Eternal Revolutionary: Samsung Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23+ review

Unlike the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, which is aimed at the most demanding users and connoisseurs

unique features, the younger Samsung Galaxy S23 andGalaxy S23 + came out as more mainstream flagship smartphones that have everything you need. They are equipped with amazing AMOLED screens with 120Hz adaptive refresh rate and high brightness levels, as well as a versatile set of cameras that take good photos in almost any situation. Smartphones are made of glass and reinforced aluminum, have a nice minimalistic design and are protected from dust and water. Autonomy is at a typical level for flagships, so you won’t have to charge more than once a day. Stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos support are also present. There are no compromises in performance compared to Ultra: smartphones received the same flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy processor. But it is worth noting that in younger models it can overheat a little during prolonged maximum loads. Although in everyday use this can not be afraid. Samsung Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23+ received screen sizes of 6.1 and 6.6 inches, so everyone can choose the best one for themselves. More familiar with a large screen, or compact, of which there are very few available now. Samsung Galaxy S23 price starts from 40 000 UAH, Galaxy S23+ – 48 000 UAH. As always, there is a special offer for buyers that will allow you to save a little.

Samsung Galaxy S23

Flagship smartphone with 6.1-inch DynamicAMOLED 2X display with adaptive refresh rate up to 120 Hz, top-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, 8 GB of RAM and 128/256 GB of internal memory. The main camera is equipped with three modules, the case has protection against dust and water according to the IP68 standard, the back cover is made of glass, the frame is made of reinforced aluminum.

MOYO
Allo
Power socket
Comfy

Samsung Galaxy S23+

Flagship smartphone with 6.6-inch DynamicAMOLED 2X display with adaptive refresh rate up to 120 Hz, top-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, 8 GB of RAM and 256/512 GB of internal memory. The main camera is equipped with three modules, the case has protection against dust and water according to the IP68 standard, the back cover is made of glass, the frame is made of reinforced aluminum.

Power socket
MOYO
Allo
Comfy

6 reasons to buy Samsung Galaxy S23+ and Galaxy S23:

high-quality AMOLED screens with a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz and high brightness;
flagship processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy;
minimalistic design, high-quality materials and water protection;
a versatile set of cameras that shoot well;
Android 13 with a fast and convenient One UI 5.1 shell;
you are looking for a compact flagship (Samsung Galaxy S23)

3 reasons not to buy Samsung Galaxy S23+ and Galaxy S23:

noticeable heating at a long maximum load;
high price;
slow memory in 8/128 GB configuration (Samsung Galaxy S23).

Fast passage:

What is included?
What do the Samsung Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23+ look like?
How good are the screens?
What are the unlock methods?
What about performance, memory, sound and autonomy?
How user-friendly is the interface?
How good are the cameras?
In the dry residue

What is included?

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Wait for some bonuses in the flagship bundlesmartphones are not worth it. Therefore, along with the Samsung Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23 +, we get the usual Type-C cable and a tool to remove the SIM tray. And, of course, the documentation.

What do the Samsung Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23+ look like?

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Slightly updated design last yearreceived the top model Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, while the Samsung Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+ were quite similar to the Galaxy S21 line. In the same year, Samsung brought the entire flagship line to a single minimalist style. Unfortunately, last year's line is not at hand. But I am sure that if there are differences in front, then they are minimal. So we have the usual monoblocks, the entire front panel of which is occupied by screens. There is a suspicion that the already very thin bezels around the display have become even smaller. The corners of the screen are rounded, repeating the shape of the case. The screens are completely flat, without rounding of the protective glass. Which, by the way, both in front and behind - Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2, like the "main" flagship Ultra. The front camera is traditionally in a small round hole.

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The frame of smartphones is made of reinforcedaluminum. Samsung claims it is durable and scratch resistant. The frame is glossy and has a rounded shape. For light models, it is silver, for dark ones it matches the color of the back panel. The buttons are located in the usual place, on the right side. They are quite large, and the height of their location is comfortable for use with any hand. And this applies to both the compact Samsung Galaxy S23 and the larger Galaxy S23+.

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Of the useful on the top edge of smartphones onlyadditional microphone. Below is the main speaker, USB Type-C connector, tray and two microphones, as in the Ultra model. Last year's flagships had one microphone at the bottom. It is difficult to say how positively an additional microphone will affect the quality of voice transmission or sound recording. In general, there were no problems with this before.

