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Samsung Galaxy A54 Review : Tech ARP Editor’s Choice!

Read our comprehensive review of the Samsung Galaxy A54 smartphone, and find out why it won our Editor’s Choice Award!

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Colour Options

The new Samsung Galaxy A54 smartphone is available in three main colours with a glossy finish :

Awesome Graphite
Awesome Violet
Awesome Lime

Samsung also offers an Awesome White colour option in certain countries.

In the following video, I will show you the three main colour options, and give you a closer look at the Galaxy A54 in the Awesome Graphite, Awesome Violet and Awesome Lime colours. Do let us know which you prefer!

The Samsung Galaxy A54 comes with 8 GB of RAM, and 256 GB of storage, with the option to add a microSD card in the hybrid SIM tray. It is covered by a 2-year warranty, with the following launch prices:

8 GB + 256 GB : RM1,899 / US$449.99 / £499 / A$697 / S$648

Here are online purchase options (we may get commission from your purchase) :

MY : 4 colours | 4 colours | 4 colours | 4 colours
SG : 4 colours | 4 colours | 4 colours | 4 colours
US : Graphite | Violet | Lime
UK : Graphite | Violet | Lime | White
AU : Graphite | Violet

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Key Specifications

Here are the key specifications for the Samsung Galaxy A54 smartphone:

Specifications	Samsung Galaxy A54
Display	6.4-inch Super AMOLED – 1080 x 2340 pixels (390 ppi) – 60 Hz / 120 Hz refresh rate
Protection	Corning Gorilla Glass 5 (front + back)
Water Resistance	IP67
OS	One UI 5.1 (Android 13)
Platform	Samsung Exynos 1380
CPU	4 x Arm Cortex-A78 cores (2.4 GHz) 4 x Arm Cortex-A55 cores (2.0 GHz)
GPU	Arm Mali-G68 MP5
Memory	8 GB GB
Storage Options	256 GB
External Storage	Hybrid microSD slot (up to 1 TB)
Front Camera	32 MP camera, f/2.2, 80˚ FOV
Main Cameras	50 MP wide angle camera, f/1.8 12 MP ultra-wide camera, f/2.2 5 MP macro camera, f/2.4
Connectivity	Up to 5G Sub6 FDD/TDD Dual SIM (hybrid) capability Wi-Fi : Wi-Fi 6 (dual-band) Bluetooth : BT 5.3SB : USB 2.0 Type C
Fingerprint Sensor	Yes, Under Display
Other Sensors	Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Geomagnetic, Hall, Light, Proximity
GPS	GPS, Beidou, Galileo, Glonass, QZSS
NFC	Yes
Battery	5,000 mAh Li-Po battery
Charging	25 watt wired charging
Dimensions	76.7 mm wide 158.2 mm tall 8.2 mm thick
Weight	202 grams

Samsung Galaxy A54 : What’s Inside The Box?

The Samsung Galaxy A54 smartphone comes in a thin white cardboard box. Once you remove everything, you should find these items inside the box:

Samsung Galaxy A54 smartphone
One set of documents : Quick Start Guide, warranty card, Samsung Pay leaflet, Regional Lock Guide
Type C to Type C USB cable
SIM tray pin

That’s it! The package is pretty sparse. There is no USB charger, and no, it doesn’t come with a basic TPU bumper case either.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy A54 Key Features

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Samsung Galaxy A54 : Key Features

Now, let us go through its key features, and show you why the Samsung Galaxy A54 is worthy of our Editor’s Choice Award!

Samsung Exynos 1380 5G Mobile Platform

The Samsung Galaxy A54 is built around the Samsung Exynos 1380 mobile SoC, which is fabricated with Samsung’s own 5 nm EUV process technology.

It comes with an Arm Mali-G68 MP5 GPU, and an NPU, as well as eight CPU cores arranged in two performance clusters:

4 x Arm Cortex-A78 cores (2.4 GHz)
4 x Arm Cortex-A55 cores (2.0 GHz)

The Samsung Exynos 1380 has an integrated 5G modem that supports Sub-6GHz and mmWave standards, as well as LTE Cat.18 uploads and downloads for current 4G networks.

It also supports Wi-Fi 802.11ax (2×2 MIMO) with triple-band capability, as well as Bluetooth 5.3. It supports the four main GPS networks – GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou and Galile.

6.4-inch Super AMOLED Display

The Samsung Galaxy A54 boasts a large 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display, with a Full HD+ resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels.

This display defaults to a 60 Hz refresh rate, but supports a 120 Hz refresh rate that offers smoother graphics at the expense of higher power consumption.

Unlike higher-end smartphones like the new Galaxy S23 Ultra, the display does not dynamically changes its refresh rate. It either runs at 60 Hz or 120 Hz.

32 MP Front Camera

The Samsung Galaxy A54 comes with a high-resolution 32 MP front camera with f/2.2 aperture. Instead of hiding it in a discreet punch hole, it has a stainless steel ring.

This camera defaults to 8 MP by default, combining four pixels into one much larger pixel for better image quality and low-light performance.

This 32 MP camera is capable of recording 1080p video at 30 fps or 60 fps, as well as 4K video at 30 fps.

50 MP Main Camera

The Samsung Galaxy A54 comes with a triple camera system at the back that consists of:

a 50 MP main camera, with f/1.8 aperture,
a 12 MP ultra-wide angle camera, with f/2.2 aperture, and
a 5 MP macro camera, with f/2.4 aperture

The 50 MP camera is a “downgrade” in megapixels from the Galaxy A53’s 64 MP camera, but its image quality is better because it is built around the Sony IMX766 image sensor used in phones like the realme 9 Pro+ and Xiaomi 12.

The Sony IMX766 is a larger 1/1.56″ sensor, which offers a 25% larger pixel size of 1.0 µm (compared to 0.8 µm). The larger pixel size is important as it means each pixel can receive 25% more light, delivering better images, especially in low-light conditions.

In fact, that is why the Galaxy A54 defaults to the 12.5 MP resolution, combining four pixels into a much larger 2 µm “bucket” to collect more light. The 64 MP camera in last year’s Galaxy A53 also does the same thing, combining four pixels in one to deliver 16 MP photos.

This 50 MP camera supports PDAF (Phase Detection Autofocus), and its lens has a wide f/1.8 aperture for better light intake. If you like to record videos, you will be glad to know that it features VDIS (Video Digital Image Stabilisation) and improved OIS (Optical Image Stabilisation) offering a wider OIS angle.

Corning Gorilla Glass 5

The Samsung Galaxy A54 is protected in the front and in the back by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. While this was introduced back in July 2016, it still offers considerable protection.

In lab tests, it can survive drops on hard, rough surface from a height of up to 1.2 metres. It also offers 2X better scratch protection compared to its competitors.

IP67 Dust + Water Resistance

The Samsung Galaxy A54 is IP67 rated against the ingress of dust and water. This means it can withstand being immersed in up to 1 metre of water for at least 30 minutes.

Hybrid SIM + micro SD Tray

The Samsung Galaxy A54 comes with a hybrid tray that supports up to two physical SIM cards, or a physical SIM card as well as a single micro SD card of up to 1 TB in capacity

USB Type C Port

The Samsung Galaxy A54 comes with the bidirectional Type C port, which is now the EU standard.

5,000 mAh Fast-Charging Battery

The Samsung Galaxy A54 comes with a large 5,000 mAh lithium-ion polymer battery, which supports 25 watt fast wired charging. It does not support wireless charging, or reverse charging.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy A54 Battery + Charging

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Samsung Galaxy A54 : Battery Life Comparison!

The Samsung Galaxy A54 comes with a 5,000 mAh battery, which is the same size as the Galaxy S23 Ultra and Galaxy S22 Ultra.

To test its battery life, we turned off Automatic Brightness, and set its display brightness to 50%.

Why 50%? That is actually slightly higher than the average indoor brightness level of 40% during the day, and is what we usually use in all our mobile battery life tests.

It is important to fix the brightness level, to make sure the screen brightness does not change as the ambient brightness changes.

We then ran the PCMark Work 3.0 battery life test until its battery capacity dropped to 20% several times, and this was the best result we obtained with 60 Hz and 120 Hz refresh rates :

Not bad at all! The Samsung Galaxy A54 has a battery life of 12.5 hours with Adaptive refresh rate enabled, and almost 14 hours with the Standard refresh rate. That’s equal to the Galaxy S22 Ultra at the Standard refresh rate, and 16.7% better at the Adaptive refresh rate.

But let’s also compare its battery life at 60 Hz and 120 Hz, against the S23 Ultra, S22 Ultra and Z Flip 3 smartphones.

Standard Refresh Rate (60 Hz)

The Samsung Galaxy A54 lasted almost 14 hours with the refresh rate set to 60 Hz. But it isn’t quite as efficient as the new S23 Ultra, or even last year’s S22 Ultra.

Work 3.0	S23 Ultra (60 Hz)	S22 Ultra (60 Hz)	Galaxy A54 (60 Hz)	Z Flip 3 (60 Hz)
Battery Capacity	5,000 mAh	5,000 mAh	5,000 mAh	3,300 mAh
Battery Life	15 hrs 18 mins	14 hrs 15 mins	13 hrs 57 mins	8 hrs 11 mins
Utilisation per min.	4.36 mAh	4.68 mAh	4.78 mAh	5.38 mAh

Adaptive Refresh Rate (120 Hz)

Will you look at that! The Samsung Galaxy A54 was about 13.6% more efficient than the S22 Ultra with the Adaptive refresh rate enabled, coming within 8% of the power efficiency of the S23 Ultra.

Based on what we see here, I definitely recommend turning on the Adaptive Refresh Rate on the Galaxy A54, unless you absolutely need the extra 1.5 hours of battery life.

Work 3.0	S23 Ultra (120 Hz)	Galaxy A54 (120 Hz)	S22 Ultra (120 Hz)	Z Flip 3 (120 Hz)
Battery Capacity	5,000 mAh	5,000 mAh	5,000 mAh	3,300 mAh
Battery Life	13 hrs 0 mins	12 hrs 25 mins	10 hrs 38 mins	6 hrs 44 mins
Utilisation per min.	5.13 mAh	5.52 mAh	6.27 mAh	6.53 mAh

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Battery Recharging Speed!

The Samsung Galaxy A54 supports up to 25 watts of wired fast charging, but unfortunately, does not come with the charger in-the-box.

So we relied on the standard 15 watt Samsung fast charger than shipped with their previous smartphones – something we believe most users will end up doing.

Work 3.0	S22 Ultra	S23 Ultra	Galaxy A54	Z Flip 3
Battery Capacity	3,300 mAh	5,000 mAh	5,000 mAh	3,300 mAh
Charger Output	15 watts	15 watts	15 watts	15 watts
Battery Life	64.5 minutes	88.8 minutes	120.7 minutes	88.5 minutes
Recharging Speed (per minute)	62.0 mAh	45.0 mAh	33.1 mAh	29.8 mAh

The Samsung Galaxy A54 fully recharges from 20% to 100% in just over 2 hours with the standard 15 watt Samsung charger. Oddly enough, this is significantly (36%) slower than the S23 Ultra.

I have no idea whether this was an intentional design decision to reduce the Galaxy A54’s thermal output while charging, or to further differentiate it from the much pricier Galaxy S23 Ultra.

In any case, the Galaxy A54 has a good battery life : recharging ratio of 7:1. As a rule of thumb, for every hour of battery life, you only need to recharge it for 8.5 minutes.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy A54 Performance

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Samsung Galaxy A54 : Performance Summary

Built around the Samsung Exynos 1380, the Galaxy A54 smartphone has a very fast CPU, but a relatively weak GPU.

What that means is that it offers snappy performance for most part – web browsing, work applications, casual gaming, etc.

It only has trouble delivering high frame rates for graphics-intensive 3D games, and AI or 3D apps may take longer to process in comparison to flagship devices.

But that’s what you need to keep in mind – the Exynos 1380 is a mid-range mobile platform, not a flagship-class. And it is a fast one.

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Work Performance

We first tested the Galaxy A54 Ultra using PCMark, which simulates work applications like web browsing, playing video, writing text and editing photos.

Work 3.0	S23 Ultra	Galaxy A54	S22 Ultra	S21 Ultra	Galaxy A52
Mobile Platform	SD 8 Gen 2	Exynos 1380	SD 8 Gen 1	Exynos 2100	SD 750G
Performance Score	16408	13523	12860	12535	7874
Web Browsing	15680	10659	10442	10185	7021
Video Editing	7879	7363	7444	6336	5693
Writing	22257	17485	15471	15247	7454
Photo Editing	35533	28805	30177	37847	15812
Data Manipulation	12171	11443	9691	8310	6424

Will you look at that?! The Samsung Exynos 1380 that powers the Galaxy A54 actually beat Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 which powered the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

It was also just 17.5% slower than the latest flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 mobile SoC that powers the new Galaxy S23 Ultra flagship smartphone!

Very impressive for a mid-range mobile SoC, especially handily beating the Galaxy S22 Ultra and Galaxy S21 Ultra, and coming in 72% faster than the Galaxy A52.

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Gaming Performance

For gaming, we tested the Galaxy A54 using 3DMark, with these results :

3DMark	S23 Ultra	S22 Ultra	Z Flip 3	Note20 Ultra	Galaxy A54
Device	SD 8 Gen 2	SD 8 Gen 1	SD 888	Exynos 990	Exynos 1380
Sling Shot Unlimited	16344	11094	9248	8026	6195
Wild Life Unlimited	14554	9106	3952	4504	2860
Wild Life Extreme Unlimited	3814	2220	1174	1387	799

This is where the Samsung Galaxy A54’s Exynos 1380 falls short – it is just not very good at gaming!

