Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Review: In a League of Its Own

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra daylight camera samples: (Top to bottom) Auto mode 3X, Selfie portrait, Macro mode (tap to see full size)

In low light, I stuck to Samsung’s Nightography mode for the most part, but did enable the dedicated Night mode for certain scenes. Just like daylight photos, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra delivers excellent low-light photos with good details and dynamic range. It still has a problem with handling bright street lights, but the light flares are far more subdued compared to what the Galaxy S22 Ultra captured, which is a good thing.

The Night mode offers slightly superior imagery with less noise, but also makes you wait a couple of seconds before saving the image, so it needs to be used only in extremely dark conditions. Autofocus, as expected, was very quick even in dimly lit scenarios proving that the bump to the new sensor was completely worth it. Despite its stellar performance in street-lit conditions, Samsung’s S23 Ultra still cannot tackle extremely dark scenes accurately, as the results show a dreamy HDR effect.

Selfies came out looking crisp and clear with good subject separation when not using the Portrait mode. The results from the Portrait mode are similar with excellent edge detection. In low light, the new camera managed to shoot some quality selfies with good details and offered equally good edge detection.

Samsung, during its briefing to the media, did spend some time talking about the phone’s ability to shoot better low-light portrait photos. I snapped some using the primary camera in a very dimly-lit pub and the results were fine, but not impressive. The phone did not manage resolved details well enough and ended up looking quite soft. In regular low-light conditions the portrait photos packed good details, excellent edge detection, and good colour reproduction.

The ultra-wide-angle camera on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra offers a very wide 120-degree field of view. The photos come out bright and sharp in daylight with good resolved details. The software does manage to get the extreme barrel distortion under control as well. In low light, the camera continues to impress by offering a balanced mix of good details and contrast with the usual saturated colours, but dynamic range falls a bit short.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra daylight zoom performance (tap to see full size)

The camera setup offers an interesting 100X hybrid zoom capability. Images remain tack sharp up till 10X zoom, which is the S23 Ultra’s optical limit, but still manages to deliver impressive quality till 30X zoom. At 100X, the photos appear fine as thumbnails but don’t pack in much detail. In low light, image quality from the telephoto camera is impressive till 3X zoom with noise well in control. At 10X zoom, the noise begins to creep in but the photos are still quite usable. At 30X zoom image quality does drop drastically and the camera also has a bit of trouble focussing.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra low-light zoom performance (tap to see full size)

What is impressive about the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s camera setup is its stabilisation, which remains rock steady until 30X zoom. Beyond this, you have to make a bit of an effort to hold the phone steady, but it’s still not as difficult as on the S22 Ultra. However, in low light the phone tends to struggle with stabilisation beyond 30X zoom and can get quite shaky. Despite good zoom performance in low light, I was able to use Night mode to further improve the quality of low-light images. This only works well if you have a tripod or very steady hands as the Night mode exposures are long and can turn out blurry even with a minor shake.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra low-light zoom at 10X with Auto mode (top) and Night mode (bottom) (tap to see full size)

Samsung also includes RAW shooting capability, which this time around, works not just for the rear cameras but also with the front-facing camera. There’s also an Astrophotography mode in the Expert RAW app that lets users capture star trails and starry skies, provided you have a view that’s free from clouds, air pollution or light pollution. I tried my best and managed to get a decently clear shot that was free of noise, but the stars just showed up as specs. Still, you will need to use a tripod for this mode unlike the Vivo X80 Pro that can shoot similar-looking photos, handheld.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Night Mode camera samples: (Top to bottom) Street-lit scene, Dimly lit scene (tap to see full size)

Samsung has really upped the quality of the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s video capability this time around. 4K videos appear quite detailed and have a rock steady bitrate as well. The new wider OIS system also ensures that recordings are very stable, while maintaining sharpness and quality. What I was not a fan of was the bumped up colour saturation when recording HDR10+ videos. This was visible, both, from the front and rear cameras. The heavily saturated footage when viewed on the punchy Super AMOLED panel will surely wow onlookers, but it’s not the most accurate representation of the scene.

Low-light video recordings also looked impressive with noise well under control when shooting under street-lit conditions, even when shooting in HDR10+. However, all of the above only applies to the primary camera as low-light recordings on the ultra-wide-angle camera were not as impressive and looked soft and noisy.

I even tried out the advertised 8K video recording, which for once can be captured at a steady 30fps. The footage is quite impressive and packs very good details, making it look a lot better than S23 Ultra’s 4K footage as well. Unlike the previous phone, shooting in this mode now uses the full width of the sensor, which means it’s a much wider field of view than what we got before. However, I did notice some minor stutters when panning in 8K mode.

Verdict

In a sea of Android flagships, Samsung’s Galaxy S23 Ultra sure stands tall but it’s also quite lonely at the top, with the only real competition (at least in India) being the Apple iPhone 14 Pro (Review). While I have yet to do a head-to-head camera comparison between the two (coming soon), the iPhone is certainly no match for the zoom capabilities of Samsung’s flagship, and that’s for certain.

At the same time, the nearest Android offering which comes close to the Galaxy S23 Ultra both in terms of capability and premium design is the Google Pixel 7 Pro. However, at Rs. 80,999, it sits in another price segment altogether, which is a lot lower than the Galaxy S23 Ultra. Simply put, there’s really no direct competition to the Galaxy S23 Ultra on the Android side, both in terms of capability and pricing.

Samsung has been able to deliver a proper balance of unique hardware and optimised software this year, and most of it works well when put together. While last year’s Galaxy S22 Ultra only had its far-reaching zoom capabilities to distance itself from other premium flagships, this year Samsung has managed to add a lot more to widen the gap such as the brand new sensor and proper 8K recording, making its offering truly unique. Also included is the S Pen, which is still the most unique feature among any Android competitor. The solid battery life and customised SoC are welcomed bonuses.

While the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is clearly the do-it-all Android smartphone money can buy at the moment, it all comes at a premium, which despite a price bump, isn’t hard to justify to a fan of the Ultra series or a creator who is looking for such pro-grade features in a smartphone. For a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra owner though, it might not be the most enticing upgrade this year, unless you crave the latest hardware or need that 8K 30fps capability. Now, if we can only get a smaller sized Ultra smartphone next year, I think I’ll be truly happy.