Samsung S23

[ScottAD]

I'll have these on my desk tomorrow of Thursday for testing. I'll have an opinion then but I did read that Arstechnica article.

The file size we pull down for testing is only 8GB. Will report back once I have the devices in hand.

 

[sze5003]

Definitely would be interested in how the battery life compares to the S22 Ultra but I suppose we will need more data on this after release.

 

[lsd]

Preordered 2x s23 ultras from Google Fi. Price and plans were just too good to pass up and the battery life looks to be amazing.

 

[sze5003]

I ordered an S23 Ultra. Samsung website says it should be expected by Feb 17 but the Samsung shop app shows backordered. People on XDA have been noticing similar results but they have been receiving shipping confirmation emails too.

It's interesting to note that the 23 series let's you select a light performance profile that down clocks the soc a little but it still beats all the other chips in performance while drawing less power. I'm seeing reports on the Samsung reddit of a few people that have been running that profile are getting more battery life out of it too, at least 10% more compared to running the normal soc profile.

 

[dainthomas]

I ordered an S23 Ultra. Samsung website says it should be expected by Feb 17 but the Samsung shop app shows backordered. People on XDA have been noticing similar results but they have been receiving shipping confirmation emails too.

It's interesting to note that the 23 series let's you select a light performance profile that down clocks the soc a little but it still beats all the other chips in performance while drawing less power. I'm seeing reports on the Samsung reddit of a few people that have been running that profile are getting more battery life out of it too, at least 10% more compared to running the normal soc profile.

Ordered mine from t-mobile and it's supposed to be delivered today.

Good tip with the light performance profile. I'll probably do that, phones are so overpowered for nearly everything you do with them anyway.

 

[sze5003]

I got a shipping label email from FedEx. I should have it Tuesday but I don't know if it is the whole order or just the duo charger and 2 cases that it came with as part of the promotion. The website obviously is still wrong as it hasn't updated any tracking info.

 

[thilanliyan]

Got my green 512GB S23 Ultra today. It's definitely huge compared to my Pixel 6 lol.

Now I just gotta worry about a screen protector for the curved screen...I completely forgot how much I hate curved screens

First glass one I tried on this S23U didn't sit properly at the edges and the case kept lifting it up so touch didn't work properly. I think I'm just going to go with a flexible protector because even those UV epoxy screen protectors eventually start lifting at the edges I've found.

 

[sze5003]

Yep. Here, lots of bloat. Not interested in a phone like that anymore

Bloatware pushes the Galaxy S23 Android OS to an incredible 60GB [Updated]

Samsung’s Android build is 4x bigger than Google’s.

arstechnica.com

I don't think that means there is 60gb of bloat. The way they show it is incorrect. System storage takes up about 38gb in the s23 ultra and that includes reserving space for future updates and one UI. It's a combination of system + app storage. For some reason the my files app in Samsung shows the Gb in binary rather than traditional GB people are used to seeing.

 

[CP5670]

I placed an order for mine for $310 total. I got an old S5 for $30 off ebay to do the trade in, and will keep the S10+ around for international travel. I figured if I cannot de-bloat it to my liking or PDANet+ doesn't work, I can return it, but I'm familiar with Samsung's bloat on the S10+ and how to disable it.

 

[ScottAD]

Got my green 512GB S23 Ultra today. It's definitely huge compared to my Pixel 6 lol.

Now I just gotta worry about a screen protector for the curved screen...I completely forgot how much I hate curved screens

First glass one I tried on this S23U didn't sit properly at the edges and the case kept lifting it up so touch didn't work properly. I think I'm just going to go with a flexible protector because even those UV epoxy screen protectors eventually start lifting at the edges I've found.

If you are going to get a screen protector for that phone I would definitely suggest Whitestone. They really are top of the line and you do pay a little bit more but for that phone at that price...

 

[thilanliyan]

If you are going to get a screen protector for that phone I would definitely suggest Whitestone. They really are top of the line and you do pay a little bit more but for that phone at that price...

