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

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) :

 

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

Read more : EU Orders All Brands To Use USB-C, Including Apple!

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.

  1. Open the Camera app
  2. Go to Settings > Advanced picture options
  3. 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

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) :

 

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Samsung Galaxy A54 : 50 MP Camera Review!

Take a look at the 50MP camera of the new Samsung Galaxy A54, and find out just how well it performs!

 

Samsung Galaxy A54 : 50 MP Main Camera

The Samsung Galaxy A54 is the marquee mid-range smartphone for 2023, and it 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 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.

In this review, we are going to take a look at the photography capability of Galaxy A54, and show you just how well its 50MP main camera performs!

 

Samsung Galaxy A54 : 50 MP Camera Review!

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.

  1. Open the Camera app
  2. Go to Settings > Advanced picture options
  3. 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 : 50 MP Camera 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.

 

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

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) :

 

Please Support My Work!

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

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
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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 A54 (Exynos 1380) Performance Review!

Take a look at the performance of the Samsung Galaxy A54, and find out how well the Exynos 1380 performs against the competition!

 

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Powered By Exynos 1380

The Samsung Galaxy A54 runs on the Samsung Exynos 1380 mobile platform that was officially launched on 23 February 2023.

Fabricated on the latest 4nm process technology, the Exynos 1380 comes with an Arm Mali-G68 MP5 GPU, as well as eight processor cores in a dual-cluster architecture :

  • four Arm Cortex-A78 high-performance cores, and
  • four Arm Cortex-A55 low-power cores, and

On paper, this is a powerful mid-range mobile platform, but let’s take a look at how it actually performs!

Read more : Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Hands-On Preview!
Read more : Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Colour Options Compared!

 

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.

 

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 : Price + Availability

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

  • Awesome Graphite
  • Awesome Violet
  • Awesome Lime

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) :

 

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 A54 Battery Life + Charging Speed!

Take a look at the battery recharging speed of the new Samsung Galaxy A54, and find out how its two refresh rate options affect its battery life!

 

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Two Fixed Refresh Rate Options

The new Samsung Galaxy A54 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 by automatically adjusting your screen refresh rate up to 60 Hz.

Although the description seems to suggest that the display switches dynamically between 1 Hz to 120 Hz like the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, that’s not true.

By turning on the frame rate counter, we can see that the Galaxy A54 switches between two fixed refresh rates – 60 Hz or 120 Hz in the Dynamic mode, and uses just 60 Hz in the Standard mode.

The true Adaptive refresh rate offered in the Galaxy S23 Ultra is variable, changing from 1 Hz to 120 Hz according to the situation. This not only reduces power consumption, it also prevents “screen tearing” – a visual artifact that occurs when the game frame rate does not match the display’s refresh rate.

In the next section, we will look at how the two refresh rate options affect the Galaxy A54’s battery life.

Recommended : Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Battery Life + Charging!

 

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.

 

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Price + Availability

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) :

 

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 A54 : Unboxing + Hands-On!

Samsung just launched the Galaxy A54 smartphone, and here is our unboxing and hands-on preview!

 

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Quick Overview

The Galaxy A54 is Samsung’s latest mid-range smartphone, built around the Samsung Exynos 1380 mobile platform, which features:

  • four Arm Cortex-A78 high-performance cores,
  • four Arm Cortex-A55 low-power cores, and
  • an Arm Mali-G68 MP5 GPU

It has a large 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display, with a Full HD+ resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels. This display is capable of supporting a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz for smoother graphics.

Hidden in its display is a punch hole camera, with a 32 MP sensor and an f/2.2 aperture. At the back, it sports a triple camera system, 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

All that is powered by a large 5,000 mAh battery, which supports up to 25 watt fast charging.

On top of that, Samsung guarantees up to 4 generations of OS upgrades, and 5 years of security updates, as well as 2 years of warranty for the Galaxy A54!

 

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Unboxing

The Samsung Galaxy A54 smartphone comes in a thin white cardboard box, which tells you that it definitely does not come with a USB charger inside.

It is protected by two security stickers. Please make sure they are intact when you receive the box. Do not accept it, if any of the security stickers have been cut or tampered with.

After cutting the security stickers and taking off the top of the box, you will find the Galaxy A54 smartphone wrapped in plastic.

But don’t chuck away the box cover yet. Hidden underneath is a cardboard packet containing its documents and accessories.

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

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

 

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Hands-On Of Three Colours Options!

The 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!

 

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Price + Availability

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) :

 

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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Samsung Galaxy A54 : Three Key Colours Compared!

Samsung just launched the Galaxy A54 smartphone, and here is our comparison of the three key colours!

 

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Quick Overview

The Galaxy A54 is Samsung’s latest mid-range smartphone, built around the Samsung Exynos 1380 mobile platform, which features:

  • four Arm Cortex-A78 high-performance cores,
  • four Arm Cortex-A55 low-power cores, and
  • an Arm Mali-G68 MP5 GPU

It has a large 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display, with a Full HD+ resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels. This display is capable of supporting a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz for smoother graphics.

Hidden in its display is a punch hole camera, with a 32 MP sensor and an f/2.2 aperture. At the back, it sports a triple camera system, 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

All that is powered by a large 5,000 mAh battery, which supports up to 25 watt fast charging.

