Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra: Two-minute preview

While the Galaxy S23 and S23 Plus play catch-up in the design department, the Galaxy S23 Ultra offers up a far more familiar face that, at a glance, looks identical to its predecessor. The changes are there though; subtle but meaningful.

The same squared design plays host to a tweaked display that offers a greater flat surface area, giving the S Pen stylus more room to work with. The front and back now sport the latest and most resilient Gorilla Glass Victus 2, and all the mod-cons from its predecessor, including IP68 dust and water resistance and 45W wired charging, are here.

Samsung has also worked to integrate more recycled materials into the phone's construction, with the likes of recycled fishing nets going into the construction of the S Pen's inner cover and the speaker module, for example.

Some elements – like the 6.8-inch 1Hz to 120Hz adaptive Super AMOLED display and the 5,000mAh battery – have received seemingly minor tweaks (greater color accuracy and 20% improved efficiency, in the case of the above examples, respectively).

On the inside, meanwhile, there are some bigger changes, like the new 'Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy' chipset that Samsung and Qualcomm collaborated on, which is purpose-built to offer rival-beating performance (51% better NPU performance, 41% GPU performance and 33% CPU performance than previously, according to Samsung). The Ultra – along with the Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23 Plus – is also among the first phones out there with faster and more efficient LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage.

A familiar-looking four-sensor rear camera array hides a new 200MP lead sensor that offers 16-to-1 pixel-binning with the aim of advancing the S23 Ultra's 'Nightography' abilities for everything from general snaps to portrait photography, to videos of the night sky using the new Astro Hyperlapse mode.

Those who want to shoot with greater control now also benefit from enhanced editing control too, with the ability to work with shots at up to 50MP captured in Expert RAW mode.

You still get a 12MP ultrawide and dual telephoto lenses at 3x and 10x (periscopic) zoom, respectively, granting the S23 Ultra the same promise of camera versatility offered up by the last couple of generations of Ultra.

Samsung has also renewed its commitment to offering four years of OS updates and fives years of security updates across the Galaxy S23 series. All three arrive with One UI 5.1 atop Android 13, which folds in better collaborative working in Samsung Notes and an enhanced Privacy Dashboard, among other things.

While the starting price (in the US, at least) remains consistent with the Galaxy S22 Ultra, Samsung has doubled the base storage to 256GB, while the top-tier model can be had with 12GB of RAM (up from 8GB on the base version) and a whopping 1TB of storage.

For a deeper dive, read on – and stay tuned for our full review very soon.

Hands-on Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review: Price and availability

• Starts at $1,199.99 / £1,249 / AU$1,949
• Same US starting price despite double the storage YoY
• Top 1TB model is more expensive YoY across markets

The Galaxy S23 Ultra launched alongside its anticipated siblings – the standard Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23 Plus – on February 1, with pre-order availability kicking off on the same day and running until February 16. The Galaxy S23 Ultra is then available to buy as of Friday, February 17.

One of the nice fundamental upgrades over the Galaxy S22 Ultra is that base storage has been doubled to 256GB, which benefits US customers in particular, as they're being asked to pay no more than they did for last year's base 128GB S22 Ultra, at $1,199.99.

The 512GB model is $20 cheaper compared to its predecessor, at $1,379.99, while the top-tier Samsung.com-exclusive 1TB storage variant costs $20 more, at an eye-watering $1,619.99.

Things are generally worse for UK customers compared to the S22 Ultra's pricing, with the baseline S23 Ultra costing the same as last year's 256GB model at £1,249, while the 512GB and 1TB versions are £70 and £100 more expensive each, at £1,399 and £1,599, respectively.

We're still waiting to lock in Australian pricing but will update this feature when we have official figured. For reference, the Galaxy S22 Ultra cost AU$1,849 for the 128GB model, AU$1,999 for the 256GB model, AU$2,149 for the 512GB version and AU$2,449 for the top-spec 1TB variant.

Hands-on Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review: Specs

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra comes in three storage configurations, with 8GB of RAM (LPDDR5X) in the base model and 12GB in the two higher storage models.

Specs otherwise remain consistent across all three variants.

