Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra in Nepal: What does the 2023 flagship stand out in?

The all-new flagship series from Samsung has been released with Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra as the top variant of the series. It is the upgraded version of Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra with a very minimal design change. However, S23 has an improved processor and camera system than S22 Ultra.

The Samsung S23 series was launched along with other Samsung products including its flagship Samsung Galaxy Book 3 series on February 1 during its Samsung Unpacked event. The highlight of the show was the Galaxy S23 Ultra.

So, how is the phone? How will it fare in the Nepali market?

Specifications

Design and display

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has not been that changed in terms of design from the previous year’s flagship, Galaxy S22 Ultra. It has a boxier look and feels heavier than S22 Ultra, which was more curved in the edges. The rear camera is also quite bigger than S22 with a bit of camera bump and rings around the camera.

The phone has a 6.8-inch Edge QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X Infinity-O Display with 3088*1440 pixels resolution. It has an aspect ratio of 19.3: 9 and 501 PPI. It has a thickness of 8.9mm and weighs 234 grams. The refresh rate is 120Hz and the touch sampling rate is 240Hz. It has a super bright display and can reach up to 1750 nits of peak brightness.

It is protected both in the front and the back using Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2, which is changed from Corning Gorilla Glass+ from last year’s S22 Ultra. S23 Ultra also includes an S pen like the previous year, which is inspired by the Note series Samsung gave. The S pen this year is also quite different from the previous year.

Overall, it has some minor design changes from the past year, but Samsung brought significant changes in the other phones of the S23 lineup, making all the phones look similar from the design perspective.

Performance and storage

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has the world’s fastest Snapdragon chip, the Snapdragon® 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy, which gives this phone a boost of performance for processing and gaming. It has an octa-core CPU with Android 13 based on One UI 5.1. It has been promised four years of OS updates and five years of security updates. This makes it go up to Android 17 for people who do not want to upgrade their phones.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has two RAM variants and three storage variants. Globally, S23 is available in 8/256GB, 12/256GB, 12/512GB and 12/1TB variants. In Nepal, you can find only two variants: 12/256GB and 12/512GB for RAM and storage, respectively. You do not have the facility to increase the storage with an external SD card as there is no SD card slot. There are slots for two nano sims whereas the phone also supports an e-sim.

The chipset included in S23 Ultra has made it faster than the previous year’s flagship. The processing speed for photos and videos is also significantly much better and has increased the hype for S23 in the smartphone market.

Camera

The biggest upgrade in S23 Ultra is the camera system. The previous version (S22 Ultra) had a main 108MP camera, which now has been replaced by the whopping 200MP sensor in S23. It features a quad camera setup on the rear side and a primary 200MP, F1.7 wide camera, a 12MP, F2.2 ultra-wide camera, 10 MP, F4.9 telephoto camera and another 10MP, and F2.4 telephoto camera. It has a space zoom feature, which allows you to zoom 3X and 10X. There are also other facilities such as dual optical zoom and a massive super-resolution 100X zoom and OIS (optical image stabilisation) for higher stabilised photos and videos.

The rear camera of the phone can now shoot 8K videos at 30fps and 24fps. Other resolutions are 4K at 60fps, 1080P at 60fps, 720P at 30fps and 4K HDR10+ at 60fps. The stabilisation on it also has significantly improved and is better than most flagship phones available on the market.

The front camera, however, has been downgraded from the previous year’s S22 Ultra from 40MP to 12MP in this year’s S23 Ultra. Yet, this is not a thing to worry about; the 12MP sensor and F2.2 aperture click a much better selfie with increased quality, accurate skin tone and a bit more details in the face. The front camera can also record video at 4K at 60 and 30fps respectively, where you can also record using the portrait mode with proper stabilisation.

Battery and others

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has a typical 5000mAh battery just like S22 Ultra in 2022. The charging on the phone can be done using a 45W or 25W fast charger. It supports fast wireless charging 2.0, through which wireless charging can be done at 15W or higher.

The sensors on it include an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, accelerometer, barometer, gyro sensor, geomagnetic sensor, hall sensor, proximity sensor and ambient sensor. The buttons included are the power button and volume keys.

Features

• 200MP rear camera sensor
• Night mode
• 5000 mAh battery
• S pen
• Snapdragon 8 gen 2 for galaxy chipset
• Improved video quality and stabilisation
• Gorilla Glass Victus 2 protection (front and back)

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is currently available in three colours–black, green and cream–in Nepal.

The prices of Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra in Nepal are 191,999 and 209,999 for 12/256GB and 12/512GB versions respectively.