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Like all other 5G phones released in Australia, the S23 Ultra is also 4G compatible, so even when you're not getting super-fast 5G, you should still get pretty solid 4G, too. Camera Once you go beyond 10X, you're entering Samsung's "Space Zoom" territory, where a combination of digital zoom and software will find and sharpen edges, and theoretically let you get close. In fact, tested in Sydney on the Telstra 5G network, we found the S23 Ultra was able to hit into the 750Mbps mark, though your mileage may vary based on your network, where you are, and the strength of the network at the time.
Hopefully you know this going in, and won’t see any issues, with the phone offering you a massive 6.8 inch 3088×1440 Quad HD+ screen at a maximum of 120Hz, plus an S-Pen to let you do that little bit more. Like other tablets with a stylus attached, that means writing on the screen, scribbling on the screen, and drawing on the screen, all either while the phone is on and doing things, or even on standby. As for how this relates to real-world performance, the good news is you shouldn't need to think about it at all. Using the S23 Ultra in a day-to-day way should see apps work beautifully and little to no lag in most of what you do. More interesting, however, is the use of downsampling which sees the 200 megapixel sensor able to use four pixels for every one in 50 megapixel shots, or 16 pixels for every one in 12 megapixel shots.
In the S23 Ultra, there’s a slightly curved display with softened edges and a good solid heft, thanks in part to a use of metal and glass in a way that screams premium.
Samsung hasn't made many changes to the S-Pen, which can still feel a touch flimsy, but isn't bad overall. It still does all the things you'd expect an S-Pen to do, such as writing and scribbling on the screen when the phone is on standby, doing more when the phone is actually awake, and using it as a presentation controller with the handy button on the inside. We're not likely to use the S-Pen, but others could, and between the flexibility of that feature and not necessarily needing to have a tablet, plus the fairly solid versatility of the camera and the impressive system performance, Samsung's S23 Ultra is about as worth the price as nay other flagship phone released today. The only other critical factor Samsung may struggle with is upgrades, because it's a near impossible argument from last year's model to this one.For instance, you can zoom to 2X in the 200 megapixel 1X camera and Samsung will use smarts to find that spot, while the space between 3X and 10X has something similar going for it. Samsung has paired that with either 8GB or 12GB RAM depending on the model you opt for, and either 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of storage. Samsung’s choice of RAM and storage size is reflective on how much you spend, and like most flagship phones to date (pretty much all), there is no expandable storage in this handset. The camera is sure an update on the previous generation, but the battery reads like a winning change, too. Overall, achieving a full day of strong use is a great outcome, and for the rest of us not living on our phone at all hours of the day and night, two days is quite impressive. It's the sort of battery life we've yearned for, and virtually no one is delivering. Great work, Samsung. But it's not much of an update, if any at all. It's a phone with the S-Pen, just like the S22 Ultra was.
About the only major issue we have is that the camera can also feel a touch slow to fire, which seems to be a consistent Samsung issue. We've seen it on what must have years worth of Samsung phones, and it's a bug that just doesn't seem to go away. You might wonder why there's such a big camera in this phone, and that's fair. After all, megapixels don't always make for a better camera, something many a photographer learned over a decade ago when the term "megapixel myth" popped up. Pit the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra against Asus' high-end gaming phone from last year, the ROG Phone 6 Pro, and Samsung's phone is faster again, even when the Asus model is on its high-speed "X" mode. In daylight, images are sharp and crisp offering great colours and vibrancy, with some reasonable versatility in what the S23 Ultra offers. We were able to capture solid shots at most times, with decent macros, albeit not as good as what Apple offers in its flagship models of late.Big phones are all the rage, and if you’re after one of the best of the biggest, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra might just have your name on it. The size could be an issue if you're not used to huge phones, and some hands will find the size so unwieldy, they may struggle to hold the handset comfortably. Mind you, if you're coming from a big phone already, this is likely already an issue you've overcome. For instance, if you have no problem with large phones, you’ll likely love the massive 6.8 inch size of the S23 Ultra, and dig the S-Pen built into the body. That last bit is one of the main features, though it hasn’t changed dramatically from last generation, offering a way to draw and write on the screen, whether it’s off or on standby, and giving you some extra controls if you need them, too. Yes, it was over ten years ago, and while some laughed at the idea, Samsung managed to make the big phone work. We got past the term “phablet”, and these days, big is in. Every phone is big, with small phones more difficult to find than ever. On the one hand, it's the same 5000mAh battery from the older S22 Ultra, but on the other, it just performs better in general. It's so good, you can get a good two days of life from regular use if you wanted to, and if you use it less, you might hit the three mark.
That said, if you came from last year’s model, you won’t see much of a difference. It is more of the same, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Features That lines up roughly with the 12 megapixels on offer from the ultra-wide camera in this phone, and is also similar to the 12 megapixels used in the S23 and S23+, not to mention Samsung's obvious competitor in the iPhone 14 Pro Max. This combination gives you a fairly versatile range of 0.5X, 1X, 3X, and 10X, while Samsung's AI smarts and digital zoom kind of blurs the difference between the zoom and focal lengths, and even manages to go beyond them. With all of that tech inside what is easily one of the biggest phones around, using the phone can be a bit of a mixed bag.It all sits under a big 6.8 inch slightly curved display, something Samsung’s calls an “Edge” display, running a Dynamic AMOLED panel at Quad HD+ (3088×1440) and 120Hz. There’s support for HDR here and Corning’s scratch-resistant Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protecting things, while the rest of the body is made from aluminium and glass, measuring 8.9mm thin and weighing 234g. Even comparing the S23 Ultra to last year’s S22 Ultra and the S21 Ultra before that, the newer handset has no problems demolishing its siblings, beating it on benchmarks in single core, multi-core, and graphical performance.
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