Samsung’s surgically implanted upgrades and improvements have made the Galaxy S23 Plus the poster child Android phone for early 2023. It has a size and shape that could be the sweet spot for most people, as well as respectable performance, great battery life, and significant camera improvements. The Galaxy S23 Plus is a great follow-up to last year’s middle-of-the-road flagship, the Galaxy S22 Plus. It has the same starting price of $999 and comes with 256GB of storage, which is twice as much as last year.
Aside from that, the standard pair of S23s have flat, 1080p, 120Hz AMOLED screens on the front, a matte-glass back panel, and the same shiny metal rails as the 2022 model. The screen on the regular Galaxy S23 is 6.1 inches, while the screen on the S23+ is 6.6 inches. The S22 and S22+ come in the same sizes as these. But the S23 Ultra takes the cake because it looks almost exactly like the S22 Ultra that it replaced.
It doesn’t feel as big as it looks, but you can’t really use it with one hand like you can with the S23. As always, getting a bigger phone means getting a bigger screen. The Ultra has a 6.8-inch AMOLED screen with a higher resolution of 1440p. The screen has the same 120Hz refresh rate as the smaller ones. The specs are the same as before, but the screen on the new model curves a bit more around the edges.
There are three different colors for all three models: Phantom Black, Cream, Lavender, and Green. Even though we’ve seen all the finishes in person, it’s still hard to pick a favourite because they all look great on the phones. The Phantom Black is sleek, the Cream is bright and neutral, and the Lavender is a great pastel purple color. But if we had to choose, we’d go with the Green. Its deep olive matte finish kept drawing our attention during the event.
Not much has changed here. The Galaxy S23 Plus still supports Fast Wireless Charging 2.0 and fast charging with a 45W cable. That’s not too bad, but it’s still a long way from the fastest Android phones that can charge. The Galaxy S22 Plus takes about an hour to fully charge with Samsung’s 45W charging brick and a bit longer with the more common 25W charger, so we expect the S23 Plus to be about the same, though we wouldn’t mind being pleasantly surprised.