On top of that, Samsung guarantees up to 4 generations of OS upgrades, and 5 years of security updates, as well as 2 years of warranty for the Galaxy A54!

 

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Three Key Colours Compared!

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!

 

Samsung Galaxy A54 : Price + Availability

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) :

 

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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Best Display Settings for Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra!

Now that you got your Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, let us show you which is the best display settings you can choose!

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Display Refresh Rate Options

The new Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra offers two refresh rate options (Settings > Display > Motion smoothness) :

  • Adaptive : Get smoother animation and scrolling by automatically adjusting your screen refresh rate between 1 Hz and 120 Hz
  • Standard : Get longer battery life with a 60 Hz screen refresh rate

By default, the Galaxy S23 Ultra uses the Adaptive mode for smoother graphics, but you can choose to switch to the Standard mode for longer battery life.

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Display Resolution Options

In addition, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has three display resolution options (Settings > Display > Screen resolution) :

  • WQHD+ : 3088 x 1440 pixels
  • FHD+ : 2316 x 1080 pixels
  • HD+ : 1544 x 720 pixels

By default, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra uses the FHD+ resolution, but you can switch to the full WQHD+ resolution for sharper graphics, or drop down to HD+ for a longer battery life.

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

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Best Display Settings!

Those five display settings affect battery life. Even though the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra comes with a large 5,000 mAh battery, it won’t last forever. So which display resolution and refresh rate should you choose?

Many people and even some experts will recommend that you switch to the best possible settings – you paid for those features after all! But how much will they suck your new smartphone’s battery life?

To find out, I ran the PCMark Work 3.0 battery life test until its battery capacity dropped to 20% several times, and these were the best results I obtained:

Display
Resolution
Standard
Refresh
Dynamic
Refresh
WQHD+ 15 hours 9 minutes 12 hours 7 minutes
FHD+ 15 hours 18 minutes 13 hours
HD+ 16 hours 46 minutes 14 hours 34 minutes

Best Display Resolution : WQHD+

Switching to the WQHD+ resolution will definitely give you the sharpest and best possible display on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra.

Normally, this would suck up a significant amount of power, which is why Samsung set the Galaxy S23 Ultra to use the FHD+ option by default.

But as my tests show, using the maximum display resolution of WQHD+ barely dents its battery life!

At the Standard 60 Hz refresh rate, you lose just 9 minutes – which is a drop of just under 0.11% – practically imperceptible.

If you switch to the Dynamic Refresh Rate mode, you lose 53 minutes or 6.8% of battery life. That sounds like a lot, but you still have just over 12 hours of battery life.

So unless you must have the longest-possible battery life, I recommend you switch to the WQHD+ resolution.

The low resolution of HD+ definitely increases your battery life, but not as much as you might think. You gain about 1.5 hours longer battery life. Not worth putting up with soft-looking images and text IMHO.

Best Display Refresh Rate : Up To Your Preference

The change in refresh rate affects the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s battery life far more than changing its display resolution.

At the WQHD+ resolution, switching to Dynamic Refresh cuts your battery life by 3 hours, or about 20%.

At the FHD+ resolution, switching to Dynamic Refresh cuts your battery life by 2 hours 18 minutes, or about 15%.

At the HD+ resolution, switching to Dynamic Refresh cuts your battery life by 2 hours 12 minutes, or about 13%.

If you are fine with a 12 hour battery life, and most would be, you should definitely turn on Dynamic Refresh Rate.

But if you want a longer battery life (like if you’re on a trip), you can always turn on the Standard refresh rate for a 15%-20% boost in battery life to about 15 hours.

I highly recommend that you try both refresh rate options, and see if you can feel a noticeable difference. People who play mobile games will probably find it noticeable, while non-gamers might not appreciate the difference in refresh rate.

 

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:

 

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 Review : Tech ARP Editor’s Choice!

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!

Read more : Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Colour Options Compared!

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:

 

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!

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

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!

Read more : Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Colour Options Compared!

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.

Read more : EU Orders All Brands To Use USB-C, Including Apple!

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.

Read more : Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Battery Life + Charging Speed!

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.

Read more : Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Performance Examined!

 

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.

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°.

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:

 

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 200 MP Camera Review!

Take a look at the camera performance of the new Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, and find out why it’s such an awesome smartphone for photographers!

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : 200 MP Camera FTW!

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is their flagship smartphone for the year 2023, and it boasts the best cameras money can buy.

Headlining its top-of-the-line quad-camera system is a new Adaptive Pixel camera, which is built around the 200 MP ISOCELL HP2 (S5KHP2) sensor, and improved optically-stabilised lens with a larger f/1.7 aperture.

You can seamlessly switch to its ultra-wide camera, with a 12 MP sensor and a f/2.2 aperture; or optically zoom up to 10X with its dual telephoto and periscope cameras.

In this review, we are going to take a look at the photography capability of Galaxy S23 Ultra, and show you just how well its cameras perform!

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : 200 MP Camera Review!

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.

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°.

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 : 200 MP Camera 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.

 

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:

 

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

Go Back To > Mobile | Photo + VideoTech ARP

 

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 Battery Life + Charging!

Take a look at the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra’s battery recharging speed, and how its two refresh rate options affect its battery life!

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Refresh Rate Affects Battery Life!

