Review of the Samsung Galaxy S23: elegant, well-balanced, but a little dull

The simplest phone for anybody seeking for an Android phone to suggest is the Samsung Galaxy S23 series. Require the greatest of the best? For the time being at least, the S23 Ultra is most likely that. Do you need a low-cost flagship? That's the S23, then. Additionally, the S23+ is available to assist you if you want anything larger.

The whole series of phones from Samsung has the overclocked Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which is exclusive to Samsung goods. These are excellent phones. It is also present in the two new Z series foldables, the three sizes of the Tab S9, and the latest Samsung phones and tablets. Samsung is pushing this chip as hard as it can, wringing it dry. And there's good reason for that—its potency is immense.

However, the S23 is aware that a phone need more than just electricity. On paper, it seems like the ideal phone for most people because of its excellent three-camera arrangement, attractive 120Hz OLED display, tidy and pleasing design, quick charging, clear selfies, and a host of other features. And although it may be the case, it seems a little artificial since all these things are covered so well. Actually, even with the vivid Lavender model I'm reviewing, I feel that the S23 is a touch dull.

But let's start at the beginning before we do that:

Benefits:

• Perfectly well-rounded
• Powerful chip for the price
• Excellent display

Drawbacks:

• Sterile design
• Small improvements beyond the chipset
• All a bit boring, really

Cost and accessibility:

There are many stores and network providers who sell the Samsung Galaxy S23, but if you get it straight from Samsung, you may choose from a few exclusive colours. Phantom Black, Cream, Green, and Lavender are the available colours for the S23; the colours Lime and Graphite are only available on the Samsung online.

• 128GB – $799.99 / £849
• 256GB – $859.99 / £899

Specs of the Samsung Galaxy S23:

Attributes

The Samsung Galaxy S23 has all of the expected features. The features include a fingerprint sensor, Samsung Pay, the fun but underutilised DeX that transforms your phone into a desktop, and the clumsy voice assistant Bixby (don't worry, you can use "Hey Google" instead). This phone is a Samsung, and it performs Samsung functions. Nice, but they are just gimmicks and not really major selling factors.Gubbins is welcome, however, even without the obvious selling points—this phone essentially has everything you could want, and that's before we even get about the performance, display, and cameras. We're discussing timelapses, night photography, phone screening, and much more. With all it's capable of, it's swinging for the fences—we'll get into the specifics below. Oh, and you're as current as possible because of Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6e.

Camera

Now let's talk about one of the Samsung Galaxy S23's best features: its cameras. Three lenses are located on the back of the phone: a 12MP ultrawide, a 10MP telephoto, and a 50MP wide camera. The items may generate extremely wonderful quality, even though these numbers don't actually imply anything.Here, the f/1.8 aperture of the wide lens is really pulling the weight. It provides more than enough light to make nighttime photos seem fantastic, especially with Samsung's new nightography processing, which produces very colourful low-light images. Using the other two lenses to zoom in on objects in low light is not the best option for nighttime photographs.In settings with more brightness, the processing is undecided; it appears either hyper-contrasty, like in the days when I edited images for my Facebook page, or somewhat washed out, like a delicate old film camera without the grain. My hypothesis is that this has to do with humans; if the picture processing detects a person, it seems to relax the deep contrast; otherwise, we perceive brighter colours and deeper darks.Though observable, this is by no means a negative thing. Though making the transition from an iPhone could come as more of a shock, if you like Samsung's cameras, you'll find more of the same here. If you'd like, you may compare the two by looking at the comparison below.However, there isn't a specific macro camera setting, so getting close-up photos isn't ideal. While it's not perfect, the telephoto manages it to some extent. However, like with other phone cameras, non-zoomed, well-lit images come out the best due to the broad camera's weight. The autofocus works in a same way: the wide lens focuses on subjects quickly, while the telephoto and ultrawide lenses may sometimes get confused.Samsung's always superior camera software helps with all of this, offering a variety of additional settings in addition to the conventional ones like night and portrait modes. Pro modes provide further editing flexibility, slow motion, panoramas, portrait video, and even a mode designed specifically for capturing food photographs. Delicious.Another option is Hyperlapse, which enables you to make a timelapse at a rapid pace. Astrophotography isn't very practical outside of certain use situations, however some of the examples that are available are really amazing. Due of a lack of a tripod, we were unable to test it out, but if you're searching for a similar gimmick, it's available here.8K video at 24 or 30 frames per second and 4K video at 30 or 60 frames per second both seem rather well in basic videos. While this is a very unfair comparison, stabilisation is a touch lacking after seeing its bigger sibling, the S23 Ultra, produce some amazing video at a fast speed.