Hands-on Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review: Design

• Almost identical design to predecessor
• Premium look, feel, and materials
• Improved environmental credentials

The S22 Ultra was the first of Samsung's phones to truly fuse Galaxy S and Galaxy Note sensibilities together, and in doing so it shrugged off the contour-cut camera-led aesthetics of its predecessor and its launch siblings. Instead, it favored a cleaner and more squared form; partly as a means of further differentiating itself from the standard S22 and S22 Plus, but also in order to physically accommodate an integrated S Pen stylus.

For the S23 series, the standard and Plus models have played catch-up in the design department, while the S23 Ultra offers only subtle refinements that, to the eye, will be almost impossible to spot for those familiar with the S22 Ultra.

There's a similar pill-shaped top-down profile, with curved front and back glass feeding into a metal frame, although one change S22 Ultra users might notice when they pick up the S23 Ultra, is that Samsung has reduced the radius of the curved edges of the display, giving you a greater flat surface area on which to use the integrated S Pen; a subtle but welcome tweak, functionally speaking.

With launch S23 colors consistent across the whole range this year, you can pick the Ultra up in one of four finishes: Phantom Black, cream, green and lavender in most places, however, as with previous years, there are also a handful of colors exclusive to Samsung.com, including red, Sky Blue, Graphite and lime.

While the cap of the S Pen remains consistent with the body color of your choice, the rest of the stylus is black, regardless of your chosen finish.

The company's excellent efforts in durability persist too, with IP68-certified dust and water ingress protection, a resilient aluminum alloy frame of their own design and, for the first time on any phone, the latest Gorilla Glass Victus 2, from Corning.

For all the advanced technology that Samsung has managed to pack into the S23 series, it's also tried to up the ante in terms of environmentally-friendly materials, with the Ultra being the real champion of this initiative. 80% of the deco film used in the construction of the phone's back is recycled, as it 22% of the glass used across its body, along with 20% of the S Pen's inner cover – reportedly hewn, in part, from ocean-bound polymide.

Samsung claims that other recycled materials that have been hammered into the shape of the S23 Ultra include discarded fishing nets, water barrels, PET bottles and pre-consumer recycled aluminum, which have contributed to the construction of components like the volume keys and SIM tray, speaker arrangement, 5G antenna arrangement and more.

While Samsung isn't alone in working to improve the the green credentials of its phones (the iPhone comes to mind), this is certainly the most vocal we've seen the company about a particular handset and it represents a push that will hopefully catch on with rival phone makers.

Hands-on Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review: Display

• Familiar display experience to predecessor
• Promise of more accurate colors and better eye comfort viewing
• Responsive S Pen stylus experience

Aside from that reduced curvature along its edges and greater protection from that new Gorilla Glass Victus 2, the S23 Ultra's display offers a familiar viewing experience to its predecessor.

You once again get a 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel with a resolution of 1440 x 3088 and a dynamic refresh rate that can scale between 1Hz and 120Hz, as it automatically shifts to prioritize power efficiency or visual fluidity as needed.

At the hands-on event, color and brightness – even against the venue's harsh spotlights and the light flooding in from the floor to ceiling windows – made for an enjoyable viewing experience, which Samsung has apparently tuned to serve up more accurate colors against a wider array of ambient lighting scenarios this time around (three, to be precise), with what it calls Advanced Vision Booster; adjusting tone and color as needed.

Max brightness still doesn't compare to the iPhone 14 Pro's impressive peak on paper, but in real-world viewing, the experience still lends itself exceptionally well to enjoying media. Meanwhile, Samsung didn't impart any new claims of further reduced S Pen latency or additional Air Gesture functionality this time around, but it's already impressively responsive and the user experience has been augmented in other ways that appeal to productivity.

Hands-on Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review: Cameras

• First Samsung phone with a 200MP sensor
• Improved 'Nightography' experience for stills, portrait and video
• Integrated Expert RAW shooting now supports up to 50MP

Cameras are one area where the Ultra has always stood out from the crowd (not to mention its launch siblings) and the multi-sensor setup that Samsung's been using for the last few generations has consistently ensured that these phones wind up at or near the top of our best camera phones roundup year after year.

