Samsung Galaxy S23+ review

Familiar triple camera setup with a new selfie

The Galaxy S23+, as well as the vanilla S23 for that matter, have basically the same rear camera setup as last year's models. That includes a 50MP main cam, a 10MP 3x telephoto and a 12MP ultrawide. The thing that has changed for this model year is the selfie camera which is now up from 10MP to 12MP.

Going through the camera hardware, we first have the main 50MP snapper, based on the Samsung S5KGN3 1/1.57" sensor with 1.0µm pixels and a Tetracell filter. This sensor sits behind an f/1.8 optically stabilized (OIS) lens and has Dual Pixel autofocus. Being the same camera as on the Galaxy S22+, this one also saves photos in 12MP resolution instead of the expected 12.5MP.

The telephoto camera uses a 10MP Samsung S5K3K1 sensor - 1/3.94" size and 1.0µm individual pixels. It sits behind an f/2.4 optically stabilized (OIS) lens and is also capable of PDAF.

The ultrawide camera is based on a 12MP Sony IMX564 sensor - 1/2.55" size and 1.4µm individual pixels. It sits behind an f/2.2 lens and has its focus fixed at infinity.

Finally, the new selfie camera uses a 12MP Samsung S5K3LU sensor with 1.12µm pitch and 25mm f/2.2 lens. There is dual-pixel PDAF, as usual. Many of the previous models, Galaxy S22+ included, used 10MP sensors for the front cam.

The camera app is the same you'd find on every Samsung phone these days. 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 in either direction will switch between front and rear cameras.

There are three zoom shortcuts on the viewfinder - .6x, 1x, 3x. Tapping on any of them will reveal more zoom levels - 2x, 10x, 20x, 30x.

The full resolution mode on the primary camera is triggered from the aspect options, which is a rather unintuitive bit.

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 photo and video since the options aren't that many in total. Like grid lines, location data, etc., the usual stuff can be found there. You can also turn on and off the Scene optimizer.

Camera app

The selfie viewfinder offers two zoom models - wide and standard (cropped). This is quite common among Galaxy phones.

All cameras support Night Mode, including Auto Night Mode, which works the same way as on iPhones and Xiaomi devices.

There's a Pro mode, too. You get granular exposure controls and manual focus with peaking, up to 30s shutter speed control for all cameras.

Expert RAW mode is available, too, just as a separate app you have to download from the Galaxy Store. It unlocks full manual control and the ability to retain both the built-in camera app's multi-frame processing and the raw image data for further edits. It can capture images with all five cameras and outputs both JPEG and DNG files.

Expert RAW app

Those DNG files can be edited in Lightroom Mobile, which has Samsung's full image data embedded through the built-in lens profile. You can do some great things using Expert RAW as it gives you the ability to play with the color and dynamic range to a much greater extent than with the default jpeg or heic files.

Daylight camera quality

As we mentioned, the 50MP main camera on the Galaxy S23+ uses a Tetracell (or Quad-Bayer) sensor. Basic math hence dictates that by default, it should produce 12.5MP stills. Instead, the S23+ captures 12MP photos. That's sort of the "unified" resolution that all of the rear cameras produce.

The main camera captures stellar, flagship-grade stills. Detail is great, and so is dynamic range. In typical Samsung fashion, the colors look nice with just a bit of extra vibrancy.

Samsung Galaxy S23+: 12MP main camera samples

As far as faults go, we can't really find that many. If we really had to nitpick, certain surfaces like grass and sky can come out looking a bit soft. And at times, the sharpening applied to things like straight lines, angles and geometrical shapes can be a bit harsh. Both issues are really minor and hard to spot unless pixel-peeping hard.

We also took the liberty of shooting some side-by-side photos with the Galaxy S23+ and the older Galaxy S22, which we had at hand, just to see how the two stack up. You can see the comparative photos below. The two phones seem to have a noticeable difference in color rendition.

