Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra 5G (Green, 12GB, 256GB Storage)

After using Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra for quite a bit as a daily driver and coming back to Samsung after a long time after using other smaller form factor phones like ONEPLUS 9, here’s what I think about this phone.

PROS:

– This phone has the best camera ever installed into a smartphone, hands-down! No other phone made in human history can ever come close to 1% of what Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra’s cameras can do.

– Performance is crazy! Not only it has Snapdragon 8Gen-2, but that too custom-made for Samsung Galaxy phones. You can play any games, run any apps and do whatever you’d want from a phone that is used at work, gaming, taking photos/videos and for personal use at the same time.

– Rectangular form factor of this phone makes it so much comfortable and easy to hold. And it looks very premium too, which obviously is expected from a phone that costs this much.

– OneUI has so many great features that they cannot be listed in one place. It brings a whole new meaning to “smart” in smartphones. Previously only Apple was making real smartphones that were actually smart and now with OneUI 5.1, Samsung has joined the league and probably done a better job than Apple at this point.

– Good Lock modules + OneUI 5.1 has such a tremendous level of customization in terms of many aspects of the usability. It doesn’t have all of it, to which I’ll come in “CONS” section.

– Charging time is good, reverse charging and wireless charging are such a sweet add-on that helps and makes the experience really good.

– S-Pen does the wonders! Very useful specially for those who use their phone for professional work like eSigning and other precision work.

– Build quality and software are really premium, you’ll know you’ve sold a kidney when you hold this phone in your hands and turn up the max resolution on display.

– S23 Ultra is slightly more flat on sides as compared to S22 Ultra which makes it a more usable phone.

CONS:

– Now, since this phone has a curved display which adds no usability but makes it little difficult to use for people with smaller hands or to reach to corners with one hand, it becomes little hard to get used to this kind of display even if you’ve used a curved display phone with smaller form factor before because S23 Ultra is HUGE!

– Another issue with curved screen, since there’s a decent curve in screen, finding a screen protector is really hard! Tempered glasses don’t fit well, they get spaced by covers/cases, Samsung officially doesn’t make tempered glass for S23 Ultra. Samsung sells a thin membrane sheet for ₹1,500/- which has a cutout for camera and collects dust. Having no screen protection means having your second kidney at risk too!

– No charger in the box (ugh) and the cable that comes with it is really flimsy. Doesn’t look like it came with a flagship phone. ONEPLUS makes 10x better cables so better buy one from them.

– A phone this expensive should have all the necessary features right? But the OneUI 5.1 doesn’t come with an app lock. Samsung Secure Folder is nice but not usable for a day-to-day use. Secure Folder is fine for hiding images and apps but not convenient for daily access. There’s no Good Lock module to have app lock either.

– OneUI 5.1 (unlike many other UIs like OxygenOS 13 and ColorOS 13) doesn’t give option to rename apps in app drawer. Ability to use 3rd party icon packs just came recently. And installing a 3rd party launcher kind of ruins the UI for recent apps screen.

– OneUI 5.1 requires installation of a 3rd party Good Lock module to even configure what icons will appear on your navigation bar.

– Overall this is a really good phone, best I’d say! But OneUI 5.1 lacks some basic features which should’ve been implemented.

– But other than these minor software issues and some hardware inconveniences, this phone is definitely a recommendation.

Very good phone as we can expect this at the price, S pen will give u a very higher feeling, camera, display, sound all are too good. I brought it at Rs. 109000/- after exchanging my broken oneplus display wala phone at 5000 + 10000 extrq discount. Actually price they are gaking now is too much, after an year it will drop down a lot, so my suggestion will be, if u can wait, then you can buy at a very lower price.

I’m in love with the quality of images clicked on this phone. As a traveler, it comes very handy to click pictures instantly. 10X on this phone is the best thing ever. I am able to click amazing bird shots which makes it hard for people to believe that those are captured on phone. Battery life is outstanding.

Only thing I am not that satisfied with this phone is not a great focus when you get close to subject, macro shots aren’t that great compared to iphone 14 pro. Rest everything just perfect.

Awesome camera and features but fingerprint sensor sucks. It always fails to read fingerprint and says fingerprint doesnt match. Phone unlocks in 3rd or 4th try everytime.