While the 12MP ultrawide and dual 3x and 10x 10MP telephoto sensors on the back of the S23 Ultra feel decidedly familiar, the phone shrugs off the primary 108MP resolution sensor seen on previous entries in the series and replaces it – for the first time on a Samsung phone – with a whopping 200MP primary camera; thought to be the ISOCELL HP2 that our cameras editor, Tim Coleman, dived into a few days prior to the S23 series' launch.

The transition to this new Adaptive Pixel Sensor looks like it holds promise, with such a change in hardware sometimes resulting in a drop in quality for some manufacturers; whose camera teams still need to get to grips with how to handle the new component. An on-site side by side with a Pixel 7 Pro suggests the S23 Ultra serves up more of what Samsung's phones are know for: consistently great quality snaps with a higher contrast, more stylized approach to colors than the more natural look of shots that tend to come out of Pixels and iPhones.

By default, the S23 Ultra's main camera pixel bins images by 16:1, down to 12.5MP stills that use all that additional pixel data to iron out image shake, while also capturing more accurate colors and taking in more light. Speaking of which, low light photography seems to be a big area of focus for the camera experience this year; with the promise of enhanced night shots across the board, including portraits, as well as astrophotography hyperlapse video mode.

Stabilization across stills and video has been improved too, with double the angle of movement now possible in the OIS (optical image stabilization) system, compared to last year's Ultra (3-degrees on the S23 Ultra), along with improved VDIS and faster autofocus from the 'Super Quad Pixel' sensor, as Samsung brands it.

For users who want to get more granular with the Ultra's photography experience, the Expert RAW mode – integrated into the camera UI – now supports an output of up to 50MP, rather than 12MP previously. The Ultra also lets you snap 200MP stills, if you want to play with the full sensor's available detail.

In the pursuit of switching up sensors, all three of the S23 series gain a new 12MP front-facing snapper this generation, set into the display (Samsung hasn't yet been bold enough to import the Z Fold series' under-display camera), which holds promise and brings more consistency to the experience of owning an S23, regardless of model.

Without side by side testing, it's hard to say for sure, but it felt like a faster sensor, while offering up a nice overall image with impressive dynamic range as selfie snappers go.

Hands-on Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review: Performance and battery

• Promises of industry-leading performance
• Early interactions were smooth and peppy
• Same capacity battery but 20% improved efficiency

It's not really a secret that Samsung has connections in high places, building Wear OS 3 with Google and having co-developed the last few generations of its own flagship chips in conjunction with Qualcomm, but that partnership has matured into something exceptional for 2023.

Whereas previously, users in different markets could expect Galaxy S devices powered by either Samsung Exynos or Qualcomm Snapdragon silicon, the Galaxy S23 series gains Qualcomm's latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip worldwide.

This eliminates performance discrepancies that previously left users of Exynos-powered Galaxy S phones feeling behind the curve and also helps with aspects like camera processing (thanks to the use of the same ISP across regions) and battery life consistency.

Not only has the 8 Gen 2 already shown its capabilities in the reports from the first few devices already relying upon it, but Samsung has managed to gain access to an exclusive tuned variant of the SoC dubbed the 'Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy'. In a nutshell, the prime Cortex-X3 core inside the chipset has been overclocked to 3.6GHz, rather than 3.2GHz, as is standard; without compromising efficiency or longevity.

As Samsung's Nick Porter pointed out during a one-on-one interview with TechRadar ahead of launch, the vapor chamber is "2.7x bigger on average across the whole S23 series" this year, helping with thermal efficiency, while the use of faster and more efficient LPDDR5X memory and UFS 4.0 storage (a first in the mobile market), lend themselves to greater performance and quality of life too.

The battery specs read the same as the S22 Ultra, with a 5,000mAh cell inside the S23 Ultra supporting 45W wired charging (along with wireless and reverse wireless charging), however, Samsung claims that the collective effect of the new hardware efficiencies and tighter integration between hardware and software result in a 20% improvement that Porter claims results in "the longest ever battery life on a Galaxy S smartphone;" a claim that will surely be put to the test ahead of our full review.

