Galaxy S23 Ultra proves Samsung doesn’t have to try anymore

The new Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra looks exactly like the Galaxy S22 Ultra from 2022. Take a look at the image above and try to spot the differences.

That’s because it’s practically the same phone. Samsung can’t even be bothered to try to hide it.

How can it, when the corners are square with the same sized screen, house a phone with an S-Pen stylus and five circular camera cutouts on the back? Put the two phones side by side and you’ll have a hard time telling them apart.

The S23 Ultra gets the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, a 200Mp main camera and some new software tricks, but it’s really an evolution, not a revolution.

Qualcomm equipping the S23 with a special version of the 8 Gen 2, with a CPU clocked at a higher peak speed of 3.36 GHz, is in itself proof that the differentiation of smartphones in 2023 is difficult to reach and clear for most consumers.

My colleague Dom Preston has all the details of the new S23 series if you want to know all the specs, and we’re rounding up the best pre-order deals if you’re still tempted to grab one.

But these specs show that the expensive new smartphones on the market aren’t all that different from those that came out a year ago, and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change anytime soon.

It’s not just Samsung. Apple hasn’t bothered to hide the fact that the iPhone 14 looks identical to the iPhone 13 and is basically the same phone. Ditto the Google Pixel 7 compared to the Pixel 6.

And while Samsung has tweaked the rear camera design of the new Galaxy S23 and S23 Plus, on paper the actual camera hardware on these models is identical to the S22 series. After sticking an S23 in a case, it looks like an S22, which looked like an S21.

And yes, the S23 Ultra’s 200Mp sensor will take great photos as it performs intelligent pixel binning and improves low-light performance. But the ultra-wide and telephoto lenses are the same as last year, and after posting a compressed photo on Instagram, who’s really going to be able to tell the difference?

This underscores the fact that Apple and Samsung, two of the biggest smartphone makers, regularly sell their flagship smartphones in such large numbers every year that they no longer need to try. They can release the same phone with the same design and get the same or better sales numbers, the same positive brand marketing, and the same four or five star reviews from tech journalists and YouTubers.

The latter is of course due to sites like this one, Tech Advisor. We try to review smartphones fairly and on product merits rather than endless comparison – I chose not to rate the excellent iPhone 14 in my review simply because it’s the same as the iPhone 13. But you should still buy an iPhone 13 today and save some money, and I said in the review that you definitely shouldn’t upgrade from a 13 to a 14.

I predict I’ll say the same about an S23 Ultra once I’ve fully reviewed it. Get a discounted S22 Ultra if you really like the design, S-Pen stylus, and versatile mobile camera setup. You will get the same experience.

The same goes for the S23 and S23+ – an S22 or S22+ will serve you well for less money, unless you much prefer this year’s updated design. Apple and Samsung support their top phones with at least four years of software updates, which is more than enough for a phone you buy a year after launch.

It’s easy to get caught up in the buzz of the new phone, but the days of monumental design leaps are over: the glass iPhone 4 to the larger metal iPhone 5, the plastic Galaxy S5 to the Galaxy S6 in elegant glass.

Even the Galaxy S21 Ultra was a stunning leap forward in design from the ugly S20 Ultra just two years ago.

But according to recent evidence, Apple and Samsung can wait an entire year and release the exact same phone and market it as a new one.

There is a difference in strategy between the companies – you can still buy a brand new iPhone 12 (launched in 2020) from Apple whereas at the time of this writing I couldn’t buy any of the S21, S21 Plus or Samsung S21 Ultra (launched 2021).

I don’t know which is worse.

It seems bizarre to suggest given the relentless annual cycle of smartphone releases, but what if Apple and Samsung didn’t release a new range of flagship phones every year? What if they followed Fairphone’s example?

At a press conference, Samsung bragged that the S23 Ultra had more components made from recycled materials than the S22 Ultra. Wouldn’t it be more environmentally friendly not to make a new model at all, but rather to sell the S22 series for longer and better support services, such as battery replacement, which means people don’t switch to a new phone before you need it?

The smartphone giants should help us keep our phones around longer, but the marching forward of their annual release cycle makes us think we need a new phone when the one in our pocket is already in good shape.

The one you have now is probably the same functionally as the brand new iPhone 14 or Galaxy S23 Ultra.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t buy a new phone if you need one, but there’s no denying that Samsung hasn’t done anything new this year with the S23 series. The company should admit that the evolution of smartphones has come to a halt by making fewer phones rather than chasing profits that drive perfectly decent phones into desk drawers and landfills long before their time.