Sitting in the middle of the Galaxy S23 pack is the + model. With the regular Galaxy S23 for those wanting a smaller phone, there's always the feeling that the Galaxy S23+ is the phone that people end up with when they can't afford the Galaxy S23 Ultra. Such is the plight of the middle child, often overlooked.

But the Galaxy S23+ is probably the model that most people will end up with, offering that balance of size and performance. So is this the phone for you?

Samsung Galaxy S23+
Samsung Galaxy S23+
Highly recommended

The Samsung Galaxy S23+ will likely be the phone for many people. With the screen space that the regular S23 lacks, and a price that's more attractive than the S23 Ultra, it only makes a couple of sacrifices against that top model. There's power, there's performance - perhaps only let down by the battery life and charging, which isn't quite best in class.

Pros
  • Pllenty of Snapdragon power
  • Great display
  • Software support and updates
  • Great design and build
Cons
  • Charging speeds not exciting
  • Not much change from S22

Design and build

  • 157.7 x 76.2 x 7.6mm, 196g
  • IP68, Armor Aluminum
  • Gorilla Glass Victus 2 back

The evolution of Samsung's smartphones creeps forward each year, seeing the alignment of design across all the Galaxy S23 models. The big change here is the trickle-down of the camera design. Initiated on the Galaxy S22 Ultra in 2022, the separate lens design now spans the Galaxy S23 models, and the Galaxy A models for 2023 too.

They are set in a glass back, with Samsung offering a range of colours to keep you sweet, but with the sweetest of all being reserved as Samsung.com exclusives. There's a frosted finish to the glass, so fingerprints aren't too much of a problem, although it's paired with an "Armor Aluminum" frame, designed to help prevent damage throughout the life of the phone. There's IP68 protection to keep your phone safe from water and dust too.

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The glass isn't just any Glass, it's Gorilla Glass Victus 2, designed to keep scratches at bay, but if you want your phone to look the best, it's always worth putting it in a case. The Galaxy S23+ is unavoidably a large phone, the flat finish to both the front and the back, hemmed in by that frame meaning sharper edges, and perhaps a little less comfortable to hold than Samsung's older phones using curves on the front and rear.

Running between the top of the display and the frame is a slim ear speaker - you'll hardly notice it's there - while there's a grille on the bottom for the main speaker. That's right, there's no stereo speaker setup here, which is a major oversight on a flagship-grade phone. Fire up the latest game and cup your hand over the speaker and you'll get nothing. In terms of sound quality and volume the Galaxy S23+ is reasonable, but that falls apart if you accidentally cover that speaker on the base.

Display

  • 6.6-inches, Super AMOLED, Infinity-O
  • 2340 x 1080, 398ppi, 48-120Hz
  • 1750 nit peak
  • Gorilla Glass Victus 2

Samsung phones are known for their displays, with Samsung often being top choice for AMOLED panels in smartphones. The Galaxy S23+ display is basically the same as the Galaxy S22+, but that's no problem, as it's a fantastic panel. What's changed from more recent history is that this only offers that Full HD+ resolution - 2340 x 1080 pixels - there's no option to switch resolutions as you'll find on the S23 Ultra. The 6.6-inch size is welcomed with narrow and uniform bezels around the display for a sense of balance to the front of the phone. There's the centralised punch hole for the front camera at the top, and as per 2022, there's no curve on this display, it remains flat.

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One thing that's not flat, however, is the presentation of the colours. It's that punchy colour range that Samsung is really known for, boosted by the 1750 nit peak brightness that's offered. Samsung, perhaps more than any other phone brand, will ramp up the brightness outdoors to stave off reflections. It's perhaps too saturated for some tastes, but you can switch from "vivid" to "natural" if you wish.

There's an adaptive refresh rate, running from 48-120Hz, adapting automatically to the content on the display. Alternatively you can lock to 60Hz, but the idea behind the adaptive setting is that you only get those faster speeds when you need them, so any qualms about wasting battery power can be set to one side.

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Overall, it's a great display, but the Gorilla Glass Victus 2 isn't the be-all and end-all: we managed to scratch the display within the first couple of days of use, a reminder that screen protectors still have a valid place on phones.

Hardware and performance

  • Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy
  • 8GB RAM, 256/512GB
  • 4700mAh battery, 45W charging, 15W wireless

There was a lot of fanfare around the launch of the Galaxy S23 series for a couple of reasons. One of the big moves is that Samsung is using Qualcomm hardware in all models - this year there's no Exynos, no debate over which model is best, no envious glares across borders at those who got Snapdragon. Furthermore, this isn't just the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, it's the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy, notionally boosted for greater graphics performance: a sweetener to that exclusive deal, perhaps?

Importantly, it sees Samsung out of the gate at the start of 2023 bags of power. The 8GB RAM might fall behind some other competing handsets - the Pixel 7 Pro and Xiaomi 13 Pro both land with 12GB - not that you'll notice any real performance difference. Fire up your favourite games and you'll find everything is swift and fast. That's true of daily use on the Galaxy S23+ - it's a great phone to use, smooth and fast - albeit it doesn't leave quite the same impression as the Galaxy S23 Ultra, which is just a cut above.

