S Pen is designed for smooth and precise creation with a 0.7mm fine tip and 4,096 pressure levels for an all-natural feel. S Pen becomes a remote control for your apps, thanks to built-in Bluetooth capacity.¹ Take pictures, switch between cameras, pause or turn up your playlist and so much more — all with a quick gesture or a click of the S Pen button on the side.
Artist Review: Samsung S23 Ultra with S Pen
My review is from the perspective of an artist and will cover the drawing aspect of the Samsung S23 Ultra with the included S Pen. Connectivity: 5G, USB-C, wifi 6E, NFC, Bluetooth 5.3, UWB and GNSS
The only extra feature I wish was included is Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) for the front facing camera which will benefit video recording. The front facing camera Electronic Image Stabilisation (EIS) works fine but OIS is always going to be better. Real world average brightness, according to other reviews I’ve read, is around 1100 to 1200 nits and that’s high enough for the colours and contrast to look good even under direct sunlight. Auto white balance does a good job even under fluorescent light. The bokeh or background blur quality with protrait mode video recording looks quite natural compared to large mirrorless camera lens. OIS and EIS are quite effective at reducing handshake motion during video recording.
Screens from TV, phones, small LCD displays, watches, laptops That’s the reason why you see flickering lights and displays in Youtube videos occasionally. I record videos with my phone occasionally and the lack of PAL video recording is the main reason why I don’t and can’t buy Samsung phones. Samsung could sell more phones if they could just include PAL video recording.
And no you cannot enable 25FPS or 50FPS video recording with third party camera apps because this cannot be fixed by softare, unfortunately. On the bottom, you can also see the USB-C with USB 3.2 gen 1 speed and video output, and the dual nano sim tray.
You can expect smooth lag-free performance, gaming and multi-tasking with that processor and 8GB RAM. Initial activation force is low so it’s easy to draw really thin lines even with a thick brush selected.
There is slight wobble or jitter with slowly drawn diagonal lines but it’s not a big issue and doesn’t affect my drawings. Same applies to drawing the city street sketch above with Infinite Painter.
The pen has a side button, support for pressure and tilt sensitivity. The pen tip is rubberised and has some texture but it’s still too smooth and slippery on the glass.
It’s also easier to see the big picture while drawing details because of the larger display. This phone runs on Android 13 with Samsung One UI 5.1 on top and there are many useful features. I find the Edge Panel by the side to be quite useful as you can create shortcuts for apps, tasks, Live messages, contacts, and more. When the phone is connected to an external monitor, Samsung DeX lets you work with a desktop, moveable windows and taskbar.
If you don’t need desktop OS specific apps, you can literally use your phone as your main computer. Samsung Cloud is limited to 15GB and only backups phone settings, messages, call logs, contacts, apps (not including the files within). Samsung Dex with USB-C to HDMI adapter connected to monitor: 4 hours The main differences are the ecosystem and the lack of PAL video recording with Samsung.
One huge downside to iPhone is you can’t just connect a USB cable to transfer files. Samsung DeX is pretty useful if you want your phone to double up as a computer but with limited OS features.
The file management with Android is very similar to desktop OS and hence is familiar and easy to work with. And Android phones have way more customisation options, e.g launchers can be installed, custom themes for UI, icons, shortcuts.
Movies and songs you buy from iTunes cannot be accessed from Android tablets and phones. In USA, many are unable to switch from iPhones to other brands because the main messaging app is iMessage which is not also not available on Android phones. Locking yourself into the Apple ecosystem isn’t like that bad, it’s just that when it’s time to upgrade your phone, you can only buy an iPhone. The S23 Ultra can definitely be used as a portable digital sketchpad since the drawing performance is quite good.
In terms of value for money, the S23 Ultra provides way more value with its lower pricing compared to the Z Fold 4. And for an Android flagship phone, the pricing is really attractive and extremely competitive.
If you find this review helpful and have the intention to buy this phone, consider using the affiliate links below to support my blog and the work I do.