The new Samsung Galaxy S23 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

The Galaxy S21 Ultra also has an Adaptive mode, which dynamically refreshes between 10 Hz and 120 Hz

The new Galaxy S23 Ultra and last year’s S22 Ultra improved on that, with an Adaptive mode that dynamically refreshes between 1 Hz and 120 Hz.

By default, the Galaxy S23 Ultra uses the Adaptive mode for smoother graphics, but you can choose to switch to the Standard mode for longer battery life.

In the next section, we will look at how the two refresh rate options affect the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s battery life.

Read more : Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Hands-On Preview!
Read more : Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Performance Examined!

 

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 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.

 

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:

 

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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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!

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!

Read more : Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Hands-On Preview!
Read more : Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Colour Options Compared!

 

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.

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 : 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:

 

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

Go Back To > Mobile | Tech ARP

 

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 : Hands-On Preview!

We got our hands on the new Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, so here are our hands-on preview, and our first impressions!

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Hands-On Preview!

Samsung just launched the Galaxy S23 Ultra, and here is our hands-on preview and first impressions of this flagship smartphone with a 200 MP camera!

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!

Read more : Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Colour Options Compared!

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.

Read more : EU Orders All Brands To Use USB-C, Including Apple!

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.

 

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 : 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:

 

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

Go Back To > Mobile | Tech ARP

 

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 : What’s Inside The Box!

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.

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°.

Read more : Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Hands-On Preview!

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!

Colour Options

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

  • Phantom Black
  • Green
  • Lavender
  • Cream

Read more : Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Colour Options Compared!

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

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.

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:

 

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

Go Back To > Mobile | Tech ARP

 

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 Plus : All 4 Colours Compared!

Samsung just launched the new Galaxy S23 Plus smartphone, and here is our comparison of all four main colours!

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus : 4 Main Colours Compared!

Samsung just launched the new Galaxy S23 Plus smartphone, and it will be available in four main colours with a matte finish :

  • Phantom Black
  • Green
  • Lavender
  • Cream

Ahead of the Galaxy S23 Plus’ 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 Plus smartphone in all four colour options. Take a look at all four colours, and let us know which you prefer!

Read more : Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Colour Options Compared!
Read more : Samsung Galaxy S23 Colour Options Compared!

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus : 4 Special Colours!

In addition to the four main colours, Samsung will also make these four special colours available exclusively through online orders on the Samsung.com website:

  • Lime
  • Sky Blue
  • Graphite
  • Red

However, I have no idea if these four special colours are readily available for the pre-order, or will be held back until after the pre-order period.

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus : Same Price For All Colours!

Regardless of the colour you prefer, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus will only vary in price according to storage capacity.

Here are the official launch prices for the two available storage capacities.

  • 8 GB + 256 GB : RM4,699 (about US$1,102 / £894 / A$1,561 / S$1,448)
  • 8 GB + 512 GB : RM5,199 (about US$1,219 / £989 / A$1,725 / S$1,602)

 

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

Go Back To > Mobile | Tech ARP

 

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 : All 4 Colours Compared!

Samsung just launched the new Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphone, and here is our comparison of all four main colours!

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : 4 Main Colours Compared!

Samsung just launched the new Galaxy S23 Ultra smartphone, and it will be available in four main colours with a matte finish :

  • Phantom Black
  • Green
  • Lavender
  • 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!

Read more : Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus Colour Options Compared!
Read more : Samsung Galaxy S23 Colour Options Compared!

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : 4 Special Colours!

In addition to the four main colours, Samsung will also make these four special colours available exclusively through online orders on the Samsung.com website:

  • Lime
  • Sky Blue
  • Graphite
  • Red

However, I have no idea if these four special colours are readily available for the pre-order, or will be held back until after the pre-order period.

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Same Price For All Colours!

Regardless of the colour you prefer, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra will only vary in price according to storage capacity.

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)

 

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

Go Back To > Mobile | Tech ARP

 

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 : All You Need To Know!

Samsung just launched the Galaxy S23 Ultra, with a 200 MP camera, and here is everything you need to know about its latest flagship smartphone!

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Everything You Need To Know!

Samsung just launched the Galaxy S23 Ultra, with a 200 MP camera, and here is everything you need to know about its latest flagship smartphone!

Boosted Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2

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)

Here is a quick comparison between the boosted Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile SoC used in the Galaxy S22 Ultra:

Specifications Galaxy S23 Ultra Galaxy S22 Ultra
Mobile SoC Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
CPU Clusters 4 3
CPU Cores 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 Qualcomm Adreno 740 Qualcomm Adreno 730

200 MP Main Camera

Arguably the biggest upgrade in the Galaxy S23 Ultra is its new 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 – a pixel binning technique called Tetra2pixel.

The number of pixels binned will vary according to the photography conditions. In low-light conditions, up to 16 pixels can be combined to create a large 2.4 μm pixel, for a 12.5 MP photo. Samsung is calling this sensor an Adaptive Pixel sensor.

This new Adaptive Pixel sensor also offers better auto-focus performance in low-light conditions through Super QPD autofocus. By using all 200 million pixels, which are physically grouped as four pixels under a single microns, the sensor can detect patterns in both vertical and horizontal directions for faster low-light focusing.

I had the opportunity to test its 200 MP camera’s Nightography capabilities before the launch, and came away very impressed. Forget about the 200 MP number. Its night photography capabilities is where it really shines!

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!

