Samsung S23 Ultra

Samsung's newest flagship has a 200MP sensor, but does that mean it's still the best smartphone for photographers? asks Amy Davies

- Amy Davies

Samsung’s flagships have been the cameraphones to beat for quite a while, but with the devices getting better with every iteration, it’s perhaps fair to say that each new version is only a slight improvement on the last.

As such, the S23 Ultra, which follows on from last year’s S22 Ultra, doesn’t evolve the device too much, though once again it contains an array of excellent features which should be very appealing to the enthusiast photographer.

The big news is a jump in pixel for the main camera, with the S23 Ultra being the firm’s first to boast a 200MP sensor – a boost from last year’s 108MP device. As we’d expect, images are not output at 200MP by default, although you can shoot in super- high-resolution mode if you really want to. Thanks to pixel binning, the standard 12MP resolution is what you’ll see and expect for almost all of your shots.

In front of the 200MP sensor is a stabilised 23mm equivalent f/1.7 lens, while there are three more cameras also available to choose from. There’s an ultra-wide 12MP, 13mm equivalent f/2.2 combination, and two telephoto lenses, both with 10MP sensors behind them. One offers a 3x, 72mm f/2.4 lens, while the other is a 230mm 10x zoom with an f/4.9 aperture. There’s also ‘space zoom’ – a form of digital zoom which means you can reach 30x or 100x if you need it.

With four lenses available, this puts the S23 Ultra ahead of most other flagship smartphones, with devices such as the Apple iPhone 14 Pro and the Google Pixel 7 Pro only boasting three lenses.