Samsung’s first big smartphone unveil for 2023 didn’t disappoint. The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra was the showstopper at the Galaxy Unpacked 2023, Samsung’s annual flagship event that has been the launch platform for the brand’s top-of-the line Galaxy S Series devices. This year, the brand also launched a range of high-performance, slinky laptops – the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 series at Galaxy Unpacked. It’s the S23 Ultra that has our attention, we came away impressed with our first brush with this device
A massive camera bump up: The big change is the 200MP sensor on the rear cam, an adaptive pixel sensor with Super Quad Pixel and 1.5x faster auto focus. This primary lens promises to alter the photography experience on Samsung’s most formidable smartphone camera. The Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) is even more robust this year; according to Samsung it corrects for 3 degrees of shake versus 1.5. This means even better images even if you tend to shake things up a bit.
‘Sharp shooter’: There are a couple of cool new modes that we can’t wait to check out including Astro photo and Multi exposure. New video modes add to this appeal including star trail time lapse videos. The quad rear cam also features a 12MP ultra-wide cam, a 3X and a 10x telephoto lens. It’s still the best zoom lens on any smartphone cam you can buy in India right now. It’s not just the rear cam, Samsung has added Super HDR on the front cam. You get sharper selfies whether you’re shooting in the dark or in bright light. You can also snap 16-bit RAW selfies for better resolution and more details.
Feels great in your hand: This is one change that you won’t notice till you hold the S23 Ultra in your hand. It’s sort of where a flat edge form meets Samsung’s quintessential curved screen design. We dig this boxier design that makes the device easier to clasp and probably less prone to drops. Note die-hards will dig the S-Pen. Samsung’s versatile stylus that’s tucked inside the device and offers a host of options whether you’re taking notes or doodling. This year’s hero shade is a cool shade of green.
Game on: Samsung has standardised the chipset in all global versions of the Ultra. The 2023 Ultra is powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor that has been customised for this device. Samsung claims that the chipset boasts up to 3.36Hz peak speeds from the Kryo CPU. Gamers will appreciate cool features like ray tracing (for better lighting effects in games) and an adaptive vision booster for better display optimisation. You get the same 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOED 2X display (1440 x 3088 pixels / 501 PPI) like the 2022 Ultra with a 120Hz refresh rate that peaks at 1750 nits. Samsung also claims the 5000 mAh battery delivers a better performance (22% improvement) over last year’s S22 Ultra.
Green pitch: Sustainability is a big part of the S23’s pitch. This Ultra is made up of 12 external and internal components with recycled materials (the S22 Ultra had 6 components with recycled materials). The device uses a wide variety of recycled materials including pre-consumer recycled aluminium, plastic bottles, glass and post-consumer recycled plastics sourced from discarded fishing nets, PET bottles, and water barrels.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra starts at Rs 1,24,999 (Samsung has announced a slew of launch offers)
Samsung also launched the Samsung Galaxy S23, the S23+ and three slinky laptops under the Book 3 series during the Galaxy Unpacked event. These laptops are powered by best of breed 13th Gen Intel processors.