Design

The smartphone that the S23 is obviously aiming to compete with, the iPhone 14, may be a more appropriate comparison. And in my opinion, aesthetics, build quality, and general design philosophy are some of the key battlegrounds Samsung has to prevail in, despite all the inside gubbins. Of course, everything is quite subjective, but in my opinion, the S23 is the definite loser.The Gorilla Glass Victus 2 front and rear are connected together by aluminium rails along the side of the S23. It's very tidy and often really attractive, particularly in the lavender hue I'm reviewing. It seems somewhat less opulent than its primary rival, however, and may be a bit too tidy and put together.Samsung is keeping things basic, while the people at Google create Pixel phones that are undoubtedly controversial and frankly not to my taste. It seems more like an iPhone than ever since the screen has no curved corners, the aluminium rails are just slightly bent, and there are no additional accents other than the eerily similar strips on the rails. In my opinion, Samsung does better when it feels distinct, like with the S23 Ultra, a large slab of precisely carved geometry, as opposed to this relatively mediocre product.Nevertheless, Samsung's design philosophy has advanced significantly over the years, and it's great to see how everything from the A54 to the S23 Ultra has a same design language. With the iPhone's square bumps and the rest of the competition seeming a little clunky, the three-camera layout on the back of the S23 is perhaps the nicest option available right now.The Samsung Galaxy S23 meets all of your durability requirements. Because of its IP68 designation, it can tolerate dust and can submerge for up to 30 minutes at a depth of 1.5 metres. As of the time of writing, the Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the front and back is the best available. The S23 is great, as I've already said; it contains everything you need.Display

However, tidy may not be the best description for the presentation. It's a little insane, but with a refresh rate of 120 Hz, a peak brightness of 1750 nits, and overall colour richness, it's an amazing display that easily outperforms many rivals at this cost.It's not just a fun number that your phone will never reach; that high refresh rate makes navigating menus and app displays very fluid, to the point that switching back to 60Hz seems like something is missing. Even while the bump up may not seem that significant if you're still using a 60Hz monitor, coming back down is never fun.Everything is a touch more bright than you may be accustomed to, even if the display is more than enough for everyone, giving all the features of the S23 Ultra at a much reduced pixel density. This is because when you set up the phone, it automatically switches to vivid mode, which makes things seem a little more vibrant but reduces colour accuracy. Similar functionality may be found on the Nintendo Switch, however for a daily phone, I would suggest changing the display setting from vivid to natural.Having said that, there is just no comparison to its AMOLED screen. It's fantastic for gaming and viewing content, while the S23's smaller size naturally somewhat detracts from these uses. This is a great option if you often find yourself viewing movies on your phone (although you may want to go with the larger screen of the S23+ to ensure that you're not too crowded).

Power Source

The S23's 3900mAh battery puts it at the bottom of the Android phone range. It's true that it needs less battery life overall because of its smaller screen, but it's still unsettling to see on a spec sheet. All of your concerns are unjustified, however, since the Galaxy S23 has more than enough battery life to go through a full day of regular usage, despite its smaller size.Using the phone for texting, social networking, YouTube, and a few light video games on the train before going to bed after spending the whole day outdoors seldom caused battery issues. I would be content to leave it on my bedside and charge it the next day. And all of this occurred within the time I spent extensively evaluating the phone. While everyone's typical day-to-day use varies, I believe most regular users won't see any battery issues. Oh, and you'll notice a significant improvement if you're switching from an S22.Furthermore, if you do manage to completely empty the battery, 25W wireless charging will help you restart. Although it is marketed as providing a 50% charge in 30 minutes, I was only able to test it with a 20W wall socket since the S range of phones does not have a charging connector. I was in pain since I only managed to reach 50% in 40 minutes. However, be aware that the package will not include a high-wattage plug if you don't already have one.

