Tested: Galaxy S23 Ultra | The pixel war

Samsung opened the floodgates with its Galaxy S23 Ultra, now capable of shooting 200-megapixel photos, featuring a larger display than the competition, and optimized for gaming. But its price and the multiplication of functions are not for everyone.

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To paraphrase a columnist from The Press who used this lovely formula more than a decade ago: what will they have to do to attract attention in the next century? Juggling elephants?

Here is the Galaxy S23 Ultra, which offers photos at a resolution of up to 200 megapixels. If Motorola and Xiaomi have already done so, Samsung’s is the first offered by major Canadian suppliers.

What do we do with so many pixels? First, we get huge photos of about 35 MB in JPEG. The most obvious interest, and it is the one that Samsung foams, is to be able to zoom in afterwards on a detail in a large panorama. We made the comparison, the demonstration is quite convincing.

But it would be unfair, however, to reduce the Galaxy S23 Ultra to this one-upmanship of pixels. We have in our hands a device clearly intended for photography enthusiasts, with its four rear lenses, including two telephoto lenses capable of providing an optical zoom at 3x and 10x. The front camera has fewer pixels than the previous model, 12 rather than 40, but the improved artificial intelligence is said to help identify faces better and achieve better colors.

The colors delivered by the Galaxy S23 Ultra are richer, indeed, our comparisons with the iPhone 14 Pro Max tell us. It does, however, have a curious tendency to fill in bland colors, which on several occasions gave us bluish photos.

As for the management of contrasts, they are more marked at Samsung, more faithful at Apple.

Low-light photography is clearly to Samsung’s advantage, with crisp detail and color.

As far as comparisons are concerned, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is one of the few Androids, with the REDMAGICs, to be a little behind the iPhones in terms of power. For graphics processing, Apple is still far ahead.

With such capabilities, driven by its Snadradragon 8 Gen 2 processor for the Galaxy mobile platform, we obviously have a very agile phone, capable of alternating between video and games without delay. We plugged it into an external monitor and used it as a computer, complete with Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, to write this review. Between the web browser, Word, Outlook, and Excel, the phone handled it all without noticeable slowdown.

Inherited from Note, the stylus is inserted into the phone. It can be used to take handwritten notes, navigate between applications and, more interestingly, act as a cursor on the external monitor.

The charge is rather fast, without being a champion in this area, the 5000 mAh battery can receive up to 45 watts. It still has the reverse charging function, which allows it to wirelessly charge other compatible phones – even iPhones –, headphones and some watches.

The 6.8-inch screen is AMOLED with an adaptive refresh rate of 1-120 Hz and a remarkable density of 500 pixels per inch. The polished metal frame and the glass finish give a resolutely chic design.

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At $1649.99 for the base model, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is expensive.

Unlike other more discreet manufacturers, Samsung is used to integrating many of its in-house elements into the Android operating system. We thus have a second software for storing photos, a second voice assistant in Bixby, a total of 12 Samsung applications which are preinstalled. For users unaccustomed to the Samsung environment, there is a risk of confusion.

Apart from the 200-megapixel photos, this year’s model differs little from its predecessor.

One buys ?

For the Android user who wants the best and is willing to pay for it, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is the device for you. Obviously, with its photographic capabilities, its many functions and its sleek design, Samsung is not quite targeting the basic customer here, who will be satisfied with much less.