Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Camera test

We put the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra through our rigorous SBMARK Camera test suite to measure its performance in photo, video, and zoom quality from an end-user perspective. This article breaks down how the device fared in a variety of tests and several common use cases and is intended to highlight the most important results of our testing with an extract of the captured data.

Overview

Key camera specifications:

• Primary: 200MP 1/1.3″ sensor, 0.6 μm pixels, f/2.2-aperture lens, PDAF, AF, OIS
• Ultra-wide: 12MP 1/2.55″ sensor, 1.4 μm pixels, f/2.2-aperture lens, PDAF, AF, OIS
• Tele 1: 10MP 1/3.52″ sensor, 1.12 μm pixels, f/2.4-aperture lens, PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom
• Tele 2: 10MP 1/3.52″ sensor, 1.12 μm pixels, f/4.9-aperture lens, PDAF, OIS, 10x optical zoom

With a SBMARK Camera score of 140, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra achieved a very good result in our camera tests. It offered good performance across pretty much all test attributes, without major drawbacks in any area, making it a great smartphone imaging allrounder. Still images featured excellent detail in bright light and a fairly wide dynamic range across all light levels. Please note that still-image testing was undertaken at the default 12MP resolution. The camera also allows for capture at higher image resolutions.

Tele zoom at very long range was a strength, thanks to Samsung’s dual-tele approach with a dedicated 10x camera. However, despite the sophisticated tele hardware, overall zoom results were slightly below competitors such as the Huawei Mate 50 Pro or Honor Magic 4 Ultimate, which provide more consistent tele zoom quality with only one higher-resolution tele camera module.

Effective stabilization and a fast and accurate autofocus meant that the Galaxy S23 Ultra also did well for video. White balance in low light left some room for improvement, though. Compared to the predecessor S22 Ultra, the Samsung engineers managed to achieve improvements in several areas, including video stabilization, slightly better zoom, noticeably better video exposure, and improved autofocus speed in bright light. Please note that all comparisons with the S22 Ultra in this review were made with the Snapdragon version of that device. The S23 Ultra only comes as a Snapdragon variant. Unlike for previous generations, there is no Exynos-powered version.

Friends & Family is a new use case score, introduced with the latest version 5 of the SBMARK Camera test protocol. It has been designed to represent the test device’s ability to capture technically good photos and videos in the most common consumer use cases (family, friends, pets). It is computed from data recorded during Photo, Zoom and Video tests that include people and moving subjects, a total of 60+ scenes both in the lab and real-life scenes with models.

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is very capable of taking good quality portrait photos and videos in most lighting conditions. The device’s autofocus was very performant, managing to capture the decisive moment both in indoor and outdoor conditions. In low-light situations, however, our engineers observed a slight delay between the moment the shutter was triggered and the actual capture. Exposure in photo was generally well managed, except when it came to challenging backlit situations, where low contrast gave faces an unnatural appearance. While the S23 Ultra managed to keep the scene’s natural color atmosphere, skin tones were sometimes rendered inaccurate. When taking videos, face tracking was very efficient, keeping moving subjects’ faces in focus.

In low light, the S23 Ultra produced good exposure with a quite wide dynamic range, capturing decent detail in both the highlight and shadow regions of the frame. In terms of color, the engineers opted for maintaining some of the atmosphere that is produced by dim warm light sources, delivering overall nice color in low light. Many competitors tend to take a more neutral approach to white balance in low light, but what you prefer is pretty much down to personal taste.

Test summary

About SBMARK Camera tests: SBMARK’s Camera evaluations take place in laboratories and in real-world situations using a wide variety of subjects. The scores rely on objective tests for which the results are calculated directly by measurement software on our laboratory setups, and on perceptual tests in which a sophisticated set of metrics allow a panel of image experts to compare aspects of image quality that require human judgment. Testing a smartphone involves a team of engineers and technicians for about a week. Photo, Zoom, and Video quality are scored separately and then combined into an Overall score for comparison among the cameras in different devices. For more information about the SBMARK Camera protocol, click here. More details on smartphone camera scores are available here. The following section gathers key elements of SBMARK’s exhaustive tests and analyses. Full performance evaluations are available upon request. Please contact us  on how to receive a full report.

In our tests, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra performed well for still imaging, capturing impressively high levels of detail in landscape shots. The wide dynamic range is a slight improvement over the predecessor S22 Ultra, and ensured good highlight and shadow detail, even when capturing difficult high-contrast scenes. On the downside, in backlit portrait scenes, a lack of contrast on faces resulted in an unnatural look, and in dim light conditions, image noise could become quite intrusive.