I've tried something similar to whitestone on my Note 9 but from what I've read, those type always end up peeling away from the edges eventually (which mine did also).

 

[Tup3x]

I upgraded S22 to S23 (I had to pay about 1/3). It's incredible how bad the Exynos was. Especially the GPU was absolute trash in comparison. The difference is absolutely humongous. Performance advantage is huge and efficiency is next level.

Other than performance and much better battery life the changes are so small that it doesn't make sense to upgrade. Camera is as bad as ever (they are the same) with unnatural colours & contrast. Shadows are too dark and images are often noisy. Also annoying oversharpening is reducing the image quality. It does look like they fixed aliasing (which may have been Exynos specific issue) in some situations.

 

[CP5670]

Try out a different camera app, that can make a big difference with the colors and postprocessing. The camera is the main reason I want the S23U. The S10+ camera is pretty dated now.

 

[thilanliyan]

I ended up putting a TPU screen protector on my S23U (Uniqueme brand on Amazon) and I gotta say I'm fairly satisfied with it. It's sticky to the touch initially but it smooths out eventually. Still not as good as glass but better than I was expecting.

 

[ScottAD]

Have all three models in hand now. The Ultra has the most significant change imho. The flatter sides made it so much easier to hold. It's a good middle-ground between the S22 Ultra and the harsh edges of an iPhone. Transferring data wirelessly went very smoothly, 10GB of data took just a few minutes.

Phone got a little warm during this set up and syncing but that's normal so not really a concern there. My Pixel 7 Pro definitely gets hotter.

System does take up 39.95GB of space. No wonder Samsung 'doubled' your storage for free.

 

[dainthomas]

Been using the Ultra all weekend. Such an upgrade from the Note 10! Went to a game and took some pictures when the lights were off and they turned out amazing. Also, the 4G connection in the arena was always terrible, but I got a full 5G connection with no issues.

The biggest thing for me is connection speed. I have gigabit internet at my house, and the 5G UC connection is still ~50% faster than my wifi.

And as others have said, the battery life is incredible. Probably a result of the more efficient processor and the nice power saving options in Android.

 

[sze5003]

I got the 23 Ultra last night. Set it up and by the time I was done it had 12% left.

I set up the light mode performance profile under battery settings and I don't notice any difference in speed compared to standard profile.

Off the charger at 645am and it took a while to drop from 100% whereas the 22 Ultra would drop to 97 within minutes off the charger. Around 1130am it was still at 91% and I had about a little over an hour of screen time.

Looks like the battery life once it learns the patterns and optimizes will be better. I use the wqhd screen resolution, Bluetooth, location on, always on display. Hopefully it stays decent like this.

Sent from my SM-S918U1 using Tapatalk

 

[96Firebird]

I placed my order tonight, got the green S23 Ultra since black sold out hours earlier. Went with the Verizon offer, $800 trade-in for a Galaxy S7 I just bought off Swappa for $50. I wanted to keep my Galaxy S10 for backup/3.5mm jack duty, since the head unit in my Trans Am doesn't have BT. Also used my $120 Samsung credits for the S-view wallet case and wireless charger duo with adapter so I can charge my phone and watch at the same time. Total came to $379.99 after education discount, which will be $10.56/month for 36 months. I know people complain about this locking them into Verizon for a while, but I've been with Verizon for 10+ years and don't plan on switching. Might consider getting the free Watch 5 as well, not sure if I want/need a $10/month service plan for that through Verizon though.

Excited to try out a new phone, but going to miss my S10. It has served me well since its release, and I only went with the S23 Ultra because it has similar PPI to my S10. I feel like the S23 or S23+ would have been a downgrade in that respect.