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Tray without surprises: Holds two SIM cards.There is also support for eSIM. It looks like you can forget about slots for MicroSD, in flagships it's so for sure. Yes, it makes you think well about the required volume before buying. But there is some logic in this too: internal drives in smartphones outperform memory cards in terms of speed by a wide margin.

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Major design changes at the back.Now, instead of a common metal camera block, we have three separate vertically placed lenses of the same shape and size. The situation with the frame color is similar to the frame: either silver or the same color as the smartphone. In general, it looks good. But, as with the Ultra, the cameras stick out a lot. The paint may come off. The glass of the back cover is frosted, pleasant to the touch. On light models, prints are not visible at all, on dark ones there is a little, but it is not critical and does not spoil the overall look. Color options: black, lavender, cream and green. We had cream and green. It all depends solely on personal preferences. But it's a pity that they decided to change the green compared to the gray-green in the Samsung Galaxy Fold4. Subjectively, he was much more successful.

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The new Samsung Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23+ are notreceived some extraordinary design solutions, but they look stylish and expensive. They feel quite solid and solid in the hand. Regarding the size - again, a matter of personal taste. But it is very pleasing that Samsung does not abandon the compact model. There are enough flagships with large displays. But of the current compact ones, only the iPhone 14 is mentioned, which will not interest an Android connoisseur. And ASUS Zenfone 9, which, unfortunately, is not officially sold in Ukraine.

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How good are the screens?

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The Samsung Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23+ useDynamic AMOLED 2X displays with a resolution of 2340x1080 (aspect ratio - 19.5: 9), a refresh rate of 48-120 Hz and a sensor reading rate of 240 Hz. Galaxy S23 display diagonal is 6.1 inches, pixel density - 422 ppi. This is one of the most compact flagships today. The Galaxy S23+ has 6.6 inches and a pixel density of about 390 ppi. The screens support HDR10+, promise 100% DCI-P3 color gamut and peak brightness of 1750 cd/m2. In general, there were no complaints about the displays of last year's flagships. This year, too, everything is fine: a rich picture, a very high level of maximum brightness and maximum viewing angles.

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The set of settings is similar to all the latestSamsung flagships: selectable light or dark theme with the ability to turn on according to the schedule, brightness, scale of interface elements, font size, “comfort for the eyes” (automatically adjusts the color temperature depending on the ambient light), color display modes (saturated and natural), frequency updates and Always on Display:

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Samsung Galaxy S23's maximum screen brightness“saturated” mode was 681.765 cd / m2, the color gamut is much wider than the sRGB color space, all indicators are very close to the reference values, including color temperature and RGB color indicators.

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In "Natural" mode, the color gamut is close to sRGB, although slightly out of sync with it. The maximum brightness is lower: 629.093 cd/m2. Color reproduction is also quite accurate.

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The screen brightness of the Samsung Galaxy S23+ is almost the same. In "Saturated" mode is 670.598 cd/m2. At the same time, the color reproduction is also close to the Galaxy S23:

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Brightness in "Natural" mode: 641.507 cd/m2. Color reproduction is also close to S23, which is quite logical.

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Comparison with other models:

Device name
White field brightness,
cd / m2
Black field brightness,
cd / m2
Contrast

Samsung Galaxy S23+
670.598
0
∞

Samsung Galaxy S23
681.765
0
∞

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
696.675
0
∞

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra
688.649
0
∞

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3
460.6
0
∞

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3
479.32
0
∞

Xiaomi 11T Pro
493.872
0
∞

ASUS ROG Phone 5
482.347
0
∞

Samsung Galaxy S21 +
437.906
0
∞

Sony Xperia 1
394.97
0
∞

Huawei P30 Pro
447.247
0
∞

Samsung Galaxy S10
378.72
0
∞

What are the unlock methods?

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Samsung Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23+ are already equipped withfamiliar to the line of ultrasonic fingerprint scanners in the screen. A few years ago, the very first models with such scanners had some difficulties, both with accuracy and with recognition speed. Now there are no such problems, the scanners work fine. In addition to the fingerprint scanner, there is face recognition by the front camera. This way of recognizing the owner without surprises. There are no additional sensors, so reliability is not the highest. Works quickly with sufficient lighting. In the settings, you can additionally enable automatic increase in display brightness in poor lighting, as well as an option in which recognition will not work if the eyes are closed.

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What about performance, memory, sound and autonomy?