Samsung Galaxy S23+: 12MP main camera samples

Samsung Galaxy S22: 12MP main camera samples

You can force the main camera on the S23+ to shoot in 50MP mode. These photos take a couple of seconds to capture and are significantly larger in file size compared to the regular ones. If you can live with both of these drawbacks, the shots themselves actually look great. There is definitely more detail in the frame, less softness, and artificial sharpening. In most other aspects, like colors and dynamic range, these are similar to the 12MP stills.

Samsung Galaxy S23+: 50MP main camera samples

We didn't notice any weird Moiré fringing around fine geometrical patterns either, which is great to see.

The main camera also does a great job of portrait shots. Subject detection and separation are excellent, and so is the quality of the convincing background bluer effect.

Samsung Galaxy S23+: 12MP main camera portrait samples

Non-human subjects also work great, though these require a bit more patience and careful focus to get just right.

Samsung Galaxy S23+: 12MP main camera portrait samples

Before we move on, here are our standard poster samples captured by the Galaxy S23+ and its main camera at 12MP and 50MP. Pixel-peep away.

Samsung Galaxy S23+ against the Samsung Galaxy S22+ and the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra in our Photo compare tool

50MP: Samsung Galaxy S23+ against the Samsung Galaxy S22+ and the vivo X80 Pro in our Photo compare tool

Moving on to the 10MP, 3x telephoto camera. It is also a familiar affair. Just like the main camera, this one does not shoot in the expected resolution. Instead, shots are saved in exactly 12MP (4000 x 3000). This does mean that there is some upscaling at play, which is not ideal. Then again, Samsung has been doing this for years now.

Nitpicking aside, at its native 3x optical zoom, the new 10MP telephoto captures very sharp and detailed photos. Impressively so, in fact. Detail is plenty, perhaps even a bit better than that of the main camera, in relative terms, of course. Colors look great and are well-matched to the main camera. We very much appreciate that Samsung has always been particularly diligent about this kind of consistency.

Samsung Galaxy S23+: 12MP telephoto 3x camera samples

Here are some quick comparative shots between the telephoto cameras of the S23+ and S22. As expected, these photos look really similar. Though, the S23+ seems to have less aggressive noise reduction, which leads to a higher level of perceived detail when pixel-peeping than the S22.

Samsung Galaxy S23+: 12MP telephoto 3x camera samples

Samsung Galaxy S22: 12MP telephoto 3x camera samples

Beyond its native 3x optical zoom, the telephoto camera can also go up to 30x digitally. These shots are perfectly usable even at max zoom. Naturally, softness quickly becomes an issue the more you push the zoom level. It also helps a lot that the telephoto is optically stabilized. That way, you can capture even extreme zoom shots without small hand twitches getting in the way.

Samsung Galaxy S23+: 12MP telephoto 10x, 20x and 30x camera samples

The telephoto camera can capture portrait shots pretty much as good as the main one.

Samsung Galaxy S23+: 12MP telephoto 3x camera portrait samples

Since autofocus on the ultrawide camera is still just limited to the Ultra model, and there is no dedicated macro on the S23+, you are stuck using the main or telephoto to get close-up shots. Both work surprisingly well in their own right and produce interesting stills. Here are some samples.

Samsung Galaxy S23+: 12MP main camera close-up samples

Samsung Galaxy S23+: 12MP telephoto 3x camera close-up samples

The 12MP ultrawide camera is carried forward from the S22 generation and the S21 before that. It is the same familiar 13mm, 120-degree field of view, f/2.2 unit, with fixed focus. Autofocus is still limited to the Ultra. These ultrawide shots are reasonably detailed for an ultrawide. The colors look great and match the main and telephoto cams very well.

Samsung Galaxy S23+: 12MP ultrawide camera samples

Some softness and sharpening are noticeable in the shot. Softness is a bit of an issue, actually and its pervasive all throughout the frame. Perhaps our unit has a lens defect of some sorts. Distortion correction is ON by default and does a great job of straightening out the edges of the frame without taking away too much of the width.

Here are some comparison shots with the S22, just like for all the other cameras. Again, these expectedly look very similar to the ultrawide stills from the S23+.

