Hands On with the Samsung Galaxy S23
Purchase Price: $679.99
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The Samsung Galaxy S23 is the latest flagship phone from Samsung, and it's a great choice for anyone looking for the best Android experience in a relatively small body. Compact phones are a dying breed and it’s difficult to find one with all the premium flagship things we’ve come to expect from the top phones on the market. With a sleek design, a powerful processor, and a great camera system, the S23 might just be that compact flagship phone I’ve been searching for.
Just The Phone
When I got the package for the S23, I was actually caught off guard with just how thin and small the packaging was. I’m accustomed to just receiving a phone and a USB-C cable nowadays, but Samsung has taken it to the next level here. The box is ridiculously thin. In fact, I accidentally got the bottom half stuck into the top half when putting things back in because I thought the bottom cover was the plastic phone holder mold. We’re quickly approaching a world where a phone will be packaged in a cardboard within the size that fits the manuals we usually get in the box.
That makes it even more amazing when you consider the sheer power in that small package. The Samsung Galaxy S23 has a powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor with 8 GB of ram and 128 GB of storage. That and the fact that it’s likely one of the few phones you can actually hold in one hand, makes this a desirable phone to me. Physically, the S23 will feel very familiar to long-time Galaxy users. Running on Android 13 with Samsung’s OneUI 5.1 skinned over it, the S23 has a zippy feel to it.
Rest of the Specs
With a reputable camera system that is headlined by a 50 MP, f/1.8 wide sensor, a 10 MP, f/2.4 telephoto lens, and a 12 MP, f/2.2 ultrawide sensor, the S23 should satiate most smartphone snappers out there.
There’s an AMOLED display that has a pixel density of 425 ppi. That equates to a 1080 x 2340 p resolution. It’s nowhere near the sharpest panel, but it does have some flagship bells and whistles like a 120 Hz refresh rate, and a really impressive 1750 nits of peak brightness. A front-facing camera sits smack dab in the center front as the 12 MP, f/2.2 selfie camera retains its spot on the panel. The panel also houses an under display ultrasonic fingerprint scanner. This is a Samsung quality viewing experience regardless of the spec sheet numbers.
I’m also pretty excited about the 3,900 mAh battery on the S23. Small phones with a good sized battery can go a long way literally and figuratively. What makes it even nicer is that Samsung’s flagship phones all have 15W wireless charging capabilities. That’s a major win for small phone users.
A Sleeper Compact phone?
There really isn’t a lot of compact phone choices on the market anymore. The fact that the S23 has a premium user experience with not only the highest end specs, but also a reputable appearance, makes the device even more distinct in the field. Just having wireless charging in its arsenal, elevates the S23 over something like the Asus Zenfone 9, which in its own right was a terrific small phone. Time will tell if the S23 is a good overall flagship, but to me, it is already in a league of its own in the Android compact world.
Alex
Caught in between the conundrum of his fascination with retro and the future, Alex has a very unique taste in technology. Never one to follow trends like his millennial peers yet constantly desiring to get ahead of the curve, he sees technology like he does his other love: comic books. Always looking for the best value or a hidden gem, his collector mindset reflects on some of his favorite gadgets: the Moto X (2015), HTC U11 and the Google Pixelbook. If there’s a good tech deal out there, Alex is on the hunt!