Galaxy S23 Ultra is a great camera allrounder: DXOMARK
0Samsung‘s brand-new Galaxy S23 Ultra has wowed reviewers and experts globally. In our review, we found it the closest anything has ever been to a perfect smartphone. The phone has a lot going for it, not the least of which is the camera. The folks over at DXOMARK have now provided their assessment of the phone’s camera capabilities. They have ranked the new Samsung flagship surprisingly low at the tenth spot, but that ranking doesn’t tell the full story.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra packs a 200MP primary rear camera that offers three different modes: 200MP, 50MP, and 12MP. The latter is the default mode and DXOMARK carried out this test in the default setting. According to the publication, the device offered very good detail in regular photos with a fairly wide dynamic range in all lighting conditions. It “ensured good highlight and shadow detail, even when capturing difficult high-contrast scenes,” the test report states.
The phone offered great zoom shots as well. Samsung has equipped the Galaxy S23 Ultra with two 10MP optical zoom cameras (3X and 10X), and it captured good detail across most zoom settings. “Tele zoom at very long range was a strength,” DXOMARK said. Video stabilization was also labeled to be “very effective”. Samsung says the OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) on the new model is twice as strong as its predecessor. Video exposure was good too, and so was autofocus, in both photo and video.
Unfortunately, the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s rear camera setup doesn’t come without any shortcomings. DXOMARK found that photos have low contrast in backlit scenes and some noise in low-light conditions. The publication also spotted fusion artifacts in all conditions and slight white balance casts. Low-light videos also suffered from occasional underexposure of faces. These are sort of things that Samsung can improve with software updates, though. So maybe the phone will get better over time.
Overall, DXOMARK concludes that the Galaxy S23 Ultra doesn’t have major drawbacks in any area as long as the camera performance is concerned. This makes it a “great smartphone imaging allrounder”. However, some minor shortcomings don’t allow the device to be the outright best in every category. The publication gave the latest Samsung flagship a camera score of 140. That puts it in the tenth spot in the overall rankings, below the latest offerings from Google, Apple, and a few others.