13 tricks to get the most out of the S Pen
Ever since the first Samsung Galaxy Note launched back in 2011, mobile professionals have been using the S Pen to write, annotate and highlight their way through the workday. You can even use the S Pen as a remote for controlling your camera, playing music and media, and flipping through presentation slides. Whether you’re new to the S Pen or a longtime user, you can achieve a new level of productivity with the stylus thanks to these 13 smart tricks (some features may vary depending on the device you are using):
With the Screen-off note-taking feature, you can quickly and discreetly jot down notes whenever and wherever the moment strikes without even unlocking your device.
If the solution to a tricky problem just hit you and you’re in a meeting or on the train, you can capture it without having to fumble around for a notepad and pen. To use Screen-off memo, pop out the S Pen when your device is locked and just start writing on the screen. You can now add notes with the S Pen, crop the image, and share your illustrated thoughts via email or your preferred messaging app. Samsung Notes also lets you import PDFs and annotate them without downloading an additional app.
And with the S Pen’s pen-and-paper feel, adding a quick sketch or comment now comes as naturally as if you were making notes on a printed document someone left on your desk. If you find an interesting new research report, for example, just select Samsung Notes as the default PDF reader when you open it. Then, in Samsung Notes, tap the pen icon at the top to enter edit mode. Add your annotations, adjusting the pen type or choosing the highlighter as needed from the toolbar along the bottom.
When you’re done, tap Save and select the three dots to export in various file formats, share it or even print it right from your phone. This smart shortcut opens your calendar to the current month, where you can add notes and share them in an instant.
As you write, your handwriting will be converted — with remarkable accuracy — and you can then choose to copy the text into an email, message or other document. Zero in on exactly what you want to share with the Smart Select feature, which lets you lasso anything you can see on your screen and export it as an image.
After you’ve captured content with the camera, tap the pen icon to access the native editing tools. The S Pen is especially useful if you want to add handwritten annotations or captions on a photo or video — a great way to communicate complex visual information.
Hover your S Pen over a word or phrase for an instant translation, then tap the sound icon to hear it pronounced. These last few tips leverage the S Pen’s built-in Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) capabilities and motion sensor. Leave an impression in your next meeting by using your phone or tablet to present in Microsoft PowerPoint and your S Pen to advance slides. To present from your device, you can either launch Samsung DeX or use Smart View to wirelessly mirror your screen to a Wi-Fi-enabled display. DeX, Samsung’s platform for transforming your smartphone into a desktop computer, gives you a complete presentation experience. Once Samsung DeX launches on the presentation screen, pull down the notification menu on your device and opt to use it as a touchpad.
First, set up your phone or tablet to begin playing the music or video clip of your choice, whether it’s in Samsung’s native Gallery app or another streaming service, like YouTube, Netflix or Spotify. When you customize your Anywhere Actions, you can use one of these gestures to navigate your phone or tablet, or even access specific apps and features.
The Bluejeans videoconferencing platform, for example, lets you mute and unmute your mic with a click of the S Pen button. By incorporating the S Pen into your workflow, you can bring your note-taking to the digital age, enjoying brand-new levels of productivity.
Does the S23 Ultra S- pen Support IP68 (water and dust resistant)?
While a small amount of water won’t cause any issues with charging or usage, it’s always best to err on the side of caution to avoid any potential problems down the line.
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review: practically peerless
Until someone invents radically improved battery technology or holographic displays, that’s just going to be the case for the Ultra for the foreseeable future. And a couple of small tweaks — the phone’s slightly reshaped side rails and screen — have a big impact on the device’s likability.
There are some familiar sore spots with Samsung software, like its insistence on including its own app store in addition to Google’s. And although the camera system can produce stunningly good images, it occasionally makes weird choices and comes up with a photo that’s just downright bad.
But if you can stomach the price and the occasional weird photo, then I think you’ll find the S23 Ultra’s maximalism highly rewarding. It’s a slightly different version of the company’s top-shelf processor that’s a tiny bit faster than the garden-variety 8 Gen 2. The new chipset also runs much cooler than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 — after downloading Genshin Impact install files for 10 minutes with the loading animation playing (and the phone resting on a heat-insulating couch cushion), it was only slightly warm to the touch. My typical day includes about four hours of screen-on time, and the S23 Ultra usually got me to the evening with somewhere around 30 percent left.
