts. Additionally, the rest of the UI elements remain unchanged. The lock screen remains the same as before.
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Always-On Display
Always-on Display has been present on OneUI since OneUI 3. Now, A couple of different clock designs are available, or you may pick an image clock. Music info is also supported on the latest One UI v5.1. The feature has several settings, including always-off, always-on, scheduled, only shown when new alerts are available, and tap to show for 10 seconds.
Users can populate the home screen with app shortcuts, folders and widgets. The leftmost home screen is for Google. The Galaxy S23’s One UI 5.1 makes it simple to use the Split Screen multi-tasking mode and offers the full DeX experience.
Custom Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 performance and benchmarks
The all-new Samsung Galaxy S23 uses the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset but with a twist. Here, this chipset is a Samsung-exclusive version with overclocked CPU and GPU. According to leaks, this version could later be made available as the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 2 SoC. The good news is that there is no Exynos version this year. It means that Samsung Galaxy S23 will use Qualcomm SoCs in India.
The new processor will offer 35% higher performance and 40% improved CPU efficiency. Samsung claims that the GPU performance has also been improved. The new Adreno 740 GPU offers 25% performance and 45% efficiency improvements. The latest chipset comes with newer LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage options.
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What’s new in Samsung’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2?
The latest Samsung-exclusive processor version gets 1 x 3.36 GHz Cortex-X3, 2 x 2.8 GHz Cortex-A715, 2 x 2.8 GHz Cortex-A710 and 3 x 2.0 GHz Cortex-A510 cores. The primary Cortex-X3 core is faster than the regular Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset. Here, the prime core is clocked at 3.2 GHz.
Adreno 740 GPU on Samsung Galaxy S23
The latest Adreno 740 GPU is clocked at 719MHz on the new Samsung Galaxy S23 Series smartphones. This GPU is clocked higher in comparison to the regular variant. In regular Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, the Adreno GPU is clocked at 680 MHz.
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LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 Storage on Galaxy S23
The recently launched Galaxy S23 series phones come with LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage. Samsung Galaxy S23 Vanilla model comes with standard 8GB RAM. Regarding storage options, the base variant packs 128GB storage, which is UFS 3.1 chip. At the same time, the other two top-end variants rely on 256GB and 512GB of storage which are UFS 4.0 chips. Based on my experience, I recommend you go for a higher-tier storage variant.
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Benchmark Scores
The current Samsung Galaxy S23 lineup comes with one of the most powerful mobile processors in the entire Android market. In terms of benchmark scores, the Samsung Galaxy S23 performs better in the single-core test.
With overclocked Cortex-X3 core, the handset performs perfectly fine. Similarly, the overclocked Adreno 740 GPU is also an outstanding performer. This GPU can handle high frame-rate content like a champion.
On AnTuTu benchmarking website, the Samsung Galaxy S23 is the second-best scorer. The latest Galaxy S series phone is outdone only by the Red Magic 8 Pro. To recall, the Red Magic 8 Pro has one of the best cooling solutions for its chipset. This cooling system allows better-sustained peak performance.
Overall, the new Galaxy S23 gets the best Android hardware. However, the cooling system is rather average. I can’t complain about the Samsung Galaxy S23’s performance.
Samsung Galaxy S23 Camera Review
The rear camera setup on the Samsung Galaxy S23 is identical to the one we have already seen on the Galaxy S22. Although, the latest Galaxy S series phone features a new selfie camera with a higher resolution sensor.
Taking a look at the configuration, the primary camera gets a 50MP Samsung S5KNGN3 sensor with 1.0µm pixels and a Tetra cell filter. This primary sensor gets an f/1.8 aperture and Optical Image Stabilization (OIS). The dual PDAF is a plus point to this camera setup.
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Telephoto Lens
The secondary lens is a standard telephoto lens with a 10MP Samsung S5K3K1 sensor. This lens gets the same f/2.4 aperture and Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) as seen on the Galaxy S22.Additionally, this lens comes with support for PDAF.
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Ultrawide Lens
The ultrawide lens relies on a 12MP Sony IMX564 lens with 1.4µm pixels. It gets a 13mm f/2.2 aperture lens. The focus on this sensor is fixed at infinity. The Samsung Galaxy S23 gets a new selfie camera for selfies and video calling. This year, Samsung uses a 12MP Samsung S5K3LU sensor with 1.12µm pixels.
The selfie camera comes with a 25mm f/2.2 aperture lens. It gets a dual-pixel PDAF sensor. Many of the previous Samsung Galaxy S series models, including Galaxy S22, feature a 10MP selfie camera.
The camera app on S22 Samsung Galaxy
Talking about the software, the new Samsung mobile phone gets the same camera app we have already seen on every other Samsung phone these days. In the camera app, swiping left and right will switch between all the available modes. Furthermore, there is an option to re-arrange or remove some modes from the viewfinder. Moreover, the vertical swipes will switch between the front and the rear cameras.