Samsung Galaxy S23+: 12MP ultrawide camera samples

Samsung Galaxy S22: 12MP ultrawide camera samples

Selfies

The new 12MP selfie camera captures sharp and pretty detailed photos. Colors also look great, particularly skin tones. Skin texture also comes out nice and detailed. Autofocus works great and is fast and consistent.

Samsung Galaxy S23+: 12MP selfie camera samples

Overall, we can't really find any flaws with Samsung's new 12MP selfie. Looking at the new S23+ selfies side by side with ones from the S22 is honestly a toss-up. We tend to like the detail better on the S23+, whereas skin tones seem a bit more true-to-life on the S22 ones. In any case, the difference is minimal.

Samsung Galaxy S23+: 12MP selfie camera samples

Samsung Galaxy S22: 12MP selfie camera samples

Selfie portraits look great too. Both the subject detection/separation and the background blur are exemplary.

Samsung Galaxy S23+: 12MP selfie camera portrait samples

Video quality

The Galaxy S23+ can capture video at up to 8K on its main camera. Now that can happen at 30fps, which is something the S22 generation couldn't do. Those devices were capped at 24fps, likely due to limitations of the Exynos 2200 chipset.

8K clips from the main camera of the S23+ look amazing. Detail is great, and so is dynamic range. Colors are surprisingly true-to-life for a Samsung device and not overly saturated in any way. We can't really find any obvious faults with this sample. Well, other than its size.

8K video gets recorded in h.265 (HEVC) by default with a video stream of around 80 Mbps and a stereo 48 kHz audio AAC stream inside an MP4 container.

4K clips look equally as good with very little sacrifice in detail. All the while, these end up much smaller, making it way more reasonable to record in 4K, in our opinion. 4K clips from the main camera have the same excellent dynamic range and colors as 8K ones and all of the other quality characteristics.

These also get saved in an MP4 container but with an h.264 AVC video stream of about 50 Mbps by default and the same stereo AAC 48 kHz audio stream.

Here is how the main camera stacks up against competitors in video capture at both 4K and 8K resolutions.

Samsung Galaxy S23+ against the Samsung Galaxy S22+ and the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra in our Video compare tool

8K: Samsung Galaxy S23+ against the Samsung Galaxy S22+ and the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra in our Video compare tool

4K video from the telephoto camera looks very sharp and clean as well, with plenty of detail and the same nice and true-to-life color reproduction as the main cam. Once again, we see that great Samsung consistency in processing across cameras in action.

Contrast is slightly higher in these clips, but it is hardly excessive and makes for a really sharp look.

The ultrawide camera can also capture up to 4K@30fps videos. These have a consistent color reproduction and good dynamic range, but they are not so hot in terms of detail, probably due to a lens issue on our specific review unit. The ones from the smaller S23 are much sharper.

We have absolutely no complaints regarding the 4K video captured from the selfie camera either. Great detail, good, if a bit saturated colors, nice skin tone and texture and nice contrast as well.

In terms of stabilization, the Galaxy S23+ has two separate levels, which is usually the case with recent Samsung phones. There is a toggle in the camera settings which enables or disables basic EIS across all cameras. Beyond that, Samsung also has its Super Steady mode, which is meant for really shaky footage, like doing sports. Both systems work great in their own right. You can check out some comparative samples in the playlist below.

Low-light camera quality

Shooting in full auto mode with the Galaxy S23+ in low light has two possible outcomes. Either the phone will deem that the ambient light is still good enough and just rely on its regular HDR stacking to get the best possible shot, or it will trigger Auto Night Mode. The latter is indicated by a small moon icon on the UI, which you can press to disable the mode and override the AI's decision.

This first batch of shots was captured with the main 50MP camera in auto mode without Night Mode kicking in. They look great with plenty of detail, nice contrast, true-to-life colors and very low noise. Highlights and light sources are handled very competently. Overall - some excellent flagship photos.

