72 Hours With Samsung's Galaxy S23 Ultra: Battery Life Is The Real Winner

It’s been just a few days since Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S23 series. At the launch, Samsung touted several improvements under-the-hood, for the Galaxy S23 Series. In the days since the launch, I’ve spent some time with both the Galaxy S23 Ultra and the Galaxy S23. The full review may be a few days away, but I’ve been left mighty impressed. I’m here to talk about the Galaxy S23 Ultra. It may look exactly like its predecessor on the outside, but the refinements on the inside, are nothing short of huge.

It may have been just 72 hours since I unboxed and set up Samsung’s latest flagship smartphone - Galaxy S23 Ultra - but it may just be the most refined device the company has ever released. On paper, the Galaxy S23 Ultra seems to be the same as the Galaxy S22 Ultra. It’s got the same display size, same battery size, same S Pen and looks almost identical. It may have a marginally different camera suite and some minor software improvements.

These minor tweaks, including the custom chip, have made me think that something is mighty different this time around.

The answer is that custom chip, in partnership with Qualcomm, that has provided massive battery life gains. Before I delve into it, let me tell you what happened just a few weeks ago.

It was a cold morning in Delhi when I stepped out and headed to the K. D. Jadhav Indoor Hall at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium to witness the best badminton stars from around the world participate in the India Open. I was venturing out at 10 in the morning and the main device I had with me was Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold 4 (their flagship foldable smartphone). I spent the day seeing some incredible on-court battles while taking hundreds of photos. For the most part, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 was switching between 4G and 5G networks as the latter wasn’t stable inside the venue.

By the time I reached Connaught Place for dinner, sometime after 8 PM, the smartphone had close to 3% battery left. That was, due to my having enabled airplane mode, for brief periods throughout the day. I may have gotten close to six hours of screen-on-time (SoT) but the phone did not last me till I reached home.

The Galaxy S23 Ultra, on the other hand, comfortably lasts a power-packed day (at least in my first few days of testing). Samsung has partnered with Qualcomm to directly take on Apple and their in-house chips. While the iPhone 13 Pro Max (yes, the iPhone 14 Pro Max was substantially worse) was the king of battery life for a few months too many, Samsung may have finally reclaimed the crown it so desperately wants.

Samsung and Qualcomm are a match made in heaven

Qualcomm couldn’t have asked for a better partner for an exclusive high-end chip partnership. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform For Galaxy is the first time Qualcomm has offered its high-end chipset with co-branding. With the launch of the Galaxy S23 Series, customers in Europe and Asia needn’t put up with Exynos variants of these smartphones anymore. The customised chipset features a better ISP for improved video and image quality alongside higher CPU and GPU clock speeds.

Samsung is a global behemoth and only they could have ordered a large number of chips from Qualcomm to warrant the research and development and subsequent production of an exclusive Galaxy version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC.

The real kicker? Battery life

I brought up the story at the start of this article, because one of the areas where the Galaxy S23 Ultra has improved over its predecessor, is concerning the battery life.

It’s just early days but the partnership and custom Snapdragon chip from Qualcomm are already paying dividends for Samsung. Going global with Snapdragon and ditching their in-house Exynos chipsets entirely has been a genius move. With three full days of usage under my belt, I’ve not been able to kill the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s battery life as easily as I could with the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

With over 15 hours of usage and a minimum of six hours of SoT, I’m still left with around 20 percent of battery life before I hit the sack. That’s mighty impressive. I haven’t yet tested the camera extensively, so maybe that might kill it earlier than I’d expect, but only time will tell. The iPhone 13 Pro Max has been judged, by most, as the smartphone with the longest-lasting battery. The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is here to take its crown. With a host of software optimisations, Qualcomm’s custom chip, and better thermals, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is looking like a winner!

What’s more, is that as the device learns my usage patterns, it optimises the battery for more efficient usage.

I’m excited to put the smartphone through its paces in the next few days. From camera (the big ticket 200MP sensor), to gaming (much-improved thermals) and one of the fastest chipsets on any Android smartphone, the Galaxy S23 Ultra has a lot going for it. I’ll be testing the smartphone a lot more intensively before my full review in a couple of days. Stay tuned for that.