If you plan on doing a lot of processor-heavy stuff like gaming or, I don’t know, measuring every room in your house in VR, then you’ll probably still need to recharge before the day is done.
The S23 Ultra is armed with no shortage of connectivity features, including the much-improved DeX for Windows PC integration, Samsung’s SmartThings app for smart home, and a feature called Smart View to quickly mirror your device to a Samsung TV. From the SmartThings app on the phone, I have control of all the basic functions of the TV, like volume, channel, and source. There are no major updates to the S Pen or its features this time around, though the slightly flatter screen edges are designed to provide more surface area for writing.
With the S22 Ultra’s curvier edges, you’re more likely to accidentally run the stylus off the side of the screen as you’re writing. At the risk of giving Samsung’s very slight redesign too much credit, I think this is partially because this phone is more comfortable to hold than the last one. I’m also on a mission to reorganize my life, and I found it genuinely useful to replicate some of my running IRL to-do lists with digital ones pinned to my home screen. But it feels like a happy medium between the convenience of an app-based to-do list and the tactile experience of jotting down a note.
It’s a pretty light update to the One UI 4 that the S22 series launched with, and it includes new emphasis on setting up modes and routines, as well as more lockscreen customization options. It remains a maximalist experience, with two pages of quick settings in the notification shade by default and Samsung’s own app store, virtual assistant, and web browser alongside Google versions of these things. That’s a little short of Apple, which tends to offer OS upgrades for upwards of five years and the stray security update for much longer, but it’s definitely one of the best policies you’ll find among Android makers. I took a picture of the top of the Space Needle from street level standing over half a mile away, and I can make out details like the elevators and people on the observation deck. It can get into trouble turning the saturation or HDR up to 11 once in a while, and unless you’re taking a photo of the actual moon, you should just stay away from the digital 100x “Space Zoom” setting because it looks like pixelated garbage. Tap a couple of menu options, press the shutter, and bam — 200 million pixels at your disposal.
As long as the lighting is good, you’ll find a ridiculous amount of detail when you zoom into those photos. In bright light, the sensor uses something called a re-mosaic algorithm to mimic a traditional color filter pattern and use pixels individually and capture more detail.
Even when you’re in the default shooting mode, which downsizes images to 12 megapixels, you should see the benefits of all that extra detail capture. If I’m hard-pressed, I think I see a little more detail in the S23 Ultra’s images compared to the iPhone 14 Pro’s, which uses a pixel-binning sensor with a lower 48-megapixel resolution. The iPhone goes for a little harder contrast, while Samsung embraces more saturated colors and brighter shadows, occasionally straying into HDR-gone-wrong territory. The S23 Ultra (left) tries to bring some blue to the sky while the iPhone 14 Pro (right) lets the highlights blow out.
In between these two focal lengths and beyond 10x, the phone uses AI-powered Space Zoom to fill in the gaps (read as: to make an educated guess about what’s there). In back-to-back portrait photos of my toddler taken at a Mexican restaurant, he looks distinctly orange in one and incredibly pale in the very next shot. Maybe the colored walls and light sources threw the camera for a loop, but whatever the reason, it took the photo seriously off the rails. It’s hands down the winner when it comes to subject isolation and manages to hang on to incredibly fine details like individual hairs. Indoors, I saw a tendency to flatten dynamic range in a way that turns bright whites slightly gray.
But it’s more than good enough to grab clips of a very active toddler, and I didn’t hear any complaints about video quality from his grandparents. The Google Pixel 7 Pro is probably the closest competition, but it feels like an entirely different experience in comparison. But it lacks all of the optical zoom power of the Ultra, the stylus, and — surprisingly — comes with one less year of Android OS upgrades.