Samsung Galaxy S23+: 12MP main camera low-light samples

Beyond automatic, there is also a manual Night Mode, which is available across all cameras on the S23+. This manual Night Mode generally takes a second or two longer than the automatic one since the phone wants to do more image stacking and longer exposure.

Night mode shots from the main camera look pretty similar to regular ones. Just a bit brighter and slightly softer at times. Also, light sources appear more blown out in these shots for whatever reason.

Samsung Galaxy S23+: 12MP main camera Night Mode samples

We did capture some comparison photos with the Galaxy S22 as well. Night mode does appear to be a bit faster on the S23+ compared to the S22, which is great to see. Quality-wise, the differences in these shots are rather minimal.

Samsung Galaxy S22: 12MP main camera low-light samples

Samsung Galaxy S22: 12MP main camera Night Mode samples

The ultrawide camera does about as good as we can expect in low-light conditions. There is a lot of detail captured in these shots, and contrast and colors are both good. Noise is a bit of an issue or, rather, noise-suppression artifacts like smearing. Nothing too serious, though.

Samsung Galaxy S23+: 12MP ultrawide camera low-light samples

Just like on the main camera, Night Mode brightens up ultrawide shots at the expense of slightly worse light source and highlight handling. Detail is about the same, though the Night Mode shots are perhaps a bit sharper-looking due to less noise suppression.

Samsung Galaxy S23+: 12MP ultrawide camera Night Mode samples

Here are the equivalent photos from the ultrawide camera of the Galaxy S22. Again, the differences are hardly major.

Samsung Galaxy S22: 12MP ultrawide camera low-light samples

Samsung Galaxy S22: 12MP ultrawide camera Night Mode samples

The 3x telephoto camera is also very competent in low light. Both detail and contrast are great in these shots, and colors are true to life. Light sources and highlights are handled well.

Samsung Galaxy S23+: 12MP telephoto 3x camera low-light samples

The telephoto camera seems to benefit the most from Night Mode. Night mode shots look a lot cleaner with much less noise. Light sources are also handled better.

Samsung Galaxy S23+: 12MP telephoto 3x camera Night Mode samples

And here is how the telephoto on the Galaxy S22 stacks up in the same exact lighting conditions.

Samsung Galaxy S22: 12MP telephoto 3x camera low-light samples

Samsung Galaxy S22: 12MP telephoto 3x camera Night Mode samples

Low-light selfies are pretty clean, with nice skin tone and texture, lively colors, good contrast and overall detail. Autofocus can sometimes be hit or miss, but it is usually on point.

Samsung Galaxy S23+: 12MP selfie camera low-light samples

Here are some selfies from the S22 and its older 10MP camera for comparison. Their overall quality is not far off from the new camera.

Samsung Galaxy S22: 10MP selfie camera low-light samples

The Galaxy S23+ captures great low-light video. Detail is plenty, noise is low, and colors look great. Light sources are not overly blown-out, with all of the signs clearly legible.

Once again, there is little benefit to recording in 8K on the main camera. You end up with pretty much the same overall quality but with a bigger storage footprint and a harder file to playback and handle on other devices.

The ultrawide camera is surprisingly great in low light as well. Sure, it is a bit darker, and some of the surfaces are slightly grainy, but overall, a great showing.

Finally, there is the telephoto. It is slightly noisier than the main camera, but other than that still has great detail, nice colors and very competent light source handling. Again, a very impressive showing.

Last but not least, we should mention Auto FPS for low-light video capture, which originally made its debut on the Galaxy S22 line and is still very much present on the S23+. The feature is supposed to automatically adjust FPS in low-light conditions, lowering it to get the most light possible and all of the detail at the expense of smoothness. While recording in low light, the S23+ should be able to go down from 60fps to 30 automatically, then 24 and 15 according to the available light.

There is also "Super Night Solution", which runs at 24fps or lower and does on-the-fly frame stacking for cleaner frames with more light and detail. Overall, Auto FPS is a bit hard to demo, but don't be surprised if your low-light videos look choppy at as low as 15fps.