Flagship Samsung Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23+received Qualcomm's flagship processor in all regions. Namely, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy, a slightly overclocked version for Samsung smartphones. We already talked about it in the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review. In short: this is an eight-core processor using a 1+2+2+3 core scheme, which is manufactured using a 4nm process technology. It includes an ARM Cortex-X3 core overclocked to 3.36 GHz up to 3.36 GHz, two Cortex-A715 cores at 2.8 GHz, two Cortex-A710 at 2.8 GHz, three Cortex-A510 at 2 GHz and an Adreno 740 graphics accelerator with a frequency of 719 MHz and support for real-time ray tracing. The RAM can be 8GB LPDDR5X. The internal storage can be 128/256 for the Galaxy S23 and 256/512 GB for the Galaxy S23+. It is worth noting an important point. All configurations received the latest high-speed UFS 4.0 memory, except for the 128 GB Galaxy S23. It uses UFS 3.1. Both smartphones demonstrate very high performance in all synthetic tests and the difference between them is minimal. The performance margin will be enough for the next couple of years. The only thing you can pay attention to is the difference in the speed of UFS 4.0 and UFS 3.1. The new memory shows read speeds of around 3350 MB/s and write speeds of around 1520 MB/s. UFS 3.1 - 1725 MB / s and 580 MB / s, respectively. Samsung Galaxy S23+ Performance Tests:

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Samsung Galaxy S23 Performance Tests:

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But with the stability of smartphonesslightly worse than the Galaxy S23 Ultra. CPU Throttling Test showed that under long maximum loads there is overheating and performance can drop up to 72%. At the same time, the metal frame becomes noticeably warm. Although in real life this is not expressed in any way. Neither modern games nor the camera load the system so much and there are no problems with overheating in everyday use. This also applies to the Samsung Galaxy S23+:

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And Samsung Galaxy S23+:

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Smartphones handle all modern games without problems. Popular CoD Mobile, Diablo Immortal, Genshin Impact run at high graphics settings with stable 60 FPS:

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The set of wireless interfaces is almost the sametop model Galaxy S23 Ultra. There is tri-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac / 6e, Bluetooth 5.3 LE with support for aptX, aptX HD and LDAC codecs, as well as NFC. The only difference is that lower models do not support Ultra Wideband (UWB). There is support for global positioning systems GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS. Smartphones can play stereo sound using the main and conversational speakers. There is support for Dolby Atmos. The sound is loud, the call will not be missed. The quality is also at a good level. Of course, you should not expect deep lows, but the quality is quite enough to watch videos on YouTube. The standard music player has the usual functionality and supports all common formats, including FLAC.

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Smartphones got a little biggerbatteries compared to last year's flagships. Samsung Galaxy S23 received a 3900 mAh battery instead of 3700 mAh. Samsung Galaxy S23 + - 4700 mAh instead of 4500. The increase is small, but better than nothing. Moreover, the processor is quite well optimized. It's hard to talk about a real increase in battery life compared to the Samsung Galaxy S22 line without having it on hand. But in general, with autonomy, everything is very good. In a daily use scenario (about 15 minutes of calls, constant connection via LTE / Wi-Fi, mail, social networks, browser, messages, Youtube, 15-20 photos, about an hour of music via Bluetooth), the younger model can be charged once a day. Galaxy S23 + lives a little longer, but the difference is not significant. The Samsung Galaxy S23+ supports proprietary 45W wired fast charging, while the Galaxy S23 supports 25W. Both models also support 15W wireless charging and 4.5W reverse wireless charging for accessories.

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What about the interface?

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Smartphones run on Android 13 with proprietaryshell One UI 5.1. We wrote about it and the innovations in detail in the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review. The shell works quickly, there were no errors or serious bugs during the use. Everything is done as usual: desktops with widgets and applications, a curtain with switches, a separate menu with all applications (can be disabled), gesture or button navigation, simple mode.

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Sufficiently functional application manager, dual-window mode, the ability to open the application in floating window or icon mode.

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Edge side panels.

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And some proprietary applications:

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How good are the cameras?

The triple rear camera in smartphones was left withoutchanges: a modern essential set. The main camera is 50 megapixels with f / 1.8 aperture, 24 mm EGF, sensor size 1 / 1.56 ″, 1.0µm with support for multi-directional PDAF and optical stabilization. Telephoto module 10 MP, f/2.4. 1/3.94″, 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS, 3x zoom. And an ultra-wide-angle camera: 12 MP, f/2.2, 13mm, 120˚, 1/2.55″ 1.4µm, no autofocus. Smartphones can write video in resolution up to 8K 30 FPS video. Only the front camera has changed. Instead of a 10-megapixel front, now 12 MP, f / 2.2, 25 mm with phase detection autofocus.

