While high-end Android phones offer exceptional features like the brightest screen, powerful processors, and excellent cameras, they’re often very expensive. But what if I tell you there’s an option that offers most of the latest features while saving you a few hundred dollars? The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is one such option.
Price and Availability
Samsung launched the Galaxy S23 Ultra in 2023 for $1,199.99. However, approaching two years old, the phone has been spotted at a lower price quite a few times. Given that Samsung slashed exactly 25% off the phone’s price as part of the educational discount program during the 2023 holiday sale and sold the phone for as low as $899.99, there’s a good chance that you’d find the phone for a similar price, or perhaps even lower price this year.
The S23 Ultra Has the Same Design as the S24 Ultra
At its core, this article will compare several aspects of the Galaxy S23 Ultra to the newer Galaxy S24 Ultra, which happens to be Samsung’s latest flagship offering. This would tell us how the handset has aged and whether it makes sense to spend on it. To kick things off, the S23 Ultra has a similar design as the newer S24 Ultra, barring the titanium frame and a flat-screen on the front. Had it not been for the new colors, the rear panels of the S23 Ultra and S24 Ultra would have looked the same.
The S23 Ultra features slightly thicker bezels and weighs a bit more than the S24 Ultra, but those aren’t dealbreakers. Surrounded by the bezels is the gorgeous 6.8-inch curved Dynamic AMOLED 2X screen that supports variable refresh rate (up to 120Hz) and has a peak brightness of 1,750 nits. Even though the phone has a humongous screen, it packs in enough pixels—500 ppi—to give it a sharp and crisp look. Protecting the screen is Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus 2, something that you’d see on several flagships released in 2024, like the Galaxy S24, OnePlus 12, and the Pixel 9.
The S23 Ultra even has an IP68 dust and water resistance rating, implying that the phone can withstand submersion in up to 1.5m of water for 30 minutes or less. So, where do you compromise? Well, you’d have to make peace with a screen that’s slightly less bright and more reflective than the S24 Ultra. In my opinion, these downgrades aren’t major, and you can easily live with them for the next couple of years. You won’t even notice the difference unless you use both phones together. In addition, you get to use the S Pen, which works the same as it does on the S24 Ultra.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Is Still a Performance Beast
In 2024, most manufacturers have turned toward the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (4nm) SoC for their Android flagships. In comparison, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (4nm) SoC on the S23 Ultra is slightly underpowered, but it is still one of the most powerful chipsets on Android smartphones. The chipset features the Adreno 740 GPU (680 MHz), which supports ray tracing for more realistic graphics. It does have an older modem, the Snapdragon X70 5G, which consumes about 20% more power than the newer Snapdragon X75 5G, but both modems provide a peak download speed of 10 Gbps.
Both the S23 Ultra and the S24 Ultra feature LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage, so that’s another standard wherein the one-year-old handset is as good as the new one. The only difference is the baseline S23 Ultra, with 256GB of storage, ships with 8GB of RAM, while the baseline S24 Ultra, with similar storage, has 12GB of RAM. Moreover, the S23 Ultra can easily handle day-to-day tasks, including but not limited to web browsing, multitasking, heavy gaming, or even video editing. So whether you’re a regular or power user, the smartphone has got you covered, and not just in 2024, but for several years to come.
Even when compared with newer smartphones around $800, the S23 Ultra provides better value for money, primarily for its flagship processor and the fact that it sports 256GB of storage right from the base model.
S23 Ultra Offers a Quad Camera Setup
This is one of the scenarios where fewer upgrades on the successor are good for buyers eyeing the older model. With the S23 Ultra, Samsung provides a 200MP (f/1.7) primary sensor, a 10MP (f/2.4) 3x telephoto sensor, another 10MP (f/4.9) 10x telephoto sensor, and a 12MP (f/2.2, 120˚) ultrawide sensor. This is the same quad-camera setup you get with the more expensive S24 Ultra, except a new 50MP (f/3.4) 5x telephoto sensor replaces the 10x sensor. Even the front camera—a 12MP (f/2.2) sensor—is similar on both flagships. To sum up, you get four of the five sensors on the S24 Ultra, saving a couple of hundred dollars.
The cameras do an excellent job of handling high dynamic range in the scene, handling colors, lens flare, and poorly lit subjects. Both phones have the hardware prowess for recording 8K videos at up to 30 fps. So what’s the difference? Well, the newer flagship takes slightly better photos, courtesy of a new image processor, especially in the portrait and low light mode, where the larger pixels on the S24 Ultra are able to capture more light. However, that is not to say that the S23 Ultra’s cameras are a slouch. In fact, the phone still has one of the most versatile camera systems on a smartphone under $1,000.
The newly launched Google Pixel 9 costs $799 for the 128GB variant and offers a dual-camera setup. Even the $999 iPhone 15 Pro (128GB) can’t match the zoom range provided by the S23 Ultra. I am not going into the picture quality and the signature photographic styles the companies have, as that would be beyond the scope of this article. However, the S23 Ultra surely offers more flexibility to photographers and videographers. And yes, Samsung has also released several AI-based photo editing features for its 2023 flagship.
The Phone Lasts for Over a Day on a Charge
In our review of the Galaxy S23 Ultra, we’ve mentioned how the phone consistently provided over six hours of screen-on time, spanned between one and a half to two days before reaching out for the charger. That, by all means, is among the best usage times you can get on Android phones. Yes, the S24 Ultra improved the battery life, but you’d be delighted with what the S23 Ultra offers, especially if you’re upgrading from a two or three-year-old Android smartphone with an aged battery.
Since Samsung didn’t improve the charging speed with the S24 Ultra, the S23 Ultra offers an equally good 45W wired charging rate (via Samsung’s official chargers). You also get 15W wireless charging and 4.5W reverse wireless charging. In comparison, other Android flagships like the Pixel 9 or the Galaxy S24 charge slower. The OnePlus 12, however, is among the fastest-charging phones with 80W wired charging, but it isn’t the complete package that S23 Ultra is.
Plenty of Android Upgrades to Come by (With Galaxy AI)
Samsung promised to provide four years of major operating system upgrades and an additional year of security fixes for the Galaxy S23 series. Building on that, the S23 Ultra should live long enough to get One UI 9 based on Android 17 in 2026 and another year of essential security patches. Hence, if you get the phone in 2024, it will still last you for a good two to three years.
The S23 Ultra has already received the new Galaxy AI features, thanks to the One UI 6.1 update. So features like Circle to Search, Live Translate, and Call Assist work very well on the smartphone. Given Samsung’s credibility and a strong Android base, the S23 Ultra should provide a solid software experience for the years to come.
Who Should Purchase the Galaxy S23 Ultra?
All things considered, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is one of the best smartphones in the sub-$1000 segment. You get a phone with a sleek design, a massive AMOLED screen, a powerful yet efficient processor, a versatile camera setup, and a multi-day battery life. There’s nothing that the phone really lacks, even when compared to newer flagships that have come a year after it.
I recommend this smartphone to anyone using a two to three-year-old handset, like the Galaxy S20, S21, Pixel 5, or Pixel 6. Keep an eye on the deals on this smartphone, especially during the 2024 holiday season, which brings some of the best discounts in the year. If you can get the baseline variant (with 256GB) for around $800, get it right away without any second thoughts, and you won’t regret it.
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
$1050 $1200 Save $150
Samsung’s premium flagship phone for 2023 has a massive 6.8-inch screen, a 200 MP rear camera, and a handy S Pen.
