Samsung Galaxy S23 review

Between the practicality of the Galaxy S23+ and the majesty of the Galaxy S23 Ultra, it’s hard for the Samsung Galaxy S23 to escape their shadows. But the Galaxy S23 fills a couple of important niches in the smartphone market.

Small flagships have become something of an oxymoron in the smartphone industry since the days of the original Moto X and the Nexus 5. Either you throttle back the performance, or you have atrocious battery life due to lack of space. You also don't have the capacity for every single hardware feature, which leads to smaller flagship Android phones feeling incomplete next to their brethren. And a smaller screen means less room for your apps or whatever else you're doing on your phone, so most consumers aren't wild about the concept, either.

This size issue has plagued Samsung for years, and it's not alone in this struggle. The Google Pixel 7 and 6 miss out on the telephoto prowess of the 6/7 Pro, and the iPhone 14 has an older processor than the 14 Pro and Pro Max. OnePlus stopped doing a "regular" model for its flagship OnePlus 11 after lackluster sales for the OnePlus 9 and 10 compared to the Pro.

But there are still those of us who like small phones and don't want to pony up $1,200 for a behemoth like the Galaxy S23 Ultra. The Galaxy S23 tries to thread the needles between a reasonable size, an affordable price, and a respectable experience. The Galaxy S22 and S21 failed in this regard due to battery woes, but efficiency and increased capacity let the Galaxy S23 finally nail it.This panel on the side of the S23 is the mmWave antenna, not a defect or a hidden microSD compartment.

The Samsung Galaxy S23 was announced on February 1, 2023, and went on sale on February 17 worldwide. Starting at $800, the Galaxy S23 is the same price as its predecessor, and the base model comes with 128GB of UFS 3.1 storage, with a 256GB model with UFS 4.0 storage costing $860. We've already seen some Galaxy S23 deals bring it down to $700 — and a Best Buy "Activate Now" deal has brought it down to $600 — but trade-in deals for the baby S23 have been pretty lackluster outside of carriers. If you have an eligible unlimited plan and a relatively new phone, AT&T and Verizon will trade it to get you the S23 for free.

The Galaxy S23 is being sold by the three main U.S. carriers — AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon— as well as some MVNOs, though it’s been slower to arrive at ones not directly affiliated with a carrier. While the S23+ and S23 Ultra both have UWB support, the Galaxy S23 sticks to sub6 and mmWave. This review was conducted with an AT&T 256GB Lavender variant of the Galaxy S23 that I purchased myself. (Well, I traded in a Galaxy S20 for it, but you get the idea.)

5G testing was conducted in sub6 areas, as Orlando's AT&T mmWave coverage is quite limited, and tested on the vast Wi-Fi 6 mesh network at Walt Disney World's theme parks during both light and heavy crowd days. The S23 handles changing nodes in a larger mesh network pretty seamlessly, and 5G speeds were fine, but the S23 can cling to a weak or spotty Wi-Fi signal a hair long before kicking back to mobile data.You could be forgiven for thinking the Galaxy S23 is a clone of the Galaxy S22 with a less cute camera design — hang on, I'll yell about that in a minute. Outside the banishment of that single, metallic camera module, the only noticeable exterior difference is that the edges of the phone are a bit sharper. While the frame on the Galaxy S22 was mostly flat, you still had a bit more curvature to the edges, and to the edges of the glass back.

This year things are straightened up a bit more, leading to an even more minimal look to this phone that somehow both exudes luxury and no-nonsense practicality. We still get a slim curvature for a more comfortable grip, and the reflections and light play off the ultra-shiny finish Samsung gave the Armor Aluminum frame. It's easy to hold the S23 for hours, even one-handed. However, I wish that Samsung had eschewed the shiny chrome look here for a more textured finish that offers more grip and doesn't show every blip of built-up oil.