Hands-on Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review: Software

In the Android camp, Samsung is class-leading in terms of update support, promising four years of OS updates and five years of security updates across the Galaxy S23 series, with all three devices running on the latest Android 13, dressed in the company's own One UI 5.1 out of the box.

It's a familiar experience, with squircle icons and a generally flat graphical style as standard, dressed with a few new additions that appear to focus on collaboration, convenience and security.

Samsung Notes now allows for simultaneous creators to work within a single document collaboratively, routines and modes can be set to suit different scenarios you might find yourself in – adjusting settings accordingly and an upgraded privacy dashboard should dispel ambiguity around how secure your device.

Air Command and Air Gestures remain in place, as part of the S Pen experience, offering the ability to control the camera, translate text and cut and paste on-screen content instantly, with simply stylus-driven actions.

Hands-on Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review: Comparison

Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus: Two-minute preview

I'm a bit torn over the loss of the contour on the new Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus. In Samsung's newest handset line, the S23 series, that raised bit of metal surrounding the camera array is gone. It's a cleaner look that I like, but I also worry that this 6.6-inch phone, and its smaller 6.1-inch sister (the Galaxy S23), have lost a signature look and a distinction from the rest of the smartphone pack.

The story of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus is not so much the cleaned-up exterior as it is what's inside. All three of Samsung's new flagship phones feature the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor. Strike that – they feature a special edition of that SoC, dubbed Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy.

It's a nifty, bespoke name that defines one little bit of special sauce within these Android 13 handsets: all the CPUs are overclocked to what may be an industry-leading 3.6GHz. 

Most mobile CPUs, including Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and Apple's formidable A16 Bionic inside the iPhone 14 line, are fast enough for the vast majority of users. This extra bit of juice that Samsung and Qualcomm have coaxed out of the 8 Gen 2 could mean better video capture at the highest resolution, smoother gaming, and more powerful CPU-intensive operations like 8K video editing.

As you'll see from my hands-on experience, I certainly didn't have enough time to truly test that performance (let alone benchmark it). Still, that CPU is central to the ongoing story of the Samsung Galaxy S23 lineup, which includes the Galaxy S23, the Galaxy S23 Plus, and the bold Galaxy S23 Ultra.

That processor is important to keep in mind when you look at the largely unchanged camera array. It's still a 50MP wide, 12MP ultrawide, and a 10MP optically stabilized 3X optical zoom array. The front camera is now 12MP, up from 10MP on the Galaxy S22 Plus. 

Samsung is claiming better photography, mostly through the power of the upgraded CPU and its more powerful AI features. In short, and even in our limited hands-on time, those promises pan out.

Samsung didn't fix what wasn't broken on the 6.6-inch AMOLED display. There's still an ultrasonic fingerprint reader underneath, and the selfie camera punch hole near the top. Everything still looks bright and colorful. Samsung did up the adaptive refresh rate capabilities, so now they step all the way down to 1Hz and still go up to a buttery-smooth 120Hz.

Even though the Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus is a virtual duplicate of the Galaxy S23, there are obvious (size) and crucial differences.

Samsung has kept the dimensions virtually unchanged from the Galaxy S22 Plus, but compared to the S23, the S23 Plus is a larger phone that feels more substantial. That larger Gorilla Glass Victus 2 and Armor Aluminum body leaves room for a bigger 4,700mAh battery (200mAh larger than the one in the Galaxy S22 Plus) and a larger cooling chamber.

The Galaxy S23 Plus starts at $999.99/ £1,049 / AU$1,649, which is $200 / £200 / AU$300 more than the Galaxy S23 starting price. While both the S23 and S23 Plus have 8GB of RAM, the Galaxy S23 Plus starts with 256GB of storage and goes up to 512GB. The base Galaxy S23 starts with just 128GB of storage, and tops out at 256GB. 

In addition to more storage, the Plus also adds UWB (ultra-wideband) connectivity, which could be used for precision location of the phone and other connected devices (think of what Apple does with its UWB and Find My features).

