Samsung Galaxy S23 vs. S23+ vs. S23 Ultra: Which Should You Choose?

Samsung's Galaxy S23 lineup is disposable successful 3 choices. The institution has expanded its flagship smartphone bid complete nan years to cater to varying user tastes. If you want to bargain Samsung's 2023 flagship phone, which is nan correct prime for you—the regular S23, nan S23+, aliases nan top-of-the-line S23 Ultra?

Find retired each nan differences betwixt nan S23, S23+, and S23 Ultra beneath to thief you decide.

Design and Display

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra continues pinch its angular design, arsenic seen connected nan S22 Ultra. Unlike nan regular S23 and S23+, nan Ultra has a boxy creation pinch angular corners and a curved display. This is simply a Note-like creation that Samsung has utilized since its Note 10 days.

Due to nan boxy creation and bigger display, nan S23 Ultra feels much unwieldy to usage one-handed. Its 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X sheet remains unchanged from nan S22 Ultra, pinch nan aforesaid QHD+ resolution, 1,750 nits highest brightness, and 1-120Hz adaptive refresh rate.

The Galaxy S23 Ultra houses an S Pen slot successful nan bottommost near corner, which offers an awesome 2.8ms latency and tin admit up to 4,096 unit levels. Like nan full S23 lineup, nan S Pen is besides IP68 dust- and water-resistant. If you person made up your mind connected getting nan S23 Ultra, check retired nan champion S Pen apps to get nan astir retired of it.

In comparison, nan Galaxy S23 and S23+ person a little boxy creation pinch rounded edges, making them much convenient to use. Their smaller 6.1-inch and 6.6-inch FHD+ adaptive 48-120Hz AMOLED panels further thief pinch one-handed use. Like nan Ultra, nan displays connected nan smaller models tin scope a highest brightness of up to 1,750 nits and support HDR10+.

The full Galaxy S23 lineup features a akin rear camera creation successful which Samsung has done distant pinch a camera bump. Instead, nan cameras beryllium flush pinch nan phone's body. Only nan camera rings protrude from nan rear panel, arsenic seen connected nan iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro series.

The Galaxy S23 Ultra has 4 cameras and a laser autofocus sensor astatine nan back, while nan S23 and S23+ characteristic 3 rear cameras. At nan front, nan phones person a spread punch to location nan selfie camera. They besides characteristic a 2nd procreation ultrasonic fingerprint scanner nether nan display.

Samsung uses its much durable Armor Aluminum and Gorilla Glass Victus 2 panels crossed nan full S23 range.

As for colors, nan full S23 lineup is disposable successful Phantom Black, Cream, Green, and Lavender shades. The Ultra is besides disposable successful exclusive Red, Lime, Graphite, and Sky Blue shadiness done Samsung's online shop successful nan US.

Camera

Samsung has stuck pinch nan aforesaid camera setup connected nan Galaxy S23 and S23+ arsenic their predecessors. So, you get a 50MP f/1.8 superior camera pinch OIS, a 12MP f/2.2 ultra-wide, and a 3x f/2.4 telephoto shooter pinch OIS. While nan camera setup is unchanged, nan caller models should connection amended image quality, acknowledgment to processing improvements and a faster ISP.

As for nan Galaxy S23 Ultra, it features a marque caller 200MP f/1.7 superior camera pinch an improved OIS system. This is paired pinch nan aforesaid sensors arsenic before: 12MP f/2.2 ultra-wide, a 10MP f/2.4 shooter pinch 3x optical zoom, and a 10MP f/4.9 camera pinch 10x periscope zoom. A laser autofocus sensor assists this setup. The telephone provides up to 10x optical zoom and 100x Space Zoom, while nan different 2 models apical retired astatine 30x Space Zoom.

Samsung has switched to a caller 12MP f/2.2 selfie camera pinch autofocus support crossed its full S23 lineup. Despite nan beforehand camera's reduced solution connected nan S23 Ultra vs. nan S22 Ultra, nan caller camera should seizure amended and much elaborate photos.

