Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Review: A Dominant Android Phone
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Audio Quality, Performance And Battery Life
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Audio, Data, and Call Reception
We used the unlocked Galaxy S23 Ultra review unit primarily on T-Mobile
and Telus’ sub-6GHz 5G and 4G LTE networks in San Francisco, New York
City, and Vancouver (Canada), and didn’t run into any issues with call
quality or data speeds. The S23 Ultra is compatible with every 5G band
currently deployed in North America, including C-band and mmWave.
Obviously, it’s certified for T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon in the US.
The S23 Ultra packs AKG-tuned stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos that
sound loud and clear. Audio performance is on par with its predecessor,
the S22 Ultra, and other Android flagships like the Pixel 7 Pro. The S23
also supports aptX HD and LDAC for wireless audio over Bluetooth, but
you’ll need an external DAC for wired playback because the USB Type-C port
only works with digital accessories (not analog dongles).
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Performance
The Galaxy S23 series boasts a special
version of Qualcomm’s 4nm flagship SoC manufactured by TSMC. It’s dubbed the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy, and it’s basically a binned chip that’s
capable of higher peak clock speeds on its prime core (3.36GHz). This means there are no
Exynos-equipped models at all this year, which is probably for the best.
On the S23 Ultra, the SoC is paired with 8 or 12GB RAM (LPDDR5x), and 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of storage (UFS 4.0), without micro SD expansion support. In terms of subjective performance, this phone is pleasantly quick. Everything runs smoothly and efficiently, and it juggled our everyday apps – productivity, communication, entertainment, and gaming – without skipping a beat. We didn’t observe any hiccups, even when multitasking between numerous apps.
The benchmark results show that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 delivers blazing performance. This is especially obvious with GPU workloads, which benefit from major speed gains compared to last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Throttling is also far less pronounced than on the S22 Ultra, and efficiency is significantly better overall.
On the S23 Ultra, the SoC is paired with 8 or 12GB RAM (LPDDR5x), and 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of storage (UFS 4.0), without micro SD expansion support. In terms of subjective performance, this phone is pleasantly quick. Everything runs smoothly and efficiently, and it juggled our everyday apps – productivity, communication, entertainment, and gaming – without skipping a beat. We didn’t observe any hiccups, even when multitasking between numerous apps.
The benchmark results show that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 delivers blazing performance. This is especially obvious with GPU workloads, which benefit from major speed gains compared to last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Throttling is also far less pronounced than on the S22 Ultra, and efficiency is significantly better overall.
Galaxy S23 Series Geekbench Results
GeekBench is a purely synthetic benchmark and can be heavily targeted for optimization.
Regardless, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor delivers a notable
improvement in single and multi-threaded performance over previous generation Snapdragon 8 Gen
1-equipped Android flagships.
Galaxy S23 Series PCMark For Android Benchmarks
Futuremark's PCMark for Android is an
excellent suite of tests if you want to benchmark a wide range of tasks
on any handset -- things like image and video editing, as well as
lighter-duty, everyday workloads such as email and web browsing. When
you see the test running live, it's clear the scripted application tests
are carefully selected and tuned to make use of the each mobile platform
in a very controlled way...
Here Samsung's latest flagship shows similar performance to previous generation
models, with the Galaxy S23 Ultra falling just behind the ROG Phone 5 and 6.
Samsung Galaxy S23 Series AnTuTu 8 Benchmark Results
AnTuTu’s latest benchmark returns a number
of metrics ranked with somewhat nebulous scores, rather than frame rates
or time to complete. Here we're running the latest version of AnTuTu
across multiple Android devices. AnTuTu returns four top level
performance results which are all included here: CPU, RAM, 3D, UX (or
User Experience), along with a total score...
According to AnTuTu, the Galaxy S23 Ultra
offers a slight increase in performance vs. previous generation
Android handsets, beating the ROG Phone 6 in terms of its overall score.
However, in AITuTu, which is specifically an image recognition and classification benchmark for AI and machine learning workloads, we see a different picture. Here there are big gains for Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 powered devices like the Galaxy S23 Ultra, putting it right alongside the OnePlus 11 5G.
However, in AITuTu, which is specifically an image recognition and classification benchmark for AI and machine learning workloads, we see a different picture. Here there are big gains for Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 powered devices like the Galaxy S23 Ultra, putting it right alongside the OnePlus 11 5G.
3D Graphics And Gaming Benchmarks With Samsung's Galaxy S23 Series
Next we're checking how the Galaxy S23
Ultra compares in GFXBench, which has been one of the standard mobile
graphics/gaming performance benchmarks for years. To ensure that display
refresh (v-sync) and resolution aren't limiting factors, we're comparing
off-screen test results here. GFXBench tests OpenGL ES graphics
workloads and we're specifically testing OpenGL ES 2.0 and 3.0.