The S Pen is still one of the best things about Samsung’s Galaxy S23 Ultra
Both the Note and Ultra have traditionally been aimed at business professionals, offering a suite of productivity features that are all made better by the inclusion of a stylus. Of course, you don’t have to be a fancy executive to take advantage of this additional method of input — the S Pen can be used for a number of everyday tasks, often providing an extra level of convenience. While the idea of stylus control on a smartphone probably won’t appeal to everyone, I’m of the opinion that more people would embrace the S Pen if given the chance to try it out for an extended period of time. Of course, the ability to scribble notes on your screen also comes in handy on images and screenshots, making it easy for you to leave comments or circle points of interest. While this is obviously an ideal use case for self portraits and big group pictures, It’s also handy for eliminating any chance of camera movement while you’re shooting — and you don’t even need a tripod. Last year, I used the S22 Ultra to take some of my best smartphone photos ever, and I did so by standing the handset on its perfectly flat head, then stepping back and using its S Pen to snap the pictures remotely, as I detailed on our sister site, TechRadar.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra’s S Pen is a waste of valuable battery space
It spent more time talking about the S Pen capabilities on the new Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 , and that was only a passing mention. I wanted to see animated Galaxy S23 Ultra phones, in every color, in a flower arrangement flying through a white space with the S Pens orbiting around them. I didn’t get any talk about improved latency, or the way the screen feels even more like paper. I didn’t get to know how many levels of pressure sensitivity the phone can handle, or whether it can detect if the pen is tilted. My personal favorite feature is the S Pen’s camera shutter capability. It’s hard to stay steady and also tap a tiny circle on the screen.
That doesn’t mean I haven’t found the S Pen incredibly useful, and even a deciding factor in which phone I’d recommend. I was able to complete all of the paperwork for the sale remotely, and I signed every box on my Galaxy Note phone.
How many Galaxy S23 Ultra buyers would prefer a larger battery to having an S Pen that they mostly forget about?
The Galaxy Note line was defeated, but Samsung still mentions it when it talks about the Ultra brand.
The Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra has a pen, but it’s a tablet, and that makes more sense. Nor is the S Pen that will presumably work with the Galaxy Book 3 Pro models that support it.
The Galaxy S23 Plus gets a larger battery than the S22 Plus (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff) If Samsung had dropped the S Pen but boosted the battery by 10%, I’d be cheering for that decision and excited to use a phone that probably lasts well over a full day of heavy usage. To record that high resolution video, on that bright, fast display, users will need plenty of battery. In the next generation, I hope Samsung drops the S Pen, which nobody requested, and gives users a bigger battery, the one thing we ask for every single year.
Artist Review: Samsung S23 Ultra with S Pen
My review is from the perspective of an artist and will cover the drawing aspect of the Samsung S23 Ultra with the included S Pen. Connectivity: 5G, USB-C, wifi 6E, NFC, Bluetooth 5.3, UWB and GNSS
The only extra feature I wish was included is Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) for the front facing camera which will benefit video recording.
The front facing camera Electronic Image Stabilisation (EIS) works fine but OIS is always going to be better.
Real world average brightness, according to other reviews I’ve read, is around 1100 to 1200 nits and that’s high enough for the colours and contrast to look good even under direct sunlight. Auto white balance does a good job even under fluorescent light.
The bokeh or background blur quality with protrait mode video recording looks quite natural compared to large mirrorless camera lens. OIS and EIS are quite effective at reducing handshake motion during video recording.
Screens from TV, phones, small LCD displays, watches, laptops
That’s the reason why you see flickering lights and displays in Youtube videos occasionally.
I record videos with my phone occasionally and the lack of PAL video recording is the main reason why I don’t and can’t buy Samsung phones. Samsung could sell more phones if they could just include PAL video recording.
And no you cannot enable 25FPS or 50FPS video recording with third party camera apps because this cannot be fixed by softare, unfortunately. On the bottom, you can also see the USB-C with USB 3.2 gen 1 speed and video output, and the dual nano sim tray. You can expect smooth lag-free performance, gaming and multi-tasking with that processor and 8GB RAM. Initial activation force is low so it’s easy to draw really thin lines even with a thick brush selected.
There is slight wobble or jitter with slowly drawn diagonal lines but it’s not a big issue and doesn’t affect my drawings. Same applies to drawing the city street sketch above with Infinite Painter. The pen has a side button, support for pressure and tilt sensitivity. The pen tip is rubberised and has some texture but it’s still too smooth and slippery on the glass.
It’s also easier to see the big picture while drawing details because of the larger display. This phone runs on Android 13 with Samsung One UI 5.1 on top and there are many useful features.