All 3 phones tin grounds 8K videos astatine 30fps, while nan selfie camera tops retired astatine 4K@60fps. They are besides tin of 960fps Super Slow-Mo videos. Other camera features connected nan S23 scope see Nightography, Director's View, and Auto Framing.

Chipset, RAM, and Storage

Samsung has gone all-in connected Qualcomm's Snapdragon chipset pinch nan 2023 Galaxy lineup. The full S23 bid uses a typical type of Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 spot pinch faster CPU and GPU speeds—there's nary exemplary pinch an Exynos spot this clip around. This Galaxy S23-exclusive spot carries nan "For Galaxy" branding, pinch Samsung optimizing immoderate games to present amended performance.

Thanks to its bigger size and larger cooling system, nan S23 Ultra should connection nan champion capacity nether sustained load. The regular S23 and nan Plus exemplary won't beryllium acold behind, though, since nan 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 spot is highly powerfulness efficient.

The 3 S23 models disagree successful their RAM and retention configurations, though. Samsung is shipping nan Galaxy S23 pinch 8GB RAM and 128GB aliases 256GB storage. The S23+ besides has 8GB RAM but a higher 256GB guidelines storage. There's a 512GB version pinch nan aforesaid magnitude of RAM.

As for nan Galaxy S23 Ultra, its entry-level exemplary has 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. The 512GB version packs 12GB RAM, pinch Samsung launching a exemplary pinch 1TB retention successful immoderate markets. This is simply a downgrade from before, arsenic nan S22 Ultra pinch 256GB retention shipped pinch 12GB RAM.

Samsung uses faster UFS 4.0 retention crossed nan full lineup, barring nan entry-level 128GB Galaxy S23. It still uses nan slower UFS 3.1 NAND. You tin travel immoderate tips to automatically amended nan capacity of your Samsung phone.

The full Galaxy S23 scope runs connected Android 13-based One UI 5.1. Samsung will bring nan latest type of its tegument to different Galaxy devices successful nan coming weeks.

Battery and Charging

With its bigger show and footprint, it is not astonishing nan Galaxy S23 Ultra packs nan biggest artillery of nan lot. It features a 5,000mAh artillery pinch 45W wired and 15W wireless accelerated charging speeds. This is nan aforesaid arsenic nan S22 Ultra from 2022, but fixed nan much businesslike chipset and different optimizations, nan S23 Ultra should past longer.

The Galaxy S23 and S23+ vessel pinch a 200mAh bigger artillery than their predecessors: 3,900mAh and 4,700mAh, respectively. Coupled pinch nan much businesslike Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, these phones should past overmuch longer than nan S22 series. Their charging speeds stay unchanged for some models: 45W for nan Plus and 25W for nan regular variant.

Samsung has equipped nan full S23 scope pinch 15W wireless and 4.5W reverse wireless charging, truthful you tin usage nan telephone to apical up your Bluetooth accessories.

Price

Given that nan S23 Ultra packs nan champion specs, it is nan astir costly of nan lot. Prices for nan telephone commencement from $1,199 successful nan US for nan entry-level version and spell up to $1,599 for nan 12GB/1TB model.

The Galaxy S23+ starts from $999, pinch nan 512GB configuration costing different $200. Lastly, there's nan Galaxy S23, which is nan cheapest of nan trio. Its prices commencement from $799 for nan 8GB/128GB model, while nan bump to 256GB will costs you $849.

Which Galaxy S23 Model Is Right for You?

If you want nan champion Android smartphone of nan year, look nary further than nan Galaxy S23 Ultra. It packs a monolithic display, a whopping 200MP superior camera, and a beefy artillery to powerfulness it all. But if nan Ultra is costly aliases excessively large for you, see nan regular Galaxy S23. Its compact size intends you won't person to do digit gymnastics while utilizing nan telephone one-handed.

The S23+ is nan cleanable mediate child, pinch a large show and an arsenic competent camera setup. If you don't attraction astir nan S Pen and want a telephone pinch a comparatively large display, nan S23+ will beryllium nan correct choice.