The battery isn't huge at 4700mAh - you'll note that Samsung's A Series sibling the Galaxy A54 has a more capacious 5000mAh - and once again, Samsung sits at 45W wired and 15W wireless charging. Neither are particularly fast, and the likes of the OnePlus 11 with 100W charging will leave Samsung in its dust. But just how fast do you need charging to be? Samsung's reluctance to move to higher speeds is likely all about preserving battery health and ensuring that your phone lasts as long as it can.

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Speaking of which, the battery life follows a similar pattern to previous Samsung phones in this position. Generally the battery will last through the day easily - the phone reports a full charge will give 1 day 14 hours - but that bright screen will eat power when you start to push it. If you're a hardcore gamer, this probably isn't the best choice for you - and there are gaming phones like the ROG Phone 6 with bigger batteries.

Camera

  • Main: 50MP, f/1.8
  • Ultrawide: 12MP, f/2.2
  • Telephoto: 10MP, f/2.4, 3x optical
  • Front: 12MP, f/2.2

The cameras on the Galaxy S23+ are the same as the Galaxy S23, so there's nothing to choose between the two - and they're largely the same as the Galaxy S22+ as well, save for some changes on the image processing side, no doubt linked to the newer Snapdragon hardware. The front camera is a new unit, boosting the resolution and delivering better performance.

The main camera is a 50-megapixel sensor that natively takes 12-megapixel photos through its f/1.8 lens. The main change in emphasis is boosted low-light shooting from both the front and back cameras, including night selfie video.

The Samsung Galaxy S23+ produces great shots in all conditions. There's a tendency to saturate blues and greens to make scenes a little more vibrant than they really are (exacerbated by the vibrancy of the display), but you can turn off the Scene Optimiser in the settings if you're not keen on the results.

You can pinch through a zoom range from 0.6x to 30x, the far end being capably stabilised, but often giving pretty mushy results, which are best avoided. There's a 50MP mode to use all the resolution of the main sensor, allowing you to crop in on details after shooting, but you'll likely get sharper results from using the regular zoom lens instead.

Samsung offers plenty of features in the S23+ cameras, with a full platter of shooting modes, expanding right out to the manual control of Pro mode, or to Expert RAW, which unlocks the likes of 50MP RAW shooting and the astrophoto mode.

Portrait mode does a great job of separating foreground and background, while edge detection is accurate on both the front and rear cameras.

Low-light shooting isn't as capable as the likes of the Pixel, which keeps better control of red tones: the Samsung can saturate night photos that make them appear with more noise than the Pixel. The advantage that Samsung offers over Google in low light, however, is a greater range of options on the front camera. You can use the self-timer in Night Mode on the S23+, which you can't on the Pixel 7 Pro, so Samsung has more flexibility.

Overall the performance is great: it's not up to the standards of the Galaxy S23 Ultra which moves things forward a step in terms of performance and quality, but the overall experience from the Galaxy S23+, while close to the Galaxy S22+, will still suit most users in most conditions.

Software

  • Android 13 + One UI 5.1
  • 4 OS updates, 5 years software updates

The Samsung Galaxy S23+ launches on Android 13 and runs Samsung's One UI 5.1 out of the box at launch. One UI 5.1 again sees Samsung conduct a full reworking of Android, putting in place its own software and services. It's the most comprehensive Android skin out there and also one of the most popular - Samsung isn't market leader by accident, and the elements within One UI have a part to play in that.

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This phone offers a huge amount of out the box, so much so that we have a dedicated tips and tricks article for the Galaxy S23 series to help you discover all of its secrets. That leads to duplication that some might find unnecessary: Samsung ships its own browser, gallery, dialler, messages app, contacts, and so on - while there's also the Galaxy Store. You can't opt out of all these things either, as some updates will come from the Galaxy Store regardless how much you try to avoid Samsung's extended ecosystem.

There's also some rearranging of Android features that we don't always feel come out so well. Google's simple Bedtime mode is tweaked into Samsung's Modes and Routines, which seem a little less useful than the stock Android option.

But the performance of the phone is beautifully smooth, every inch the flagship experience and in this regard, no lesser than the Galaxy S23 Ultra. As a phone to use day-in, day-out, it's a pleasure.

Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy S23+ will likely be the phone for many people. With the screen space that the regular S23 lacks, and a price that's more attractive than the S23 Ultra, it only makes a couple of sacrifices against that top model. There's power, there's performance - perhaps only let down by the battery life and charging, which isn't quite best in class.

But as an overall experience, with phones like the Galaxy S23+ it's easy to see why Samsung remains one of the top choices. It is, perhaps, not as showy as some rivals that want to turn your head, but with long software support and plenty of features, it remains a top choice when it comes to choosing an Android smartphone.