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Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra vs Apple iPhone 15 Plus

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Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra vs Apple iPhone 15 Plus

91 out of 100
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
VS
79 out of 100
Apple iPhone 15 Plus
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
Apple iPhone 15 Plus

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.8-inch Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra (with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy) that was released on February 1, 2023, against the Apple iPhone 15 Plus, which is powered by Apple A16 Bionic and came out 8 months after. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

  1. Differences
  2. Review
  3. Specs
  4. Benchmarks
  5. Battery life
  6. Camera
  7. Comments

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
  • The rear camera has a 10x optical zoom
  • Higher display refresh rate – 120 Hz
  • Supports higher wattage charging (45W versus 20W)
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
  • Comes with 617 mAh larger battery capacity: 5000 vs 4383 mAh
  • Has 2 SIM card slots
  • CPU with a higher amount of cores (+2)
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 15 Plus
  • Apple releases software updates and supports their phones a few years longer than Samsung
  • Weighs 32 grams less
  • 13% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 2250 and 1990 points

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and Apple iPhone 15 Plus crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
Scores with a red asterisk ( * ) are approximate and may change in the future as we gather more data.
NanoReview Score
Final comparison evaluation

Value for money

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests
Phone:
Galaxy S23 Ultra
vs
iPhone 15 Plus

Display

Type Dynamic AMOLED OLED
Size 6.8 inches 6.7 inches
Resolution 1440 x 3088 pixels 1290 x 2796 pixels
Aspect ratio 19.3:9 19.5:9
PPI 500 ppi 460 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 60 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes No
Max rated brightness 850 nits 2000 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR 1750 nits 1600 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, Dolby Vision
Screen protection Gorilla Glass Victus 2 Ceramic Shield
Screen-to-body ratio 89.5% 88%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display 		- DCI-P3
Display tests
RGB color space 96.9% -
PWM 240 Hz -
Response time 2 ms -
Contrast ∞ Infinity -
Peak brightness test (auto)

Design and build

Height 163.4 mm (6.43 inches) 160.9 mm (6.33 inches)
Width 78.1 mm (3.07 inches) 77.8 mm (3.06 inches)
Thickness 8.9 mm (0.35 inches) 7.8 mm (0.31 inches)
Weight 233 g (8.22 oz) 201 g (7.09 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber -
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors White, Black, Gray, Blue, Green, Red, Purple Black, Blue, Green, Pink, Yellow
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display No
Screen-to-body ratio

Performance

Tests of Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and Apple iPhone 15 Plus in the benchmarks
SoC
Chipset Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy Apple A16 Bionic
Max clock 3360 MHz 3460 MHz
CPU cores 8 (1 + 2 + 2 + 3) 6 (2 + 4)
Architecture - 3 cores at 2 GHz: Cortex-A510
- 2 cores at 2.8 GHz: Cortex-A710
- 2 cores at 2.8 GHz: Cortex-A715
- 1 core at 3.2 GHz: Cortex-X3 		- 4 cores at 2.02 GHz: Sawtooth
- 2 cores at 3.46 GHz: Everest
L3 cache 8 MB -
Lithography process 4 nanometers 4 nanometers
Graphics Adreno 740 Apple A16 GPU
GPU shading units 2560 640
GPU clock 719 MHz 1398 MHz
FLOPS ~3481.6 GFLOPS ~1789.4 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
AnTuTu Benchmark 10
CPU 377304 377751
GPU 596398 481103
Memory 271911 203657
UX 261336 312208
Total score 1517214 1387349
3DMark Wild Life Performance
Max surface temperature 34.8 °C -
Stability 64% -
Graphics test 72 FPS -
Graphics score 12154 -
PCMark 3.0
Web score 15596 -
Video editing 7791 -
Photo editing 33958 -
Data manipulation 12948 -
Writing score 19802 -

Memory

RAM
RAM size 8, 12 GB 6 GB
Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR5
Channels 4 4
Storage
Storage size 256, 512, 1024 GB 128, 256, 512 GB
Storage type UFS 4.0 NVMe
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 13 iOS 17
ROM One UI 5.1 -
OS size 39.9 GB -

Battery

Capacity 5000 mAh 4383 mAh
Max charge power 45 W 20 W
Battery type Li-Po Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (15 W) Yes (7.5 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) Yes
Fast charging Yes (68% in 30 min) Yes (50% in 30 min)
Full charging time 0:59 hr -
Battery life tests
Web browsing 14:50 hr -
Watching video 19:27 hr -
Gaming 06:21 hr -
Standby 123 hr -
General battery life

Camera

Specs and camera test of smartphones
Main camera
Matrix 200 megapixels 48 megapixels
Image resolution 16320 x 12240 8000 x 6000
Zoom Optical, 10x Optical, 2x
Flash LED Dual LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 30FPS No
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 960 FPS (1080p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 120° 120°
Lenses 4 (200 MP + 10 MP + 10 MP + 12 MP) 2 (48 MP + 12 MP)
Wide (main) lens - 200 MP
- Aperture: f/1.7
- Focal length: 23 mm
- Pixel size: 0.64 micron
- Sensor: 1/1.3", Samsung ISOCELL HP2 (ISOCELL Plus CMOS)
- Laser autofocus
- Optical stabilization
- 48 MP
- Aperture: f/1.6
- Focal length: 26 mm
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
- Optical stabilization
Telephoto lens - 10 MP
- Aperture: f/4.9
- Focal length: 230 mm
- Pixel size: 1.12 micron
- Sensor: 1/3.52", Sony IMX754 (Exmor-RS CMOS)
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
- Optical stabilization
-
Ultra-wide lens - 12 MP
- Aperture: f/2.2
- Focal length: 13 mm
- Pixel size: 1.4 micron
- Sensor: 1/2.55", Sony IMX564 (Exmor-RS CMOS)
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
- 12 MP
- Aperture: f/2.4
- Focal length: 13 mm
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support 		- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
Samples Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra from DxOMark -
Selfie camera
Megapixels 12 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 4000 x 3000 4032 x 3024
Aperture f/2.2 f/1.9
Focal length 26 mm 23 mm
Pixel size 1.12 microns -
Sensor type ISOCELL CMOS CMOS
Sensor size 1/3.24" 1/3.6"
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS

DxOMark camera tests

Photo quality
Video quality
Generic camera score

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6E (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 b/g/n/ac/ax)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display 		- Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 5.3 5.3
Bluetooth features LE LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 3.2 2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG 		- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS
NFC * Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM * 2 1
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby -
eSIM support * Yes Yes
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat * 20 18
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos Yes Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced February 2023 September 2023
Release date February 2023 September 2023
SAR (head) 0.96 W/kg -
SAR (body) 1.4 W/kg -
Sensors - Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint 		- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Face recognition sensor
Bundled charger Not included Not included
* Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

After analyzing all the data, we think that the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is definitely a better buy.

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