Every year, without fail, for the past 10 years or more, Samsung has delivered what may consider the de-facto flagship phone choice for Android users. And based on our time with the latest Galaxy S23, that winning streak isn't about to end any time soon.

It doesn't move the bar up significantly from its predecessor - the Galaxy S22 - but there are few competitors in the Android space that offer the same combination of features and performance in as compact a form, and very few at all that deliver software and security updates as promptly or for as long a time as Samsung.

galaxy_s23_product_image_cream_02-1
Samsung Galaxy S23

Not a lot has changed from the S22 to the S23, but with the most recent model, Samsung has - yet again - delivered what is the best all-round compact flagship phone.

Pros
  • Slim and portable design
  • Bright and vivid display
  • Super skinny, uniform bezels
  • Decent battery performance for its size
Cons
  • One UI software is full of bloat
  • Camera results are a bit hyperreal
  • Not much change from S22

Design

  • 146.3 x 70.9 x 7.6mm - 168g - Gorilla Glass Victus 2 front and back
  • Armour Aluminium frame - IP68 water/dust resistance
  • Cream, Phantom Black, Green, Lavender, Graphite and Lime colours

Not a huge amount changed between the Samsung Galaxy S22 and S23 on the design side of things. At least, not from the front. That's no bad thing, the bezels around the display are among the skinniest we've seen on a phone. They're impressively uniform too, keeping that slimness around all four sides of the screen, and curving inside the rounded corners to match the radius of the external aluminium frame. With that, and the centrally placed hole-punch selfie camera, there's a delightful sense of symmetry.

Add to that the fact that this is one of the smallest, lightest and most nimble flagship phones on the market, and picture is even more impressive. It's thinner than the Asus Zenfone 9 and Xperia 5 IV, both of which offer that flagship power in a device that's smaller than the usual ultra-premium Android behemoths.

One element we really like - and is often under-appreciated - is the shaping of the aluminium edges. They're not completely flat and feature a subtle rounding around all four sides, and that makes the phone more comfortable to hold. So it's thin, light and comfortable. That's a great combination.

You don't have to sacrifice durability to get this compact form either. It's IP68 water and dust resistant, so should survive just about anything in your daily life. Samsung's 'Armour Aluminium' is back for another generation, offering a strong, sturdy chassis with Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the front and back to ensure the phone's surface is as strong as it can be. It's not scratch-proof, but it is tougher than older glass versions.

Speaking of the back, this is where you see the most obvious change from the previous generation. The protruding camera unit on the left side has been replaced by a cleaner row of individually-ringed camera lenses. It's a minimalist approach, and one we're sure will appeal to a lot of style-conscious buyers. From a more practical standpoint, it also means the phone doesn't tend to wobble as much when you place it down on its back.

Samsung Galaxy S23 cameras close up

In an age where so many Android manufacturers only release their phones in one or two standard colours - like black, grey or green - it's refreshing that Samsung continues its approach to appealing to a wider audience by offering a number of options. This can differ per region, but in the US, there are four colours - Phantom Black, Cream, Green and Lavender. The UK gets these base colours too, plus a choice of four extra - Lime Green, Red, Sky Blue and Graphite - if ordered direct from Samsung.

Display and software

  • 6.1-inch AMOLED display - 120Hz adaptive refresh - 1750 nit peak brightness
  • 1080 x 2340 FHD+ resolution - 425ppi
  • One UI 5.1 based on Android 13

The days of Samsung's small flagship having Quad HD resolution displays are pretty much over. But that's no bad thing. Because the screen is relatively small at 6.1 inches, the FullHD+ resolution is more than enough to ensure you have crisp details. You get over 400 pixels-per-inch which - in smartphone terms - is strong. It also means the phone won't be wasting battery juice on illuminating more pixels than is really necessary. Text and fine details are nice and crisp.

Adding to that is the fact that everything on the screen appears really close to the surface, so viewing angles are fantastic. It's incredibly clear, pretty much all the time and - thanks to a peak brightness of up to 1750 nits - it's clearly visible in bright daylight too. It's a much stronger display than what's on the Google Pixel 7 - as an example.

Samsung Galaxy S23 display in hand blurry background

In its default vivid mode when first set up it does massively over-egg colours, boosting saturation to a point that was unpleasant for us. Thankfully, there's an option in the settings to tune that down to 'natural', which maybe goes a little too far the other way, making colours more muted. For those happy to tinker, there are more advanced options and the ability to tweak colour balance to your preference.

Overall, it's a really strong display and one that makes the most of all kinds of content. The contrast levels and incredibly bright peak brightness ensure that HDR content looks great too. Darker scenes can still seem a little dark, but with the generally bright panel, even those aren't too much of a problem.

We've spoken a lot on Samsung's latest One UI software in our Galaxy S23 Ultra review, so won't waste too much time on it here. However, there are both good and bad elements to it. On the 'pro' side, there's the fact that One UI has a lot of features, most of which we'd probably not make use of frequently. You'll get UI theming that colour-matches the system interface to your wallpaper colours, smart screenshotting and marking up tools, and a lot of tweaking available in the camera app. You also get software patches quickly and regularly, and the phone is supported for 4-5 years.

On the 'cons' side, there's the fact that Samsung still pre-loads its phones with a lot of bloat and bits that aren't needed. Duplicate apps are here in force, and the fact you have to swipe horizontally to flick through the apps list - having swiped vertically to open the app drawer - really rubs us up the wrong way, especially since it means some items remain out of reach at the top of the screen.

Performance and battery

  • Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 - 8GB RAM - 128GB, 256GB or 512GB storage
  • 3900mAh battery - 25W wired charging - 15W wireless charging

In the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, Samsung has used a chipset that's very capable. It's Qualcomm's most powerful chip to date, and delivers the experience you'd expect it to. Games load quickly, touch response is quick, and the user interface glides under the fingers. We didn't notice any of the lag or stuttering we'd seen glimpses of in previous generations.