No single element jumps out as the reason to upgrade from a Galaxy S22 Plus. However, it could be a compelling choice for those coming to the Galaxy line for the first time, those who might dismiss the too-small Galaxy S23, and find the powerful Galaxy S23 Ultra overkill and too expensive.

I'll know more, though, when I get a chance to fully review the phone.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus hands-on: Price and availability

• Starts at $999.99 / £949 / AU$1,649
• Same price as last year
• You get more storage for your money

At $999.99, pricing for the base model of the Galaxy S23 Plus in the US remains unchanged since last year; however, you're now getting 256GB, double the storage, for that price. That's a nice little value upgrade in these cash-constrained times. With the top-tier storage now upped to 512GB, you'll pay $100 more than for last year's 256GB top model.

In the UK and Australia, the prices of the two phones have been hiked by £100 / £150 and AU$100 and AU$200 respectively.

For comparison, the Galaxy 23 Ultra offers up to 12GB RAM and 1TB of storage. 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus hands-on: Specs

As mentioned above, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus comes in two storage variants, 256GB and 512GB, and both have 8GB of RAM.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus hands-on: Design

• Design changes make it cleaner and simpler
• Excellent look, feel, and materials
• Nice Gorilla glass upgrade

Samsung has taken a relatively light touch with the Galaxy S23 lineup, making a handful of design changes that move the phones a step or two away from their Galaxy line heritage.

For the 6.6-inch Galaxy S23 Plus (and the Galaxy S23) this means removing the iconic contour from around the camera array. Now all three lenses float near the upper-left side of the phone's brushed glass Gorilla Victus 2 back (there's also glossy Victus 2 glass covering the display).

It's a very clean look, but it means the phones look a little less obviously part of the Samsung line. To avoid confusion, Samsung has kept its name prominently displayed on the back.

Despite removing the bit of Armor Aluminum comprising the contour, the dimensions of the Galaxy S23 Plus are almost exactly the same as those of the Galaxy S22 Plus. Its 76.2 x 157.73 x 7.62mm and 195g frame was almost a perfect fit for my hand – slightly larger than my iPhone 14 Pro, but a little smaller than the 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Pro Max – and the curved metal band surrounding the device felt cool and smooth to the touch.

There are a few other design alterations. The power and volume buttons have been moved down a little on the edge of the device (maybe that'll make them easier to reach) and some antenna bands have been repositioned. Even the bottom edge speaker-grille holes, which are next to the USB-C port, mic holes, and SIM slot, are slightly larger.

For the first time, some external portions of the phones are made from recycled materials, including the volume and power buttons, and the speaker grille at the very top of the display. In addition, Gorilla Glass Victus includes some recycled glass, and some of the phone's packaging is made from recycled materials. Even the plastic cover you'll peel off the screen is partially recycled.

There's a nice collection of colors to choose from. I've seen the Cotton, Black, Lilac, and Green models, and there will be additional colors, like Red, which will only be available only through Samsung.com.

The entire line of Galaxy S23 devices are IP68-rated, which means a drop in water or a roll in dirt should not bother any of them.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus hands-on: Display

As with most other Galaxy S23 line aspects, the AMOLED display hasn't changed much since the S22 line.

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus's 6.6-inch screen is big, bright, and responsive. The adaptive refresh rate tunes the screen depending on what you're doing, down to 48Hz. In my limited experience, this means smooth-scrolling motion and action in the YouTube videos I played.

The phone also still supports 240Hz touch-sampling for speedy gaming response. 

I dipped into the settings to turn off Adaptive refresh (and possibly save some battery life), and I noticed how different the scrolling looked.

It's a responsive screen that had no trouble beating back the bright light set up for our product photography. That's likely thanks to the 1,750 nits of peak brightness, although typically the screen will run at 1,200 nits.

The phone's adaptive brightness system now includes more steps to properly adjust for your various viewing environments, although this was something that was hard to see in my brief hands-on time.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus hands-on: Cameras

Thanks to the removal of the raised metal contour around the camera system, all three lenses look a little larger, but this is essentially the same camera setup as on the Galaxy S22. The big differences in image capture performance are driven, naturally, by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 that backs them up.