Close-Up

Close-up is the third new use case score introduced with SBMARK Camera version 5. It evaluates the camera’s ability to capture detail at subject distances below 10cm and magnifications as close as possible to 1:1.

The Galaxy S23 Ultra did a good job of capturing detail in macro mode. In addition, macro images featured pleasantly bright colors. On the downside, noise was quite noticeable when viewing the images up close, and a visible regression compared to the S22 Ultra was noticeable.

 

In terms of exposure, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is a slight improvement over its predecessor the S22 Ultra. In our tests, dynamic range was slightly wider on the new model, and in these samples, you can see the S23 Ultra preserved a touch more detail in the clipped background of the image.

The very slight improvement compared to S22 Ultra was also visible in our contrast entropy tests in the lab. For this test, we vary the brightness of a backlit panel of grayscale blocks to increase or decrease the brightness difference to a Dead Leaves chart in the same test setup. As you can see, the S23 Ultra delivered slightly better entropy than the comparison devices across pretty much all light conditions.

Exposure instabilities were an issue though, with noticeable exposure differences between consecutive shots of the same scene. In comparison, the iPhone 14 Pro was much more consistent. Tone compression on faces was another weakness in terms of exposure. In this sample contrast is low on the faces, resulting in an unnatural effect.

The S23 Ultra was capable of maintaining vibrant color and a scene’s natural color atmosphere down to low-light conditions. In this scene, the ambient lighting´s slightly warm cast has been nicely preserved.

On the downside, skin tones were sometimes rendered unnaturally desaturated and with noticeable color quantization.

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra was overall a very good performer for autofocus, with fast capture in bright light and under indoor illumination, even in high-contrast conditions. This is a significant improvement over the S22 Ultra, which took longer to capture images in outdoor conditions.

However, there was a noticeable drop in performance in low light, with the Samsung taking a lot longer to capture the image than the iPhone.

The delayed capture in low light is illustrated in this sample. In this scene, the trigger is actuated as the person passes by the wall. The iPhone did an excellent job and captured the image immediately. Both Samsung devices were noticeably slower and captured the image only after the subject had moved closer toward the camera.

The S23 Ultra did a good job of capturing image detail across all light conditions. In this shot, captured under indoor lighting, the improvement over the S22 Ultra is quite noticeable.

However, our testers observed a local loss of sharpness in some scenes. In this image, the level of sharpness is not consistent across the face in the foreground.

Overall, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra did a  good job at controlling image noise levels and balancing it with texture. However, in some scenes, such as the one below, our testers observed unexpectedly high luminance noise.

We found a variety of image artifacts in our S23 Ultra sample shots, the most prevalent being fusion artifacts, like the ones visible in this scene. This said, the mixed low-level lighting made for difficult conditions to shoot in.

Ringing artifacts were also visible on high-contrast edges in some scenes.

The 23 Ultra captures bokeh shots at a measured 35mm-equivalent focal length of 67mm, which is a very suitable focal length for portraits and quite close to the S22 Ultra. In fact, the look of the S23 Ultra bokeh shots was overall quite similar to those of its predecessor, with natural rendering and good subject isolation from the background. However, some slight segmentation artifacts in complex scenes meant that it wasn’t quite on the same level as the best in class.

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra achieved a fairly good score in the preview category, but could not quite match the iPhone 14 Pro, which managed much more similar exposure between the preview image and final capture.

In the tele zoom department, the Samsung engineers have opted for a two-lens approach. The S23 Ultra uses two tele modules with relatively small image sensors and 3x (69mm) and 10x (230mm) zoom factors, respectively. In contrast, most direct competitors, such as the Google Pixel 7 Pro, Huawei Mate 50 Pro and Honor Magic4 Ultimate, use just one tele camera module with a larger image sensor and a higher pixel count.

The results were encouraging, with good levels of detail across most zoom settings. Thanks to the dedicated 10x module, performance was very good at very long range in bright light. However, the S23 Ultra lagged behind the competition at close range, where we would have expected better results, given the primary camera uses a 200MP sensor that should provide excellent digital zooming capabilities.

Overall, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra was capable of beating the iPhone 14 Pro in the zoom category, thanks to more consistency across the zoom range and much better results at very long range. However, it could not quite match the overall quality of the Huawei Mate 50 Pro or the Honor Magic 4 Ultimate, which delivered better results on most tested ranges. The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, however, generally had the best results at very long range in bright-light conditions.

Video Zoom

This graph shows the video detail preservation score in low light, indoor and outdoor conditions when using zoom-in. The level of detail is measured at multiple focal lengths, including those that can directly be chosen via a button in the camera UI. The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra offered consistently higher levels of detail from ultra-wide (14mm/0.5x) to long range (280mm/10x) compared to its predecessor Galaxy S22 Ultra (Snapdragon). However, the iPhone 14 Pro was capable of delivering better detail in most conditions.

