Samsung S23

[thilanliyan]

Pre-ordered the S23 Ultra. Looking forward to switching from the Pixel 6 which has several annoyances I never had with my previous Note 9. The most annoying ones are missed notifications and camera edge softness.

Hopefully Samsung has gotten closer to the overall Pixel camera experience. Only thing I'm not looking forward to are the (slightly) curved screen (although it should be better than the Note 9 in that aspect) and the massive size.

Anyone else ordering any of the S23 phones?

 

[Oyeve]

I'm done with samsung. My S22 Ultra is the last samsung phone I will have. Reason is they lost my Flip 3 when I sent it in to get the flip 4 and even tho I spent multi 1000s of bucks on their stuff, every galaxy phone, every note phone and many tablets, they demanded the flip 4 back or they would charge met full price. So i sent it back and was out a flip 3. Screw em. I hope the new phones suffer Note 7 catastrophe.

But, I do love my Pixel 7 Pro! Camera, other than scumbag zoom, is better than the s22 ultra.

 

[dainthomas]

Upgrading to the ultra from my Note 10+. Still runs okay, but the updates have slowed down considerably, and it will never get 13. Also I use my phone with my insulin pump, and some newer features will never be supported on the 10+.

Looking forward to the new camera, but bummed at the lack of sd card support. Had to get the 512gb version to make up for it.

The $500 trade in on the 10+ is nice too.

 

[thilanliyan]

Yeah they were giving the 512gb for the same price as 256gb here in Canada so I just went with that.

Loved my Note 9 (gave a large trade-in credit for it too!) so hoping I keep this one for a while also.

 

[CP5670]

I'm planning to get one too. AT&T is offering $1000 for trade in with my existing S10+. I generally prefer unlocked phones over the carrier variants due to the lack of carrier bloatware, but this kind of deal is hard to find on them, and they can have issues with carriers disabling features on them.

I was looking at the Pixel 7 Pro as well. I like its camera and stock Android, but the Samsung phones seem to work better with the Galaxy Watch and enable extra features.

 

[sonoma1993]

I was looking at getting the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra 512GB through samsung website. But when I go do the preorder, it having issues doing two factor authenication with tmobile. I hope they get this issues resolved soon. Hate to miss out on the samsung deals.

 

[lsd]

I'm done with samsung. My S22 Ultra is the last samsung phone I will have. Reason is they lost my Flip 3 when I sent it in to get the flip 4 and even tho I spent multi 1000s of bucks on their stuff, every galaxy phone, every note phone and many tablets, they demanded the flip 4 back or they would charge met full price. So i sent it back and was out a flip 3. Screw em. I hope the new phones suffer Note 7 catastrophe.

But, I do love my Pixel 7 Pro! Camera, other than scumbag zoom, is better than the s22 ultra.

I'm assuming you did call Samsung and said it wasn't your fault ? I had 2 trade-ins stolen last year , Samsung claimed the boxes were empty when opened. I called and they said they would do an investigation. I had to call back for an update but they said due to my purchase history they would cover the loss. I'm happy about that but I doubt I would do another trade in.
If the battery life on the s23 is significantly better than my s22+ I may think of upgrading but I'm not holding my breathe.

 

[sze5003]

Everyone was talking about how good Samsung trade in values were. First year I own an S22U and was looking to get the S23U because of the 8 gen 2 chip and rumors that battery life will be much better.

They only offer $500 for any model S22U so I don't feel like paying $700 to find out if the battery life is better. Now is it drastically much better? If yes it may be worth it but right now it looks like an incremental upgrade.

I'm gonna hang on to my S22U until the pixel 8 pro is out.

 

[thilanliyan]

Everyone was talking about how good Samsung trade in values were. First year I own an S22U and was looking to get the S23U because of the 8 gen 2 chip and rumors that battery life will be much better.

They only offer $500 for any model S22U so I don't feel like paying $700 to find out if the battery life is better. Now is it drastically much better? If yes it may be worth it but right now it looks like an incremental upgrade.

I'm gonna hang on to my S22U until the pixel 8 pro is out.

$500 for S22U is ridiculous. Did it not include an extra trade-in credit?

I got CAD$442 for my Note 9 (included $350 extra credit) which is totally worth it because I'd never get close to that trying to sell privately. This is on the Samsung Canada website.

 

[sze5003]

$500 for S22U is ridiculous. Did it not include an extra trade-in credit?

I got CAD$442 for my Note 9 (included $350 extra credit) which is totally worth it because I'd never get close to that trying to sell privately. This is on the Samsung Canada website.

This was in the US for me and they offer $100 credit or $150 if you reserved. But there is nothing I would use it on. I think the s22U cases I have would fit the s23U.

