REVIEW: Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra might have the best camera we’ve ever seen

Rory Cashin

Be prepared to pay for it, though…

Samsung have released their latest round of new phones – all part of the Galaxy S23 series – and we’ve had some time to play around with the absolute top end phone from that group, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra.

Now, the bad news first: this phone doesn’t come cheap, so if you are planning on getting one, be prepared for that hefty price-tag. Thankfully, pretty much everything else we have to say about the phone is exclusively good news.

First things first, as we mentioned in the headline, the camera on this phone is insane. Samsung have always been at the cutting edge when it comes to their photo and video technological, but this particular device is arguably the best we’ve literally EVER used. The x100 zoom on the regular lens is almost shocking in its power and detail, while the 200MP mode allows for a staggering level of depth of detail, especially for anyone who likes to get into the nitty gritty of editing their images afterwards.

There’s also an improved 12MP front camera and immense video options, including a very impressive suite of options to improve night time and/or dark space image capturing. So, yes, all in all, probably the best camera you can get that also happens to be part of a phone.

Beyond that, the Ultra features a unique Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, which contains a lot of new technology that we’re not going to pretend we fully understand or are capable of explaining, but it essentially means that it gives us the fastest processing speeds for an Android phone AND the best looking on-screen graphics around. It also helps the screen is big and gorgeous to behold, too.

There is also the built-in S Pen, which feels easier and more intuitive than ever before, from note-taking to photo editing, while the battery life is exceptional, even if the battery feels a little slower to fully charge than you might expect or hope.

All in all, it is potentially one of the very best devices around, but we land back at that price tag. If you want the best, you really have to WANT it, because it doesn’t come cheap. Available directly on the Samsung Ireland website, the prices for the Galaxy S23 Ultra start at €1,459 (for 256MB memory) and go up to €1,879 (for 1TB memory).

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