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Settings
The Setting icon is located in the top left corner of the display. It will allow you to access all the controls over the cameras. Grid Lines, Location Data, Shutter sound etc., are the usual things that can be accessed here. You can also switch the Scene optimizer.
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Night Mode Feature
The Selfie viewfinder gets two prime Zoom Models – Wide and Standard. These modes are quite common in every other Galaxy Phone. All three cameras support Night Mode. The Night Mode gets Auto Night Mode. This Auto Night Mode works similarly to what we have already seen on iPhones and other Xiaomi devices.
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Pro Mode
The camera app on Samsung Galaxy S23 also gets a Pro Mode. With Pro Mode, you can control the exposure and set manual focus with a peaking shutter speed of up to 30 seconds. Just like the Pro Mode, there is an Expert RAW mode. This mode comes built into the main camera app. It unlocks all the manual controls. This mode can capture images with all four cameras. The image output format will be both JPEG and DNG.
The DNG files can be edited directly on the handset using the Lightroom Mobile app. Using Expert RAW mode, we can play with colors and Dynamic Range. We can shoot some outstanding images which can later be edited.
Samsung Galaxy S23 Camera Quality
The main camera can click 12MP shots by default. The images are similar to what we expect from any Samsung flagship phone. The contrast across all the photos is high. Typically like any other Galaxy S phone, the dynamic range is good. Still, I can’t say that the dynamic range is over the top. I felt some noise in the shadows.
The images still get an artificially polished look. The photos clicked with the primary sensor are social media-ready. Overall, I am satisfied with this kind of image quality. The Galaxy S23 primary camera offers solid performance, similar to what we have already seen on the Galaxy S22. Even though I can’t find any real upgrade, the camera quality is incredible and highly reliable.
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50MP Shooting Mode
Remember, the Aspect Ratio menu has a hidden 50MP shooting mode. These 50MP images offer a higher resolution, accurate colors, and a wide dynamic range. The pictures clicked are noisier, all thanks to its higher resolution. Luckily, we can downscale these images to 12MP.
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Secondary Telephoto Lens Quality
The secondary sensor on the Galaxy S23 gets a 3X zoom. This 3X Telephoto lens can click 12MP images instead of 10MP. I believe Samsung is doing some upscaling with these 12MP images. These 12MP photos offer incredible details. The colors are accurate, the contrast is decent, and the dynamic range is excellent.
Like the primary camera, the secondary telephoto lens also gets some noise here and there. Overall, I liked the 12MP 3X zoomed photos. There is nothing much to complain about this 12MP telephoto lens on the Galaxy S23 phone.
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Ultrawide-Angle Camera Quality
Samsung phones are always known for their excellent quality ultrawide-angle cameras, especially on the Galaxy S series. Following the same footprints, the Samsung Galaxy S23 also delivers excellent camera performance with its 12MP ultrawide shooter. The output photos are well light and detailed. The contrast and dynamic range are also good.
The colour rendition on these photos could have been better. I felt a slightly warmer tone in some samples. At the same time, some other examples have a cooler tone than the real colors. Overall, the ultra-wide angle lens works flawlessly. I am impressed with the ultra-wide angle camera sensor.
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Portrait Mode
The portrait mode works with the primary and telephoto sensors. The portrait shots are well-exposed. The main camera clicks some excellent photos. The output images are well-detailed and colorful. The background blur is pleasing to the eyes. However, the default blur levels are too extreme for my taste. The 3x zoomed portraits with a Telephoto lens are as great as the shots with the regular sensor. The background blur is even more impressive, even if the human subject has a more complex hairstyle.
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Selfie Camera Quality
The new 12MP selfie camera offers more resolution than the Samsung Galaxy S22 regular model. I found that the Samsung Galaxy S23 selfies provide a better dynamic range, all thanks to its HDR capabilities. The selfies look outstanding. The details in the selfie images are excellent. Sharpening levels are just perfect. Noise and grains are minimal. The colour Rendition is extraordinary. Furthermore, the selfie images offer a great dynamic range. The subject is well-exposed.
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Low-light Quality
Samsung’s camera app gets Auto Night Mode support for low-lighting conditions. The Night Mode appears with a crescent moon icon. You can disable Night Mode by tapping on this icon. On the Samsung Galaxy S23 Low-Light Photo mode, the photo shot comes out to be excellent. The output images offer plenty of details. The exposure is well maintained. The colors appear realistic. The photos appear natural, with high contrast and fantastic dynamic range.
Overall, the S23 Samsung vanilla variant performs well in low-light photography. Moreover, the Night Mode appears to be faster than expected. I did not get blurry photos with Auto Night Mode in my testing. However, with Active Night Mode, you may notice a slight difference in Noise levels. Here, the night samples will have a slightly lesser dynamic range.