I find the Edge Panel by the side to be quite useful as you can create shortcuts for apps, tasks, Live messages, contacts, and more. When the phone is connected to an external monitor, Samsung DeX lets you work with a desktop, moveable windows and taskbar.
If you don’t need desktop OS specific apps, you can literally use your phone as your main computer. Samsung Cloud is limited to 15GB and only backups phone settings, messages, call logs, contacts, apps (not including the files within). Samsung Dex with USB-C to HDMI adapter connected to monitor: 4 hours
The main differences are the ecosystem and the lack of PAL video recording with Samsung. One huge downside to iPhone is you can’t just connect a USB cable to transfer files. Samsung DeX is pretty useful if you want your phone to double up as a computer but with limited OS features.
The file management with Android is very similar to desktop OS and hence is familiar and easy to work with. And Android phones have way more customisation options, e.g launchers can be installed, custom themes for UI, icons, shortcuts.
Movies and songs you buy from iTunes cannot be accessed from Android tablets and phones. In USA, many are unable to switch from iPhones to other brands because the main messaging app is iMessage which is not also not available on Android phones. Locking yourself into the Apple ecosystem isn’t like that bad, it’s just that when it’s time to upgrade your phone, you can only buy an iPhone. The S23 Ultra can definitely be used as a portable digital sketchpad since the drawing performance is quite good.
In terms of value for money, the S23 Ultra provides way more value with its lower pricing compared to the Z Fold 4. And for an Android flagship phone, the pricing is really attractive and extremely competitive.
If you find this review helpful and have the intention to buy this phone, consider using the affiliate links below to support my blog and the work I do.
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Review
The company takes the kitchen-sink approach with the S23 Ultra; it has pretty much every feature a flagship phone shopper could want, including high-quality hardware, an outstanding display, blistering performance, and top-notch cameras. Its oversized footprint and price give us some pause, but many buyers are likely to look past these compromises for such a capable phone. If you don’t need the stylus or the extra cameras, the slightly smaller and more affordable Galaxy S23+ (starting at $999.99) might better serve you. It stands apart from its less-expensive stablemates because of its squared-off design, built-in S Pen, and extra cameras.
Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus 2 adds front and back protection against drops and scratches. Samsung offers the phone in four main colors: Cream, Green, Lavender, and Phantom Black. If those don’t appeal, Samsung’s website offers exclusive colors such as Graphite, Lime, Red, and Sky Blue. From left to right, it houses the S Pen slot, a downward-firing speaker, a USB-C port, and a SIM card tray.
If you prefer facial recognition methods, a simple photo-based face ID tool sits above the screen. In all, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra might be too large for some buyers, but we can’t fault the otherwise top-notch hardware.
Though Samsung made only minimal improvements to the display compared with last year, it delivers an excellent experience just the same. Samsung opts for a 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X Infinity-O screen with an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate, which helps balance power and performance.
The screen can dynamically alter its refresh rate from 1Hz up to 120Hz depending on the activity to conserve battery or enable smooth scrolling. I held the S23 Ultra and the 14 Pro Max next to one another outside under direct sunlight and the iPhone does look slightly brighter, but not enough so to give it a serious competitive edge. You can also take advantage of adaptive brightness, blue light settings, color profiles, text and icon sizing, Samsung’s Edge panels (app shortcuts), the navigation bar (for gestures), touch sensitivity, and screen savers.
The selfie camera interrupts the screen at the top, but the bezels between the display and the metal frame are so thin that they are practically nonexistent. Display competition is tight at the top of the market, but the S23 Ultra impresses and performs well against its chief rivals. A utility button on one side enables a range of actions, such as advancing PowerPoint slides or triggering the camera shutter (this is really helpful). Specifically, more text fields in Google apps such as Gmail, Chrome, and Maps support S Pen input. In practice, many of the text fields you might want to write in are small and require an extra tap to enable the feature. However, if you’re deep in stylus mode and don’t want to put the S Pen down to enter text in certain fields, this could be helpful. Perhaps more interestingly, Samsung worked with Qualcomm to tweak the CPU and GPU output of the chip and give it a competitive edge. It’s worth noting that the S23 and S23+ top out at 8GB of RAM, so it’s possible their benchmark scores are slightly slower even though they have the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy SoC. We tested the S23 Ultra against a wide array of apps, including some hard-hitting games like Genshin Impact.