The three main rear cameras are: 

• 50MP (OIS) f/1.8 wide, 85-degree FOV
• 12MP f/2.2 ultrawide, 120-degree FOV
• 10MP (OIS) f/2.4 telephoto (3x), 36-degree FOV

It's a shame that the Galaxy S23 and S23 Plus didn't adopt the Galaxy S22 Ultra's camera array, with its 108MP sensor and that amazing 100x space zoom. Still, this array, with its upgraded image sensor and image processing, is nothing to sneeze at.

I took a bunch of photos in the controlled space of a studio, trying out the wide, main, and telephoto lenses, and pushing the 30x Space Zoom. The performance of all three cameras was good. In fact, it seemed like they might be slightly better than what I experienced when I tested the similar array on the Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus.

Both color accuracy and definition were excellent. The 50MP sensor shoots, by default, in 4.5-to-1 pixel-binning mode. I also shot some unbinned 50MP images with the main camera. The capture and processing were slower than I expected, but this is not the mode most people will use. I will say that, with those 50MP images, I could pinch and zoom to a high level of detail.

Samsung is promising improved 'Nightography,' which is not something I could really test, but I did push the low-light performance a bit.

In the studio, I took a heavy blanket and put a bowl of fake lemons under it. Then I held the phone under the blanket, and used the volume up button, which also serves as a shutter button, to take some photos. Considering the conditions, the Galaxy S23 Plus did a nice job.

On the front is a new 12MP camera, un upgrsde . I took some selfies in both standard and portrait modes, and the level of detail was excellent in both cases. I marveled at how old looked, and realized that it's time to whiten my teeth. Thanks a lot, Samsung.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus hands-on: Performance and audio

• Promises of industry-leading performance
• Early interactions were smooth and snappy

Not only does the entire Samsung Galaxy S23 line get the best Qualcomm has to offer in mobile CPUs, the phones even get their own special edition of it.

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus (and all S23 devices) are running the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy. What this boils down to is a little more juice, with the CPU running at 3.6GHz. That's a lot of power for a little smartphone.

Obviously, I couldn't benchmark the phone to verify the performance boost. What I can say is that whatever I did on the phone felt responsive and smooth. I didn't get to play any games,or stress the Galaxy S23 Plus in a way that might show me, for instance, if the phone gets hot. The S23 Plus has a better cooling system than the S23, but that smaller phone never felt hot either. Again, I only had a couple of hours with the two phones, so take this information with a grain of salt.

I also took the time to watch the new Dungeons and Dragons movie trailer on the Samsung Galaxy S23. It looked great, and the stereo speakers got loud and sharp (not a lot of bass, obviously). I then switched on Dolby Atmos, which seemed to improve the clarity a bit. I really want to spend more time with the phone to see if the audio can get even more immersive.

All the Galaxy S23 phones are 5G-capable, and, yes, they still include physical SIM slots.

One thing Samsung is not currently touting is any kind of satellite connectivity, which, given the current competitive environment, is a little surprising. Apple, for instance, introduced Emergency SOS via Satellite with the iPhone 14 line, and Qualcomm showed at CES how a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-equipped demo device could send and receive texts over satellite. 

Both the S23 and S23 Plus pair the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 with the X70 5G modem, the same one Qualcomm told me is capable of satellite communications; so conceivably, Samsung and its carrier partners could turn on this feature later.

However, Samsung is so far keeping mum about those capabilities on the Galaxy S23 line.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus hands-on: Software

The entire Samsung Galaxy S23 line will ship with Android 13 and Samsung's OneUI 5.1 overlay. Samsung is promising four generations of OS upgrades, and five years of security upgrades.

Overall, the software experience is very familiar, and virtually unchanged from the S22 line. That said, Samsung has introduced a number of new software features that I didn't have the opportunity to test, including better Samsung Notes (there are now co-create features), co-watching in Google Meet, and enhanced security features. The latter adds the ability to set your S23 to Maintenance Mode, so that all your data is protected while someone works on your Galaxy S23.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus hands-on: Battery life

One of the reasons you buy a bigger phone is for the bigger battery. The Galaxy S23 has a 4,700mAH battery, which is 200mAh larger than the one in the Galaxy S22 Plus, and 800mAh larger than the battery in the Galaxy S23.

