The S23, S23+, and S23 Ultra are Samsung's newest flagship smartphones, succeeding the S22 models from last year. Last year, Samsung made a monumental change when it released the excellent S22 Ultra, which combined the Galaxy Note and S series into a single product line. This year, Samsung once again shook up the smartphone world when it introduced the Samsung Galaxy S23 series at the recent Galaxy Unpacked 2023 event in San Francisco.
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra comes packed with cutting-edge hardware and software, such as a 200-megapixel rear camera, Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, Dynamic AMOLED display, fast charging support, and much more (including an S Pen).
Keeping with precedent, the S23 series is available in three distinct iterations. As the top tier, Ultra provides access to the most cutting-edge options available right now. Despite the fact that only the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra 5G bears the "5G" label in the name, it is confirmed that all variants under S23 support connections to the 5G network.
In the same vein as in previous years, we at ZulYusmar.com would like to extend our most sincere gratitude to Samsung Malaysia for allowing us to review the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra once again and use it as our daily smartphone.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra comes with a SIM eject tool included in the box. There are no cables, cases, or chargers to speak of, just the phone and the SIM eject tool. As part of Samsung's initiative to reduce the company's overall carbon footprint, the company has reduced the amount of plastics used in the retail packaging and has even incorporated recycled fishing nets and plastic bottles into some of the components of the phone itself.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has two improvements over its predecessor, the first of which is the use of an image sensor manufactured by Samsung called the ISOCELL HP2, which has a resolution of 200 megapixels. The second improvement is a brighter main camera lens with an aperture of f/1.7. The front-facing camera now has a resolution of 12 megapixels, another modification that has been made.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra appears to have taken some design cues from its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, as it has a squared-off body and a similar colour scheme. Despite this, there are distinct differences between the two.
According to Samsung, the screen on the Galaxy S23 Ultra has been given less of a curved appearance around the edges in order to make it more user-friendly when paired with the S Pen stylus. In other words, the display of the Galaxy S23 Ultra has been redesigned to have a flatter profile, making it even more pleasant to hold in one's hand.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra is not exactly compact, but it feels sturdy and light in hand. The 6.8-inch display remains unchanged from the previous year's model. The screen's other specs, including its resolution (3,200 x 1,440), brightness (1750 nits), and refresh rate (120 Hz), are also the same. Adaptive refresh rate has been tweaked so that it can now go as low as 1Hz to conserve power.
The cameras in this S23 series are the most visually distinct design element. The "boba" camera on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra appears more prominent than the one on the Galaxy S22 Ultra. The circle surrounding the camera lens on the back of this phone (known as the boba camera) now has a border colour that harmonizes with the body. In one of these boba cameras, Samsung's Isocell HP2 sensor powers a 200-megapixel primary camera (working at f/1.7).
In addition to the primary 200 MP camera, the device features a 12 MP ultrawide camera (f/2.2), a 10 MP telephoto camera (f/2.4, 3x optical zoom), and a 10 MP telephoto camera (f/2.4, 10x optical zoom) on the back.
Improvements have been made to the still photography and video recording capabilities, with the latter now capturing footage with a more cinematic feel. Now you can record in 8K resolution at 30 frames per second, and the camera's field of view has been expanded.
The volume rocker and power button for the Galaxy S23 Ultra are located on the right side of the device. There are no buttons or ports on the top or left sides of the phone's body. Galaxy S23 Ultra's bottom features a slot for the S-Pen stylus, a speaker grill, a USB Type-C port, and a dual nano SIM drawer (but no microSD slot).
The 5000mAh battery capacity perfectly complements the rest of the phone's features. Although the 45W charger is not included and needs to be purchased separately, Samsung claims it only takes 30 minutes to get up to 65% of the battery capacity when charged using the adapter.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is available in four different colours: Lavender, Phantom Black, Cream, and Green. The Galaxy S23 Ultra is available in Malaysia in three different storage capacities: 256GB for RM5,699, 512GB for RM6,199, and 1TB for RM7,199.
To pre-order the latest Galaxy devices, please click the respective links below:
- Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra: https://www.samsung.com/my/smartphones/galaxy-s23-ultra/buy/
- Samsung Galaxy S23+ | Samsung Galaxy S23: https://www.samsung.com/my/smartphones/galaxy-s23/buy/