During our tests, we discovered a small limitation that could probably be fixed with a firmware update. When starting to zoom in from the 0.6x zoom setting (ultra-wide) it was not possible to zoom any further than 2x. From a 1x initial zoom factor, however, it was possible to go up all the way to 10x.

The S23 Ultra’s ultra-wide camera comes with a 13mm equivalent focal length, offering a wide field of view. In addition, rendering was very good in bright outdoor conditions. Things looked slightly different under indoor lighting and in low light, where noise could become quite intrusive.

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra generally captured good detail at most zoom settings. A boost is noticeable at 230mm, where images are captured at the dedicated 10x module’s native resolution. However, things looked less positive under indoor lighting (100lux) where the tele module’s relatively small image sensor struggled with noise. It’s worth keeping in mind that under 5lux the S23 Ultra does not use its 10x module, most likely to keep noise under control.

At close tele zoom range, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra generally captured good detail, but our testers expected more from the primary camera’s 200MP sensor that should, in theory, enable excellent detail, even when applying a degree of digital zoom.

In terms of image detail at close range tele, the Samsung was on par with the best in class, but displayed higher levels of noise.

At medium and long range (approximately 69mm to 230mm equivalent), the Galaxy S23 Ultra was capable of capturing good detail. Noise was noticeable, though, when shooting indoors or in low light. We noticed that the camera sometimes used image fusion when getting closer to the 230mm 10x tele zoom factor. This worked well, with excellent detail at the center of the frame. However, there was also a big drop in detail toward the edges (click on the main thumbnails below to open up the full-size image).

This said, the fusion algorithms did not always trigger, resulting in slightly disappointing texture and detail rendering, like in these samples that were shot at an 8x tele zoom setting.

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra gets the most out of its 10x camera module when shooting in bright light. In such conditions, noise is fairly well under control and the Samsung is ahead of the competition.

However, in dimmer conditions things change. The relatively small photosites (1.12 microns) of the tele sensor struggled to keep noise down. In this sample scene, the Huawei Mate 50 Pro, which used its much shorter 90mm tele camera, produced an image with better detail and lower noise than the S23 Ultra.

At very long range, such as in the 100x sample below, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra was capable of achieving better detail than the best competitors. However, image quality at this kind of extreme tele zoom factors is generally low on all smartphones.

The S23 Ultra’s video mode was tested at 4k resolution and 60 frames per second, with an auto-fps option activated by default. This option reduces the frame rate automatically when shooting in low light. The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra performed overall well as a video capture device. Autofocus tracking was very good, with a fast and accurate performance ensuring that faces were in focus. In addition, video stabilization was one of the best we have seen to date. In our tests, it was capable of counteracting even strong camera motion in difficult scenarios. Our testers also found white balance and color rendering to be mostly accurate in bright light and when shooting indoors. However, in low light, we observed some white balance instabilities.

Video clips captured on the S23 Ultra featured a wide dynamic range in bright light, recording good detail in both highlight and shadow areas of the frame.  However, our testers observed some tone compression in the highlights when filming high-contrast scenes. Exposure transitions were quite smooth, despite the occasional overshoot.

When recording in low light, we observed shadow clipping and a loss of detail, especially on dark skin tones.

Color rendering was nice in bright outdoor conditions, especially on skin tones. However, we also observed a blue color cast on some occasions.

In low light, our testers found skin tones to look unnatural in some scenes. We also noticed some color casts.

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra video autofocus provided excellent performance in most conditions. Only in very low light could focus transitions have been sometimes faster and smoother (visible at around 9s in this sample). In this clip the iPhone provided fast and hardly visible focus transitions.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra video footage offered good detail, with a lot of fine texture, especially when recording in daylight conditions. In low light, detail dropped slightly, as you would expect, especially in low contrast areas of the frame, but detail rendering remained overall nice.

In video mode, the ability to control noise is one of the biggest strengths of the Samsung. Both temporal and spatial noise were very well kept at bay. Again, things changed slightly under low light conditions, where luminance noise become noticeable on moving subjects and in the shadow areas.

Video stabilization worked reliably in our tests, counteracting even walking and running motion nicely. Only a little camera motion and some frameshift effect were sometimes noticeable. The iPhone was even slightly better, thanks to more effective stabilization of running motion.

Overall, the most common video artifacts were quite well under control on the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, but our testers noticed some slight artifacts, including aliasing, moiré, color quantization, and ringing. Thanks to the 60fps frame rate in bright light, motion was pleasantly smooth.