This, and what should be a more efficient Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, could result in a lot more battery life than we got from last year's S22 Plus, although that's just speculation until we can run some battery benchmark tests.

The phone supports Super Fast Charging 2.0 (with a 45W wired fast charger). There's also Super Fast Charging Wireless (which is up to 10W+), and wireless PowerShare if you want to charge your Galaxy Buds Pros, or another Galaxy S22 or S23, on the back of the new device. Naturally, I couldn't test any of these features.

Overall, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus is an impressively built, attractive smartphone that appears to offer ample performance and high-quality cameras backed by an impressive mobile CPU.

For US customers, the base model in particular is better value than previous Plus models thanks the doubled storage, a better cooling system, and a much bigger battery, all for the  same price as last year's Galaxy S22. Still, I'll withhold final judgement until I can fully test the handset,

Before the official reveal of preorders and release dates, we had an opportunity to try out three of the latest in the Samsung Galaxy Book3 line of Ultrabooks in person. And so far, what we’ve seen has impressed us. The Galaxy Book3 Ultra was the biggest surprise so far, as we didn’t expect Samsung to dive into a thin and light laptop built for gamers and creatives.

We previewed the black 16-inch version and its sleek and sexy form factor belies its surprisingly heavier weight, which is an immediate giveaway as to the specs hidden within. The display is gorgeous and compared to similar machines, it’s still way more luxurious looking. 

Galaxy Book3 Ultra: Price & availability

The Galaxy Book3 Pro starts at $2,399.99/£2,449 (around AU$3,480) with options to configure it for higher specs at a higher price. Preorders on this one, according to information in the UK, will start later on February 14, with a planned release of February 22. 

It seems that this Ultrabook will only launch in the US and UK to start, going by the available pricing. The UK pricing is more expensive than the US pricing, reflecting the ongoing inflation crisis in that region. 

Meanwhile, if pricing information is released for Australia or for any other region, TechRadar will be sure to report on that, so stay tuned to our ongoing coverage, as well as any other Samsung news or product reveals.

Galaxy Book3 Ultra: Design

Unlike the other two Ultrabooks we previewed, the Galaxy Book3 Ultra is much heavier in comparison despite its still-thin form factor. It’s not quite a beast of a machine but its display size of 16 inches combined with the weight meant we immediately noticed the difference. It comes in two colors, black and light silver, with the one we previewed being black. Despite the very common color options, it possesses a sleekness that showcases its high quality, and its AMOLED screen is an absolute showstopper.

The keyboard is luxurious and I really appreciate how large and responsive the touchpad was. The webcam is a full 1080p, and I found it to have a nice clear image, with options like HDR and auto framing which improves the picture quality and focus.

The port selection is pretty solid with an HDMI port, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a Type-A USB port, an audio jack, and a mini SDcard slot. But the fact that there’s no ethernet cable is a bit disappointing. Most buyers would most likely not plug in an Ultrabooks for internet access, but having the option is important to have.

Galaxy Book3 Ultra: Performance

We couldn’t personally test out the performance of the Galaxy Book Ultra but the specs so far seem to be quite impressive. It features a 13th-gen Intel CPU, either a Core i7 or Core i9 depending on the configuration, and either an Nvidia RTX 4050 or RTX 4070 GPU. This makes the Ultra well-suited for either gaming or creative work, but we'll know more once we get a chance to test it ourselves.

Galaxy Book3 Ultra: Early verdict

All in all, this was the most interesting showing that Samsung had for us. Judging by what we actually tried out, as well as the given specs, we’ll have a high-quality and versatile machine made for both work and play.

The pricing is quite high, in line with high-end gaming laptops and Ultrabooks mind you but still a bit steep for the average consumer who’s a bit more price-savvy now than in the past. But it still looks to be a great investment and is definitely more than preferable to some of the other bulky behemoths we’ve seen this year. 

It remains to be seen what actual performance, sound quality, ventilation, and more will look like, but hopefully, those numbers will be just as impressive as what we’ve seen so far.