It was 23% to 42% slower than the Exynos 990, and 28% to 32% slower than the Snapdragon 888!

That does not mean it’s bad for gaming. It can certainly handle most games. It just won’t be able to deliver high frame rates in graphically-demanding 3D games like Genshin Impact, Black Desert Mobile, etc.

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Overall Performance

We then tested the Galaxy A54 using AnTuTu, yielding these results :

AnTuTu	S23 Ultra	S22 Ultra	S21 Ultra	Galaxy A54	Galaxy A52
Device	SD 8 Gen 2	SD 8 Gen 1	Exynos 2100	Exynos 1380	SD 750G
AnTuTu Score	1212174	889167	624411	522411	341908
CPU	261886	203090	166290	153230	105098
GPU	538823	402617	258995	149596	88068
Memory	236163	146002	120805	86578	60642
UX	175302	137458	78321	133007	88100

According to the AnTuTu benchmark, the Samsung Galaxy A54 is about 53% faster than the Galaxy A52, and only 16% slower than the Galaxy S21 Ultra.

What’s important to note is that the Exynos 1380’s CPU is fast, coming within 8% of the Exynos 2100. However, it has a relatively weak GPU, and slower memory than the flagship-class mobile platforms in this comparison.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy A54 Camera Performance

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Samsung Galaxy A54 : Camera Performance

The Samsung Galaxy A54’s 50 MP camera takes 12.5 MP photos by default, with a resolution of 4080 x 3060 pixels. Each JPEG photo using the High Efficiency Image File (HEIF) format, each photo is about 2.5 MB to 5 MB in size.

Without HEIF, the file sizes are much larger, so please remember to turn on the HEIF file format to save space.

Open the Camera app
Go to Settings > Advanced picture options
Turn on High efficiency pictures.

As this photo sample shows, the 50 MP main camera of the Samsung Galaxy A54 offers a nice bokeh, thanks to its wide f/1.8 aperture.

However, that wide aperture presents a problem too – a narrow depth of field, as this sample photo of star anise shows.

If multiple objects are present at different distances from the camera, only some of them will remain in focus, while the others will be out-of-focus.

That makes for nice portraits, but if you do not tap on the area or subject you want to be in focus, the camera may auto-focus on the wrong area or subject, and you will end up with an out-of-focus shot.

As this shot of pineapples show, only a small area of the right edge of the pineapple on the left is in focus. That’s because I intentionally tapped on that part.

Otherwise, the camera would naturally focus on the nearest part of the pineapple (its centre, which is located to the far left of the photo) and this photo would look really out-of-focus.

In most cases, the colour reproduction is pretty accurate, even if it’s indoors.

But in some cases, you can end up with pretty dull-looking photos under artificial light.

You need to be careful with close-up shots though. This isn’t a macro camera, and so it has trouble focusing if the subject is too close.

The problem is – the Samsung camera app does not warn you if the 50 MP camera cannot focus properly on the subject. It may look like it is focused properly in the camera app, but when you open it up later, you will see that it’s completely out-of-focus.

I definitely recommend you tapping on the subject to “force” the camera app to visibly try to focus. If it fails, you know that you are much too close. It’s also a good habit to tap to focus anyway, as this 50 MP camera has a narrow depth-of-field.

There is no need to worry about the “loss” in resolution from 64 MP to 50 MP. In most cases, you probably won’t even realise that the camera defaults to just 12.5 MP!

Even at 12.5 MP, there is more than enough detail in the photos that the Galaxy A54’s 50MP camera delivers, even if you want to zoom in.

But that does not mean that its 50 MP sensor is pure marketing. You can use it to take 50 MP shots, but you will have to live with significantly larger file sizes.

The full 50 MP resolution isn’t needed for 90% of the photos that most people take, but it is useful for long-distance shots. The Samsung Galaxy A54 does not have a telephoto camera, so taking photos in 50 MP effectively gives you a 4X zoom capability.

For example, if you need to take a faraway shot of a bell tower, you can switch to 50 MP before taking the photo. Then you can zoom into the 50 MP photo you took and crop out a much closer looking shot of that bell tower without using software or digital zoom.

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Camera Performance Summary

I’m glad Samsung switched from the 64 MP camera to a 50 MP camera in the Galaxy A54. The “loss” in megapixels is more than made up by the larger and better Sony IMX766 image sensor, with 25% larger pixels.

This improved 50 MP main camera performed well in our tests, generally delivering good photos with accurate colours in most cases. It has a good level of detail, even at 12.5 MP.

The biggest problem I have with it is its minimum focus distance. The camera seems to work best with subjects that are at least 50 cm away, or so. If I get too close to the subject, the shot ends up out-of-focus, especially if I tried to let the camera auto-focus by itself.

This is not readily apparent in the camera app, so you need to tap to focus. That triggers the camera to seek a better focus. That’s when you can see whether it can really focus properly. Even then, I sometimes end up with out-of-focus shots, because I was simply too close to the subject.

For most people, this won’t a problem if you are taking the usual photos – people standing at a distance, landscapes and buildings at a distance, etc. Just keep this in mind if you are taking close shots of products or food, etc.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy A54 Summary + Award

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Samsung Galaxy A54 : Summary + Award

The Samsung Galaxy A54 is proof that you don’t need to pay top dollar to get a great smartphone. For less than half the cost of a flagship smartphone, it offers most of the features that you need, in a well-protected device.

It comes with a large, excellent Super AMOLED display which supports 120 Hz refresh rate, and is protected on both front and rear by Gorilla Glass 5. It is also IP67-rated against the ingress of dust and water.

Built around the 5 nm Samsung Exynos 1380 mobile platform, the Galaxy A54 offers excellent performance in work apps, offering the equivalent performance as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.

However, it falters when it comes to gaming. Its weaker Arm Mali-G68 MP5 GPU just cannot keep up with the better GPUs used in flagship-class smartphones. That doesn’t mean you can’t game on it. You can – it can certainly handle most games. It just won’t do as well as flagship-class smartphones in graphics-intensive games.

When it comes to photography, it comes with high-resolution 32 MP front camera, as well as a new 50 MP Sony IMX766 camera at the back, and an ultra-wide-angle camera, and a macro camera.

The 50 MP main camera is generally excellent, except under certain indoor lighting where the photos appear washed out. It also has trouble focusing at closer distances, which is probably why Samsung added the macro camera, which would normally be a waste of time for most users.

While I miss the telephoto camera which is a fixture in flagship smartphones, the 12 MP ultra-wide angle camera is arguably a better trade-off – most people would prefer to use it for landscape and group shots, rather than take long-distance shots with the telephoto camera.

The Galaxy A54 takes pretty good videos too, but there are some limitations :

it can support 30/60 fps @ 1080p, but only 30 fps for 4K video recording,
it is limited to 30 fps, regardless of resolution, when using its ultra-wide angle camera.
it can only support video image stabilisation at 30 fps, but not 60 fps

If you really love taking videos at 4K especially at 60 fps or higher, then these limitations will be a deal breaker. Video recording is where flagship devices like the Galaxy S23 Ultra shines.

But for many people, the Samsung Galaxy A54 offers an excellent combination of features and capabilities at a far lower cost. On top of that, you get two years of warranty, three years of Android updates, and four years of security updates.

For these reasons, we gladly award the Samsung Galaxy A54 our Editor’s Choice Award! Great work, Samsung!

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Price + Availability

The Samsung Galaxy A54 smartphone is available in three main colours with a glossy finish :

Awesome Graphite
Awesome Violet
Awesome Lime

8 GB + 256 GB : RM1,899 / US$449.99 / £499 / A$697 / S$648

Here are online purchase options (we may get commission from your purchase) :

MY : 4 colours | 4 colours | 4 colours | 4 colours
SG : 4 colours | 4 colours | 4 colours | 4 colours
US : Graphite | Violet | Lime
UK : Graphite | Violet | Lime | White
AU : Graphite | Violet

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He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Review : Tech ARP Editor’s Choice!

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Read our comprehensive review of the new Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, and find out why it won our Editor’s Choice Award!

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Model + Colour Options

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra comes in four main colours – Phantom Black, Green, Lavender, and Cream.

Ahead of the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s official launch, we were given special access to all four main colours it will be offered through retail stores, including Samsung Experience Stores.

So I was able to record this video comparing the new Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphone in all four colours. Take a look at all four colours, and let us know which you prefer!

Here are the official launch prices for the three available storage capacities:

256 GB : RM5,699 (about US$1,336 / £1,083 / A$1,888 / S$1,755)
512 GB : RM6,199 (about US$1,453 / £1,179 / A$2,052 / S$1,910)
1 TB : RM7,199 (about US$1,688 / £1,369 / A$2,388 / S$2,218)

Here are online purchase options for your convenience:

United States : $1,199 | $1379.99 | $1,495 | $1,495
United Kingdom : £1,249 | £1,399 | £1,399 | £1,399
Malaysia : RM5,699 | RM5,699 | RM5,699 | RM5,699
Singapore : $1,599 | S$2,098 | S$2,098

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Specifications Compared!

I created this table to compare the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s specifications to last year’s Galaxy S22 Ultra!

Specifications	Galaxy S23 Ultra	Galaxy S22 Ultra
Display	6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display – 1440 x 3088 pixels (500 ppi) – 120 Hz dynamic refresh rate (1~120 Hz) – 1750 nits peak brightness
Protection	Gorilla Glass Victus 2	Gorilla Glass Victus+
Water Resistance	IP68
Platform	Snapdragon 8 Gen 2	Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
CPU	1 x Cortex-X3 (3.36 GHz) 2 x Cortex-A715 (2.8 GHz) 2 x Cortex-A710 (2.8 GHz) 3 x Cortex-A510 (2.0 GHz)	1 x Cortex-X2 (3.0 GHz) 3 x Cortex-A710 (2.5 GHz) 4 x Cortex-A510 (1.8 GHz)
GPU	Adreno 740	Adreno 730
Memory + Storage	12 GB + 256 GB 12 GB + 512 GB 12 GB + 1 TB	8 GB + 128 GB 12 GB + 256 GB 12 GB + 512 GB 12 GB + 1 TB
External Storage	NA
Front Camera	12 MP camera, f/2.2	40 MP camera, f/2.2
Main Cameras	200 MP Adaptive Pixel camera, f/1.7 12 MP ultra-wide camera, f/2.2 10 MP 3x zoom camera, f/2.4 10 MP 10x zoom camera, f/4.9	108 MP Dual Pixel camera, f/1.8 12 MP ultra-wide camera, f/2.2 10 MP 3x zoom camera, f/2.4 10 MP 10x zoom camera, f/4.9
Connectivity	Wi-Fi : Wi-Fi 6E Ultra-Wideband (UWB) Bluetooth : BT 5.3 USB : USB Type C	Wi-Fi : Wi-Fi 6E Bluetooth : BT 5.2 USB : USB Type C
S Pen	Yes, 2.8 ms latency
Fingerprint Sensor	Yes, Under Display
Other Sensors	Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyroscope, Geomagnetic, Light, Proximity
GPS	GPS, Beidou, Galileo, Glonass
NFC	Yes
Battery	5,000 mAh Li-Po battery
Charging	45 watt wired charging 15 watt wireless charging Wireless PowerShare
Dimensions	78.1 mm wide 163.4 mm tall 8.9 mm thick	77.9 mm wide 163.3 mm tall 8.9 mm thick
Weight	234 grams	229 grams

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : What’s Inside The Box?

We got our hands on a golden sample of the new Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphone at the official launch in Singapore. Let’s take a quick look at the box before we check out what’s inside!

Once you fully unbox the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, this is what you will find inside:

the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphone
a Quick Start Guide
a USB Type C to USB Type C data and charging cable
a SIM tray extraction pin

That’s it! While the Galaxy S23 Ultra supports 45 watt fast charging, it does not come with the charger. You will need to purchase it separately. Neither does it come with a TPU bumper case to tide you over until you get a better one.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Key Features

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Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Key Features

Now, let us go through its key features, and show you why the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is worthy of our Editor’s Choice Award!

Boosted Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Performance!

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is powered by a specially-boosted variant of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 mobile SoC, which features a quad-cluster architecture:

1 x Arm Cortex-X3 core (3.36 GHz, instead of 3.2 GHz)
2 x Arm Cortex-A715 cores (2.8 GHz)
2 x Arm Cortex-A710 cores (2.8 GHz)
3 x Arm Cortex-A510 cores (2.0 GHz)

The new processor feels very snappy, and appears to be more power efficient – the Galaxy S23 Ultra last longer than our Galaxy S22 Ultra on typical use. We will have battery benchmarks up shortly!

200 MP Main Camera

The biggest upgrade in the Galaxy S23 Ultra is its new Adaptive Pixel main camera, which is built around the 200 MP Samsung ISOCELL HP2 (S5KHP2) sensor, and features a slightly wider f/1.7 aperture.

This is a large 1/1.3-inch sensor with 200 million pixels, each of which is 0.6 μm in size. The Galaxy S23 Ultra camera will be able to combine up to 16 pixels to form a single large pixel for much better low-light performance.

Video capabilities also got an upgrade, thanks to this new sensor. The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra can now record 8K videos at 30 frames per second, instead of just 24 fps previously.

It also boasts better Adaptive VDIS capability, and improved optical image stabilisation (OIS), delivering silky smooth videos by doubling the angle to ±3°, from the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s camera‘s ±1.5°.

