Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra vs Galaxy S22 Ultra, it's not just a small upgrade!

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra vs Galaxy S22 Ultra

New top of the range at full price or old top of the range at a discounted price? Often the decision is not so simple, given the incremental updates to which the various smartphone manufacturers have now accustomed us and the fact that the Android flagships of the previous year become real bargains when they are replaced by brand new models.

In this case, if you are a demanding user (and judging by your willingness to buy an Ultra smartphone, I imagine you are), however, you may want to exclude the 2022 top of the range regardless. Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, in fact , takes the good things seen last year, puts an end to the old dispute between the different processors based on the purchase region and adds a 200MP main camera that has a lot to offer to passionate photographers.

What to choose between Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra? Is the conclusion so obvious?

Virtually identical, but only at first glance

There are very few design changes between the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. The Samsung top for 2023 is slightly less rounded than the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra and maintains the raised sensors on the rear body and the appreciated slot for the S-Pen. The edges on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra are flatter and this makes it significantly more comfortable to work with two hands and use the stylus. The main method of distinction between the two devices in terms of design is given by the different color variations and, if you can get close to see them closely, the different shape of the upper and lower flat edges given by the different lateral curvature of the two devices.





The dimensions and weight are also slightly different from 2022. The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is slightly narrower and heavier than the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. The former measures 163.4 x 78.1 x 8.9 mm and weighs 234g while the latter measures 163.3 x 77.9 x 8.9 mm and weighs 228g.



The display remains virtually unchanged in terms of specifications. Same 6.8″ diagonal, same resolution of 1440 x 3088 pixels, same variable refresh rate between 1Hz and 120Hz and even the same maximum peak brightness of 1750 nits. It changes the generation of AMOLED panel production technology which is slightly more efficient this year, but nothing shocking.

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra had perhaps the best display ever in the Android world last year and, despite competition in 2023 is fiercer, the Galaxy S23 Ultra panel is still among the best you could wish for. Support for the S-Pen remains unchanged, with no changes in operation in this generation.

More Qualcomm for everyone!

To the delight of all fans, Samsung this year it has decided to use the same SoC for all its top-of-the-range devices in the world. It is a slightly overclocked version of Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 that the two companies have endowed with the suffix " for Galaxy ".

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is an 8-core chipset announced on November 15, 2022 at the Snapdragon Summit held in Maui and produced using a 4-nanometer TSMC technology. In its "for Galaxy" variant it has 1 Cortex-X3 core at 3.36GHz, 2 Cortex-A715 cores at 2.8GHz, 2 Cortex-A710 cores at 2.8GHz and 3 Cortex-A510 cores at 2.0GHz.

On the other hand, the Samsung Exynos 2200 is an 8-core chipset announced on January 18, 2022, which is also manufactured using 4-nanometer process technology but in Samsung foundries. It has 1 Cortex-X2 core at 2.8GHz, 3 Cortex-A710 cores at 2.52GHz and 4 Cortex-A510 cores at 1.82GHz.





Speaking of GPUs, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 has an Adreno 740 designed by Qualcomm itself, while the Exynos 2200 is the first chipset from Samsung to have an AMD Radeon RDNA2 GPU called Xclipse 920 , a derivation of the graphics unit present inside the Steam Deck .

The performance difference, already present between the Exynos and Qualcomm variants of S22 Ultra , is even more marked here.

Smartphone Geekbench 5 AnTuTu AiTuTu 3DMark Single-core Multi-core – – Wild Life Extreme Wild Life Extreme Stress Test Wild Life Wild Life

Stress Test Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra 1581 5085 1237965 131861 3813

(22,80 fps) 3803 – 3165

(83.2%) Maxed Out! – Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 1613 3916 921556 90134 2057

(12.30 fps) 2075 – 1356

(65.3%) 7023

(42.10 fps) 7012 – 4563

(65,1%) With Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, the South Korean company says goodbye to the 128GB memory cut, this year we start from 256GB. The new top of the range uses the brand new UFS 4.0 memories, even if the UFS 3.1 memories of the previous model were already more than fast enough. It improves the speed and efficiency of the RAM which in S23 Ultra are of the LPDDR5X type while S22 Ultra uses LPDDR5. Both models do not have a slot for a MicroSD card.

Although the 5000mAh battery has remained unchanged as well as the charging system, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra uses a much more efficient chip and the final autonomy accordingly changes considerably.

The software is unchanged, which at the time of writing this article is Android 13 and One UI 5.1 for both models. However, the S23 Ultra can count on an additional year of updates as it arrived on the market 12 months later.

Cameras: why is the S23 Ultra better?

It is normally expected that after a year the photographic sector has been improved by the manufacturer, and here it is true even if only partially.

The two 10MP cameras with 3x optical zoom remain unchanged and 10x as the wide-angle camera also remains unchanged. However, the photos obtained with these cameras are definitely improved in the S23 Ultra, thanks to the support of the Qualcomm ISP, which is much more capable than that present on the S22 Ultra Exynos. Photos taken with the S22 Ultra remain very high quality, but the S23 Ultra is simply a step further.