Running the game at the highest settings resulted in excellent gameplay without any lag or frame drops. Given the huge storage options and flexible screen settings, the phone is an excellent companion for mobile gaming. The modem works hand-in-hand with the 8 Gen 2 SoC to manage 5G, Wi-Fi, and other connections to ensure the best possible performance.
When we tested in areas with weak T-Mobile coverage, download and upload speeds dropped to maximums of 19Mbps and 8Mbps, respectively.
Whether the signal was strong or weak, however, we were always able to connect calls on the first attempt and didn’t experience any drops during testing. In terms of real-world performance, the phone downloaded apps and games larger than 1GB in less than a minute in most instances. It supports advanced audio codecs including AAC and AptX; music sounded outstanding through the Sony WH-1000XM5 headphones. I was able to hear callers even in moderately loud environments such as subway platforms, and those with whom I spoke had no trouble understanding me.
If you’re interested in playing music directly through the phone rather than wireless headphones, the downward-firing speaker and earpiece work together to create stereo sound.
The phone won’t replace a Bluetooth speaker, but it does just fine for listening in an average room by yourself. In our battery life test, which entails playing a YouTube video on loop over Wi-Fi with the phone’s brightness set to the max, the S23 Ultra lasted 13 hours and 11 minutes. In more anecdotal terms, the S23 Ultra easily plowed through a full day of intense use with plenty of charge left in the tank.
Samsung generally reserves its best camera technology for the Galaxy S series, and the S23 Ultra takes things to a new level. The main lens has an aperture of f/1.7 and benefits from both optical image stabilization (OIS) and laser autofocus. Samsung says it enlarged the area in which the sensor can travel during phone movement to account for a greater range of stabilization. The new sensor, together with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, powers several shooting modes such as Adaptive Pixel, Auto Framing, Director’s View, High-Resolution Photo, Multi-Exposure, Nightography, Selfie Night Portrait, and Super HDR. If you really want to get fancy, you can use the Pro mode to take full control of aspects like shutter speed, exposure, and ISO, as well as Expert Raw to shoot photos with more detail for advanced editing in post. We captured shots in various environs and lighting conditions and, suffice it to say, the pictures look quite good.
The expanded OIS features of the phone are helpful, though not quite as good as the iPhone 14’s Action Mode when it comes to stabilization. You might prefer the simpler functionality of Google’s or Motorola’s versions of Android, but you cannot deny the vast array of features available from the S23 Ultra and One UI 5.
A range of features allows Samsung’s phones and laptops to talk to one another for things such as copying and pasting text, syncing web browser history and passwords, seamlessly connecting via mobile hotspot, and sending text messages from your laptop.
The phone has an outstanding display, some of the fastest performance we’ve seen, a long-lasting battery, powerful software with S Pen stylus integration, and a top-notch set of cameras.
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra 4.5 Editors’ Choice See It $1,164.99 at Amazon MSRP $1,199.99 Pros Large, bright display Big, heavy build The Bottom Line The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is large and pricey, but an exceptional mix of features, performance, and quality makes it the best high-end Android phone you can buy.
Samsung Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23 Ultra Review: Cruise Control
Just a few weeks ago, I reviewed Samsung’s Galaxy A14 5G, calling it a phenomenal phone that costs a mere $200, proving that you really don’t need to pay heaving wads of dough to get a great smartphone. Samsung’s Galaxy S23 lineup (which also includes the S23+, a model I haven’t tested yet) are not game-changing devices in the least—and most people don’t need all these high-end cameras and tremendous horsepower. It’s nice not having to squint at a dim screen on a sunny day, and to have the ability to play a demanding game at its highest fidelity. What you can’t quite find out by reading specs are how these phones feel—the 6.1-inch S23 is my personal favorite because it fits my hands and most of the screen remains fairly accessible when I want to use it one-handed.
I still think Samsung’s S21 series offered a sharper design language with the Contour Cut camera module in an accent color.
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