Similar Telephoto + Wide-Angle Cameras

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra reuses the same 3X and 10X zoom cameras from the Galaxy S22 Ultra, right down to their Sony IMX754 sensors.

The ultra-wide angle camera gets a newer sensor – the Sony IMX564, which appears to be an incremental upgrade of the S22 Ultra’s IMX563.

12 MP Selfie Camera

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra also features another camera upgrade in the front. Instead of a 40 MP sensor in the Galaxy S22 Ultra, it now features a new 12 MP camera, with the same f/2.2 aperture.

While this may seem to be a downgrade, it is actually an upgrade as the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s 40 MP sensor defaults to 10 MP. On top of that, it features a Dual Pixel sensor for faster and more accurate auto-focus!

We tried using the front camera, and found that it was superior to the front camera of the Galaxy S22 Ultra. More of this later in our review.

Buttons

The only buttons on Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra are all located on the right side – volume control buttons and a Power switch.

S Pen

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra comes with the same S Pen as the Galaxy S22 Ultra. It too boasts a very quick 2.8 ms latency.

We tried swapping them and both S Pens appear to fit both devices. From what we can tell – they are physically and functionally similar, if not exactly the same.

USB Type C Port

At the bottom of the Galaxy S23 Ultra, you will find a SIM card tray, next to the USB port, as well as the S Pen in its slot.

The USB port is, of course, the new bidirectional Type C port, which is now the EU standard.

SIM Tray Without SD Card Slot

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra supports two physical SIM cards, as well as a single eSIM. The SIM tray is located at the bottom, next to the USB port.

Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is protected in the front and in the back by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2.

Gorilla Glass Victus 2 is not just tougher, it is also made from 22% pre-consumer recycled content!

Armoured Aluminium

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is also protected on all four sides by an Armoured Aluminium frame.

5,000 mAh Fast-Charging Battery

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra comes with a large 5,000 mAh lithium-ion polymer battery, which supports 45 watt fast wired charging, and 15 watt fast wireless charging.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Battery + Charging

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Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Battery Life Comparison!

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra comes with a 5,000 mAh battery, which is the same size as Galaxy S22 Ultra and the Galaxy S21 Ultra.

To test its battery life, we turned off Automatic Brightness, and set its display brightness to 50%.

Why 50%? That is actually slightly higher than the average indoor brightness level of 40% during the day, and is what we usually use in all our mobile battery life tests.

It is important to fix the brightness level, to make sure the screen brightness does not change as the ambient brightness changes.

We then ran the PCMark Work 3.0 battery life test until its battery capacity dropped to 20% several times, and this was the best result we obtained with 60 Hz and 120 Hz refresh rates :

Will you look at that!

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has a battery life of 13 hours with Adaptive refresh rate enabled, and a whopping 15.3 hours with the Standard refresh rate – 24% and 7.5% better respectively than the S22 Ultra!

But let’s also compare its battery life at 60 Hz and 120 Hz, against the S21 Ultra and Z Flip 3 smartphones.

Standard Refresh Rate (60 Hz)

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra really shines with the refresh rate set to 60 Hz. It used 7% less power per minute, which delivered 7% longer battery life than the S22 Ultra.

Work 3.0	S23 Ultra (60 Hz)	S22 Ultra (60 Hz)	Z Flip 3 (60 Hz)	S21 Ultra (60 Hz)
Battery Capacity	5,000 mAh	5,000 mAh	3,300 mAh	5,000 mAh
Battery Life	15 hrs 18 mins	14 hrs 15 mins	8 hrs 11 mins	11 hrs 22 mins
Utilisation per min.	4.36 mAh	4.68 mAh	5.38 mAh	5.87 mAh

Adaptive Refresh Rate (120 Hz)

While the Galaxy S23 Ultra certainly used less power than the S22 Ultra, that advantage was greatly diminished with the Adaptive refresh rate enabled.

This is where we see the greatest improvement in the power efficiency of the S23 Ultra. Its display used 18% less power per minute, and delivered 22% (almost 1.5 hours) longer battery life than the S22 Ultra.

Work 3.0	S23 Ultra (120 Hz)	S22 Ultra (120 Hz)	S21 Ultra (120 Hz)	Z Flip 3 (120 Hz)
Battery Capacity	5,000 mAh	5,000 mAh	5,000 mAh	3,300 mAh
Battery Life	13 hrs 0 mins	10 hrs 38 mins	10 hrs 26 mins	6 hrs 44 mins
Utilisation per min.	5.13 mAh	6.27 mAh	6.39 mAh	6.53 mAh

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Battery Recharging Speed!

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra supports up to 45 watts of wired fast charging, but unfortunately, does not come with the charger in-the-box.

So we relied on the standard 15 watt Samsung fast charger than shipped with their previous smartphones – something we believe most users will end up doing. But we used the 25 watt charger for the S21 Ultra, because it came with that charger.

Work 3.0	S21 Ultra	S22 Ultra	S23 Ultra	Z Flip 3
Battery Capacity	5,000 mAh	3,300 mAh	5,000 mAh	3,300 mAh
Charger Output	25 watts	15 watts	15 watts	15 watts
Battery Life	64 minutes	64.5 minutes	88.8 minutes	88.5 minutes
Recharging Speed (per minute)	62.5 mAh	62.0 mAh	45.0 mAh	29.8 mAh

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra fully recharges from 20% to 100% in just under 1.5 hours hour with the standard 15 watt Samsung charger. Oddly enough, this is significantly (38%) slower than the S22 Ultra.

It’s hard to know whether this was an intentional design decision to reduce the thermal output while charging, or to drive the adoption of the 45 watt chargers (sold separately).

Fortunately, the Galaxy S23 Ultra has a significantly better battery life, which should offset the slower recharging speed. Frankly, I don’t see a real need to splurge on a new 45 watt fast charger.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Performance

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Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Performance Summary

Samsung has done it again – raised the performance bar yet again with the Galaxy S23 Ultra.

Built around the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy – a boosted variant of the fastest mobile SoC that exists for Android devices – it offers a tremendous boost in GPU performance, which should make gamers and mobile content creators happy.

The benchmark results amply demonstrates that you can count on the Galaxy S23 Ultra to easily handle anything and everything you throw at it.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Work Performance

We first tested the Galaxy S23 Ultra using PCMark, which simulates work applications like web browsing, playing video, writing text and editing photos.

Work 3.0	S23 Ultra	S22 Ultra	S21 Ultra	Note20 Ultra	Galaxy A52
Mobile Platform	SD 8 Gen 2	SD 8 Gen 1	Exynos 2100	Exynos 990	SD 750G
Performance Score	16408	12860	12535	10523	7874
Web Browsing	15680	10442	10185	8865	7021
Video Editing	7879	7444	6336	6232	5693
Writing	22257	15471	15247	11112	7454
Photo Editing	35533	30177	37847	30789	15812
Data Manipulation	12171	9691	8310	6825	6424

Will you look at that! The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy is 27.5% faster than Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 from last year.

That’s a surprisingly significant boost in performance that people upgrading from the Galaxy S22 Ultra or the S21 Ultra will notice.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Gaming Performance

For gaming, we tested the Galaxy S23 Ultra using 3DMark, with these results :

3DMark	S23 Ultra	S22 Ultra	Z Flip 3	Note20 Ultra	Galaxy Note10+
Device	SD 8 Gen 2	SD 8 Gen 1	SD 888	Exynos 990	Exynos 9825
Sling Shot Unlimited	16344	11094	9248	8026	3327
Wild Life Unlimited	14554	9106	3952	4504	3288
Wild Life Extreme Unlimited	3814	2220	1174	1387	528

Look at that! The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 was a head above the competition when it comes to gaming!

It was 47% to 72% faster than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, and 77% to 468% faster than the Snapdragon 888!

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy is undoubtedly the gaming smartphone to beat!

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Overall Performance

We then tested the Galaxy S23 Ultra using AnTuTu, yielding these results :

AnTuTu	S22 Ultra	S22 Ultra	S21 Ultra	Note20 Ultra	Galaxy A52
Device	SD 8 Gen 2	SD 8 Gen 1	Exynos 2100	Exynos 990	SD 750G
AnTuTu Score	1212174	889167	624411	522735	341908
CPU	261886	203090	166290	146783	105098
GPU	538823	402617	258995	215205	88068
Memory	236163	146002	120805	89376	60642
UX	175302	137458	78321	71371	88100

The AnTuTu benchmark confirmed that the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is truly a performance beast in every way!

The new Galaxy S23 Ultra is 36% faster than the S22 Ultra, and a whopping 94% faster than the S21 Ultra!

Its CPU was 29% faster, and its GPU was 33% faster than the S22 Ultra. When compared against the S21 Ultra, the Galaxy S23 Ultra has a 57% faster CPU and 2X faster GPU.

Thanks to its improved cooling system, its temperature jumped by about 7°C. That is noticeable, but significantly lower than the 10°C we saw with the S22 Ultra.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Camera Performance

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Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Camera Performance

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra boasts a super-high resolution 200 MP main camera, built around a new ISOCELL HP2 sensor used in the Galaxy S21 Ultra.

Video capabilities also got an upgrade, thanks to this new sensor. The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra can now record 8K videos at 30 frames per second, instead of just 24 fps previously.

Here are six shots I took in Singapore, using the 200 MP main camera, and the 12 MP ultra-wide angle camera.

They are 4000 x 3000 pixels in size, with a JPEG file size of between 4 MB and 8 MB – it all depends on the amount of detail in the picture. To save space, I definitely recommend that you enable HEIF – the High Efficiency Image Format.

By default, the 200 MP camera takes 12 MP photos, combining sixteen pixels into one super-large pixel. Coupled with the improved lens and wider aperture, the final photos are not only much brighter, but have significantly lower noise.

Here are six night shots to show you just how bright the Galaxy S23 Ultra photos are, taken at night handheld without flash.

Here are six shots to show you the incredible amount of detail you can capture at just 12 MP. If you need greater detail, you can always increase the resolution to the full 200 MP, but frankly – these pictures should show you that you don’t really need to.

Of course, the 200 MP capability is not there for marketing purposes. The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra can truly take 200 MP photos, with a resolution of 16,320 pixels x 12,240 pixels, with each file at about 13-15 MB!

To demonstrate both the 200 MP capability and its ability to take bright photos at night, I took this 200 MP photo at Marina Bay Sands.

From that single photo, I could zoom in to make out individuals within the dome-shaped Apple Store hundreds of metres away – all unbeknownst that they were being captured on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra at night!

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Camera Performance Summary

If you want the best cameras on a smartphone money can buy, you should definitely consider the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra.

Don’t put too much stock into the 200 MP marketing spiel. Yes, the Samsung Galaxy S23 is breaking new resolution groups with its 200 MP photography capability. But most of us will probably never use it, except in special circumstances.

What you are really getting is an awesome 12 MP camera with super-large pixels for really great noise-free images, and better low-light photos.

I am especially impressed with its low-light night photography capabilities. The photos I took in Singapore look like they were well-lit by moonlight. That was not the case at all, and it was all the more impressive because I took it handheld.

The photos turned out great – bright, sharp and with much less noise than I dared to hope! There is no doubt that the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has some of the best smartphone cameras I’ve tried this year.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Summary + Award

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Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Summary + Award

It is tough for Samsung to keep touting radical improvements in smartphone technology every year, so I was not surprised that the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is an evolutionary upgrade of the excellent Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Samsung didn’t even bother to hide that, reusing the same design almost to the millimetre! It even reuses the same S Pen from last year. Its improvements are almost entirely internal or at least not readily visible to the user.

Its display, for example, is the “same” as the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s display on paper. But improvements in its design makes it a more efficient display, improving battery life.

Its Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 CPU and GPU are not only significantly faster than last year’s Gen 1 CPU and GPU, they are also more efficient, against improving battery life.

Even though it comes with the same battery capacity as the Galaxy S22 Ultra, the new Galaxy S23 Ultra boasts 22% longer battery life with its Adaptive Refresh mode enabled!

Samsung added a new 12 MP front camera, which offers better image quality at a higher resolution than the Galaxy S22 Ultra‘s 40 MP shooter that defaults to 10 MP).

But the killer feature this year is arguably the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s Adaptive Pixel main camera, which not only boasts a new 200 MP sensor but also improved lens, a slightly wider f/1.7 aperture, and better optical image stabilisation.

While its ability to take great photos in good light carries on from the Galaxy S22 Ultra‘s 108 MP Dual Pixel camera, where it really shines is in low-light, night photography. As my photo samples show, they are truly amazing.

If you really love photography, and especially like taking photos at night, or in low-light conditions, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra will surely impress you.

Finally, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is tougher this year. It has the same Armor Aluminium frame, but is protected in the front and back by best-in-class Gorilla Victus 2 glass.

For these reasons, we gladly award the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra our Editor’s Choice Award! Great work, Samsung!

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Price + Pre-Order Offer!

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra comes in four main colours – Phantom Black, Green, Lavender, and Cream.

Sadly, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra will be significantly more expensive than last year’s Galaxy S22 Ultra!

Here are the official launch prices for the three available storage capacities:

256 GB : RM5,699 (about US$1,336 / £1,083 / A$1,888 / S$1,755)
512 GB : RM6,199 (about US$1,453 / £1,179 / A$2,052 / S$1,910)
1 TB : RM7,199 (about US$1,688 / £1,369 / A$2,388 / S$2,218)

While the increased price may be disappointing, Samsung is offering some great pre-order offers:

you get a free upgrade to the next storage option!
if you buy from the Samsung Online Store, you get an RM400 e-Voucher
you get 30% off Samsung accessories, Samsung Care+, Galaxy tablets, Watch, and Buds earphones!
you get to save up to RM600 more when you trade in!