Change the main photo sensor from 108MP to 200MP. Don't be fooled by the numbers alone though, the new Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra sensor will normally still take 12MP photos. That said, thanks to the 16-in-1 pixel binning (against the 9-in-1 of the S22 Ultra), it is able to capture much more light. It also improves the optical stabilization on this lens which now puts the S23 Ultra at the top of the ranking of the best smartphones for recording videos.





The trump card of S23 Ultra is the possibility of shooting images at 50MP while maintaining many of the multi-frame optimizations that, shooting at 200MP in this model and at 108MP in the previous one, are missing. It is therefore an industry-unique middle ground that delivers images with a wide dynamic range, vivid and true-to-life colors, while at the same time retaining an extremely high amount of detail.

Probably, unless you are passionate photographers who want the best of the best, neither smartphone will let you down in photography. And for many, these innovations are not worth the difference in costs between the two generations.

Comparison of technical specifications

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Dimensions and weight 163.4 x 78, 1 x 8.9 mm

234g 163.3 x 77.9 x 8.9 mm

228g 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display, 1440 x 3088 pixels, 120Hz, 1750 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 1440 x 3088 pixels, 120Hz, 1750 nits (peak) SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Exynos 2200 CPU 1x 3.36GHz Cortex-X3 + 2x 2.8GHz Cortex-A715 + 2x 2.8GHz Cortex-A710 + 3x 2.0GHz Cortex-A510 1x 2.8GHz Cortex-X2 + 3x 2.50GHz Cortex-A710 + 4x 1.8GHz Cortex-A510 GPU Adreno 740 Xclipse 920 (AMD RDNA2 architecture) Memory 8GB /256GB, 12GB/256GB, 12GB/512GB, 12GB/1TB

UFS 4.0/LPDDR5X

Not expandable 8GB/128GB, 12GB/256GB, 12GB/512GB, 12GB/1TB

UFS 3.1/LPDDR5

Not expandable Battery and recharge 5000mAh, 45W (65% in 30 minutes); wireless charging at 15W 5000mAh, 45W (65% in 30 minutes); 15W wireless charging Camera



Wide 200 megapixel ƒ/1.7, 24mm, OIS multi-directional PDAF, Laser AF 108 megapixel ƒ/1.8, 23mm, OIS multi-directional PDAF, Laser AF Ultrawide 12 megapixel ƒ/2.2, 13mm, 120°, Dual Pixel PDAF, Super Steady video 12 megapixel ƒ/2.2, 13mm, 120°, Dual Pixel PDAF, Super Steady video Telephoto 10 megapixel ƒ/2.4, 70mm, 3x optical zoom, OIS, Dual Pixel PDAF 10 megapixel ƒ/2.4, 70mm, 3x optical zoom, OIS, Dual Pixel PDAF Telephoto Periscope 10 megapixel ƒ/2.4, 230 mm, 3x optical zoom, OIS, Dual Pixel PDAF 10 megapixel ƒ/2.4, 230 mm , 3x optical zoom, OIS, Dual Pixel PDAF Front (wide) 12 megapixel ƒ/2.2, 26mm 40 megapixel ƒ/2.2, 26mm Video Maximum 8K at 30fps (rear)

Maximum 4K at 60fps (front) Maximum 8K at 24fps (rear)

Maximum 4K at 60fps (front) Software Android 13, One UI 5.1 Android 13, One UI 5.1 Connectivity Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, GPS, NFC, USB Type-C 3.2 Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, GPS, NFC, USB Type -C 3.2 Feature Fingerprint Reader, IP68 certified dust and waterproof, accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, barometer Fingerprint Reader, IP68 certified dust and waterproof, accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, barometer Available colors Phantom Black, Green, Cream, Lavender, Graphite, Lime, Sky Blue, Red, BMW M Edition Phantom Black, White, Burgundy, Green, Graphite, Red, Sky Blue, Bora Purple

Prices

Not taking care of the different amount of RAM, which to be honest does not make this huge difference in the use of the smartphone, if you are aiming for the 256GB version of internal memory you will be faced with a price tag of "only" 100.00 euros in favor of last year's model. Having arrived at spending these figures, however, I am of the opinion that a price increase of less than 10% to have a clearly superior smartphone in terms of cameras, performance and autonomy could favor the S23 Ultra, or at least this would be my reasoning in the phase of purchase.

However, if your interest is to have an extremely valid smartphone, beautiful to use, with one of the most fun and versatile photographic compartments even if not technically the best, the inimitable S- Pen and still almost 4 years of support (2+2) despite not being the newest and most recent, at 999.99 euros the 128GB Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra certainly becomes more attractive.

Even if you want to evaluate other recent ones smartphones from 2023 that are around this last figure, it is not possible to find an offer as valid as the S22 Ultra, especially taking into consideration the infinite software features of the One UI and the quality of the hardware that the core company ana proposed in 2022.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra 8GB/256GB | 1,479.00 euros Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra 12GB / 512GB | 1,659.00 euros Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra 12GB / 1TB | 1,899.00 euros Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 8GB / 128GB | 999.99 euros Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 12GB / 256GB | 1,379.00 euros Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 12GB / 512GB | 1,489.00 euros