Galaxy S23 Plus hands-on review

Galaxy S23 Plus Intro

Enter the Galaxy S23 Plus, Samsung’s yearly refresh of its middle-of-the-ground flagship phone is officially upon us!

Pre-order the Galaxy S23 Plus with a special discount from our link

And from the early looks of it, more thought has been put into the Galaxy S23 Plus this year in direct comparison with the previous generation. With a refreshed design and way more promising performance (especially in traditional Exynos regions), brighter display, and larger battery, the Galaxy S23 Plus is worth exploring in depth. 

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Galaxy S23 Plus Specs

A respectable Android flagship

Galaxy S23 Plus Models

Aside from the Galaxy S23 Plus, Samsung also released two other devices. the Galaxy S23 and the Galaxy S23 Ultra. Despite being part of the same phone family, there are some pretty distinct differences between the three devices. 

For one, the regular Galaxy S23 is a more compact version of the Galaxy S23 Plus, with a smaller display and battery, but the rest of the hardware on both new devices is mostly similar. 

The Galaxy S23 Ultra, however, true to its more intriguing name, has much more going for it in the hardware section, including a longer periscope lens, a much larger and more advanced display, larger battery, and finally, an S Pen stylus on deck. 

Galaxy S23 series

Galaxy S23 Plus Design & Colors

Important changes that matter 

The Galaxy S23 Plus has scored a trove of changes in the design section. Gone is the Contour Cut camera island of the Galaxy S22 Plus, which seamlessly blended with the side frame of the phone and housed all the three cameras; with the Galaxy S23 Plus, each camera gets its own dedicated camera lens cutout, which gently sticks out of the back and makes for a very neat and tidy exterior design. It’s simple and unsophisticated, but certainly in a good way.

Galaxy S23 Plus

Fully flat at the front and at the back, with Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus 2 for the first time on a phone, the Galaxy S23 Plus also has a slightly convex Armor Aluminum side frame that curves outwards. 

This definitely makes the phone comfortable to hold in the palm of your hand, as it doesn’t carve in your hand as much as a modern iPhone with its right-angled design normally would. As such, toying around with the Galaxy S23 Plus is pleasant and issue-free, leaving the impression of a much more compact device. With a 6.6-inch display up front, it definitely isn’t a small phone per se, but is as compact as possible given the form factor.  

Galaxy S23 Plus vs Galaxy S23

Aside from that, the Galaxy S23 Plus remains a pretty well-rounded standard phone, with IP68 water- and dust-resistance on board, stereo speakers on board, an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner baked into the display, as well as no microSD card slot slot or a 3.5mm audio jack available. Overall, the new Galaxy S23 Plus is a device that’s unmistakably Galaxy that sticks to what seemingly works for Samsung.

Galaxy S23 Plus colors

Galaxy S23 Plus Camera

Triple camera prowess

While the Galaxy S23 Ultra is coming with an exciting 200MP main camera and a trove of new features, changes about the Galaxy S23 Plus camera are a few in-between. The Galaxy S23 Plus comes with a 50MP main wide-angle camera boasting an f/1.8 aperture, the good ol’ 12MP ultra wide-angle lens, and finally, the 10MP 3X optical telephoto boasting an f/2.4 aperture and capable of pushing the maximum zoom up to 30X.  

There are much more changes at the front, where Samsung has thrown in a new 12MP selfie camera with dual phase-detection autofocus that should keep all of your selfies tack sharp even during the most unfavorable lighting conditions, and ultimately capable of shooting Super HDR videos as well as [email protected] video clips to share around social media. Low-light portraits have been greatly improved as well.

Galaxy S23 Plus camera

We have really big hopes that the Galaxy S23 Plus will be able to surpass its predecessor and deliver excellent camera performance and image quality, with AI-driven digital photography brought to the next level without overdoing things. 

As a refresher, the Galaxy S22 Plus came with a triple camera setup. It consisted of a 50MP f/1.8 main camera with a 1/1.56″ sensor, a 12MP ultra-wide camera with an f/2.2 aperture and a 1/2.55″ sensor, and finally, a 10MP 3X optical zoom lens with an f/2.4 aperture and a small, 1/3.94″ camera sensor. Up front, we had a 10MP f/2.2 selfie camera. Well, we expect Samsung to keep that layout and introduce feature and software improvements to the camera setup.

Galaxy S23 Plus

Galaxy S23 Plus OS / Android version

Some of the highlights of One UI 5.1 are the Modes & Routines, which allow you to customize scenes for sleep, exercise, driving, work, or relaxation, Bixby Text Call, which lets you respond to incoming calls with a text (similar to the Google Assistant), as well as co-edit Samsung Notes during video calls, which is quite a nifty addition to the functionality roster. 

Not many changes were introduced here: the Galaxy S23 Plus still supports fast 45W wired charging, as well as Fast Wireless Charging 2.0. The Galaxy S22 Plus takes roughly an hour to get fully charged with Samsung’s 45W charging brick and a bit more with the more common 25W charger, so we generally expect similar results from the S23 Plus, though we wouldn’t object to being pleasantly surprised.

These improvements, paired with the generally excellent value that a Samsung flagship phone brings to the table, might just be enough to make the S23 Plus our go-to recommendation when it comes to an all-around good Android phone.