Samsung Galaxy S23 gaming in hand

During longer gaming sessions it didn't seem to really get overly warm at any time, and was pretty consistent in performance after longer periods, continuing to offer smooth refresh rates even after 30 minutes of gaming.

We were pleasantly surprised by the battery performance on the regular S23 too. Looking at the spec sheet - with 3900mAh being on the low side - one might assume you'd struggle to get through the day. However, the battery optimisations of Android 13/One UI combined with the power efficiency of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip mean it is still able to offer decent performance.

It wasn't mind-blowingly good, but at the same time, with our moderate usage - which usually consisted of a couple of hours of Bluetooth music listening, half an hour or so of casual gaming, plus an hour or more of social media and web browsing, we'd still have some juice left in the tank at bedtime (around 11pm - having taken it off charge at 8am). Most days that level was below 30 per cent, but rarely got to the red-line 19 per cent level.

Samsung Galaxy S23 top down home screen

For heavier users, those who move around a lot, commute to work and use the phone regularly for calls during the day, you might find it a bit of a pinch to get through the day. Especially if you're in a 5G area (we weren't). The good thing here is that if you really want a similar experience, but better battery, there's the S23 Plus. That gives you a 4700mAh battery and pretty much all the same specs and features as the smaller S23.

With many Android manufacturers - like Xiaomi with the 13 Pro and OnePlus with the OnePlus 11 - there's a race to be the fastest to refill a battery. Those two devices - specifically - can completely refill an empty battery in 20-25 minutes. And their batteries are much bigger than the S23's.

Samsung's wired charging tops out at 25W - and that's only if you go our and buy a compatible charger, because it doesn't ship with one. If you do, it takes half an hour to charge half the battery. We found we quickly settled back into our old routine of charging it overnight, on a wireless charger by our bed, because it didn't charge quickly enough for us to just let it run until it was nearly empty.

Cameras

  • 50MP primary camera - f/1.8 - 24mm equivalent - OIS and Dual Pixel PDAF
  • 10MP telephoto 3x zoom camera - f/2.4 - 70mm equivalent - OIS and PDAF
  • 12MP ultrawide camera - f/2.2 - 13mm equivalent - 120-degree
  • 12MP selfie camera - f/2.2 - 26mm equivalent

With any fully featured flagship, a camera is an important part of the experience and - again - Samsung delivers in buckets. As it always does.

Its system is made up of three distinct cameras on the back, each offering a different focal length so you can switch between wide, ultrawide and 3x 'optical zoom'. This gives you a lot of flexibility in what you can shoot, and will have you covered whether you like shooting portraits or landscapes. And - for the most part - they all match in terms of colour and contrast.

It's safe to say, Samsung's photos have a recognisable look. At least, they do if you only ever leave your phone in its default mode and let it do its automatic thing. Samsung's Scene Optimiser has this habit of making colours in images seem incredibly saturated, making blue skies very blue and grass an unnaturally vibrant shade of green.

In good daylight, it delivers those classic Samsung images, going big on contrast and colours, with the 'pop' a lot of people like. It's a little too hyperreal at times - making overcast days a lot more colourful than they should - but thankfully, you can turn off the Scene Optimiser, or even shoot in completely manual mode, adjusting all manner of settings to get a more natural result.

There are a lot of things to play with and tweak in the camera app. Lots of modes to choose from and - for some - it'll be a bit overwhelming. Thankfully, it's easy enough to just leave it in the regular 'Photo' mode and just point and shoot. For those who want it though, there are features like Expert RAW, which will allow you to extract lots more data from your images, giving you more flexibility in the edit, and retain that visual fidelity you'd want.

Indoors, away from bright daylight, we found Samsung's contrast-heavy push meant the images had that artificial-looking sharpness and shadows that were a little noisier than we'd expect. That contrasty, grainy feeling seemed worse on the ultrawide and telephoto zoom cameras, which makes sense given the primary camera's better low-light capabilities.

At night time, the S23's night mode capability means you can snap a bright, vibrant shot even in very low-light situations. It only seems to take a couple of seconds to capture a shot - on any of the three cameras - and it does an excellent job of drawing in light. That's about half the time it takes on the Pixel 7, and it draws in more light too.

The ultrawide camera does seem to struggle a little with detail though - with these AI-powered longer exposures having quite a fuzzy appearance to them. Again, that's not surprising given that ultrawide lenses do distort a little towards the edges anyway. The fact it doesn't have OIS (optical image stabilisation) on that lens definitely won't help either.

As in the daytime, images at night are vibrant and colour-rich. But whether that's desirable at night time could be argued either way. On the one hand, it's really impressive that a camera can - completely handheld in about three seconds - take a bright, sharp image with vivid colours. On the other hand, it doesn't exactly feel authentic to the scene it was shot in all the time, almost turning night into day.

Verdict

If you're after a powerful, feature-rich flagship smartphone that's also small and light, there are few that match the Galaxy S23. It's the do-everything Android phone for 2023, and the one that's easiest to recommend to just about everyone looking for a solid, everyday device that'll last the next 3-4 years.

The only problem is, it doesn't move the notch up significantly from the S22, and - given that its predecessor is now cheaper and still has a few years of software and security patches to keep it up to date - it might just be the more sensible option for most people. We certainly wouldn't advise upgrading from the 2022 model to this one.

Still, in the context of the smartphone flagship market right now, few compact phones get as many of the key things right like the S23 does. It's got everything, and is undoubtedly the Android phone to buy if you want a proper flagship phone that isn't bulky.