 

[Oyeve]

I placed my order tonight, got the green S23 Ultra since black sold out hours earlier. Went with the Verizon offer, $800 trade-in for a Galaxy S7 I just bought off Swappa for $50. I wanted to keep my Galaxy S10 for backup/3.5mm jack duty, since the head unit in my Trans Am doesn't have BT. Also used my $120 Samsung credits for the S-view wallet case and wireless charger duo with adapter so I can charge my phone and watch at the same time. Total came to $379.99 after education discount, which will be $10.56/month for 36 months. I know people complain about this locking them into Verizon for a while, but I've been with Verizon for 10+ years and don't plan on switching. Might consider getting the free Watch 5 as well, not sure if I want/need a $10/month service plan for that through Verizon though.

Excited to try out a new phone, but going to miss my S10. It has served me well since its release, and I only went with the S23 Ultra because it has similar PPI to my S10. I feel like the S23 or S23+ would have been a downgrade in that respect.

I still have my S10+. I'm never getting rid of it. Aside from the msd, headphone jack and great camera, it's the last phone that works with my oculus vr headset. I didn't to os 12 on it as that would kill the vr. I love my s10+.

 

[CP5670]

I got the S23U and did the trade in for the S5. Very nice overall, feels noticeably snappier than the S10+ even for basic tasks, and the camera is excellent. I used adb to remove some bloat but it's not as bad as I thought. Most of the bloat comes from Samsung itself and the AT&T stuff is easily removed. PDANet and USB tethering work out of the box.

[edit] Spoke too soon, there is a nasty app "Mobile services manager" that auto installs games and crap on your phone (com.dti.att). I think Verizon and Tmo have it too. I adb'd it off the phone right away, along with anything from facebook.

 

[Brainonska511]

Samsung does include a lot of bloat but most of it can be disabled with adb. Apparently stuff like FB, Twitter, etc. has extra services to reinstall itself if you delete it, but you can disable the services with adb. AT&T reportedly has plenty of their own bloatware on top of that. As long as I can remove it permanently, I don't mind.

Despite this, I've found Samsung phones to be the most hassle-free Android models. I had several other brands in the past and they all had little issues with bluetooth dropouts, odd camera behavior and other small issues. Some Galaxy Watch features only work with Samsung phones as well.

The hardware that Samsung puts out may be good, but I loathe their practice of filling their phones with bloatware. I don't care that it could potentially be removed with some 3rd party tools: I don't want to implicitly support Samsung's garbage business practice.

 

[thilanliyan]

The hardware that Samsung puts out may be good, but I loathe their practice of filling their phones with bloatware. I don't care that it could potentially be removed with some 3rd party tools: I don't want to implicitly support Samsung's garbage business practice.

Not sure how it is in the US but I bought my S23U in Canada directly through Samsung and I don't even have the facebook app installed in mine (or I was able to uninstall it...can't remember anymore). Doesn't seem to have the same amount of bloat mentioned in this thread.

 

[96Firebird]

I have yet to set up my S23U, but from the video I saw online most of the pre-loaded apps can be uninstalled (or at least disabled when it comes to the Verizon bloatware).

 

[CP5670]

Not sure how it is in the US but I bought my S23U in Canada directly through Samsung and I don't even have the facebook app installed in mine (or I was able to uninstall it...can't remember anymore). Doesn't seem to have the same amount of bloat mentioned in this thread.

It may still leave its services there. I could uninstall it easily but the background services need adb to remove.

The worst one is that mobile services manager. It's literally malware, and used to be called something else apparently. I see complaints about it with all three American carriers.

 

[sze5003]

Just a notice if you traded in your s22 devices.

I sent in my S22U last week and today I got an email saying I would be charged $155 because the device had a cracked screen or cracked body. I took pictures before I packaged the phone and I called Samsung and asked them to provide me a picture of the phone with the cracked screen or body.

Few minutes later they came back and said to disregard and I got an email saying there will be no charge back, they took care of it and that they were getting a lot of calls from customers about this. So I dunno who's checking the trade in devices but they must not be wanting to do the paperwork or they may have gotten them mixed up.

Several others on Reddit report the same thing.