Here are online purchase options for your convenience:

United States : $1,199 | $1379.99 | $1,495 | $1,495
United Kingdom : £1,249 | £1,399 | £1,399 | £1,399
Malaysia : RM5,699 | RM5,699 | RM5,699 | RM5,699
Singapore : $1,599 | S$2,098 | S$2,098

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Performance Examined!

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Take a look at the performance of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, and find out how well it performs against the competition!

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Flagship Class Performance!

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra runs on a boosted variant of the most powerful mobile SoC available for Android devices – the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.

Fabricated on the latest 4nm TSMC process technology, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 boasts a powerful Adreno 740 GPU, as well as eight processor cores in a quad-cluster architecture :

a Cortex-X3 prime core running at up to 3.36 GHz (instead of 3.2 GHz),
two Cortex-A715 cores running at up to 2.8 GHz,
two Cortex-A710 cores running at up to 2.8 GHz, and
three Cortex-A510 cores running at up to 2.0 GHz.

On paper, this is about as powerful as it gets in 2023, but let’s take a look at how it actually performs!

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Work Performance

We first tested the Galaxy S23 Ultra using PCMark, which simulates work applications like web browsing, playing video, writing text and editing photos.

Work 3.0	S23 Ultra	S22 Ultra	S21 Ultra	Note20 Ultra	Galaxy A52
Mobile Platform	SD 8 Gen 2	SD 8 Gen 1	Exynos 2100	Exynos 990	SD 750G
Performance Score	16408	12860	12535	10523	7874
Web Browsing	15680	10442	10185	8865	7021
Video Editing	7879	7444	6336	6232	5693
Writing	22257	15471	15247	11112	7454
Photo Editing	35533	30177	37847	30789	15812
Data Manipulation	12171	9691	8310	6825	6424

Will you look at that! The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy is 27.5% faster than Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 from last year.

That’s a surprisingly significant boost in performance that people upgrading from the Galaxy S22 Ultra or the S21 Ultra will notice.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Gaming Performance

For gaming, we tested the Galaxy S23 Ultra using 3DMark, with these results :

3DMark	S23 Ultra	S22 Ultra	Z Flip 3	Note20 Ultra	Galaxy Note10+
Device	SD 8 Gen 2	SD 8 Gen 1	SD 888	Exynos 990	Exynos 9825
Sling Shot Unlimited	16344	11094	9248	8026	3327
Wild Life Unlimited	14554	9106	3952	4504	3288
Wild Life Extreme Unlimited	3814	2220	1174	1387	528

Look at that! The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 was a head above the competition when it comes to gaming!

It was 47% to 72% faster than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, and 77% to 468% faster than the Snapdragon 888!

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy is undoubtedly the gaming smartphone to beat!

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Overall Performance

We then tested the Galaxy S23 Ultra using AnTuTu, yielding these results :

AnTuTu	S22 Ultra	S22 Ultra	S21 Ultra	Note20 Ultra	Galaxy A52
Device	SD 8 Gen 2	SD 8 Gen 1	Exynos 2100	Exynos 990	SD 750G
AnTuTu Score	1212174	889167	624411	522735	341908
CPU	261886	203090	166290	146783	105098
GPU	538823	402617	258995	215205	88068
Memory	236163	146002	120805	89376	60642
UX	175302	137458	78321	71371	88100

The AnTuTu benchmark confirmed that the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is truly a performance beast in every way!

The new Galaxy S23 Ultra is 36% faster than the S22 Ultra, and a whopping 94% faster than the S21 Ultra!

Its CPU was 29% faster, and its GPU was 33% faster than the S22 Ultra. When compared against the S21 Ultra, the Galaxy S23 Ultra has a 57% faster CPU and 2X faster GPU.

Thanks to its improved cooling system, its temperature jumped by about 7°C. That is noticeable, but significantly lower than the 10°C we saw with the S22 Ultra.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Performance Summary

Samsung has done it again – raised the performance bar yet again with the Galaxy S23 Ultra.

The benchmark results amply demonstrates that you can count on the Galaxy S23 Ultra to easily handle anything and everything you throw at it.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Prices + Pre-Order Offer!

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra comes in four main colours – Phantom Black, Green, Lavender, and Cream.

Sadly, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra will be significantly more expensive than last year’s Galaxy S22 Ultra!

Here are the official launch prices for the three available storage capacities:

256 GB : RM5,699 (about US$1,336 / £1,083 / A$1,888 / S$1,755)
512 GB : RM6,199 (about US$1,453 / £1,179 / A$2,052 / S$1,910)
1 TB : RM7,199 (about US$1,688 / £1,369 / A$2,388 / S$2,218)

While the increased price may be disappointing, Samsung is offering some great pre-order offers:

you get a free upgrade to the next storage option!
if you buy from the Samsung Online Store, you get an RM400 e-Voucher
you get 30% off Samsung accessories, Samsung Care+, Galaxy tablets, Watch, and Buds earphones!
you get to save up to RM600 more when you trade in!

Here are online purchase options for your convenience:

United States : $1,199 | $1379.99 | $1,495 | $1,495
United Kingdom : £1,249 | £1,399 | £1,399 | £1,399
Malaysia : RM5,699 | RM5,699 | RM5,699 | RM5,699
Singapore : $1,599 | S$2,098 | S$2,098

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

Recommended Reading

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Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : What’s Inside The Box!

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We got our hands on a golden sample of the new Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphone, so let’s take a look at what’s inside the box!

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : A Quick Primer!

Samsung just launched the Galaxy S23 Ultra, with a 200 MP camera, and here is a quick summary of its key features!

Boosted Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Performance!

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is powered by a specially-boosted variant of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 mobile SoC, which features a quad-cluster architecture:

1 x Arm Cortex-X3 core (3.36 GHz, instead of 3.2 GHz)
2 x Arm Cortex-A715 cores (2.8 GHz)
2 x Arm Cortex-A710 cores (2.8 GHz)
3 x Arm Cortex-A510 cores (2.0 GHz)

200 MP Main Camera

Arguably the biggest upgrade in the Galaxy S23 Ultra is its new Adaptive Pixel main camera, which is built around the 200 MP Samsung ISOCELL HP2 (S5KHP2) sensor, and features a slightly wider f/1.7 aperture.

Video capabilities also got an upgrade, thanks to this new sensor. The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra can now record 8K videos at 30 frames per second, instead of just 24 fps previously.

Similar Telephoto + Wide-Angle Cameras

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra reuses the same 3X and 10X zoom cameras from the Galaxy S22 Ultra, right down to their Sony IMX754 sensors.

The ultra-wide angle camera gets a newer sensor – the Sony IMX564, which appears to be an incremental upgrade of the S22 Ultra’s IMX563.

12 MP Selfie Camera

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra also features another camera upgrade in the front. Instead of a 40 MP sensor in the Galaxy S22 Ultra, it now features a new 12 MP camera, with the same f/2.2 aperture.

Colour Options

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphones will come in four colour options:

Phantom Black
Green
Lavender
Cream

Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is protected in the front and in the back by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2.

Gorilla Glass Victus 2 is not just tougher, it is also made from 22% pre-consumer recycled content!

5,000 mAh Fast-Charging Battery

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra comes with a large 5,000 mAh lithium-ion polymer battery, which supports 45 watt fast wired charging, and 15 watt fast wireless charging.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : What’s Inside The Box?

We got our hands on a golden sample of the new Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphone at the official launch in Singapore. Let’s take a quick look at the box before we check out what’s inside!

Once you fully unbox the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, this is what you will find inside:

the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphone
a Quick Start Guide
a USB Type C to USB Type C data and charging cable
a SIM tray extraction pin

Here are some photos I took earlier in my hotel room in Singapore:

Do note that this is a golden sample – the first examples of the final, customer-approved device manufactured at the Samsung factory. While the device itself is “final”, there may be some differences in its packaging.

For example, in the video above and the following photos below, you will see that the box was not sealed. Rather the two security stickers are inside the box.

In addition, the box lacks the usual label at the back which lists a summary of its key specifications, as well as the storage capacity of the device inside.

The actual retail box in your country may also include additional pamphlets, although you should not count on getting any additional accessories.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Prices + Pre-Order Offer!

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra comes in four main colours – Phantom Black, Green, Lavender, and Cream.

Sadly, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra will be significantly more expensive than last year’s Galaxy S22 Ultra!

Here are the official launch prices for the three available storage capacities:

256 GB : RM5,699 (about US$1,336 / £1,083 / A$1,888 / S$1,755)
512 GB : RM6,199 (about US$1,453 / £1,179 / A$2,052 / S$1,910)
1 TB : RM7,199 (about US$1,688 / £1,369 / A$2,388 / S$2,218)

While the increased price may be disappointing, Samsung is offering some great pre-order offers:

you get a free upgrade to the next storage option!
if you buy from the Samsung Online Store, you get an RM400 e-Voucher
you get 30% off Samsung accessories, Samsung Care+, Galaxy tablets, Watch, and Buds earphones!
you get to save up to RM600 more when you trade in!

Here are online purchase options for your convenience:

United States : $1,199 | $1379.99 | $1,495 | $1,495
United Kingdom : £1,249 | £1,399 | £1,399 | £1,399
Malaysia : RM5,699 | RM5,699 | RM5,699 | RM5,699
Singapore : $1,599 | S$2,098 | S$2,098

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 : Colour Comparison!

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Samsung just launched the Galaxy Z Flip 4 smartphone in four main colour options, and a Bespoke Edition!

Take a look at all four colour options, and the special customisable Bespoke Edition!

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 : A Quick Primer!

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 smartphone builds upon the excellent Galaxy Z Flip 3 from last year, offering a more powerful processor and a larger battery.

It also features a slimmer hinge with straightened edges, with contrasting hazed back glass and a glossy metal frame.

Its headlining feature is naturally its large 6.7-inch Infinity Flex display that literally folds into half, turning the Galaxy Flip 4 into an incredibly compact device.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 : Colour Comparison

Samsung is offering the Galaxy Z Flip 4 in four main colour options. Four colours for the 4th gen, get it? 🙂

Two are legacy colours from the Galaxy Z Flip 3, and two are new colours for the Z Flip 4 :

Graphite – legacy colour
Pink Gold – new colour
Blue – new colour
Bora Purple – their signature colour this year

I was amongst the few to get an early hands-on look at all four Galaxy Z Flip 4 colour options, and here is my comparison video.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 Bespoke Edition : Customisable Colour

Samsung is also offering the Galaxy Z Flip 4 in the Bespoke Edition, which offers you the opportunity to customise the glass colours and frame options.

With 75 combinations to choose from, you can personalise the look of your Galaxy Z Flip 4 colour to suit your unique personality and lifestyle… for a price, of course.

Frame Options : Black / Silver / Gold
Front Colour Options : Yellow, White, Navy, Khaki or Red
Back Colour Options : Yellow, White, Navy, Khaki or Red

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 : Colour Options + Price

Samsung is making all four colours options, including the Bespoke Edition, available for purchase at launch, at these price points :

8 GB + 128 GB : RM4,099 (about US$920 / £760 / A$1,319 / S$1,267)
8 GB + 256 GB : RM4,399 (about US$987 / £816 / A$1,415 / S$1,359)
8 GB + 256 GB Bespoke Edition : RM4,599 (about US$1,032 / £853 / A$1,479 / S$1,421)
8 GB + 512 GB : RM4,899 (about US$ 1,099 / £909 / A$1,576 / S$1,514)

The Bespoke Edition is only available on the Samsung website, and requires 3-4 weeks to deliver, as each unit is custom-made.

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 : What You Need To Know!

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Samsung just launched the Galaxy Z Flip 4, and here is everything you need to know about its latest foldable smartphone!

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 : Evolution Of A Matured Design

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 builds upon the excellent Galaxy Z Flip 3 from last year, offering an improved version of the popular foldable clamshell form factor.

Most of the changes are internal – a more powerful processor and a larger battery. Externally, it looks very similar to the Galaxy Z Flip3, albeit with a slimmer hinge and straightened edges, as well as contrasting hazed back glass and a glossy metal frame.

Hence, Samsung is focused on highlighting what you can do with its foldable design and its large 6.7-inch Infinity Flex display.

6.7-inch Foldable Display

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 retains the Z Flip3‘s excellent 6.7-inch Infinity Flex display, with a Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel that has a 120 Hz refresh rate and a resolution of 1080 x 2640 pixels.

This display has an adaptive refresh rate of 1 to 120 Hz, offering a balance between silky-smooth graphics and longer battery life.

1.9-inch Cover Display

In the front, it has the same 1.9-inch Cover Display with a Super AMOLED panel with a resolution of 260 x 512 pixels.

This Cover Display allows you to view notifications and messages without opening the Galaxy Z Flip 4. You will be able to check your schedule, the weather, and your daily step count with the Cover Screen widgets.

Performance + Storage

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 is built around the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 5G mobile platform, which makes it one of the most powerful smartphones in the world.

It comes with 8 GB of memory, and internal storage options of 128 GB, 256 GB and 512 GB. It only supports a single SIM card and an eSIM, with no microSD card tray, so there is no option to increase storage.