Highlights are blown away. At the same time, the photos without the Night Mode look more realistic. The colors and exposure in these images are better. However, highlights are still blown off in these images.
Samsung Galaxy S23 Video Quality
The all-new Samsung S23 can record videos at up to 4K resolution with 60FPS. Here, all of its four cameras are capable of recording 4K videos. At the same time, the primary camera is capable enough to record 8K videos at 30FPS. This is an improvement over the 8K Videos at 24FPS on Galaxy S22. Both the primary and telephoto lens support optical image stabilization (OIS). Moreover, you can also enable electronic image stabilization (EIS).
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Video Recording Features
Remember, EIS works across all the cameras. Samsung is also offering a Super Stable Option on the S23. The Super Stable option will make the video more stable at 1440p resolutions. It works best while recording at 60FPS. Additionally, Samsung Galaxy S23 Camera features include support for HDR10+ during video recording, zoom-in Audio and 360-audio recording.
Zoom-in Audio Recording
While using the zoom-in audio recording feature increases/decreases sound levels while zooming in/out on shooting videos.
360-Degree Audio
The 360-Degree Audio feature works with 3D headphones only. Here, the recorded audio streams at 256kbps bitrate and 48Khz sampling. In my experience with Samsung Galaxy S23 Video recording, the sound quality is well across the whole video clip. Also Read – Galaxy S23 FE could launch with Samsung Exynos 2200 chipset
8K Video Recording
On the main camera, the 8K Video recording is good, but only in daylight conditions. The colors are natural. Even the white balance is accurate in daylight conditions. Furthermore, the dynamic range is excellent. Even the contrast is also well-maintained. I did not notice any noise in daylight 8K videos. However, the details are just average. The recorded footage looks like an upscaled 4K video.
4K Video Recording on Samsung S23
The 4K Video recording from the main camera is excellent. The output video also comes with plenty of details. The sharpness and colour levels are perfect. Furthermore, the dynamic range is also accurate. The video is clean of noise, too. In low-light conditions, the 4K video performance is solid. There are enough details. Even the Noise levels are tolerable. The colors are also realistic, and the exposure and dynamic range are alright.
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Telephoto Camera Footage
The 4K video recording from the telephoto lens on Samsung Galaxy S23 is excellent. Moreover, the output video is rich in details; noise levels are on the lower side. Even the colors turn out to be natural. Moreover, the dynamic range is also on the higher side. Overall, the output video is just perfect. At the same time, the low-light 4K footage with a telephoto lens is noisy and blurry. Even the dynamic range is also on the lower side.
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Ultra-Wide Angle Camera Footage
The video quality on an ultrawide angle camera is quite impressive. The daylighting footage is quite impressive. Here, the Field of View (FoV) is also quite wide. The noise levels are low, and the colour accuracy is decent in the 4K video footage. Despite having such a large field of view, the contrast and dynamic range were adequate.
In low-light conditions, the ultrawide camera is also good. The 4K video footage also offers decent details and exposure. Noise levels are visible in the video footage. However, the colors are natural in the 4K footage on Samsung Galaxy S23 ultra wide camera.
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Selfie Camera Footage
The Selfie camera video footage is also good. Furthermore, the output video is rich in sharpness and details. It gets high contrast and accurate white balance and contrast. Moreover, the Dynamic range is enough, and the colors are near real life. Overall, the electronic stabilization works excellently on the ultrawide, primary and selfie cameras. I recommend this Samsung S23 if you are looking for a camera-centric flagship smartphone.
Final Verdict
With the Samsung Galaxy S23 Series launch, the South Korean tech giant has yet again made an excellent compact flagship smartphone. Samsung S23 excels in every department and aces in every test. The 6.1-inch OLED screen also offers high brightness and an adaptive refresh rate. Meanwhile, it comes with one of the most powerful chipsets on the Android market. The four-camera setup is also highly reliable.
Throughout my review, the Samsung Galaxy S23 comes with an excellent design. Moreover, it offers a great handling experience, high battery improvements. Even the speaker quality is better than the Galaxy S22. The South Korean tech giant also offers an improved camera setup and faster Night Mode on the latest Samsung S23.
Although, the charging speeds and the rear camera hardware stayed the same throughout as the Galaxy S22. The 128GB Samsung Galaxy S23 model using the older UFS 3.1 storage chip could be a negative point for some customers.
Furthermore, the missing Samsung S22 charger could be an issue for some users. Overall, the Samsung Galaxy S23 isn’t a major upgrade over the Galaxy S22. Henceforth, I doubt Galaxy S22 users will jump to the newer generation. Although, users with older-generation smartphones can choose this one for its compact design.
