My Review of the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra arrived in early 2023 as the phone that felt like Samsung had finally stopped chasing spec-sheet trophies and started sweating the details. More than three years later one still lives on our test bench, so this Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review is less about whether the phone is good and more about the question we hear most often: is it still worth buying in 2026? After living with it again for a few weeks, our answer is a confident, qualified yes.

A design that aged gracefully

The S23 Ultra kept the boxy, near-flat-sided silhouette that became the Ultra line’s signature, with rear lenses that float directly on the glass instead of sitting in a raised island. In the hand it reads as serious hardware, and the roughly 6.8-inch footprint means it was never a small phone. That size is the price of admission for everything else here; if you have used any large Samsung flagship, you already know whether it fits your pocket and your palm.

The one design choice any honest Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review has to flag is the curved display. The glass gently rolls off at the long edges, which looks elegant and helps the phone feel thinner than it is, but it also invites the occasional accidental palm touch and a little glare at the corners. Samsung has since flattened its Ultra screens, and having used both, we understand why. It is not a dealbreaker, but in 2026 it is the clearest tell that this is a previous-generation device.

The display still competes

That screen is a roughly 6.8-inch QHD+ AMOLED with a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate, and it remains genuinely excellent. Colors are vivid without tipping into cartoonish, motion is buttery, and outdoor brightness holds up under harsh sun. Streaming, gaming, and long reading sessions all look terrific. Even beside the newer generation of flagships, this panel is nothing to apologize for.

The S Pen advantage

The built-in S Pen, tucked into the body, is still the S23 Ultra’s quiet superpower, and one no current iPhone matches. Whether you are marking up a document, jotting a note on the lock screen, or using it as a remote shutter, a pressure-sensitive stylus that lives inside the phone is a real productivity edge. For students, note-takers, and anyone who signs or annotates in the field, it can justify the Ultra over a plain slab flagship all by itself.

Cameras: the 10x zoom is the star

This is the part of any Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review that matters most, and it is where the phone earns its keep. It debuted Samsung’s 200MP ISOCELL HP2 main sensor, which by default bins those pixels into brighter, cleaner shots while leaving you real room to crop. Detail in good light is superb, and the high-resolution mode is genuinely fun for landscapes.

But the lens we love most is the dedicated 10x optical periscope telephoto. This is true optical reach, not a cropped-and-sharpened fake, and it changes what a phone camera can do. Concerts, wildlife, architecture, and details across a room come back with a clarity most rivals, then and now, simply cannot match optically. Paired with a separate 3x telephoto, the zoom range is one of the most versatile you can carry in a pocket.

Our honest take on the cameras:

• The 10x periscope is the headline and remains a standout in 2026.
• The 200MP main sensor delivers excellent daylight detail and strong low-light binning.
• Samsung’s color science leans a touch punchy and warm, which most people like but purists may want to dial back.
• Video is stable and reliable across the lens system, a practical win for everyday shooting.

Performance and that battery

The S23 Ultra ran a specially binned Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy, an overclocked take on Qualcomm’s flagship chip tuned specifically for Samsung. In practice it still flies: across every test we reran for this Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review, everyday tasks are instant and demanding games run smoothly. You will not feel starved for speed doing normal things, and heavier workloads hold up well for a phone of this era.

The other genuine standout is efficiency. The 5000mAh battery, paired with that chip, delivers real-world endurance that comfortably clears a full day and often reaches into a second with lighter use. In our experience it is one of the most dependable big-battery flagships Samsung has shipped, and battery life is exactly the kind of thing that matters more, not less, as a phone ages.

Software and longevity

Running One UI on top of Android, the S23 Ultra benefits from Samsung’s lengthy update commitment, a major reason it still makes sense today. Feature drops and security patches keep arriving, so the phone never feels abandoned. That long support window is central to our value argument.

If you buy one, keep it healthy by staying on the latest official firmware, and if you ever need to recover from a bad update or reset a device you bought secondhand, you can reinstall the clean stock ROM. That is exactly what we do at ZipFirmware, where you can grab the correct official firmware for your exact model and region.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review verdict: is it a smart value pick in 2026?

For most buyers, yes. With the newer generation on shelves, the S23 Ultra now sits in the sweet spot where its price has softened but its capabilities have not. You still get a true 10x optical zoom, a superb display, the S Pen, and battery life that shames plenty of current phones.

The honest caveats are its age and that curved screen. If edge glare or having the absolute newest silicon matters to you, look at the current lineup. But if you want a genuinely great camera system and dependable all-day endurance without paying flagship-launch money, we end this Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review where we began it: the Galaxy S23 Ultra remains one of the smartest value flagships you can buy right now.