Cameras

Samsung retained the same cameras from the Z Flip 3 :

In the front, it has a 10 MP camera, with an f/2.4 aperture
In the back, it has a 12 MP main camera with f/1.8 aperture, and a 12 MP ultra-wide camera with f/2.2 aperture

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 : Specifications

Here are the key specifications for the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 smartphone :

Specifications	Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 5G
Main Display	6.7-inch Infinity Flex Display Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel 1080 x 2640 pixels, 425ppi 120 Hz adaptive refresh rate 900 nits (HBM), 1200 nits (peak)
Cover Display	1.9-inch Super AMOLED display 260 x 512 pixels, 302 ppi 935 nits (HBM)
Protection	IPX8 Water Resistance No Dust Resistance
OS	Android 12 with One UI 4.1.1
Platform	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 5G (SM8350)
CPU	1 x Cortex-X2 core (3.0 GHz ) 3 x Cortex-A710 cores (2.5 GHz) 4 x Cortex-A510 cores (1.8 GHz)
GPU	Qualcomm Adreno 730
Memory	8 GB
Storage	128 GB / 256 GB / 512 GB UFS 3.1
Front Camera	10 MP camera (f/2.4)
Main Cameras	12 MP Dual Pixel camera, f/1.8 12 MP ultra-wide camera, f/2.2
Audio	Stereo speakers tuned by AKG Surround sound with Dolby Atmos UHQ 32-bit and DSD64/128 support
Connectivity	Network : 5G / 4G / 3G Wi-Fi : 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e Bluetooth : BT 5.2 USB : USB-C 3.2
Fingerprint Sensor	Yes, Side-Mounted
Other Sensors	Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyroscope, Geomagnetic, Hall, Proximity, Light
GPS	GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BDS
NFC	Yes
Battery	3,700 mAh Li-Po battery
Charging	Wired : 20 watt Wireless : 10 watt Reverse wireless : 4.5 watt
Folded Dimensions	71.9 mm wide 84.9 mm tall 15.9 mm to 17.1 mm thick
Unfolded Dimensions	71.9 mm wide 165.2 mm tall 6.9 mm thick
Weight	187 grams

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 : Price + Availability

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 comes in four colour options, as well as a special Bespoke Edition :

Graphite – legacy colour
Pink Gold – new colour
Blue – new colour
Bora Purple – their signature colour this year

These are the available models and launch prices for the Galaxy Z Flip 4 smartphone :

8 GB + 128 GB : RM4,099 (about US$920 / £760 / A$1,319 / S$1,267)
8 GB + 256 GB : RM4,399 (about US$987 / £816 / A$1,415 / S$1,359)
8 GB + 256 GB Bespoke Edition : RM4,599 (about US$1,032 / £853 / A$1,479 / S$1,421)
8 GB + 512 GB : RM4,899 (about US$ 1,099 / £909 / A$1,576 / S$1,514)

The Bespoke Edition is only available on the Samsung website, and requires 3-4 weeks to deliver, as each unit is custom-made.

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Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra Review : A Complete Package!

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In our in-depth review of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, we will share with you everything you need to know about this premium tablet.

Find out why we are so impressed with the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra tablet, that we gave it our Editor’s Choice Award!

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Flagship Tablet

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra is a premium tablet built around the most powerful mobile SoC available for Android devices – the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.

It boasts a massive 14.6-inch Super AMOLED display, quad AKG speakers and a large 11,200 mAh battery – all packed into a compact chassis that weighs just 726 grams!

In this review, we will check out its key features, and show you why it is really the best Android tablet you can buy in 2022!

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Price + Availability

Samsung is offering the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra in five RAM + storage capacity options globally :

8 GB + 128 GB
12 GB + 256 GB / 512 GB
16 GB + 256 GB / 512 GB

But over here in Malaysia, it is available with 12 GB RAM and 256 GB storage for RM 5,899 (about US$1,387 / £1,063 / A$1,877 / S$1,892.

Here are some online pre-order options :

Malaysia : RM5,599 | RM5,719 | RM5,899 | RM5,899
Singapore : S$1,645 | S$1,689 | S$2,125
United States : US$1,689 | US$1,389
United Kingdom : £1,066 | £985

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Specifications

Specifications	Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra
Display	14.6-inch Super AMOLED Display – 2960 x 1848 pixels – 60 Hz or 120 Hz refresh rate
Protection	Gorilla Glass 5 (Front + Back) Armor Aluminium
OS	One UI 4.1 (Android 12)
Platform	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
CPU	1 x Arm Cortex-X2 core (3.0 GHz) 3 x Arm Cortex-A710 cores (2.4 GHz) 4 x Arm Cortex-A510 cores (1.7 GHz)
GPU	Qualcomm Adreno 730
Memory + Storage Options	8 GB RAM + 128 GB 12 GB + 256 GB / 512 GB 16 GB + 256 GB / 512 GB
External Storage	microSD (up to 1TB)
Front Camera	12 MP main camera, f/2.2 12 MP ultra-wide camera, f/2.4
Main Cameras	12 MP main camera, f/2.0 6 MP ultra-wide camera, f/2.2
Connectivity	Wi-Fi : Up to Wi-Fi 6E Bluetooth : BT 5.2 USB : USB 3.2 Type C
S Pen	Yes, 2.8 ms latency
Fingerprint Sensor	Yes, Under Display
Other Sensors	Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyroscope, Geomagnetic, Hall, Light, Proximity
GPS	GPS, Beidou, Galileo, Glonass, QZSS
NFC	No
Audio	Quad speakers tuned by AKG
Battery	11,200 mAh Li-Po battery
Charging	45 watt wired charging
Dimensions	326.4 mm wide 208.6 mm tall 5.5 mm thick
Weight	726 grams

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra Unboxing : A Complete Package

What we really like about the new Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 tablet is that it comes as a complete package.

Unlike competing tablets, it comes with an awesome keyboard cover and S Pen in the package. There is no need to pay extra for either. Everything you need is in the box. Well, almost everything.

Once you fully unbox it, this is what you will find inside the box :

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra tablet
Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra Book Cover Keyboard
Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra S Pen
Set of Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 documents
USB Type A to Type A data and power cable
microSD tray ejector pin

The only thing missing is the charger. The package does not include the 45 watt power adaptor. Not even a standard 15 watt Samsung charger.

But that’s how most of the brands are rolling these days, in the name of reducing digital waste, so we won’t hold it against them.

Next Page > Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra Key Features

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Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Key Features

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra is arguably the largest and most powerful tablet you can buy in 2022, so let’s take a closer look at its key features.

14.6-inch Super AMOLED Display

This first thing that you will notice when you see the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra for the first time, is just how large and beautiful its display really is.

That is a 14.6-inch Super AMOLED display you are looking at – larger than the display on most laptops; with a WQXGA+resolution of 2960 x 1848 pixels, and support for two fixed refresh rates :

High : Get smoother animations and scrolling with a 120 Hz screen refresh rate
Standard : Get longer battery life with a 60 Hz screen refresh rate

This large, high-resolution display allows you to fit multiple windows, and open different apps at the same time, for greater productivity.

This display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5, and also by the bundled Keyboard Cover when it’s not in use.

Flagship Class Performance

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 runs on the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile platform, which boasts a powerful Adreno 730 GPU, as well as eight processor cores in a triple-tier architecture :

a Cortex-X2 prime core running at up to 3 GHz,
three sustained-performance Cortex-A710 cores running at up to 2.4 GHz, and
four energy-efficient Cortex-A510 cores running at 1.7 GHz.

Those eight processor cores are paired with a powerful Qualcomm Adreno 730 graphics processor.

Performance is not only the key advantage of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Built on the latest 4 nm process technology, it also offers lower battery consumption.

We will show you just how fast it runs in the benchmarks, and how efficient it is, later in this review.

RAM + Storage Options

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra comes with a variety of RAM and storage options :

8 GB RAM + 128 GB storage
12 GB RAM + 256 GB / 512 GB storage
16 GB RAM + 256 GB / 512 GB storage

You don’t have to worry too much about running out of storage, as it comes with a microSD card slot, allowing you to add up to 1 TB of additional storage.

Two Front Cameras

Catering to the new hybrid workspace reality today, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra comes with two cameras in the front.

Both 12 MP cameras, one has a wider f/2.2 aperture for better low-light performance, while the other supports a wider angle – to fit more people in the same photo / video call.

Two Rear Cameras

This is a really large and hefty tablet, so you wouldn’t expect photography to be a focus. However, it still comes with two cameras at the back.

The main camera has a 12 MP sensor, with a wide f/2.0 aperture for better low-light performance.

It also comes with an ultra-wide camera at the back, but oddly enough, only with a 6 MP sensor.

Next Page > S Pen, Book Cover Keyboard, Speakers, Battery

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Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : S Pen, Book Cover, Speakers, Battery

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra is more than just a tablet, because it comes with both an S Pen stylus, and a Book Cover Keyboard.

Ultra-Low Latency S Pen

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra comes with a new S Pen with ultra-low latency of just 2.8 milliseconds!

This is a full-size stylus that feels like a typical pen or pencil, letting you draw and doodle with up to 4,096 pressure levels!

You can also write naturally with the S Pen, and turn your handwriting into text in Samsung Notes.

The S Pen magnetically locks onto a glass strip at the back, which acts as a recharging dock. The S Pen automatically recharges whenever you place it on this glass strip.

Don’t worry about losing it with the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, because it comes with a Book Cover Keyboard that has a special cover for the S Pen!

Book Cover Keyboard

This year, Samsung included the really awesome Book Cover Keyboard with every Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra tablet.

This cover not only provides really solid protection for the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, it also converts it into a 2-in-1 tablet with a kickstand!

You don’t just get a full-size keyboard with the Book Cover Keyboard, you also get a large touch pad! This really gives you a laptop-like working experience.

In addition, the Book Cover Keyboard has a special S Pen cover that prevents your precious S Pen from falling and getting lost.

As I shared in my Galaxy Tab S7 Book Cover Keyboard review last year, this is a must-have accessory, and I’m really glad Samsung included it as part of the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra package.

Quad AKG-Tuned Speakers

Another premium Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra feature that Samsung does not really speak much of is the quad speaker system tuned by AKG.

They are not only powerful, they deliver really crisp sound from this tablet. They are also positioned to radiate from both sides with the Book Cover Keyboard installed.

Large Battery

To power all that, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra comes with a large 11,200 mAh lithium-ion battery.

It supports 45 watt fast recharging, but as pointed out earlier – it doesn’t come with any charger, so your mileage in this sense really depends on the charger you have.

In the next section, we will show you just how long this battery lasts, and how long it takes to recharge this massive battery!

Next Page > Battery Life + Recharging Speed

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Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Battery Life Comparison!

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra comes with a massive 11,200 mAh battery, which is more than the size of the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s battery!

To test its battery life, we turned off Automatic Brightness, and set its display brightness to 50%.

Why 50%? That is actually slightly higher than the average indoor brightness level of 40% during the day, and is what we usually use in all our mobile battery life tests.

It is important to fix the brightness level, to make sure the screen brightness does not change as the ambient brightness changes.

We then ran the PCMark Work 3.0 battery life test until its battery capacity dropped to 20% several times, and this was the best result we obtained with 60 Hz and 120 Hz refresh rates :

Astoundingly, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra only has a battery life of 6.5 hours with High refresh rate enabled, and a more acceptable 8 hours with the Standard refresh rate!

This is a slight improvement over last year’s Galaxy Tab S7 Plus. There is no doubt that its much larger 14.6-inch Super AMOLED display is a significant drain on battery life.

Let’s compare its battery life against the Galaxy Tab S7 Plus, and the Galaxy S22 Ultra smartphone which uses the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile SoC.

Standard Refresh Rate (60 Hz)

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra delivers the best battery life with the Standard refresh rate of 60 Hz.

The Tab S8 Ultra appears to use 9% more power than the Tab S7 Plus, but I have to point out that it has a 39% larger display.

Fortunately, the battery life deficit is “covered” by its 11% larger battery.

Work 3.0	S22 Ultra (60 Hz)	Tab S7 Plus (60 Hz)	Tab S8 Ultra (60 Hz)
Display Size	6.8-inch	12.4-inch	14.6-inch
Battery Capacity	5,000 mAh	10,090 mAh	11,200 mAh
Battery Life	14 hrs 15 mins	7 hrs 55 mins	8 hrs 3 mins
Utilisation per min.	4.68 mAh	16.99 mAh	18.55 mAh

High Refresh Rate (120 Hz)

Switching on the High refresh rate of 120 Hz cut its battery life by 17.6% – almost 1.5 hours!

But the data shows that its larger 14.6-inch display only used 3.4% more power than the Tab S7 Plus.

Work 3.0	S22 Ultra (120 Hz)	Tab S7 Plus (120 Hz)	Tab S8 Ultra (120 Hz)
Display Size	6.8-inch	12.4-inch	14.6-inch
Battery Capacity	5,000 mAh	10,090 mAh	11,200 mAh
Battery Life	10 hrs 38 mins	6 hrs 11 mins	6 hrs 38 mins
Utilisation per min.	6.27 mAh	21.76 mAh	22.51 mAh

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Battery Recharging Speed!

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra supports up to 45 watts of wired fast charging, but unfortunately, does not come with the charger in-the-box.

So we relied on the standard 15 watt Samsung fast charger than shipped with their previous smartphones and tablets – something we believe most users will end up doing.

Recharging Speed	Tab S8 Ultra	Tab S7 Plus	S22 Ultra
Display Size	14.6-inch	12.4-inch	6.8-inch
Battery Capacity	11,200 mAh	10,090 mAh	5,000 mAh
Charger Output	15 watts	15 watts	15 watts
Battery Life	86.5 mins	86 mins	64.5 mins
Recharging Speed (per minute)	103.6 mAh	93.9 mAh	62.0 mAh

Interestingly, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra recharged faster with a standard 15 watt charger, than the Tab S7 Plus or even the Galaxy S22 Ultra!

