Samsung Galaxy A23 review

One UI 4.1 on top of Android 12

As we already mentioned, not often do we see a low-end smartphone launched in early 2022 running the latest Android OS. So kudos to Samsung for including the One UI 4.1 software based on Android 12. Of course, there are quite a few features missing from the software when compared to Samsung's mid-range and top-tier models.

We also found even some Samsung-specific features missing from the list, such as the voice assistant Bixby, Samsung Pay and Windows Link, among others. However, Easy mode, Good Lock and Secure Folder are at hand, suggesting that this isn't exactly the One UI 4.1 Core version of the software that the Galaxy A13 is running. Still seems like a toned-down version of the proper One UI 4.1, though. Of curse, Always-on is absent as well since the handset runs an LCD panel. The good news is that Smart View (read Screen Cast) is on the menu as opposed to the Galaxy A13. We believe this is an essential feature, so it's good to see it on a basic phone like this one.

We've also noticed that there are stutters and the occasional short hangs here and there. The software definitely doesn't run as smoothly as you'd expect, not the best user experience, that's for sure. Let's move on to the features we can work with, though.

Unlocking the screen with the side-mounted fingerprint scanner is a breezy experience - the reader is always-on and has superb accuracy and speed.

Home screen, notification shade, recent apps, settings menu

If you've used an older version of One UI, you will feel right at home. The whole point of One UI is to provide a pleasant one-handed experience, so you can pull down on pretty much all system menus, so that the interactive UI elements are moved to the lower half of the screen. There are a couple of customization options like accent colors (which are automatically generated based on the wallpaper of your choice), lock screen style, widgets, etc.

Customization options and themes

Another fairly new addition you might notice coming from an older Android is the reworked multimedia controls originally introduced with Android 11. You get the active audio playback apps right below the quick toggles, and swiping to the side switches between the apps.

Media controls

The Media screen was already available on One UI 2.5 pre-Android 11, and it offers similar functionality for picking the output device. The volume control panel has gotten a makeover too, and now the four sliders are vertical instead of the horizontal ones of One UIs past.

There are plenty of system navigation options, with a few tweaks and layouts available for gestures, as well as old-school button controls, even the really-old original style, with the back button on the right side.

Navigation customizations

The settings menu has recently undergone a subtle but meaningful makeover. Subcategories are made more legible by using a dot separator and extra spacing, while recent searches are now shown as bubbles instead of a list. Additionally, there's a newly added feature to search settings by hashtags - for conceptually related things found in different places in the menu.

Beyond all of this, the Galaxy A23 comes loaded with a standard set of apps from Samsung, Microsoft and Google.

So despite being a trimmed version of the original One UI 4.1, the software still provides a plethora of features that most of you will find useful. Our only complaint is about performance. The Snapdragon 680 seems to be struggling with the rather heavy One UI. On the other hand, we've seen the Snapdragon 680 run well before, and its performance isn't too far off from the Snapdragon 695, for example, so it might be due to software optimization issues alone. We hope Samsung takes note and improves performance down the road.

Synthetic performance

On the surface, the Snapdragon 680 (SM6225) is a modern chip. It was released in Q4 2021 and is made on a current and efficient TSMC 6nm node. Once you start reading into some of its other specs in detail, though, some major compromises start to show through. For one, its four "big" Kryo 265 Gold cores are based on the ARM Cortex-A73 from all the way back in 2016, while the Cortex-A53 base for the "LITTLE" Kryo 265 Silver ones was unveiled in 2012. Both are several generations old and can't really keep up with more potent and recent CPU cores. The Snapdragon 680 has these set up in a 4x2.4 GHz Kryo 265 Gold & 4x1.9 GHz Kryo 265 Silver configuration.

Then there is the Adreno 610 GPU - another aging piece of kit that is almost operating at its maximum supported display resolution limit of 2520x1080 pixels on the Galaxy A23, with its 1080 x 2400 resolution display. That should be a good enough indication of its performance. We are almost wondering how it is managing 90Hz or rather anywhere close to 90fps at all. The Spectra 346 camera ISP and Hexagon 686 DSP of the Snapdragon 680 are nothing to phone home about either and are the reason why the Samsung Galaxy A23 is only limited to 1080p video capture. By the way, the Snapdragon 695 is even more of a disappointment than the Snapdragon 680 in this regard since it shares this limitation, while the older and "lower number" Snapdragon 690 doesn't. But, we are getting off-topic.

Continuing the list of less-than-impressive Snapdragon 680 features, we have the X11 LTE modem, rated at Cat. 13 speeds, capped at 390 Mbps down and 150 Mbps up. Quick Charge 3+ support is also a bit old.

Without further ado, let's see how the Snapdragon 680 holds up in our synthetic benchmark test selection.

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  771
• Realme 9 Pro
  694
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  688
• Poco X4 Pro 5G
  687
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  560
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  511
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  505
• Realme 9i
  384
• Samsung Galaxy A23
  380
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  376
• Samsung Galaxy A13
  153

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  2801
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  2063
• Poco X4 Pro 5G
  2063
• Realme 9 Pro
  2020
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  1729
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  1719
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  1673
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  1662
• Samsung Galaxy A23
  1632
• Realme 9i
  1581
• Samsung Galaxy A13
  588

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  506432
• Realme 9 Pro
  401894
• Poco X4 Pro 5G
  384646
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  382902
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  319093
• Samsung Galaxy A23
  273554
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  244526
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  223188
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  222125
• Samsung Galaxy A13
  136286

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  56
• Realme 9 Pro
  35
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  34
• Poco X4 Pro 5G
  34
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  24
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  24
• Realme 9i
  23
• Samsung Galaxy A23
  15
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  15
• Samsung Galaxy A13
  9.4

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  49
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  30
• Poco X4 Pro 5G
  30
• Realme 9 Pro
  29
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  22
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  21
• Realme 9i
  14
• Samsung Galaxy A23
  12
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  12
• Samsung Galaxy A13
  8.3

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  33
• Poco X4 Pro 5G
  20
• Realme 9 Pro
  19
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  19
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  14
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  14
• Samsung Galaxy A23
  8.3
• Realme 9i
  8.2
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  8
• Samsung Galaxy A13
  6.2

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  28
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G
  17
• Poco X4 Pro 5G
  17
• Realme 9 Pro
  16
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 Pro
  12
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  12
• Realme 9i
  7.3
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  6.8
• Samsung Galaxy A23
  6.7
• Samsung Galaxy A13
  5.2

3DMark SSE Vulkan 1.0 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
  4231
• Realme 9 Pro
  2773
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  2509
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  2257
• Realme 9i
  1291
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 11
  1267
• Samsung Galaxy A23
  1261
• Samsung Galaxy A13
  931

To be frank, there's nothing inherently wrong with the Snapdragon 680 SoC in terms of raw performance; it's just that it's not intended for this particular tier. The Galaxy A23 seems to struggle against the competition running more powerful hardware.

In fact, last year's Galaxy A22 with the Dimensity 720 scores better in all scenarios - CPU, GPU-intensive and combined. The rather outdated Adreno 610 is mostly to blame for the lackluster performance of the Galaxy A23.