Performance

Though it delivers far more than just that, the new processor is probably the cause of all that fantastic battery news. We even got to ask questions about all of the new features of the chip, including ray-tracing, during Samsung's Won-joon Choi interview. Even if we don't believe these lofty promises really have any bearing in the real world, the device's raw performance more than suffices for whatever task you throw at it.When all settings are optimised, PUBG Mobile runs at a very steady 40 frames per second, which is respectable. However, considering the S23's smaller screen, the crowded HUD makes for a less than ideal experience. Messy games may not be the perfect fit, but it does the job.The same is true for CoD Mobile; although it functions well here, a larger screen would be ideal for this kind of game. From the moment of start, the game operates at its highest setting of 60 frames per second, and everything works well.While Genshin Impact maintains a respectable 30 frames per second on the highest graphics settings, it performs just as you would expect. When things become crowded, there are a few little dips and a visible delay, but Genshin normally behaves like that. On the S23, it looks pretty dang nice still.Of course, it would be a bit of a waste of time to throw anything more informal at the S23. It goes without saying that Candy Crush and Clash of Clans both function flawlessly. Of course, this shouldn't come as a surprise, but knowing it is helpful. The primary concern will always be screen size, but if you're not a mobile gaming addict, it's a very reasonable compromise in exchange for this phone's portability.The phone only became somewhat warm during the Genshin asset download in all of my tests. Not even a very long Honkai session could get the phone to do much more than warm up. Considering its compact size and absence of the S23 Ultra's vapour chamber, this is amazing. I also lost very little battery life—approximately 22%—during the course of sporadic game testing and asset downloads over the course of around two hours.Naturally, this ability serves purposes beyond just assisting you throughout your stay in Teyvat. It also implies that day-to-day operations run smoothly. This is undoubtedly the case, as shown by the swift menus, smooth animations, and seamless launching of the majority of programmes. With this kind of strength behind it, OneUI is a simple Android experience that I believe everyone can grasp.Verdict There isn't really anything wrong with the Samsung S23—that is, unless you're accustomed to really quick charging rates. It is an absolute triumph. It's a well-rounded, balanced, and flawless piece of equipment, with one of the greatest displays in this price range in addition to an amazing camera configuration. There's only really one viable alternative to this if you're looking for a powerful Android phone in a tiny form factor, as our Asus Zenfone 10 review explains. Even still, the S23 is likely your best option since it offers a superior camera.But if I had the money, I would definitely get the Zenfone. Since the S23 doesn't appear to have any appeal in any of its flawlessness. I find it quite boring that the greatest technology is simply shoved into the phone and then told to go. There's just a general safety to it all. Furthermore, it's such a vague problem that it would never alter my suggestion. This phone is something you ought to get. There's a lack of personality that most people won't find objectionable. But for me, it's a problem.

Substitutes

Zenfone 10 AsusThe Asus Zenfone 10, which has a slightly smaller screen and form factor than the S23 (only a few millimetres smaller, mind you), has emerged as the new tiny phone king. Although the S23's cameras are superior, the Zenfone has a headphone port, a novel touch-interactive navigation button, and a tonne more personality. They are quite well matched. See our Asus Zenfone 10 review for additional information.The iPhone 14 If you find the S23 to be too dull, you may also get an iPhone 14. I use an iPhone, so of course I'm kidding, but the argument between Apple and Android has unmistakably come to the conclusion that Apple is the simpler option. If you're looking for an iOS phone that is very comparable in terms of performance, camera, and battery life, come on over. If you want an Apple Watch, Mac, AirPods, or HomePod, then this is your best option. However, once you're inside, it can be impossible to exit.