This is really good news. It means that Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra owners need not worry too much about its recharging speed with the older 15 watt chargers.

In fact, you don’t need to splurge on a new 45 watt fast charger. The Tab S8 Ultra fully recharges its massive battery from 20% to 100% in just under 1.5 hours with the standard 15 watt Samsung charger!

Next Page > Work + Gaming Performance

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Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Work Performance

We first tested the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra using PCMark, which simulates work applications like web browsing, playing video, writing text and editing photos.

Work 3.0	Galaxy Z Flip 3	Galaxy S22 Ultra	Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra	Galaxy Tab S7+	Galaxy Tab S7 FE
Mobile Platform	SD 888	SD 8 Gen 1	SD 8 Gen 1	SD 865+	SD 778G
Performance Score	13317	12860	12351	12348	9747
Web Browsing	11637	10442	9696	11864	7355
Video Editing	7762	7444	6194	7664	6028
Writing	15316	15471	14411	12659	10512
Photo Editing	25357	30177	31774	26230	22188
Data Manipulation	11938	9691	10449	9511	8505

Surprisingly, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Get 1 was slightly slower than the Snapdragon 888 used by the Galaxy Z Flip 3, but the difference was just 7%, which means you won’t actually notice the difference.

For certainly, it will easily handle anything you throw at it, whether it’s just posting your latest Instagram pictures or editing a 4K video.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Gaming Performance

For gaming, we tested the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra using 3DMark, with these results :

3DMark	Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra	Galaxy S22 Ultra	Galaxy Z Flip 3	Galaxy Tab S7+	Galaxy Tab S7 FE
Device	SD 8 Gen 1	SD 8 Gen 1	SD 888	SD 865+	SD 778G
Sling Shot Unlimited	10728	11094	9248	8793	6688
Wild Life Unlimited	9838	9106	3952	–	–
Wild Life Extreme Unlimited	2221	2220	1174	–	–

Look at that! The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 was a head above the competition when it comes to gaming!

It was 16% to 150% faster than the Snapdragon 888, and 22% faster than the Snadragon 865+!

For certain, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 will crush any game you throw at it.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Overall Performance

We then tested the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra using AnTuTu, yielding these results :

AnTuTu	Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra	Galaxy S22 Ultra	Galaxy Z Flip 3	Galaxy Tab S7+	Galaxy Tab S7 FE
Device	SD 8 Gen 1	SD 8 Gen 1	SD 888	SD 865+	SD 778G
AnTuTu Score	950630	889167	696767	577726	508008
CPU	213689	203090	206228	161243	157465
GPU	417669	402617	242573	230859	155115
Memory	161903	146002	133586	98269	79972
UX	157369	137458	114380	87355	115456

The AnTuTu benchmark confirmed that the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra is a veritable beast of a performer, beating even the very fast Galaxy Z Flip 3 by 36%.

Its GPU performance was, in particular, spectacular, delivering 72% better performance than the Galaxy Z Flip 3, and 81% better performance than the Galaxy Tab S7+!

Interestingly, it was 7% faster than the Galaxy S22 Ultra, which uses the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor. This is likely due to better cooling – its temperature only increased by 0.3°C, whereas the S22 Ultra’s temperature spiked by over 10°C!

Next Page > Verdict + Award, Price + Availability

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Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Verdict + Award

The Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra was meant to be the ultimate Samsung tablet for 2022, and it does not disappoint.

The display is a magnificently large and beautiful 14.6-inch Super AMOLED panel, which offers an expansive amount of space to play and work with.

Built around the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 – the fastest mobile SoC that exists for Android devices – you can count on the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra to easily handle anything and everything you throw at it.

It also has surprisingly good battery life – delivering over 8 hours of non-stop use at 60 Hz, and over 6.5 hours at 120 Hz; despite sporting such a large display.

It also offers very good recharging speed, even using the standard 15 watt fast charger. So you don’t really need to invest in expensive 45 watt chargers.

But beyond those hardware features, what I really like is how the Samsung offer a complete experience by bundling the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra with not just the S Pen, but also the Book Cover Keyboard.

The ultra-low latency S Pen gives you the premium pen-on-paper like experience working on a tablet, while the Book Cover Keyboard gives you a laptop experience. You literally have the best of both worlds in a single box!

If you want the best-possible Android tablet money can buy, you can’t do wrong with the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra.

In fact, we like this premium tablet so much, we are giving it our Editor’s Choice Award!

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Price + Availability

Samsung is offering the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra in five RAM + storage capacity options globally :

8 GB + 128 GB
12 GB + 256 GB / 512 GB
16 GB + 256 GB / 512 GB

But over here in Malaysia, it is available with 12 GB RAM and 256 GB storage for RM 5,899 (about US$1,387 / £1,063 / A$1,877 / S$1,892.

Here are some online pre-order options :

Malaysia : RM5,599 | RM5,719 | RM5,899 | RM5,899
Singapore : S$1,645 | S$1,689 | S$2,125
United States : US$1,689 | US$1,389
United Kingdom : £1,066 | £985

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Specifications

Specifications	Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra
Display	14.6-inch Super AMOLED Display – 2960 x 1848 pixels – 60 Hz or 120 Hz refresh rate
Protection	Gorilla Glass 5 (Front + Back) Armor Aluminium
OS	One UI 4.1 (Android 12)
Platform	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
CPU	1 x Arm Cortex-X2 core (3.0 GHz) 3 x Arm Cortex-A710 cores (2.4 GHz) 4 x Arm Cortex-A510 cores (1.7 GHz)
GPU	Qualcomm Adreno 730
Memory + Storage Options	8 GB RAM + 128 GB 12 GB + 256 GB / 512 GB 16 GB + 256 GB / 512 GB
External Storage	microSD (up to 1TB)
Front Camera	12 MP main camera, f/2.2 12 MP ultra-wide camera, f/2.4
Main Cameras	12 MP main camera, f/2.0 6 MP ultra-wide camera, f/2.2
Connectivity	Wi-Fi : Up to Wi-Fi 6E Bluetooth : BT 5.2 USB : USB 3.2 Type C
S Pen	Yes, 2.8 ms latency
Fingerprint Sensor	Yes, Under Display
Other Sensors	Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyroscope, Geomagnetic, Hall, Light, Proximity
GPS	GPS, Beidou, Galileo, Glonass, QZSS
NFC	No
Audio	Quad speakers tuned by AKG
Battery	11,200 mAh Li-Po battery
Charging	45 watt wired charging
Dimensions	326.4 mm wide 208.6 mm tall 5.5 mm thick
Weight	726 grams

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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Samsung Galaxy A73 Performance Review!

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Take a look at the performance of the Samsung Galaxy A73, and find out how well it performs against the competition!

Samsung Galaxy A73 : How Fast Is It?

The Samsung Galaxy A73 Ultra runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G – a premium mid-range mobile SoC announced on May 19, 2021.

Fabricated on the 6 nm process technology, the Snapdragon 778G boasts a powerful Adreno 642L GPU, as well as eight processor cores in a triple-tier architecture :

a Kryo 670 Prime core running at up to 2.4 GHz,
three sustained-performance Kryo 670 Gold cores running at up to 2.2 GHz, and
four energy-efficient Kryo 670 Silver cores running at 1.8 GHz

While the Snapdragon 778G isn’t a new mobile SoC, you will be surprised by how fast it is in the Galaxy A73…

Samsung Galaxy A73 : Work Performance

We first tested the Galaxy A73 using PCMark, which simulates work applications like web browsing, playing video, writing text and editing photos.

Work 3.0	Galaxy Z Flip 3	Galaxy S22 Ultra	Galaxy A73	Note20 Ultra	Galaxy A52
Mobile Platform	SD 888	SD 8 Gen 1	SD 778G	Exynos 990	SD 750G
Performance Score	13317	12860	12522	10523	7874
Web Browsing	11637	10442	11736	8865	7021
Video Editing	7762	7444	7082	6232	5693
Writing	15316	15471	14796	11112	7454
Photo Editing	25357	30177	26340	30789	15812
Data Manipulation	11938	9691	9502	6825	6424

Amazingly, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G is as fast as the top-of-the-line Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in work applications!

When it comes to basic stuff like web browsing, video and photo editing, the Galaxy A73 is as fast as the Galaxy S22 Ultra, and 19% faster than the Galaxy Note20 Ultra!

Samsung Galaxy A73 : Gaming Performance

For gaming, we tested the Galaxy A73 using 3DMark, with these results :

3DMark	Galaxy S22 Ultra	Galaxy Z Flip 3	Note20 Ultra	Galaxy A73	Galaxy Note10+
Device	SD 8 Gen 1	SD 888	Exynos 990	SD 778G	Exynos 9825
Sling Shot Unlimited	11094	9248	8026	6620	3327
Wild Life Unlimited	9106	3952	4504	2487	3288
Wild Life Extreme Unlimited	2220	1174	1387	689	528

For older / simpler 3D games, the Sling Shot benchmark showed that the Snapdragon 778G was only 17.5% slower than the Exynos 990, but 40% slower than the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.

But when it came to more strenuous games, flagship smartphones like Galaxy S22 Ultra and the Galaxy Z Flip 3 were 2X to 3X faster than the Galaxy A73.

Samsung Galaxy A73 : Overall Performance

We then tested the Galaxy A73 using AnTuTu, yielding these results :

AnTuTu	Galaxy S22 Ultra	Galaxy Z Flip 3	Galaxy A73	Note20 Ultra	Galaxy A52
Device	SD 8 Gen 1	SD 888	SD 778G	Exynos 990	SD 750G
AnTuTu Score	889167	696767	523209	522735	341908
CPU	203090	206228	159238	146783	105098
GPU	402617	242573	159364	215205	88068
Memory	146002	133586	88705	89376	60642
UX	137458	114380	115902	71371	88100

The AnTuTu benchmark confirmed that the Samsung Galaxy A73 is really quite a powerful smartphone, matching the performance of the Galaxy Note20 Ultra.

Even though Galaxy A73 costs less than half that of the Galaxy S22 Ultra and the Galaxy Z Flip 3, it was only 41% and 25% slower.

The Snapdragon 778G also ran cool, increasing its temperature by just 1.2°C. The Galaxy S22 Ultra, in comparison, saw its temperature jumped by over 10°C in the same test!

Samsung Galaxy A73 : Performance Summary

The Galaxy A73 is the premium mid-range Samsung smartphone for 2022, and it does not disappoint.

Built around the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G, it offers excellent work performance, equivalent to the best flagship smartphones for basic tasks as well as photo and video editing.

Its gaming performance is not flagship-class, as the benchmarks show, but it was no slouch. It will readily handle most games just fine, even AAA games.

Samsung Galaxy A73 Colour + Availability!

Here in Malaysia, the Galaxy A73 smartphone is available in three colour options :

Awesome White
Awesome Mint
Awesome Gray

There is only one variant, at this price point :

8 GB + 256 GB : RM 2,099 (about US$499 / £379 / A$679 / S$679)

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Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra Performance Review!

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Take a look at the performance of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, and find out how well this ultra-premium tablet performs!

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Flagship Class Performance!

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra runs on the most powerful mobile SoC available for Android devices – the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.

Fabricated on the latest 4nm Samsung process technology, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 boasts a powerful Adreno 730 GPU as well as eight processor cores in a triple-tier architecture :

a Cortex-X2 prime core running at up to 3 GHz,
three sustained-performance Cortex-A710 cores running at up to 2.5 GHz, and
four energy-efficient Cortex-A510 cores running at 1.8 GHz.

On paper, this is about as powerful as it gets in 2022, but let’s take a look at how it actually performs!

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Work Performance

We first tested the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra using PCMark, which simulates work applications like web browsing, playing video, writing text and editing photos.

Work 3.0	Galaxy Z Flip 3	Galaxy S22 Ultra	Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra	Galaxy Tab S7+	Galaxy Tab S7 FE
Mobile Platform	SD 888	SD 8 Gen 1	SD 8 Gen 1	SD 865+	SD 778G
Performance Score	13317	12860	12351	12348	9747
Web Browsing	11637	10442	9696	11864	7355
Video Editing	7762	7444	6194	7664	6028
Writing	15316	15471	14411	12659	10512
Photo Editing	25357	30177	31774	26230	22188
Data Manipulation	11938	9691	10449	9511	8505

For certainly, it will easily handle anything you throw at it, whether it’s just posting your latest Instagram pictures or editing a 4K video.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Gaming Performance

For gaming, we tested the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra using 3DMark, with these results :

3DMark	Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra	Galaxy S22 Ultra	Galaxy Z Flip 3	Galaxy Tab S7+	Galaxy Tab S7 FE
Device	SD 8 Gen 1	SD 8 Gen 1	SD 888	SD 865+	SD 778G
Sling Shot Unlimited	10728	11094	9248	8793	6688
Wild Life Unlimited	9838	9106	3952	–	–
Wild Life Extreme Unlimited	2221	2220	1174	–	–

Look at that! The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 was a head above the competition when it comes to gaming!

It was 16% to 150% faster than the Snapdragon 888, and 22% faster than the Snadragon 865+!