I recently tested the front camera in an exclusive media preview session in Singapore, and found it to be significantly better than the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s front camera!

Colour Options

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

  • Phantom Black
  • Green
  • Lavender
  • Cream

Read more : Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Colour Options Compared!

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 : 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 : Prices + Pre-Order Offer!

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!

 

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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Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus : All You Need To Know!

Samsung just launched the Galaxy S23 Plus, and here is everything you need to know about its latest flagship smartphone!

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus : Everything You Need To Know!

Samsung just launched the Galaxy S23 Plus, and here is everything you need to know about its latest flagship smartphone!

Boosted Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus will use 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)

Here is a quick comparison between the boosted Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile SoC used in the Galaxy S22 Plus:

Specifications Galaxy S23+ Galaxy S22+
Mobile SoC Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
CPU Clusters 4 3
CPU Cores 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 Qualcomm Adreno 740 Qualcomm Adreno 730

Same Rear Cameras From Galaxy S22 Plus

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus uses the same rear cameras as last year’s Galaxy S22 Plus.

  • a 50 MP Dual Pixel camera, f/1.8 aperture,
  • a 12 MP ultra-wide angle camera, f/2.2 aperture, and
  • a 10 MP telephoto camera with 3X optical zoom, f/2.4 aperture

12 MP Selfie Camera

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus, however, gets an upgrade in the front, with a new 12 MP camera with an f/2.2 aperture.

This should be the same 12 MP front camera used in the Galaxy S23 Ultra, which I managed to test in an exclusive media preview session in Singapore, and found to be significantly better than the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s front camera!

Colour Options

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

  • Phantom Black
  • Green
  • Lavender
  • Cream

Read more : Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus Colour Options Compared!

Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus 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!

4,700 mAh Fast-Charging Battery

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus comes with a large 4,700 mAh lithium-ion polymer battery, which is 200 mAh larger than the Galaxy S22 Plus.

In addition, it also supports 45 watt fast wired charging, and 15 watt fast wireless charging.

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus : Specifications!

I created this table to quickly share with you the Galaxy S23 Plus’ key specifications!

Specifications Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus
Display 6.6-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display
– 120 Hz dynamic refresh rate (48~120 Hz)
– 240 Hz touch sampling rate (Game Mode)
– 1750 nits peak brightness
Protection Gorilla Glass Victus 2 (front and back)
Water Resistance IP68
OS One UI 5.1 (Android 13)
Platform Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
CPU 1 x Arm Cortex-X3 core (3.36 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)
GPU Qualcomm Adreno 740
Memory 8 GB
Storage Options 256 GB / 512 GB
External Storage NA
Front Camera 12 MP camera, f/2.2, 80˚ FOV
Main Cameras 50 MP camera, f/1.8, 85˚ FOV
12 MP ultra-wide camera, f/2.2, 120˚ FOV
10 MP 3x zoom camera, f/2.4, 36˚ FOV
10 MP 10x zoom camera, f/4.9, 11˚ FOV
Connectivity Wi-Fi : Wi-Fi 6E
Bluetooth : BT 5.3
USB : USB Type C
S Pen No
Fingerprint Sensor Yes, Under Display
Other Sensors Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyroscope,
Geomagnetic, Light, Proximity
GPS GPS, Beidou, Galileo, Glonass
NFC Yes
Battery 4,700 mAh Li-Po battery
Charging 45 watt wired charging
15 watt wireless charging
Wireless PowerShare
Dimensions 76.2 mm wide
157.8 mm tall
7.6 mm thick
Weight 196 grams

 

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

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

Here are the official launch prices for the two available storage capacities.

  • 8 GB + 256 GB : RM4,699 (about US$1,102 / £894 / A$1,561 / S$1,448)
  • 8 GB + 512 GB : RM5,199 (about US$1,219 / £989 / A$1,725 / S$1,602)

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!

 

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

Go Back To > Mobile | Tech ARP

 

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 : All 4 Colours Compared!

Samsung just launched the new Galaxy S23 smartphone, and here is our comparison of all four main colours!

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 : 4 Main Colours Compared!

Samsung just launched the new Galaxy S23 smartphone, and it will be available in four main colours with a matte finish :

  • Phantom Black
  • Green
  • Lavender
  • Cream

Ahead of the Galaxy S23’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 smartphone in all four colour options. Take a look at all four colours, and let us know which you prefer!

Read more : Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Colour Options Compared!
Read more : Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus Colour Options Compared!

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 : 4 Special Colours!

In addition to the four main colours, Samsung will also make these four special colours available exclusively through online orders on the Samsung.com website:

  • Lime
  • Sky Blue
  • Graphite
  • Red

However, I have no idea if these four special colours are readily available for the pre-order, or will be held back until after the pre-order period.

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 : Same Price For All Colours!

Regardless of the colour you prefer, the Samsung Galaxy S23 will only vary in price according to storage capacity.

Here are the official launch prices for the two available storage capacities.

  • 8 GB + 128 GB : RM3,899 (about US$914 / £742 / A$1,294 / S$1,200)
  • 8 GB + 256 GB : RM4,199 (about US$984 / £799 / A$1,393 / S$1,294)

 

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

Go Back To > Mobile | Tech ARP

 

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 Series : All The Leaks So Far!

Take a look at the key details and specifications that has leaked ahead of the official launch of the Samsung Galaxy S23 series smartphones!

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Series : All The Leaks So Far!

Ahead of the official launch of the Galaxy S23 series, key details and specifications of Samsung’s upcoming flagship smartphones have leaked!

Boosted Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2

The Samsung Galaxy S23 smartphones will use 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)

Here is a quick comparison between the boosted Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile SoC used in the Galaxy S22 series:

Specifications Galaxy S23 Series Galaxy S22 Series
Mobile SoC Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
CPU Clusters 4 3
CPU Cores 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 Qualcomm Adreno 740 Qualcomm Adreno 730

200 MP Main Camera

Arguably the biggest upgrade in the Galaxy S23 Ultra is its new 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 – a pixel binning technique called Tetra2pixel.

The number of pixels binned will vary according to the photography conditions. In low-light conditions, up to 16 pixels can be combined to create a large 2.4 μm pixel, for a 12.5 MP photo.

On top of that, the new Samsung ISOCELL HP2 sensor also offers better auto-focus performance in low-light conditions through Super QPD autofocus. By using all 200 million pixels, which are physically grouped as four pixels under a single microns, the sensor can detect patterns in both vertical and horizontal directions for faster low-light focusing.

Read more : Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Everything Leaked So Far!

Similar Telephoto + Wide-Angle Cameras

The Samsung Galaxy S23 series will reuse the same 3X and 10X zoom cameras from the Galaxy S22 series, 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.

Colour Options

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

  • Botanic Green
  • Cotton Flower
  • Misty Lilac
  • Phantom Black

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Specifications Leaked So Far!

French specifications for the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra (SM-918B) smartphone have leaked!

Specifications Samsung Galaxy S23 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 (front and back)
Water Resistance IP68
OS One UI 5.1 (Android 13)
Platform Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
CPU 1 x Arm Cortex-X3 core (3.36 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)
GPU Qualcomm Adreno 740
Memory +
Storage
8 GB + 128 GB / 256 GB
12 GB + 256 GB / 512 GB / 1 TB
External Storage NA
Front Camera 12 MP camera, f/2.2
Main Cameras 200 MP Dual 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
Connectivity Wi-Fi : Wi-Fi 6E
Bluetooth : BT 5.3
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
10 watt wireless charging
Wireless PowerShare
Dimensions 78.1 mm wide
163.4 mm tall
8.9 mm thick
Weight 233 grams

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Series : Prices + Offers Leaked So Far!

Higher Prices

This is the only dampener amongst the leaks – be prepared to pay more for the Galaxy S23 smartphones! Here are the leaked prices for Europe:

Models Variant Launch
Prices
Premium Over
S22 Models
Galaxy S23 8 GB + 128 GB
8 GB + 256 GB
€949/959
€1019
+ €99/109
+ €119
Galaxy S23+ 8 GB + 256 GB
8 GB + 512 GB
€1209
€1329
+ €159
+ €229
Galaxy S23 Ultra 8 GB + 256 GB
12 GB + 512 GB
€1399/1409
€1589
NA
+ €139

Pre-Order Offer

While the increased price may be disappointing, Samsung will potentially boost pre-order sales by offering a free upgrade to the next storage variant.

For example, if you pre-order the Galaxy S23 with 128 GB storage, you will get the 256 GB variant instead. This is based on a leak on the Samsung UK Business portal that states:

Pre-order from Samsung.com by 16.02.23. Operates as a price discount:

Pre-order the larger storage variant (S23 256GB, 523+ 512GB, 523 Ultra 512GB) by 16.02.23 and pay the future price of the smaller storage variant (523 128GB, S23+ 256GB, S23 Ultra 256GB).

This free upgrade will only be offered for the pre-order period, and is essentially a 10% discount on the price of the higher-capacity model.

 

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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Support Tech ARP!

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Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Everything Leaked So Far!

Take a look at the key details and specifications that has leaked ahead of the official launch of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra!

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Everything Leaked So Far!

Ahead of the official launch of the Galaxy S23 Ultra, key details and specifications of Samsung’s upcoming flagship smartphone have leaked!

Boosted Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra will use 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)

Here is a quick comparison between the boosted Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile SoC used in the Galaxy S22 Ultra:

Specifications Galaxy S23 Ultra Galaxy S22 Ultra
Mobile SoC Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
CPU Clusters 4 3
CPU Cores 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 Qualcomm Adreno 740 Qualcomm Adreno 730

200 MP Main Camera

Arguably the biggest upgrade in the Galaxy S23 Ultra is its new 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 – a pixel binning technique called Tetra2pixel.

The number of pixels binned will vary according to the photography conditions. In low-light conditions, up to 16 pixels can be combined to create a large 2.4 μm pixel, for a 12.5 MP photo.

On top of that, the new Samsung ISOCELL HP2 sensor also offers better auto-focus performance in low-light conditions through Super QPD autofocus. By using all 200 million pixels, which are physically grouped as four pixels under a single microns, the sensor can detect patterns in both vertical and horizontal directions for faster low-light focusing.

Similar Telephoto + Wide-Angle Cameras

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra will reuse 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.

Colour Options

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

  • Botanic Green
  • Cotton Flower
  • Misty Lilac
  • Phantom Black

Read more : Samsung Galaxy S23 Series : All The Leaks So Far!

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Specifications Compared!

The specifications for the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra (SM-918B) smartphone have leaked, and in this table, we compare it 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
8 GB + 256 GB
12 GB + 512 GB / 1 TB
8 GB + 128 GB
12 GB + 256 GB / 512 GB / 1 TB
External Storage NA
Front Camera 12 MP camera, f/2.2 40 MP camera, f/2.2
Main Cameras 200 MP Dual 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
10 watt wireless charging
Wireless PowerShare
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 233 grams 229 grams

 

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra : Prices + Offers Leaked So Far!

Sadly, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra will be significantly more expensive than last year’s Galaxy S22 Ultra!. Here are the leaked prices for Europe:

Models Variant Launch
Prices
Premium Over
S22 Models
Galaxy S23 Ultra 8 GB + 256 GB
12 GB + 512 GB
€1399/1409
€1589
NA
+ €139

While the increased price may be disappointing, Samsung will potentially boost pre-order sales by offering a free upgrade to the next storage variant.

For example, if you pre-order the Galaxy S23 Ultra with 256 GB storage, you will get the 512 GB variant instead. This is based on a leak on the Samsung UK Business portal that states:

Pre-order from Samsung.com by 16.02.23. Operates as a price discount:

Pre-order the larger storage variant (S23 256GB, 523+ 512GB, 523 Ultra 512GB) by 16.02.23 and pay the future price of the smaller storage variant (523 128GB, S23+ 256GB, S23 Ultra 256GB).

This free upgrade will only be offered for the pre-order period, and is essentially a 10% discount on the price of the higher-capacity model.

 

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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 Flip4 FlexCam Photography Tips!

Here are a few tips on how to maximise the FlexCam capability of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 smartphone, to create unique and more appealing photos and videos!

 

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 : FlexCam Photography!

The Galaxy Z Flip4 is more than just a smartphone with a foldable display. Its foldable form factor allows you to make use of a more versatile photography method Samsung calls FlexCam.

FlexCam basically makes use of the Galaxy Z Flip4’s ability to “bend” the front and rear cameras at different angles for new perspectives.

This offers new creative ways for you to make use of the front 10 MP camera, and the dual 12 MP cameras at the back.

Read more : Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 Battery Life + Charging Speed!

 

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 FlexCam Photography Tips!

To help you maximise the Galaxy Z Flip4’s foldable form factor, here are a few FlexCam photography tips to get the best possible photos!

Take Photos At Any Angle!

Thanks to the Galaxy Z Flip4’s foldable design, you can now try out unique angles, and take hands-free photos without using a selfie stick or tripod.

You no longer need to ask your friends or strangers to take your photos. Just prop your phone on any convenient surface to take your photos from either the front or rear cameras!

Bonus : Try putting the Galaxy Z Flip4 on different surfaces and angles, to take photos and videos from different perspectives. Try both cameras too!

Steady Your Shot

Whether you are using the front or rear cameras, its foldable design allows you to place the Galaxy Z Flip4 on any flat surface, to give you a steady shot for both photos and videos.

Folding the Galaxy Z Flip4 also lets you get a firmer and steadier grip while try out new perspectives in your photos and videos. Its foldable design lets you record videos like a camcorder!

Bonus : The Galaxy Z Flip4 has an upgraded main camera with a 65% brighter sensor, which makes it even easier to take sharp photos even in low light conditions.

Night Mode + Night Hyperlapse

What you may not realise is that Samsung introduced three special night photography modes.

  • Night Mode lets you capture clear and bright photos even in very dim or dark conditions, by capturing multiple frames and combining them together.
  • Night Hyperlapse lets you create impressive motion videos at night, without any blur!
  • Super Night Solution minimises noise for sharp video at night, with enhanced OIS and VDIS.

With these three features, and the aforementioned brighter sensor, you will never have to worry about taking photos in the dark!

High-Resolution Selfies!

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 has a large Cover Screen which doubles as a viewfinder for its dual 12 MP cameras, allowing you to take incredibly high-resolution selfie and wefie photos in both normal and wide angles.

Thanks to enhanced Quick Shot, you can take selfies and defies quickly using the rear cameras, using the Cover Screen to make sure everyone’s in the frame.

Don’t forget to give its Portrait Mode a try, for a more appealing portrait with better blurring of the background (bokeh).

Quick Shot can also flex open until FlexCam takes over, so you can capture hands-free photos at both high and low angles.

Now that we shared those FlexCam photography tips with you, be sure to give them a try with your Galaxy Z Flip4, and level up your photos and videos!

 

To Try FlexCam, Buy Your Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 Today!

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 Z Flip 4 :

  • 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.

Here are online purchase options :

Read more : Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 : Colour Comparison!

 

Please Support My Work!

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

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
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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 Flip4 Performance Examined!

Take a look at the performance of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4, and find out how well it is a foldable computing + gaming powerhouse!

 

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 : Flagship Class Performance!

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 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 3.2 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.

The Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is a higher-binned version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC that powers the Galaxy S22 Ultra. Its Cortex-X2 prime core runs at 3.2 GHz, instead of 3 GHz, while its Adreno 730 GPU runs at 800 MHz, instead of 720 MHz.

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

Read more : Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 Battery Life + Charging Speed!

 

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 : Work Performance

We first tested the Galaxy Z Flip4 using PCMark, which simulates work applications like web browsing, playing video, writing text and editing photos.

Work 3.0 Z Flip 4 Z Flip 3 S22 Ultra S21 Ultra Note20
Ultra
Mobile Platform SD 8+ Gen 1 SD 888 SD 8
Gen 1
Exynos
2100
Exynos
990
Performance Score 14429 13317 12860 12535 10523
Web Browsing 12097 11637 10442 10185 8865
Video Editing 7387 7762 7444 6336 6232
Writing 17593 15316 15471 15247 11112
Photo Editing 31762 25357 30177 37847 30789
Data Manipulation 12523 11938 9691 8310 6825

Unsurprisingly, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is about 8% faster than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 used in the Galaxy S22 Ultra, and the Snapdragon 888 used by the Galaxy Z Flip 3.

It’s a nice boost, but you won’t actually notice the difference. For certain, 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 Z Flip4 : Gaming Performance

For gaming, we tested the Galaxy Z Flip4 using 3DMark, with these results :

3DMark Z Flip 4 S22
Ultra
Z Flip 3 Note20
Ultra
Note
10+
Device SD 8+
Gen 1
SD 8
Gen 1
SD 888 Exynos
990
Exynos
9825
Sling Shot Unlimited 10690 11094 9248 8026 3327
Wild Life Unlimited 11144 9106 3952 4504 3288
Wild Life
Extreme
Unlimited
2636 2220 1174 1387 528

When it comes to less strenuous games (Sling Shot), the higher-clocked Adreno 730 GPU had no effect, but when we switched to Wild Life, we saw a 19% to 22% boost in performance.

For certain, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 will crush any game you throw at it, but the Galaxy Z Flip4’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 gives you more performance headroom.

It also shows that you don’t really need expensive “gaming smartphones”. The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 will easily handle any game you want to play.

 

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 : Overall Performance

We then tested the Galaxy Z Flip4 using AnTuTu, yielding these results :

AnTuTu S22 Ultra Z Flip 4 Z Flip 3 S21 Ultra Note20
Ultra
Device SD 8 Gen 1 SD 8+ Gen 1 SD
888
Exynos
2100
Exynos
990
AnTuTu Score 889167 856357 696767 624411 522735
CPU 203090 205939 206228 166290 146783
GPU 402617 362669 242573 258995 215205
Memory 146002 135707 133586 120805 89376
UX 137458 152042 114380 78321 71371

The AnTuTu benchmark tells a slightly different story. The higher-clocked Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 pretty much performs as fast as the standard Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 – with a slight 3.7% performance difference.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 is about 23% faster than the Galaxy Z Flip 3, and a whopping 37% faster than  the Galaxy S21 Ultra!

But note that its temperature jumped by over 10°C! At peak performance, the Galaxy Z Flip4 can get quite toasty!

 

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 : Performance Summary

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 is a svelte smartphone when unfolded, and yet super compact when folded. You would not expect performance to be a key selling point.

In fact, I expect Samsung to tune down the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 for better battery life. But somehow, Samsung kept its performance high, while improving its battery life in the Z Flip4!

In other words – you can have your cake and eat it too. The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 is not just a fashion statement in your hands, it’s a computing and gaming powerhouse in a compact form factor.

It is no surprise why the Galaxy Z Flip4 is arguably the hottest smartphone Samsung introduced in 2022!

 

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 : 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 Z Flip 4 :

  • 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.

Here are online purchase options :

Read more : Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 : Colour Comparison!

 

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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Galaxy Flextival : Free Flip4 TPU Case + Other Gifts!

Samsung just kicked off the Galaxy Flextival at Sunway Pyramid, where you can grab a FREE Flip4 TPU case, and many free gifts!

 

Samsung Galaxy Flextival : Free Flip4 TPU Case + Many Gifts!

Samsung just kicked off the Galaxy Flextival at Sunway Pyramid, to show off the new Galaxy Z Flip4 foldable smartphone from 29 September until 2 October 2022!

So take this opportunity to check out the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 in person. Bring your friends along, and claim a free Galaxy Z Flip4 transparent TPU case that you can customise together!

You can also take a look at the Galaxy Z Flip4 Bespoke Edition at this roadshow, and find out how it lets you express your own taste by combining different design elements.

The colour palette for the Bespoke Edition is meticulously curated by Samsung and offers five glossy glass shade options and three frame options that provide 75 combinations for the discerning customer to select from.

The palette includes Yellow, White, Navy, Khaki and Red for front and back covers and Silver, Gold and Black for frame colours.

This is also your final chance to enjoy exclusive free gifts worth up to RM1,648 and juicy deals when you purchase the Galaxy Z Flip4 or Galaxy Z Fold4 at this roadshow!

  1. Stand a chance to win a Samsung Freestyle projector worth RM4,999.
  2. Get a FREE Samsung Galaxy Watch4 Bluetooth (40mm) worth RM799.
  3. Get a FREE Gift Pack worth RM250
  4. Get free Samsung Care+ one year extended warranty, with 3 times Protective Film Replacements worth up to RM599.
  5. Trade in and own a Galaxy Z series smartphone for as low as RM1,969.

Even if you are not ready to jump onto the bandwagon, or have already purchased the Galaxy Z series smartphone, you can still get some awesome freebies at this roadshow :

  1. Get a mystery gift when you collect three stickers from any experiential zone!
  2. Galaxy Z Flip4 users : claim and customise a free Galaxy Z Flip4 transparent TPU case!
  3. Galaxy Z Flip3 / Fold3 users : get a free Protective Film replacement done on the spot!

