Samsung Galaxy A23 review

Quad-camera setup with a 50MP sensor

The Galaxy A23 features four cameras on its back, led by a 50MP sensor. Sadly, we couldn't find any official detailed specs, nor were we able to identify the exact sensor, so we don't know the size or the size of the pixels. We do know that it's paired with a relatively wide f/1.8 aperture, and the optics are stabilized.

The main camera is joined by a 5MP ultrawide camera consisting of a tiny 1/5" sensor with 1.12µm pixels. The lens provides an impressive 123-degree field of view and f/2.2 aperture. The other two cameras are merely fillers - 2MP. F/2.4 macro camera and a 2MP one for depth sensing. The camera on the front uses an 8MP f/2.2 unit.

Camera menus

The camera app is the same you'd find on most Samsung phones these days, but it misses on a few features. Swiping left and right will switch between all available modes, and there's an option to re-arrange or remove some of the modes from the viewfinder. Vertical swipes will switch between front and rear cameras.

Default camera app

The settings icon is located in the upper left corner of the screen and gives you fine control over the cameras. You don't get separate setting screens for photos and video since the options aren't that many in total. Grid lines, location data - the usual stuff can be found there. You can also turn on and off the Auto HDR.

Default camera app

There are some fun extras to explore, like Deco Pic and its AR stickers. Also, a Pro mode is available, but only for the main camera and with a rather limited set of controls. You can manually adjust ISO between 100 and 800, Exposure compensation within a two-stop range and white balance between 2300K and 10000K. No manual focus or focus peaking, no shutter speed controls.

Also notably missing from the Galaxy A13 camera experience: Scene Optimizer, Night Mode and Video stabilization.

Daylight samples

Main camera

We can go as far as saying that the Galaxy A23 punches a bit above its class when it comes to picture quality in broad daylight. At least when those pictures are taken with the main 50MP camera, of course. We found sharpness and fine detail to be pretty good, despite the soft patches that may occur when shooting foliage. Colors may come out as oversaturated for the trained eye but the majority of users will find them pleasing and directly instagrammable.

Main camera daylight samples

When the lighting conditions are good, noise is hard to spot while dynamic range is more than satisfactory. One might argue that some shadows appear crushed in some rare instances, but given the price of the A23, that's just nitpicking.

There's no zoom toggle and no way to utilize the full 50MP resolution of the sensor, although we believe those are not notable omissions. The 2x cropped zoom and the un-binned 50MP images are almost never good enough, especially in the budget class.

Ultrawide camera

Samsung kept mostly the same rendition style for the ultrawide camera, but the overall quality deteriorates fast. All samples are noisy, fuzzy, lack detail and have limited dynamic range. The punchy colors, contrast and exposure are the only things that resemble the main camera. Despite all the drawbacks, the camera performs just about as you'd expect from a budget sensor like this one. Some competitors use 8MP ultrawide snappers, though, they offer marginally better performance at best.

Ultrawide camera daylight samples

Macro camera

The popular 2MP macro camera makes it to the Galaxy A23 as well, and to be honest, it's all just a numbers game at this point. This camera barely provides any value as it has a low resolution that affects detail, and since it's a tiny sensor, the optimal lighting conditions are a must. Still, even under good light, photos are dull, contrast is lacking, and the overall level of detail is underwhelming. The lack of autofocus is another big downside.

Macro camera samples

Low-light samples

Main camera

Even with the Galaxy A23's price in mind, the low-light performance is underwhelming, to say the least. The standard Photo mode produces somewhat soft and noisy images with washed-out colors and low contrast. It also appears to go for a brighter exposure which reveals quite a bit of detail in the shadows but clips the highlights in the process.

Low-light main camera samples

To our surprise, the Night mode didn't resolve most of the issues. It takes care of the noise, but it also smears away the little detail we see on the samples. And it takes a lot of time to process the images, so we can't really recommend using that mode. Better stick with the standard Photo mode. The good news is that the OIS seems to make the shooting experience more consistent at night, and not a single photo was shaky.

Night mode samples

Ultrawide camera

It's probably needless to say that the ultrawide camera is unusable at night. Photos are fuzzy, lack contrast and color and have limited dynamic range.

Low-light ultrawide camera samples

Here's how the primary camera on the Samsung Galaxy A23 stacks against the rest of the competition in the controlled environment of our Photo Compare Tool.

Samsung Galaxy A23 vs. Poco X4 Pro 5G and the Galaxy A52s 5G in our Photo compare tool

Portraits

Portraits look good overall. Colors are punchy, the subject's face is well-exposed most of the time, and the bokeh effect is somewhat convincing. Sharpness and detail need a little work. Luckily, quality remains rather consistent across different lighting scenarios.

Portrait samples

Selfies

The selfies turned out pretty good. Under more challenging lighting conditions, the software may struggle with the subject's exposure, but overall we are happy with the quality. Sharpness and detail are good, colors are punchy.

Selfies: Normal • Portrait

Video recording

Galaxy A23's video shooting capabilities cap at 1080p@30fps. You can also record using the ultrawide camera, again at 1080p. Just like other handsets running one of Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 6xx series chipset, this one can't do 4K videos due to the inferior ISP.

Let's start with the main camera. It actually produces pretty decent 1080p footage. In fact, it's even a tad better than most competitors, at least in terms of overall detail. Sharpness is good for mid-range 1080p video, colors are juicy, and dynamic range is borderline impressive. There's virtually no noise and contrast is great.

Understandably, the ultrawide camera produces subpar video quality in pretty much all aspects. We also see a tendency for a warmer white balance judging by the yellow-ish grass and trees. Dynamic range isn't great and aside from the poor detail and sharpness, the footage shows prominent noise as well.

Once you are done with the real-life scenarios, take a look at our video compare tool to see how the Samsung Galaxy A23 stacks against the other phones we've reviewed.

1080p: Samsung Galaxy A23 vs. Xiaomi Poco X4 Pro 5G and the Galaxy A52s in our Video compare tool