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The camera app is user-friendly and intuitive.Shooting mode carousel, camera switching buttons (with the ability to smoothly adjust the zoom), flash settings, aspect ratio, resolution, timer and auto frame enhancement on the main screen. More modes in the "More" section. They can be moved to the main carousel. There is an Expert RAW mode, as in the older Ultra model. In fact, this is a separate application. It can take pictures in uncompressed RAW format for manual processing, there is the possibility of simultaneous saving in RAW, JPEG, manual camera settings and additional modes. They are also already familiar: “Astrophoto” (with a choice of shutter speed and a guide to the sky), as well as “Multiple exposure”.

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The main camera takes great picturesthe vast majority of situations, including night mode. The pictures are very detailed, mostly with natural colors and a wide dynamic range. HDR usually works well and pulls out the dark parts of the frame quite well. Only in the night mode, yellowish tints appear. Pictures on the main camera of the Samsung Galaxy S23 +:

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The ultra-wide-angle camera captures good shots in sufficient light. In the evening, the detailing drops a little and sometimes there are noises:

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The telephoto camera with 3x generally works well, but in poor lighting conditions it becomes a little more difficult to take a clear photo:

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Video 4K 60 FPS. Stabilization works very well:

Smartphone cameras are completely the same and they shoot about the same. Below are pictures from the Samsung Galaxy S23:

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Ultra Wide:

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3x zoom.

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4K 60 FPS video:

Bottom line: three things you need to know about the Samsung Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23+.

The Samsung Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23+ are powered by Qualcomm's flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy processors.
Smartphones have a versatile set of cameras that take good pictures.
Autonomy is enough for a day of work.

Specifications

Samsung Galaxy S23
Samsung Galaxy S23+

Display
Dynamic AMOLED 2x, 6.1 inches, 2340×1080 (19.5:9 aspect ratio), 422 ppi, HDR10+, 48-120 Hz, Gorilla Glass Victus 2
Dynamic AMOLED 2x, 6.6 inches, 2340×1080 (19.5:9 aspect ratio), 390 ppi, HDR10+, 48-120 Hz, Gorilla Glass Victus 2

Housing
dimensions: 146.3×70.9×7.6 mm, weight: 167 g
dimensions: 157.8×76.2×7.6 mm, weight: 195 g

CPU
64-bit 4nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy, 1×3.36GHz Cortex-X3, 2×2.8GHz Cortex-A715, 2×2.8GHz Cortex-A710, 3×2.0GHz Cortex-A510, Adreno graphics 740 719 MHz
64-bit 4nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy, 1×3.36GHz Cortex-X3, 2×2.8GHz Cortex-A715, 2×2.8GHz Cortex-A710, 3×2.0GHz Cortex-A510, Adreno graphics 740 719 MHz

RAM
8 GB
8 GB

Flash memory
128 GB UFS 3.1 / 256 GB UFS 4.0
256/512 GB UFS 4.0

Camera

50 MP (f/1.8, 24mm, 1/1.57″, 1.0µm, multi-directional PDAF, OIS); telephoto 10 MP (f/2.4, 70mm, 1/3.94″, 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS, 3x zoom); ultra wide-angle 12 MP (f/2.2, 13mm, 120˚, 1/2.55″ 1.4µm); flash, video [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]; front camera: 12 MP (f/2.2, 25mm, PDAF)

Wireless technology
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e (tri-band), Bluetooth 5.3 LE, NFC
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e (tri-band), Bluetooth 5.3 LE, NFC

GPS
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO

Battery
3900 mAh, non-removable, fast charging 25W, wireless charging 15W, wireless charging
4700 mAh, non-removable, fast charging 45W, wireless charging 15W, reverse wireless charging

operating system
Android 13 + One UI 5.1
Android 13 + One UI 5.1

Sim card
2xNanoSIM
2xNanoSIM

Additionally
IP68 dust and water protection, ultrasonic in-screen fingerprint scanner, Samsung Wireless DeX
IP68 dust and water protection, ultrasonic in-screen fingerprint scanner, Samsung Wireless DeX

For those who want to know more:

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Review: Reach for the Stars
Samsung Galaxy Flip4 review: the flagship clamshell Android smartphone
Samsung Galaxy Fold4 review: The best smartphone for geeks
Review of Samsung Galaxy Watch5 Pro and Watch5: plus autonomy, minus the physical bezel
Hello Hi-Res Audio without wires! Review of the flagship TWS headphones Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro