The Samsung Galaxy S23+ poses as the bigger version of the standard Galaxy S23 released by the Korean giant earlier this year. The handset is almost 4 months now, and it's still one of the best-performing flagship smartphones of 2023. The Galaxy S23+ is still priced at Php 68,990; and by now, there would be several promotions available for potential buyers to take advantage of.
Samsung Galaxy S23+ Long-term Review
Before you make the decision to buy this smartphone, let's take a deeper look at this device and see if it's still worth buying despite several options, not to mention that its siblings - the Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23 Ultra - are also very much available in the market. Let's also find out whether the phone maintains its very satisfactory performance even after several months of use.
Review Summary:
Pros
- Excellent Overall Performance
- Large, Stunning OLED Display
- Refreshing and Simplified Design
- Premium Build and Construction
- Clean, feature-packed software
- Solid battery life
Cons
- Charging should be faster for its price
- System eats a big chunk of storage
- It could have included 108MP sensor like Ultra model
Let's now dive into the Galaxy S23+ long-term review.
Design
In my time using the Samsung Galaxy S23+, the design is one of the major aspects I love about the smartphone. I commend the fact that Samsung has released a generous selection of color variants for this handset, catering to various personal taste of users. My review unit dons the Lavender colorway which is very sophisticated and elegant. I also like the Lime version, and there's also the black and cream color options. The Lavender colorway could be subtle in certain angles but it's still a visual-grabbing phone; I never got bored with it even after using this handset for months now.
This smartphone is nothing short of premium when it comes to build and aesthetics. It sports a slim body with only 7.6mm in thickness; it's also not that heavy at 196 grams. The backing is simple, clean, and effective. The matte satin finish in a glass material makes this handset a joy to look at, especially when seen in the wild. One great decision Samsung has made this year is the omission of the protruding camera module that frames the rear cameras.
The triple camera sensors are directly integrated in the panel to give an overall minimalist cues. The cameras are housed in equally-sized enclosures with alluring lavender rings. Right across the main camera is the LED flash, which could be very handy in low-light situations. Likewise, you can find the glossy Samsung branding at the bottom part of the panel along with some certifications.
The handset's metal frame comes with a curved design where you can find the ports and buttons, specifically, the volume rocker and power button (right); secondary mic (top); SIM tray, USB-C port, primary microphone, and speaker grille (bottom). You can also find antenna bands on all sides of this frame to help establish solid internet connectivity.
On the front panel, the phone features slim bezels appropriate for a flagship smartphone. The panel sports a hole-punch design which is not conspicuous especially when using a dark wallpaper. In addition, I totally digged these stock wallpapers which complement the color of this unit.
Overall, the Galaxy S23+ is a well-built phone with effective use of premium materials and solid construction. Even for a big phone, it's easy to use and is ergonomically pleasing. In the months that I've been using this smartphone without a case, it resists scratches and dents very well. It's definitely a tougher phone than it looks.
Display
The phone boasts a 6.6-inch FHD+ screen at 1080 x 2340 pixels and 393 ppi density. The panel features a Dynamic AMOLED 2X display. This means that the phone has several features up its sleeve compared to other AMOLED panels in the market. Users can expect a very speedy performance with up to 120Hz refresh rate.
Scrolling the interface gives a smooth perception as well as faster response when gaming, making competitive gameplay a very enjoyable one. The bezels are very slim and the panel is protected with a tougher Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2, which is an upgrade from last year.
Watching videos and movies is definitely a great experience. The Galaxy S23+ offers cinema-grade colour and contrast with support for HDR10+. The panel is color accurate and vibrant with wider viewing angles; sharpness is also on point. In terms of brightness, it reaches a peak of 1750 nits which makes it very visible for outdoor use. Moreover, the under-display ultrasonic fingerprint sensor is quite zippy in authenticating fingerprints.
