Picture the scene : after watching the live - streamed Galaxy Unpacked case from the comfort of a Vue movie house seat at Westfield , I was handed a bag – a bag with a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra inside .
I rushed home as excitedly as Charlie when he found his Golden Ticket , ready to experience the newtop - end Galaxy S23 Ultra . Within half an hour my data had been transport , my SIM was set up and I was quick to go .
Of course , it ’s far too early to give any final verdict on the newfangled flagship , but here ’s what I ’ve noticed so far after around 12 hours of exercise .
It certainly is a big phone
First off , I forgot just how bad the recent Ultra models are to admit . You see the 6.8 - inch screen size and think ‘ oh it ’s not much bad than theiPhone 14 Pro Max ’ but reader , lease me severalize you , it really is . In fact , the naked Galaxy S23 Ultra is both tall and wider than an iPhone 14 Pro Max with a typesetter’s case on .
It ’s down to the aspect proportion , with the Ultra choose for a broad exhibit than most large smartphones in a bidding to make the most use of the S Pen stylus . It makes mother wit in terms of productiveness , and I ’ve enjoyed the extra screen real estate on offer so far , but blimey , it ’s hard to use one - handed — and that ’s descend from someone who has no ill about using most big - screen sound .
move on from the gauzy sizing of the phone , the first thing I notice was the flatter display compared to theS22 Ultra . Again , this was done in a bid to maximize productiveness , providing users with more or less more usable cover and a less subtle curving of the display at the edge .
The latter is a summation for me in person as I ’m not a vast buff of dramatically curved presentation , especially when it ’s ( usually ) paired with sub - par medal rejection technical school . That should n’t be as much of an emergence here as it has been in the past .
Battery life could be an issue
It ’s also stunningly detailed at its full WQHD+ settlement , though you ’ll have to enable that manually in the phone ’s configurations menu — it ’ll operate at Full HD+ out of the box seat . There ’s a safe reasonableness for that as I ’ve found out : the full resolution absolutely drains the 5000mAh barrage fire .
I ’ve not in reality ply out of commission yet after taking it off charge with 100 % at 11 premier last nighttime , though I note the battery indicator counting down rather rapidly when scroll through the likes of TikTok with the WQHD+ resolve enabled compared to using it at Full HD+ .
This extend me to trust that while it ’s gracious having the supererogatory resolution , it ’s only really worth enabling if you ’re watching 4 K content via the likes of YouTube and Netflix . For most thing , include gaming , the Full HD+ answer is more than enough .
operation has been solid so far , but that ’s unsurprising given it packs an exclusive chipset dubbed theSnapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxythat boast a fast CPU and more powerful and push - efficient GPU than even the even top - remainder 8 Gen 2 . Everything feels virtually - instantaneous , from swiping across the various app menus to playing daily games like Survivor.io when on the train , and I ’m confident that this will generate some of the good benchmarking score for a phone yet once I put it to the test in the coming days .
Camera is key
Of course , it ’s all about the camera setup with the Ultra models , and the new 200MP of the S23 Ultra really does n’t let down . I ’ve only had restrict opportunities to snap aside – there is n’t much of interest on my day-after-day commute on the thermionic tube – but what pictures I have snap so far I ’ve been very impressed by .
The 200MP snapper really does capture a large amount of particular and , unlike the S22 Ultra , it does n’t look over - processed .
There ’s also phenomenal grim - visible radiation execution , as seen by the following snaps taken on my street lamp - lt road late last night . Not only are there impressive level of visible light , but the people of colour are accurate and there ’s stack of detail , even when soar upwards in .
This gets meveryexcited to put the camera to the test . I ’ll be interested to see how it performs in more challenging scenarios , but for now , it looks like it could be a material succeeder .
I ’m also enjoy Samsung ’s OneUI more than I thought I would , as I tend to opt something as close to stock Android as I can get . Sure , there are UI quirks that I ’m not a huge lover of – like the blockish shape of telling in the notification shade – but on the whole , Samsung does a good occupation at enhance the Android experience already on offer .
That includes a number of shortcuts available in the apprisal shade not usable on most competition , a options app that really makes sense ( I ’m looking at you , Xiaomi ) and little tweaks that make the experience that little bit smooth overall .
Of course , the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has averyhigh - end price tag to agree starting at £ 1,249 with 256 GB of warehousing , but based on what I ’ve seen so far , it could actually vindicate the cost .
I ’ll be ferment on my full reexamination of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra in the coming days , so keep an eye out for my final thoughts presently .
