Samsung's Galaxy S23 Ultra crown jewel gets a full spec sheet ahead of launch
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This is it, ladies and gentlemen. The final piece of Samsung's Galaxy S23 series puzzle has just (unofficially) fallen into place ahead of the big February 1 announcement event.
Hot on the heels of the "vanilla" S23 and S23+ specifications, the S23 Ultra is also getting a complete list of features today... from a different but equally reliable source.
Although the internal presentation slides leaked by Dohyun Kim on Twitter are explicitly marked with a "provisional" label, the odds of every single detail and number listed below materializing in less than two weeks are... at the very least solid.
We could even go so far as to call pretty much everything in there a virtual guarantee at this point, but... we're not going to do that because we like to be prudent.
Here are all of the expected Galaxy S23 Ultra specs
- 163.4 x 78.1 x 8.9mm dimensions;
- 233 grams weight;
- 6.8-inch Infinity-O Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with 3088 x 1440 pixel resolution and 1-120Hz refresh rate capabilities; HDR10+ support; Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protection;
- 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor;
- 5,000mAh battery with 45W wired and 10W wireless charging support;
- 8/12GB RAM options (LPDDR5 technology);
- 256GB/512GB/1TB internal storage options (no microSD card slot);
- IP68 water and dust resistance;
- Two Dolby Atmos speakers;
- Under-display fingerprint scanner;
- Facial recognition, accelerometer, barometer, gyroscope, light sensor, proximity sensor;
- Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax, UWB, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC, USB Type-C;
- GPS, Glonass, Beidou, Galileo;
- Four rear-facing cameras, LED flash, scene optimiser, auto framing, quick launch, HDR10+;
- 200MP primary camera with f/1.7 aperture, 23mm, OIS, 85-degree field of view;
- 12MP ultra-wide angle camera with f/2.2 aperture, 13mm, 120-degree field of view;
- 10MP telephoto lens with f/2.4 aperture, 69mm, OIS, 36-degree field of view, 3x optical zoom;
- 10MP periscope telephoto sensor with f/4.9 aperture, 230mm, OIS, 11-degree field of view, 10x optical zoom, 100x Space Zoom;
- Camera modes and interfaces: Single Take, Photo, Video, Night, Pro, AR Doodle, Panorama, Food, Portrait, Portrait Video, Pro Video, Super Slow-mo, Slow motion, Hyperlapse, Director's View, AI Restoration;
- 12MP single front-facing camera with f/2.2 aperture, 25mm, 80-degree field of view, HDR10+;
- 8K video recording at 30fps, 4k video at 60fps (rear and front cameras), FHD at 60fps;
- Android 13 with One UI 5.1;
- Black, green, cream, and lavender color options.
Only one big thing left to be revealed
Yes, pricing. Specifically, US pricing, as one reputable publication does seem to have a pretty good idea of how much the S23, S23 Plus, and S23 Ultra could cost in another (major) market, and it's... not very encouraging.
Compared to last year's Galaxy S22 family, Samsung's 2023 ultra-high-enders are likely to prove at least slightly more expensive, and in the absence of a radical redesign or massive internal upgrades, this could well set up the S23 series for major box-office failure right off the bat.
Unlike its little brothers, of course, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is expected, nay, guaranteed to offer one big improvement over its predecessor aside from the customary yearly processing power bump. We're talking about that monster 200MP shooter Samsung has already made official, and although a larger number of megapixels doesn't automatically make for sharper photographs, this bad boy is reportedly something special.
But will it be "special" enough to justify an expense of, say, $1,300 and up stateside with pretty much the same second, third, and fourth rear-facing cameras in tow as last year? That's clearly a question for each and every one of you to answer when Samsung's newest heavyweight contender for the title of best phone money can buy will be commercially released (on or around February 8).
Samsung is likely to try to sweeten the deal at launch, throwing in some cool pre-order freebies in addition to the discounts you can get by reserving your preferred member of the Galaxy S23 family... with no obligation to buy.
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