The display is one of this handset's strongest suits, especially that it comes from the world's largest display company. This OLED panel ages well; there's no gruesome experience of display burn-ins, dead pixels, and image retention issues.
Internals and Performance
The Samsung Galaxy S23+ is quite a unique flagship phone with its use of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset that's tailor-made for Galaxy devices, which offers CPU speeds of up to 3.36GHz (the regular Snapdragon 8 Gen only tops at 3.2 GHz). This cutting-edge processor not only guarantees unparalleled performance but also integrates swifter and more energy-efficient 8GB LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage when compared to its forerunner, the S22+.
In my experience using the Galaxy S23+, it definitely chews everything thrown at it with ease. I had no qualms in terms of speed and performance, whether I'm navigating through this phone's interface, running my Honkai Star Rail game app, taking dozens of snaps in different camera modes, or just streaming my favorite shows in Netflix. The Galaxy S23+ is unapologetically responsive in its own right. Even after months of using this phone, the overall performance is still zippy.
The Galaxy S23+ also manages apps well. It's very fast to load apps with almost zero app crashes. The phone can handle multiple apps at the same time without slowing down. It also handles my favorite gaming apps very well - Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Fortnite, and Genshin Impact.
The phone is also great in content consumption. Given the fact that it has a wide and high-quality panel, the S23+ is a great companion in binge-watching your favorite shows or videos in YouTube. The fact that it's also equipped with high quality stereo speakers makes it an entertainment powerhouse.
The phone sports 5G connectivity thanks to the chipset's X70 5G modem. It also features physical SIM slots giving users ease of swapping cards if they need to.
We also ran some benchmarks and these are the numbers:
Geekbench 6 CPU: 1921 (Single-Core), 5289 (Multi-Core)
Geekbench 6 GPU
Vulkan Score: 3377
Geekbench 6 GPU OpenCL Score: 8722
PCMark Work 3.0
Performance: 16254
Camera
Except for the raised camera module present in the previous offering, the camera hardware configuration remains unaltered. The only difference crucial to the performance of capturing images lies in the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor.
The Galaxy S23+ has three lenses. The main rear camera boasts a 50-megapixel lens with an aperture of f/1.8, accompanied by optical image stabilization (OIS) and an expansive 85-degree field of view (FoV). Additionally, there is a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera with an aperture of f/2.2, which provides a broad 120-degree FoV. Lastly, a 10-megapixel telephoto lens with an aperture of f/2.4 is incorporated, affording a 3x optical zoom, OIS, and a narrower 36-degree FoV.
These three cameras operate harmoniously for users to have a versatile photography experience, enabling the capture of high-quality images from diverse perspectives and facilitating zoom capabilities. The camera app is also beefed up (more on this later).
Although, the Galaxy S23 and S23+ missed out on having the extraordinary camera arrangement of the Galaxy S23 Ultra, complete with its remarkable 108-megapixel sensor and the awe-inspiring 100x Space Zoom capability, I wouldn't underestimate the power of this camera, which boasts an enhanced image sensor and advanced image processing capabilities.
Images are still detailed and color accurate with ample sharpness. The dynamic range is also on point giving more details even in challenging scenarios. In low-light, the photos tend to go with a warmer tone. This is also where HDR kicks in showcasing how the phone efficiently handles low-light scenarios.
The 30x maximum digital zoom is also usable in most cases. Needless to say, images lose significant amount of details when using this feature. I'd say that the safe zoom level is at 10x where the camera still gives ample details, vibrant colors, and less noise. Aside from the usual Photo mode, the camera app comes with a handful of useful camera modes. This includes Portrait, Expert RAW, Pro, Pro Video, Super Slow-Mo, Hyperlapse, and Portrait Video to name a few; although you have to dig into the "More" section to find these gems. Check out these sample photos:
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| Sample Photo: 1x Zoom |
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| Sample Photo: Wide Angle 0.6x Zoom |
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| Sample Photo: Wide Angle 3x Zoom |
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| Sample Photo: Wide Angle 1x Zoom |
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| Sample Photo: Wide Angle 0.6x Zoom |
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| Sample Photo: Wide Angle 3x Zoom |
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| Sample Photo: Low-light |
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| Sample Photo: Low-light |
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| Sample Photo: Low-light |
Samsung also managed to improve when it comes to the front-facing camera. The new 12MP camera brings in more pixels and muscles to work with.