Even though it is in Samsung’s interest to sell you the new Galaxy Z Flip4, I’m personally very happy to see them give older Flip3 and Fold3 users a free protective film replacement!

Read more : Galaxy Z Flip4 vs. Z Flip3 : How Different Are They?

 

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 : 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 Z Flip 4 :

  • 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.

Here are online purchase options :

Read more : Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 : Colour Comparison!

 

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 A Series Gets New Fun Mode!

Samsung just introduced a new Fun Mode for Galaxy A series smartphones!

Take a look at the new Fun Mode, and give it a try!

 

Samsung Galaxy A Series Gets New Fun Mode!

Samsung is introducing a new Fun Mode in the proprietary camera app of their Galaxy A series smartphones, which adds Snapchat’s AR Lenses!

Samsung Galaxy A series smartphone users will be able to use Fun Mode to add playful, quirky lenses to their photos, turning them into fun and unique content to share with friends, or upload to social media!

Fun Mode is powered by Snap’s Camera Kit, allowing businesses and developers to bring the power of Snap’s augmented reality into their own applications.

Galaxy users are constantly seeking new ways to express their creativity. Samsung is constantly innovating to empower users to do more of what they love.

That is why we continue to grow our partnership with Snap, one of the biggest and most creative augmented reality platforms, so we can explore further improvements and bring one of the best camera experiences to more users.

– Woncheol Chai, EVP and Head of Experience Planning Team at Mobile eXperience Business, Samsung Electronics

Samsung and Snap have been working to offer users around the world more engaging and localized experiences. In 2021, they launched region-specific AR Lenses in India, and since then have expanded to other countries including Germany, Indonesia, Brazil, the Philippines, and Mexico.

Lenses are the way over 250 million Snapchatters engage with augmented reality every day, and we’re thrilled that these experiences delight and resonate with Samsung Galaxy’s community.

Integrating the Camera Kit into Samsung Galaxy’s proprietary camera is an opportunity to collaborate on compelling, local AR experiences and bring them to Galaxy users around the world.

– Ben Schwerin, SVP of Content and Partnerships at Snap.

To make use of Fun Mode, just update the Camera app in your Samsung Galaxy A series smartphone!

 

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 Z Flip4 : Battery Life + Charging Speed!

Take a look at the battery recharging speed of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4, and find out how its two refresh rate options affect its battery life!

 

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 : Refresh Rate Affects Battery Life!

The new Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 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

The Adaptive mode dynamically refreshes its main, foldable display between 1 Hz and 120 Hz.

By default, the Galaxy Z Flip4 uses the Adaptive mode, for smoother graphics, but you can choose to switch to the Standard mode for longer battery.

In the next section, we will look at how the two refresh rate options affect the Galaxy Z Flip4’s battery life.

Read more : Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4: Unboxing + First Impressions!

 

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 : Battery Life Comparison!

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 comes with a larger 3,700 mAh battery, which is 400 mAh (12%) larger than last year’s Galaxy Z Flip3.

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 the Standard and Adaptive refresh rates :

Will you look at that! The battery life for both options are now much closer than with the Z Flip3!

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 has a battery life of just over 9 hours with Adaptive refresh rate enabled, and 10.25 hours with the Standard refresh rate!

Let’s compare its battery life at 60 Hz and 120 Hz, against the S22 Ultra, S21 Ultra and Z Flip 3 smartphones.

Standard Refresh Rate (60 Hz)

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 naturally has the best battery life with the refresh rate set to 60 Hz.

But what’s really important to note here is that it is as power-efficient as the Galaxy S22 Ultra, about 10% more efficient than the Z Flip3, and 18% more efficient than the S21 Ultra!

Work 3.0 S22 Ultra Z Flip4 Z Flip 3 S21 Ultra
Battery Capacity 5,000 mAh 3,700 mAh 3,300 mAh 5,000 mAh
Battery Life 14 hrs 15 mins 10 hrs
14 mins
8 hrs 11 mins 11 hrs 22 mins
Utilisation
per min.
4.68 mAh 4.82 mAh 5.38 mAh 5.87 mAh

Adaptive Refresh Rate (120 Hz)

While the Galaxy Z Flip4 looks like the Z Flip 3, its energy efficiency was greatly improved to the point that the Adaptive refresh rate is really usable for most people!

Turning on adaptive refresh increase the Z Flip4’s power consumption by just 11%, giving you a very usable battery life of 9 hours 12 minutes!

That makes the Galaxy Z Flip4 about 14.5% more efficient than the S22 Ultra, 16% more efficient than the S21 Ultra, and 18% more efficient than the Z Flip3.

Work 3.0 Z Flip4 S22 Ultra S21 Ultra
Z Flip 3
Battery Capacity 3,700 mAh 5,000 mAh 5,000 mAh 3,300 mAh
Battery Life 9 hrs
12 mins
10 hrs
38 mins
10 hrs
26 mins
6 hrs
44 mins
Utilisation
per min.
5.36 mAh 6.27 mAh 6.39 mAh 6.53 mAh

 

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 : Battery Recharging Speed!

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 supports up to 20 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 – some