For certain, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 will crush any game you throw at it.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Overall Performance

We then tested the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra using AnTuTu, yielding these results :

AnTuTu	Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra	Galaxy S22 Ultra	Galaxy Z Flip 3	Galaxy Tab S7+	Galaxy Tab S7 FE
Device	SD 8 Gen 1	SD 8 Gen 1	SD 888	SD 865+	SD 778G
AnTuTu Score	950630	889167	696767	577726	508008
CPU	213689	203090	206228	161243	157465
GPU	417669	402617	242573	230859	155115
Memory	161903	146002	133586	98269	79972
UX	157369	137458	114380	87355	115456

The AnTuTu benchmark confirmed that the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra is a veritable beast of a performer, beating even the very fast Galaxy Z Flip 3 by 36%.

Its GPU performance was, in particular, spectacular, delivering 72% better performance than the Galaxy Z Flip 3, and 81% better performance than the Galaxy Tab S7+!

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Performance Summary

The Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra was meant to be the ultimate Samsung tablet for 2022, and it does not disappoint.

Built around the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 – the fastest mobile SoC that exists for Android devices – it offers a tremendous boost in GPU performance, which should make gamers and mobile content creators happy.

The benchmark results amply demonstrates, you can count on the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra to easily handle anything and everything you throw at it.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Price + Availability

Samsung is offering the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra in five RAM + storage capacity options globally :

8 GB + 128 GB
12 GB + 256 GB / 512 GB
16 GB + 256 GB / 512 GB

But over here in Malaysia, it is available with 12 GB RAM and 256 GB storage for RM 5,899 (about US$1,387 / £1,063 / A$1,877 / S$1,892.

Here are some online pre-order options :

Malaysia : RM5,599 | RM5,719 | RM5,899 | RM5,899
Singapore : S$1,645 | S$1,689 | S$2,125
United States : US$1,689 | US$1,389
United Kingdom : £1,066 | £985

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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How To Setup Your Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra Tablet!

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In this guide, we will show you how to setup your new Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra for the first time!

How To Setup Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : A Video Guide!

We have the new Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra tablet with us, and soon you will get yours too.

Let us show you how to setup the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra for the first time, as a new device!

The process is very easy as our video shows, so you will be able to enjoy using it within minutes!

How To Setup Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Step-By-Step Instructions

It is very easy to setup the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra as a new device.

This should take no more than 10 minutes, will be much longer if you are transferring data from an older tablet.

Press the Power button to start up your Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra tablet.
It will take 23 seconds to boot up for the first time.
Click Start to begin the setup process.
The first thing you need to do is select a language.
Next, you will need to select your country or region.
Then, the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra will reboot – a process that takes about 32 seconds.
After it boots up again, you will be asked to agree to the EULA (End User Licence Agreement) and the Privacy Policy.
You can skip sending Samsung your Diagnostic Data.
In the next screen, you will have the opportunity to turn off certain Samsung apps and services.
These are all key features that will greatly impact your use of the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, so I recommend that you leave them all enabled.
Next, you will be allowed to log into your Wi-Fi network for Internet connectivity.
Select your Wi-Fi network and key in the password to connect.
Once your Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra connects to the Wi-Fi network, it will automatically look for updates, and prepare the device.
It can take a few minutes to finish, so don’t fret.
Next, you will be given the option to transfer apps and data from your old tablet.
This is a long process, which you can do now, or do it later after setting up the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra.
To do it later, or set it up as a new device, simply click on Don’t copy.
Now you will be asked to log into your Google Account, or create a new one.
To skip for now and do it after setting up the tablet, click on Skip.
But you will lose access to certain Google services until you log in.
Next, you will be given the option of disabling certain Google services.
Generally, I would recommend leaving them enabled, except sending Google your usage and diagnostic data.
Now you will be asked to protect your Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra by selecting a preferred login method – Face recognition, Fingerprint, Pattern, PIN or Password.
If you select the Face Recognition or Fingerprint option, you will need to select a secure screen lock method using Pattern, PIN or Password.
Next, you will need to go through the Face Recognition / Fingerprint training process
After that, you will be asked to log into your Samsung account, or create a new one.
To skip for now and do it after setting up the tablet, click on Skip.
But you will lose access to certain Samsung services until you log in.

That’s it! You have successfully setup the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra as a new device! Enjoy!

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Price + Availability

Samsung is offering the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra in five RAM + storage capacity options globally :

8 GB + 128 GB
12 GB + 256 GB / 512 GB
16 GB + 256 GB / 512 GB

But over here in Malaysia, it is available with 12 GB RAM and 256 GB storage for RM 5,899 (about US$1,387 / £1,063 / A$1,877 / S$1,892.

Here are some online pre-order options :

Malaysia : RM5,599 | RM5,719 | RM5,899 | RM5,899
Singapore : S$1,645 | S$1,689 | S$2,125
United States : US$1,689 | US$1,389
United Kingdom : £1,066 | £985

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Review : Tech ARP Editor’s Choice!

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Samsung recently sent us the new Galaxy S22 Ultra smartphone, and here is our comprehensive review!

Find out why the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra won our Editor’s Choice Award!

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Price + Availability

Samsung is offering the Galaxy S22 Ultra in four colour options – Burgundy, Green, Phantom Black and Phantom White.

I had the opportunity to attend an exclusive Samsung preview event, to check out all four colours for ourselves.

Note : Samsung only allowed us to use digital cameras, so the video is not stabilised as it would be with smartphones that I generally use.

Here in Malaysia, it is available starting 10 February 2022 in three variants, at these price points :

8 GB + 128 GB : RM 5,099 (about US$1,219 / £899 / A$1,699 / S$1,629)
12 GB + 256 GB : RM 5,499 (about US$1,314 / £969 / A$1,829 / S$1,759)
12 GB + 512 GB : RM 5,899 (about US$1,409 / £1,039 / A$1,959 / S$1,889)

Here are some online pre-order options :

Malaysia : RM5,499 | RM5,499 | RM5,499 | RM5,499
Singapore : S$1,858
United States : US$1,199 | US$1,199
United Kingdom : £1,149 | £1,149 | £1,249 | £1,249
Australia : A$1,999

Unboxing Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : What’s Inside Its Box?

Samsung just combined their Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series into the Galaxy S22 Ultra – their latest flagship smartphone.

Not only does it adopt the blockier industrial design language of the Galaxy Note series, it also comes with the S Pen built-in!

Despite being the biggest model in the Galaxy S22 family, the S22 Ultra comes in a slim cardboard box. Here’s an interesting fact – the colour of the S on the box shows you the colour of the Galaxy S22 Ultra inside!

In this video, we take a quick look at the box, before showing you exactly what you will find inside!

Here is everything you will find inside the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra’s box :

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra smartphone
Set of Galaxy S22 series documents
USB data and power cable (Type C to Type C)
SIM card tray extraction pin

Sadly, the Galaxy S22 Ultra does not come with a 45 watt charger in-the-box. You can reuse your old 15 watt charger, but you would be losing out on a key S22 Ultra feature.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Key Features

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Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Key Features

Now, let us go through its key features, and show you why the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is worthy of our Editor’s Choice Award!

6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra comes with a massive 6.8-inch display, with a Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel.

Its wide colour gamut of 100% DCI-P3, a peak brightness of 1750 nits, and a contrast ratio of 3 million:1 will guarantee the best possible image quality, whether indoors or outdoors.

Gamers will love its high dynamic refresh rate of up to 120 Hz, with a touch sampling rate of up to 240 Hz.

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra offers two refresh rate options (Settings > Display > Motion smoothness) :

Adaptive : Get smoother animation and scrolling by automatically adjusting your screen refresh rate up to 120 Hz
Standard : Get longer battery life with a 60 Hz screen refresh rate

Last year’s Galaxy S21 Ultra also has an Adaptive mode, which dynamically refreshes between 10 Hz and 120 Hz

The new Galaxy S22 Ultra improves on that, with an Adaptive mode that dynamically refreshes between 1 Hz and 120 Hz.

By default, the Galaxy S22 Ultra uses the Adaptive mode, for smoother graphics, but you can choose to switch to the Standard mode for longer battery.

4nm Flagship Mobile Platform

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is built around the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile SoC, which is fabricated on the latest 4nm Samsung process technology.

Together with a powerful Adreno 730 GPU, it has eight processor cores in a triple-tier architecture :

a Cortex-X2 prime core running at up to 3 GHz,
three sustained-performance Cortex-A710 cores running at up to 2.5 GHz, and
four energy-efficient Cortex-A510 cores running at 1.8 GHz.

Memory + Storage Options

Samsung will be offering four memory and storage options, but not all of them are available globally :

8 GB RAM + 128 GB storage
12 GB RAM + 256 GB storage
12 GB RAM + 512 GB storage
12 GB RAM + 1 TB storage

Cameras Galore!

As the premiere Samsung smartphone, the Galaxy S22 Ultra comes with a smorgasbord of cameras!

In the front, it has a 40 MP camera, with a wide f/2.2 aperture, and the ability to combine pixels for better low-light performance.

In the back, it has a quad-camera system that consists of :

a 108 MP Dual Pixel camera, f/1.8 aperture
a 12 MP ultra-wide angle camera, f/2.2 aperture
a 10 MP telephoto camera with 3X optical zoom, f/2.4 aperture, and
a 10 MP periscope camera with 10X optical zoom, f/4.9

Ultra-Low Latency S Pen

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is the only model in the Galaxy S22 family to come with the S Pen.

Just like the Galaxy Note series, it has a dedicated S Pen slot, so you will never have to worry about dropping the S Pen.

This is an improved S Pen, with ultra-low latency of just 2.8 ms – down from 9 ms in the previous generation. This gives it an instantaneous feel, just like writing an actual pen on paper.

Built To Last

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is protected in the back and front by the latest Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+.

On top of that, it is IP68-rated against dust and water ingress. That means it can withstand immersion in up to 1.5 metres of fresh water for up to 30 minutes.

Battery + Charging

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra comes with a large 5,000 mAh battery, which offers a very long battery life.

On top of that, it can support wired charging at up to 45 watts, with wireless charging supported at up to 15 watts.

It also supports Wireless PowerShare, allowing you to recharge other smartphones and wearables like the Galaxy Buds2.

The only downside – Samsung is not providing the 45 watt charger in-the-box.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Battery + Charging

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Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Battery Life Comparison!

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra comes with a larger 5,000 mAh battery, which is the same size as last year’s Galaxy S21 Ultra.

To test its battery life, we turned off Automatic Brightness, and set its display brightness to 50%.

Why 50%? That is actually slightly higher than the average indoor brightness level of 40% during the day, and is what we usually use in all our mobile battery life tests.

It is important to fix the brightness level, to make sure the screen brightness does not change as the ambient brightness changes.

We then ran the PCMark Work 3.0 battery life test until its battery capacity dropped to 20% several times, and this was the best result we obtained with 60 Hz and 120 Hz refresh rates :

Will you look at that!

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra has a battery life of 10.5 hours with Adaptive refresh rate enabled, and a whopping 14.25 hours with the Standard refresh rate!

But let’s compare its battery life at 60 Hz and 120 Hz, against the S21 Ultra and Z Flip 3 smartphones.

Standard Refresh Rate (60 Hz)

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra really shines with the refresh rate set to 60 Hz.

The S22 Ultra used 20% less power per minute, which delivered 25% longer battery life than the S21 Ultra.

Work 3.0	S22 Ultra (60 Hz)	Z Flip 3 (60 Hz)	S21 Ultra (60 Hz)
Battery Capacity	5,000 mAh	3,300 mAh	5,000 mAh
Battery Life	14 hrs 15 mins	8 hrs 11 mins	11 hrs 22 mins
Utilisation per min.	4.68 mAh	5.38 mAh	5.87 mAh

Adaptive Refresh Rate (120 Hz)

While the Galaxy S22 Ultra certainly used less power than the S21 Ultra, that advantage was greatly diminished with the Adaptive refresh rate enabled.

The S22 Ultra used just 2% less power per minute, which delivered 2% (12 minutes) longer battery life than the S21 Ultra.

Work 3.0	S22 Ultra (120 Hz)	S21 Ultra (120 Hz)	Z Flip 3 (120 Hz)
Battery Capacity	5,000 mAh	5,000 mAh	3,300 mAh
Battery Life	10 hrs 38 mins	10 hrs 26 mins	6 hrs 44 mins
Utilisation per min.	6.27 mAh	6.39 mAh	6.53 mAh

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Battery Recharging Speed!

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra supports up to 45 watts of wired fast charging, but unfortunately, does not come with the charger in-the-box.

So we relied on the standard 15 watt Samsung fast charger than shipped with their previous smartphones – something we believe most users will end up doing.

But we used the 25 watt charger for the S21 Ultra, because it came with that charger.

Work 3.0	S21 Ultra	S22 Ultra	Z Flip 3
Battery Capacity	5,000 mAh	5,000 mAh	3,300 mAh
Charger Output	25 watts	15 watts	15 watts
Battery Life	64 minutes	64.5 minutes	88.5 minutes
Recharging Speed (per minute)	62.5 mAh	62.0 mAh	29.8 mAh

Interestingly, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra recharged as quickly with a standard 15 watt charger, as the S21 Ultra with its more powerful 25 watt charger!

In fact, the Galaxy S22 Ultra recharged itself twice as fast as the Galaxy Z Flip 3, even though they both used the same 15 watt charger!

This is really good news. It means that Galaxy S22 Ultra owners need not worry too much about its recharging speed with the older 15 watt chargers.

In fact, you don’t really need to splurge on a new 45 watt fast charger. The Galaxy S22 Ultra fully recharges from 20% to 100% in just over an hour with the standard 15 watt Samsung charger!

