Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra vs S22 Ultra: What to expect

an introduction

What new features does the Galaxy S23 Ultra bring and should last year’s Galaxy S22 Ultra owners have an upgrade?

The new S23 Ultra isn’t official yet, but with plenty of leaks and rumors, we know a lot about the upcoming flagship. Highlights include the rumored switch to a new Snapdragon chip for all models, ending years of painful division as consumers outside the US got a lower Exynos processor. Then, on the front of the camera, the new 200MP main camera takes over, and you get other improvements to the camera system.

Read on as we delve into all those interesting details, and explore the differences and all the important changes to the S23 Ultra.

Quality of design and presentation

Why change what works?

The Galaxy S23 Ultra looks so similar to its predecessor that we totally forgive you if you’re confused and can’t tell the two apart.

There are some gifts, but they are hidden. The biggest should be the new model’s flat sides that mimic the look of modern iPhones and make it easy to pick up the phone from the table.

Both phones are IP68 certified, which means that they have the highest water and dust rating available in a co-flagship. And at the bottom, you’ll find a USB-C port on both, but no 3.5mm headphone jack.

You get a large 6.8-inch screen on both phones and it has slightly wider dimensions than your typical smartphone, so you get more screen real estate to work with.

Both phones are Dynamic AMOLED, with a resolution of 1440 pixels and an automatic refresh rate of 1-120 Hz.

The only change we can expect to see on the S23 Ultra’s display is brightness, which will rise above the current maximum brightness of 1,750 nits on the S22 Ultra.

We don’t expect to see any major changes in biometrics. Both phones rely on an ultrasonic in-display fingerprint scanner that has a reputation for being reliable and fast enough (even if it’s not the fastest). Both will also support image-based face recognition, which is great, but don’t forget that such a system can be spoofed without much effort and isn’t as secure as a 3D face unlock system.

performance and software

The biggest leap in the performance of the Galaxy flagship in recent years!

The big change for the S23 Ultra should be the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor. Not only that, though, Samsung is said to supply all Galaxy S23 Ultra models with this chip, no matter what country they’re sold in. That’s a change from the past few years when Samsung sold the Snapdragon version of the Ultra in the US and a few other markets, while the rest of the world got a lesser Exynos processor instead.

So, what is the difference between the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 on the S23 Ultra and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 on the S22 Ultra? Both are made with 4nm technology, but the second generation has better energy efficiency and packs a higher performance.

Performance benchmark results:

*S23 Ultra results are preliminary.

As you can see in the preliminary test results above, the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip offers a massive improvement in speeds of around 30% in both single and multi-core performance. These are gains we haven’t seen in recent years, and finally will bring the Galaxy S23 Ultra much closer to the industry-leading performance of the Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max.

According to the current leaks and rumors, the S23 Ultra will be offered in the same configurations as the S22 Ultra, which are as follows:

Samsung rocked the Android world with its 4-year promise of major software updates and 5 years of security updates, which we expect the S23 Ultra and S22 Ultra to stick to. Compare this to just 3 years or even 2 years of software updates on many phones, and you can appreciate the added value.

The S23 Ultra is expected to launch with Android 13 with Samsung’s One UI 5 interface, and we don’t expect to see any differences in the new S23 Ultra and the older model.

camera

The new 200MP main camera promises a major improvement

A great camera is what makes or breaks a flagship, and so far, Samsung has been a hit with the Ultra Series’ quad-camera system and the whole space zoom concept.

With a new 200MP image sensor, expectations are for great detail, and leakers promise major improvements in low-light photos and videos. Other cameras are expected to benefit from software improvements, but they are largely expected to keep the familiar hardware.

Leaker Ice Universe claims that the new 200MP camera on the S23 Ultra will be a 1/1.3″ sensor with an f/1.7 aperture. That’s a slightly larger physical size than the 1/1.33″ sensor used on the S22 Ultra, plus you get the fastest aperture on the latest Ultra model.

Leaked camera sample of Galaxy S23 Ultra (left) vs. S22 Ultra (right)

This leaked camera sample purportedly from the S23 Ultra shows a huge improvement in the amount of detail, so we’re excited.

We haven’t heard much about the new video features, but we expect Samsung to address some of the capabilities that competitors have added. The iPhone 14 Pro added a new working mode for still video footage, so we might see Samsung’s answer to that, and Google has a useful object removal tool as well.

Sound quality and tactile feel

So far, it seems that the Galaxy S23 Ultra will offer the same sound quality as its predecessor. That means there’s no 3.5mm headphone jack, and B. A dual stereo speaker setup with a main speaker on the bottom and an auxiliary secondary speaker in the earpiece on the top of the phone.

We have complained about sub-optimal sound quality on the S22 Ultra, our main issue is the lack of any depth of sound and we hope Samsung improves that in the new version.

In terms of haptic feedback, we were quite happy with the S22 Ultra, and we don’t expect to see much change in touch on the S23 Ultra.

Battery life and charging

Same battery size, but can actual battery life be improved?

The S23 Ultra and the newer S22 Ultra are said to have the same battery, 5,000mAh.

This size is becoming the norm in major Android apps these days, and anything less than that sounds downright disappointing. However, this year the S23 Ultra brings a more efficient processor and that may allow it to actually score better battery life, but we don’t expect the difference to be much.

For most intents and purposes, both phones will be a day-to-day affair with overnight charging.

We’ll update this section with our independent battery tests as soon as we get the phones, so you know all the details about actual battery life.

We also don’t expect to see changes to the charging interface. As per the new industry trend, there is no charger included in the box with any of these phones.

The maximum wired charging speeds on both are 45W, and to get there you’ll need not only a fast charger, but also a special 5A cable (Samsung sells both). Expect to see charging times of just over an hour on both phones.

Specifications comparison

Summary and final verdict

At the end of the day, the Galaxy S23 Ultra might look like its predecessor, but the massive processor upgrade and exciting new camera system make us really look forward to it.

It’s too early to tell if S22 Ultra users should upgrade, but given the speed gains and potential for a much better camera, this may be one of the rare instances where we’d recommend an upgrade.

What do you expect from the Galaxy S23 Ultra?