Black Friday is gone, but Cyber Monday is forever. Or well, at least for a couple of days. But fear not, the deals are still coming in thick and fast for a few days, and we’re back with one for those who want a seriously powerful new phone.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is available now via Samsung for 25% off as well as via Amazon as part of its Black Friday, Cyber Monday affairs. However, if you grab it via the Samsung Shop app for iOS or Google Play (it should give you the option when you open the link here), you can get it for even less via trade-in.
More great Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals
The Samsung S23 Ultra wipes the floor with the competition
Black Friday & Cyber Monday
The Samsung S23 Ultra is my very own personal smart phone, and in a post Windows Phone-world (RIP), this has been the first phone I’ve had in years that has given me a Lumia 1520-like battery life experience. My girlfriend has an iPhone 13 Pro Max, and I have to admit, on our recent trip to Iceland, there was some daily schadenfreude when I’d ask her what her battery life looked like vs. mine at the end of each day.
I absolutely abuse the hell out of this phone. I am a social media addict, I spent all day taking photos on our trips around Iceland, and even got into some Hearthstone on various tour busses. Yet, never once did I feel the need to reach for my power bank, with plenty to spare at the end of the day. I haven’t had an experience like that since the Lumia 1520, my favorite phone of all time. It’s great to see.
And yes, I compare every smart phone experience I have to the glory days of polycarbonate Lumia superiority. The Samsung S23 Ultra also gives me some Lumia 1520 vibes with its absurd zoom capabilities, without the downsides of dual-core processing. Telephoto and then software zoom capabilities produce truly stunning results with this phone, and I recommend this video from Mr Mobile if you want to see it in action.
As someone who travels frequently for work and with family in another country, having a phone that can “do it all” is a great boon for me personally. The fact I can hook the S23 Ultra up to a monitor and pop out Samsung DeX for a Windows PC-like experience for Microsoft Word is huge, and it’s far better than Windows 10 Mobile’s Continuum feature ever was. I also love the pressure sensitive pen for note taking at events, which flows far more naturally than trying to smash notes into a touch keyboard.
One comment I always get with the Samsung S23 Ultra is from people complaining about “bloat” on Samsung devices. Maybe out of the box there might be some features enabled you don’t want, but it takes 3 minutes to disable or uninstall apps and features you don’t want. I stripped my S23 Ultra to the essentials, and still get to enjoy things like full-OS theming (which no other company does anywhere near as well as Samsung).
There’s never been a better time to upgrade, really, and this phone will last you at least five years before it stops getting security updates, per Samsung’s guarantees. I love this phone, and I think you will too!