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Performance

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Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Work Performance

We first tested the Galaxy S22 Ultra using PCMark, which simulates work applications like web browsing, playing video, writing text and editing photos.

Work 3.0	Galaxy Z Flip 3	Galaxy S22 Ultra	Galaxy S21 Ultra	Note20 Ultra	Galaxy A52
Mobile Platform	SD 888	SD 8 Gen 1	Exynos 2100	Exynos 990	SD 750G
Performance Score	13317	12860	12535	10523	7874
Web Browsing	11637	10442	10185	8865	7021
Video Editing	7762	7444	6336	6232	5693
Writing	15316	15471	15247	11112	7454
Photo Editing	25357	30177	37847	30789	15812
Data Manipulation	11938	9691	8310	6825	6424

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Get 1 was surprisingly slightly slower than the Snapdragon 888 used by the Galaxy Z Flip 3, but the difference is just 5%, which means you won’t actually notice the difference.

For certainly, it will easily handle anything you throw at it, whether it’s just posting your latest Instagram pictures or editing a 4K video.

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Gaming Performance

For gaming, we tested the Galaxy S22 Ultra using 3DMark, with these results :

3DMark	Galaxy S22 Ultra	Galaxy Z Flip 3	Note20 Ultra	Galaxy Note10+
Device	SD 8 Gen 1	SD 888	Exynos 990	Exynos 9825
Sling Shot Unlimited	11094	9248	8026	3327
Wild Life Unlimited	9106	3952	4504	3288
Wild Life Extreme Unlimited	2220	1174	1387	528

Look at that! The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 was a head above the competition when it comes to gaming!

It was 20% to 130% faster than the Snapdragon 888, and 38% to 102% faster than the Exynos 990!

For certain, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 will crush any game you throw at it.

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Overall Performance

We then tested the Galaxy S22 Ultra using AnTuTu, yielding these results :

AnTuTu	Galaxy S22 Ultra	Galaxy Z Flip 3	Galaxy S21 Ultra	Note20 Ultra	Galaxy A52
Device	SD 8 Gen 1	SD 888	Exynos 2100	Exynos 990	SD 750G
AnTuTu Score	889167	696767	624411	522735	341908
CPU	203090	206228	166290	146783	105098
GPU	402617	242573	258995	215205	88068
Memory	146002	133586	120805	89376	60642
UX	137458	114380	78321	71371	88100

The AnTuTu benchmark confirme that the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is a veritable beast of a performer, beating even the very fast Galaxy Z Flip 3 by 28%, and the last-generation Galaxy S21 Ultra by 42!

Its GPU performance was, in particular, spectacular, delivering 66% better performance than the Galaxy Z Flip 3, and 55% better performance than the Galaxy S21 Ultra!

But note that its temperature jumped by over 10°C! At peak performance, the Galaxy S22 Ultra can get quite toasty!

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Performance Summary

The Galaxy S22 Ultra was meant to be the ultimate Samsung smartphone for 2022, and it does not disappoint.

The benchmark results amply demonstrates, you can count on the Galaxy S22 Ultra to easily handle anything and everything you throw at it.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Video Performance

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Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Video Recording Performance

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra’s super-high resolution 108 MP main camera can take up to 8K videos, if you want to. But in reality – most people are not going to bother with 8K video recording, at least for now.

Very few televisions and devices support 8K video playback, and even the S22 Ultra will downsample the 8K video when playing back on its 3K display.

1080p and 4K videos are what the Galaxy S22 Ultra does best, thanks to its support for 60 fps recording and combination of optical image stabilisation and advanced electronic image stabilisation.

1080p Video Sample : Concubine Lane @ Ipoh

This video sample was taken at the famous Concubine Lane in Ipoh, which is crowded and really great to test the camera out.

In this video sample, you can see just how smooth and stable the video is at 60 fps, even with so much shaking and jostling.

4K Video Sample : Concubine Lane @ Ipoh

When we switched to 4K, the video was remarkably stable, even while we walk through the crowd, and pan around Concubine Lane.

You should also note the lack of wind noise, which is fantastic. You won’t need to use a third-party microphone with a dead cat with this phone!

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Video Zoom Capability

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra also supports multiple zoom levels – up to 20X zoom at 1080p, and up to 10X zoom at 4K.

Its ultra-wide camera lets you record with a wider 0.6X zoom, while its 3X zoom and 10X zoom cameras allow for extended optical zoom capabilities.

1080p Zoom Demonstration

At 1080p, you can record videos from 0.6X zoom up to 20X zoom – which offers much wider range than competing smartphones.

The best image quality was seen at up to 10X zoom, while image stabilisation was best at up to 4X zoom, and still pretty good at 10X zoom.

While 20X zoom has pretty decent image quality, it is not as sharp as at 10X or lower zoom. Colours also appear more washed out at 20X.

4K Zoom Demonstration

You can record 4K videos from 0.6X zoom up to 10X zoom. – which is narrower than recording 1080p video.

For best image quality, limit your zoom up to 3X while recording 4K video. While image stabilisation was pretty good at 10X zoom, the image isn’t sharp and colours appear washed out.

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Video Recording Performance Summary

If you ignore the 8K hype, you will realise that the Galaxy S22 Ultra offers truly excellent 4K and 1080p video recording capabilities.

You should buy the Galaxy S22 Ultra for its advanced optical and electronic image stabilisation for super-stable recording on-the-move.

You should also buy the Galaxy S22 Ultra for its wide zoom range of 0.6X to 10X when recording 1080p videos, or 0.6X to 3X when recording 4K videos.

These are the critical video recording features that will give you greater flexibility and super stable videos, without the need to use a gimbal.

While not showcased in our videos, the Galaxy S22 Ultra also supports Audio Zoom, focusing the audio recording as you zoom into a scene. That can be really helpful in isolating audio from the subject from background noise.

These features are not new – they have been part of the Samsung Galaxy S and Note series for a few years now. Samsung just keeps improving them, which is why we keep using Galaxy S smartphones as our primary video recording device.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Photography

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Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Photography Capability

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra boasts a super-high resolution 108 MP main camera, built around the same ISOCELL HM3 sensor used in the Galaxy S21 Ultra.

However, this camera features improved AI optimisations. Thanks to the improved performance of its GPU and NPU, it now runs approximately 60 new AI models through its Neural Processing Unit (NPU) to optimise the final output.

Here are six shots I took around Ipoh Old Town, using the 108 MP main camera, and the 12 MP ultra-wide angle camera.

They are 4000 x 3000 pixels in size, with a JPEG file size of between 4 MB and 15 MB – it all depends on the amount of detail in the picture. To save space, I definitely recommend that you enable HEIF – the High Efficiency Image Format.

By default, the 108 MP camera takes 12 MP photos, combining nine pixels into one super-large 2.4 µm pixel. Coupled with the new AI models, the final photo is not only much brighter, but has significantly lower noise.

When you take shots at night, the Galaxy S22 Ultra combines images taken using both the 108 MP main camera, and the 12 MP ultra-wide camera. The 12 MP camera provides the rough details, while the fine details are provided by the 108 MP camera.

Here are four shots to show you the incredible amount of detail you can capture at just 12 MP. If you need greater detail, you can always increase the resolution to the full 108 MP, but frankly – these pictures should show you that you don’t really need to.

Its digital zoom has also been improved by the new AI models and the faster processor. For images taken above 30X digital zoom, the camera actually takes 10-20 shots at once, and processes them to improve the details in the final photo.

Finally, the Galaxy S22 Ultra features a new AI portrait model that uses two cameras to accurately differentiate the depth between the person and the background.

This is critical because the 108 MP camera has a very wide f/1.8 aperture, which makes for very narrow depth-of-field (DOF). If you do not accurately focus on the subject, you could end up with a blurry photo even though it looks sharp on the phone.

In these four shots, you can see just how narrow of depth of field you have to work with. This makes for better photos – you just need to make sure the subject is really in focus.

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Photography Summary

If you want the best cameras on a smartphone money can buy, you should definitely consider the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Ignore the 108 MP marketing hoohah. What you are really getting is an awesome 12 MP camera with super-large pixels for really great noise-free images, and better low-light photos.

You may be wary about Samsung reusing the ISOCELL HM3 sensor from last year, but it has better photographic capabilities, thanks mostly to software and AI improvements.

For one thing, I noticed that it is now much better at accurately focusing on the subject, resulting in far fewer wrongly-focused shots.

It also does a better job of correcting for disparate lighting conditions, although some of you may find the photos oversaturated.

But there is no doubt that the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra has some of the best smartphone cameras I’ve tried this year.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Summary + Award

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Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Summary + Award

It is really quite hard for flagship smartphones to really differentiate themselves from last year’s flagships, but Samsung somehow pulled it off with the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Most of the improvements may not be readily apparent to the user though.

Thanks to Samsung’s decision to use the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile SoC, it has significantly better GPU and NPU performance.

Even its Dynamic AMOLED 2X display has been quietly improved. It is now 250 nits brighter and has a minimum refresh rate of just 1 Hz, allowing for better battery life.

If you don’t mind using the standard 60 Hz refresh rate, you will be pleasantly surprised by a 25% longer battery life than last year’s S21 Ultra!

Even its S Pen was upgraded. It may look like last year’s S Pen, but it has a much lower latency of just 2.8 ms – down from 9 ms in the previous generation.

Samsung reused the Galaxy S21 Ultra‘s excellent quad-camera system, but you may not know that it features improved AI optimisations. Powered by the much faster Snapdragon processor’s NPU, it now runs approximately 60 new AI models to optimise the final output.

This may not sound like much, but you will realise just how much has improved if you compare the videos and photos taken with the S22 Ultra against the S21 Ultra. Its AI optimisations have taken out most of the hard work of making sure that each picture comes out looking great, while its video stabilisation is truly best-in-class.

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is not cheap, but if you want the best possible Android smartphone that is powerful and takes excellent photos and videos, this is as good as it gets!

On top of that, it boasts the best-in-class Gorilla Glass Victus+ protection on both front and rear aspects, and is IP68 dust- and water-resistant.

For these reasons, we gladly award the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra our Editor’s Choice Award! Great work, Samsung!

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Specifications

Specifications	Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra
Display	6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display – 120 Hz dynamic refresh rate – 240 Hz touch sampling (Game Mode) – 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut – 1750 nits peak brightness – 3 million:1 contrast ratio
Protection	Gorilla Glass Victus+ (front and back)
Water Resistance	IP68
OS	One UI 4.1 (Android 12)
Platform	Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
CPU	1 x Arm Cortex-X2 core (3.0 GHz) 3 x Arm Cortex-A710 cores (2.5 GHz) 4 x Arm Cortex-A510 cores (1.8 GHz)
GPU	Qualcomm Adreno 730
Memory + Storage	8 GB + 128 GB 12 GB + 256 GB / 512 GB / 1 TB
External Storage	NA
Front Camera	40 MP camera, f/2.2
Main Cameras	108 MP Dual Pixel camera, f/1.8 12 MP ultra-wide camera, f/2.2 10 MP 3x zoom camera, f/2.4 10 MP 10x zoom camera, f/4.9
Connectivity	Wi-Fi : Up to Wi-Fi 6E Bluetooth : BT 5.2 USB : USB Type C
S Pen	Yes, 2.8 ms latency
Fingerprint Sensor	Yes, Under Display
Other Sensors	Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyroscope, Geomagnetic, Hall, Light, Proximity
GPS	GPS, Beidou, Galileo, Glonass, QZSS
NFC	Yes
Battery	5,000 mAh Li-Po battery
Charging	45 watt wired charging 15 watt wireless charging Wireless PowerShare
Dimensions	77.9 mm wide 163.3 mm tall 8.9 mm thick
Weight	229 grams

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Price + Availability

Samsung is offering the Galaxy S22 Ultra in four colour options – Burgundy, Green, Phantom Black and Phantom White.

I had the opportunity to attend an exclusive Samsung preview event, to check out all four colours for ourselves.

Note : Samsung only allowed us to use digital cameras, so the video is not stabilised as it would be with smartphones that I generally use.

Here in Malaysia, it is available starting 10 February 2022 in three variants, at these price points :

8 GB + 128 GB : RM 5,099 (about US$1,219 / £899 / A$1,699 / S$1,629)
12 GB + 256 GB : RM 5,499 (about US$1,314 / £969 / A$1,829 / S$1,759)
12 GB + 512 GB : RM 5,899 (about US$1,409 / £1,039 / A$1,959 / S$1,889)

Here are some online pre-order options :

Malaysia : RM5,499 | RM5,499 | RM5,499 | RM5,499
Singapore : S$1,858
United States : US$1,199 | US$1,199
United Kingdom : £1,149 | £1,149 | £1,249 | £1,249
Australia : A$1,999

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Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra Battery Life + Recharging Speed!

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Take a look at the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra’s battery recharging speed, and how its two refresh rate options affect its battery life!

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Two Refresh Rate Options

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra tablet offers two refresh rate options (Settings > Display > Motion smoothness) :

High : Get smoother animations and scrolling with a 120 Hz screen refresh rate
Standard : Get longer battery life with a 60 Hz screen refresh rate

You may think that this is similar to the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s 120 Hz display, but you would be wrong.

The Galaxy S22 Ultra has an Adaptive mode that dynamically refreshes between 1 Hz and 120 Hz for better battery life.

The 120 Hz refresh rate option in the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra is fixed at 120 Hz. This guarantees you an ultra-smooth 120 Hz refresh rate all the time, at the expense of battery life.

In the next section, we will look at how the two refresh rate options affect the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra’s battery life.