Now we're seeing the kind of performance
improvement we expected from Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-equipped devices like the Galaxy S23
Ultra. This phone clearly beats Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-powered devices like the ROG Phone 6 in these graphically rich benchmarks.
Futuremark's 3DMark Sling Shot is a newer benchmark module that's been added to the 3DMark mobile suite. Unlike previous gen 3DMark mobile tests, Sling Shot is a much more advanced OpenGL ES 3.1 and Metal API-based benchmark that employs more advanced rendering techniques, like volumetric lighting, particle illumination, multiple render targets, instanced rendering, uniform buffers and transform feedback.
Futuremark's 3DMark Sling Shot is a newer benchmark module that's been added to the 3DMark mobile suite. Unlike previous gen 3DMark mobile tests, Sling Shot is a much more advanced OpenGL ES 3.1 and Metal API-based benchmark that employs more advanced rendering techniques, like volumetric lighting, particle illumination, multiple render targets, instanced rendering, uniform buffers and transform feedback.
3DMark Sling Shot Extreme Benchmark
We're running this test in off-screen mode once again to remove display resolution differences from the equation. This lets us compare cross-platform results more reliably...
Here we only see a slight improvement to
the overall score over Snapdragon 8 Gen-1-equipped flagships. Still, the
Galaxy S23 Ultra perform extremely well in this test.
Galaxy S23 Series 3DMark Wild Life Benchmark Tests
3DMark Wild Life is the latest
cross-platform test from UL. Its primary purpose is to measure GPU
performance across platforms, and two distinct tests are available.
The standard Wild Life test is designed to give feedback on how a
game performs over a short period of time. With mobile games, people
typically play in brief spurts when they find some free time; be it
on the bus, on the subway, or a quick battle royale session over
lunch break. The 3DMark Wild Life Stress Test, on the other hand,
shows how a device performs over a longer stretch of time, and takes
note of performance degradation that might crop up due to increased
heat levels and throttling.
3DMark Wild Life is a significantly more taxing graphics benchmark that employs cutting-edge mobile game engine technologies to deliver impressive visuals -- as you can see in the screen shot above. Here the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-powered Galaxy S23 Ultra delivers a massive improvement in performance versus the fastest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-equipped devices, and even comes out ahead of the RedMagic 8 Pro, which is an actively-cooled, gaming-oriented phone that's also powered by the Snapgradon 8 Gen 2.
Fortunately, the Galaxy S23 Ultra does not exhibit the kind of excessive throttling we experienced with the Galaxy S22 Ultra in the Wild Life Stress test, managing a stability score of 82.7%.
3DMark Wild Life is a significantly more taxing graphics benchmark that employs cutting-edge mobile game engine technologies to deliver impressive visuals -- as you can see in the screen shot above. Here the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-powered Galaxy S23 Ultra delivers a massive improvement in performance versus the fastest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-equipped devices, and even comes out ahead of the RedMagic 8 Pro, which is an actively-cooled, gaming-oriented phone that's also powered by the Snapgradon 8 Gen 2.
Fortunately, the Galaxy S23 Ultra does not exhibit the kind of excessive throttling we experienced with the Galaxy S22 Ultra in the Wild Life Stress test, managing a stability score of 82.7%.
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Other Features and Battery Life
The remaining specs are pretty much what you’d expect
from a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 flagship, including sub-6GHz and mmWave 5G
(SA / NSA), CAT 22 LTE, dual-band WiFi 6e (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.3
(LE), NFC, UWB, dual-band A-GPS / GLONASS / BeiDou / GALILEO
positioning. You’ll also find the usual collection of sensors on board
(ambient light, proximity, accelerometer, gyro, compass, and
barometer).
Haptics feel great thanks to a high-quality linear vibration motor, and the ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensor is fast and accurate. Face unlock, which is also available, performs well. On the charging front, the S23 Ultra features 45W wired charging (via USB PD 3.0) and 15W Qi wireless charging (with reverse wireless charging up to 4.5W). As you’d expect from Samsung, there’s a USB C-to-C cable in the box, but no charger.
Haptics feel great thanks to a high-quality linear vibration motor, and the ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensor is fast and accurate. Face unlock, which is also available, performs well. On the charging front, the S23 Ultra features 45W wired charging (via USB PD 3.0) and 15W Qi wireless charging (with reverse wireless charging up to 4.5W). As you’d expect from Samsung, there’s a USB C-to-C cable in the box, but no charger.
When it comes to battery life, the S23 Ultra is a champ, and easily beats last year’s S22 Ultra. The 5,000mAh battery lasted a whopping 15 hours and 2 minutes at 120Hz (adaptive, 1080p) in the PCMark battery test. Basically, this means that for the majority of users, the battery will easily keep on ticking for an entire day on a single charge. In fact, two days aren’t out of reach with moderate use, which is just outstanding.