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| Sample Photo: Selfies |
I love taking selfies with this camera as it offers more filters and tweaks in a true Samsung fashion. Videos are also great using the front camera. It could record up to 4K resolution at 60 fps.
Software
The Samsung Galaxy S23+ boots with One UI 5.1 on top of Android 13. With this, Samsung is promising four OS updates and five years of security updates. There's a lot of stuff you can customize with the new One UI 5.1; new features in the gallery and camera app refinements will make pro photographers excited - in particular, the Expert RAW found in the "More" section of the native camera app. On top of that, widgets are now updated, and users can now save screenshots on a different location other than the camera gallery.
Plus, the new version offers better setup process and relevant DeX support. Other note-worthy features are the Modes and Routines features. If you're familiar with Bixby Modes before, you'll probably know what this is about. One UI can now apply sets of settings when conditions are met, which is specifically based on the user's current mode of action or interaction with the phone.
Other than that, we still have the same familiar rounded icons and minimalist interface. There's more of Android 13-ish elements now present on the One UI, like the notifications permission alerts, enhanced theme customization, and more.
Battery
There's 4700 mAh battery that powers the Samsung Galaxy S23+, compared to the standard Galaxy S23 and this phone's predecessor (Galaxy S22+); it has a bigger capacity. With fair to moderate use, the battery can easily last one to two days. However, if you throw in a decent amount of heavy-graphics gaming and other battery draining activities, it could only manage to stay at least a full day.
I could also say that the new chipset, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, handles heavy graphics games very well without having to worry about frequent heating issues. The phone also supports 45W wired fast charging and 15W wireless charging. I wish the phone had a high wattage rating; it could have 65W wired charging for its price. Meanwhile using the USB-C cable, I managed to charge the phone from 0 to 65% in half an hour.
VERDICT: SHOULD YOU BUY THE SAMSUNG GALAXY S23+?
The Samsung Galaxy S23+ is definitely worth-considering especially if you're looking for a daily driver that could last multiple years of usage. It has all the bells and whistles you need for a flagship handset, including the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset that's custom-made for Galaxy devices, stunning Dynamic AMOLED 2X display, and a powerful set of cameras. I have to say, it is still a very competitive handset after almost 4 months it was released in the market.
However, if you have last year's Galaxy S22+, I don't think that this is a worthy upgrade unless you're very keen on updating your phone every year. Instead, if you have the financial means to invest, I suggest you go with the S23 Ultra, which offers significant leap in camera performance.
Key Specifications:
- 6.6-inch FHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X display
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (4 nm)
- 3.36GHz Octa-core processor
- Adreno 740 GPU
- 8GB RAM + 256GB ROM, 8/512GB, UFS 4.0
- 50MP Triple rear cameras, up to 8K@24/30fps videos
- 12MP front camera, up to 4K@30/60fps videos
- 5G, 4G LTE
- Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth v5.3, GPS, NFC, USB Type-C 3.2
- Fingerprint (under display, ultrasonic)
- One UI 5.1, based on Android 13
- 157.8 x 76.2 x 7.6 mm, 196 grams
- 4700 mAh battery w/ 45W wired & 15W wireless charging
- Phantom Black, Cream, Green, Lavender, Graphite, Lime
Price and availability in the Philippines
The Samsung Galaxy S23+ starts at Php 68,990 in the company's online platform. You can get a bunch of deals and discounts in their on going sale. However, if you choose to buy it offline, you can also catch great deals since we're nearing Samsung's foldable release cycle.
