Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Review: The King of Extra
The Galaxy S23 Ultra builds on Samsung's camera strengths, but this is still a very expensive device.
Samsung clearly wants the Galaxy S23 Ultra to be the ultimate camera for cinematographers and photographers. I'm certainly not a professional filmmaker, nor do I consider myself to be a shutterbug. But after using the Galaxy S23 Ultra for several days, it's clear the new camera upholds the areas in which Samsung already excels -- like low-light photography -- and pushes those strengths a little further.
The $1,200 (£1,249, AU$1,949) Galaxy S23 Ultra will be available on Feb. 17 alongside the rest of Samsung's new phone lineup, which includes the $800 Galaxy S23 and $1,000 Galaxy S23 Plus. Like last year's Galaxy S22 Ultra, the S23 Ultra's giant screen, high price and souped-up camera may be too much for the average person.
The name "Ultra" says it all; this phone is for people who want a phone that's over the top. Compared to the Galaxy S23 and S23 Plus, the Ultra offers a closer zoom magnification than most people will probably need, a stylus that stores inside the phone and a massive 6.8-inch screen that's larger than both those of the iPhone 14 Pro Max and Google Pixel 7 Pro. You might not need all that excess, but after using this phone for a few days, I wouldn't blame you for wanting them.
Samsung largely achieves its goal of providing a deluxe phone with an excellent camera and giant display. But it isn't perfect. That high price is hard to ignore, and photos taken on the Galaxy S23 Ultra don't always look as natural as those captured on the iPhone 14 Pro or Pixel 7 Pro.
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra camera is a step up
If you watched Samsung's Unpacked presentation, you already know the S23 Ultra's main camera is its prized attribute. Samsung added a 200-megapixel sensor for the first time, marking a technical upgrade from the S22 Ultra's 108-megapixel main shooter.
With the S23 Ultra, you have the option to shoot photos at a 12-megapixel, 50-megapixel or 200-megapixel resolution, which you can adjust in the settings menu alongside the camera's viewfinder. Samsung's Expert Raw app is now integrated into the native camera app after you download it for the first time. Although I don't typically edit raw photos myself, the use case certainly seems appropriate for a phone like this. Shooting in raw allows photographers to edit the full, uncompressed version of an image, giving them more flexibility and data to work with in terms of colors and exposure.
Under-the-hood improvements to color, dynamic range, autofocus and low-light performance seem more meaningful than the resolution bump. Samsung said when announcing the S23 Ultra that its new image sensor is better at minimizing noise, and that its algorithms have gotten better at enhancing color tones and details. Samsung largely positioned these improvements in the context of video recording and low-light photography, but they seem evident across general still photography, too. These changes are more noticeable to the naked eye than the increased resolution.
Unless otherwise specified, the photos in this article were taken at the default 12-megapixel resolution because the 200-megapixel files are just too large to display here. You can still see changes in how the camera processes color, skin tone and dynamic range even at this lower resolution. However, I did capture several 200-megapixel photos throughout the course of my testing.
The biggest differences I noticed in those 200-megapixel photos compared to the 108-megapixel images taken on the Galaxy S22 Ultra had to do with color. Flowers were more vibrant shades of orange and trees looked more lush. The difference in resolution is only noticeable when you zoom all the way in to view the actual size of the pixels.
The photos below, however, show how the Galaxy S23 Ultra's camera has changed compared to the S22 Ultra's. Take a look at the photos of trees and shrubbery taken at a park. Although you might not notice it in the smaller embedded version below, the leaves in the S23 Ultra's photo have a bit more separation and crispness compared to the S22 Ultra's, and there's also better contrast in the tree bark.
2023-02-15 19:38:56