Last year they offered close to 1k for the s21 phones. Even years in the past all my friends would tell me how Samsung trade in is so good that's why they stay with the brand every year.

If battery life is really that much better I would be inclined to upgrade but at this point I'm going to wait and see if they offer better deals later or just get a pixel 8 pro in November.

Google is offering more but I don't want to get a pixel 7 pro as I feel the s22U is better spec wise so I'll wait for the 8.

 

[Oyeve]

$500 for S22U is ridiculous. Did it not include an extra trade-in credit?

I got CAD$442 for my Note 9 (included $350 extra credit) which is totally worth it because I'd never get close to that trying to sell privately. This is on the Samsung Canada website.

True. I traded my Note 20 ultra for 800 off the s22 ultra plus another old iphone for another 150 off. Paid like 150 for the s22 ultra plus got free buds and a case. Seems like there is no excellent deal this year.

 

[thilanliyan]

True. I traded my Note 20 ultra for 800 off the s22 ultra plus another old iphone for another 150 off. Paid like 150 for the s22 ultra plus got free buds and a case. Seems like there is no excellent deal this year.

They actually gave the Buds 2 pro with my S23U order as well. I guess if you're coming from anything other than a S22 series it was a good deal, at least here in Canada.

 

[nOOky]

My first Samsung was my current Note 20 Ultra. The camera went out after 18 months, so I doubt I'll buy another. I miss LG being in the market, and the Pixel phones don't seem that high end anymore. But really, like most people I want a memory card slot on my phone. Every Facebook post about the new S23 most of the comments mention the lack of removable memory. Those that say you don't need removable storage have never had their phone die and everything on internal memory being lost. At least with a memory card you can pop it out and save photos etc.

 

[Oyeve]

My first Samsung was my current Note 20 Ultra. The camera went out after 18 months, so I doubt I'll buy another. I miss LG being in the market, and the Pixel phones don't seem that high end anymore. But really, like most people I want a memory card slot on my phone. Every Facebook post about the new S23 most of the comments mention the lack of removable memory. Those that say you don't need removable storage have never had their phone die and everything on internal memory being lost. At least with a memory card you can pop it out and save photos etc.

I'd rather have the headphone jack than an sd card slot. I detest BT headphones crappy volume and sound quality. No I have to carry a dongle and a DAC that has USB C blah blah blah.

 

[CP5670]

My first Samsung was my current Note 20 Ultra. The camera went out after 18 months, so I doubt I'll buy another. I miss LG being in the market, and the Pixel phones don't seem that high end anymore. But really, like most people I want a memory card slot on my phone. Every Facebook post about the new S23 most of the comments mention the lack of removable memory. Those that say you don't need removable storage have never had their phone die and everything on internal memory being lost. At least with a memory card you can pop it out and save photos etc.

This is a feature I really like and have on my current S10+. I don't like the cloud services and want to keep my photos offline. To be honest the only thing I care about with the new phones is the camera, otherwise I would not bother to upgrade. I'll have to just make manual backups of the photos every now and then.

The headphone jack is nice but I use a USB headphone dac/amp with headphones anyway, so I don't it mind that as much.

 

[Muadib]

This is a feature I really like and have on my current S10+. I don't like the cloud services and want to keep my photos offline. To be honest the only thing I care about with the new phones is the camera, otherwise I would not bother to upgrade. I'll have to just make manual backups of the photos every now and then.

The headphone jack is nice but I use a USB headphone dac/amp with headphones anyway, so I don't it mind that as much.

My last couple of phones have been iPhones, and I still miss not having an Sd card slot.

 

[sze5003]

Not sure how true this is but they are saying the S23U has battery life similar to iphone 14 pro max.

https://www.reddit.com/r/samsung/comments/10rxrxo

Now I'm trying to see if paying $700 to upgrade is worth it.

 

[CP5670]

I noticed that for AT&T, it doesn't seem to matter what you trade in, they give you the $1000 credit in any case. I'll keep my S10+ and trade in some older phone instead, or buy something cheap off ebay if needed. Samsung's own trade in deals suck this time around though, they are only offering $120 credit. I suspect the carriers made some deal to get more people on the carrier contracts.

The cost is about $300 including the taxes and fees. The S10+ is an unlocked model and would be useful for international trips.

 

[ibex333]

Was going to, but at least for now, not getting the S23U.

1) Samsung has become too greedy. They are offering me only $490 for a 512GB Fold 3 in MINT condition in trade. Thats highway robbery. I might as well hang on to it and enjoy it. The moronic part is that they are offering $700 for the same phone if I was to order their Z Fold 4. Dishonest tactics is what that is.

2)Although the Snapdragon Gen 2 is awesome, the huge screen and the multitasking of the Z Fold 3 is more awesome.

3)I don't "need" the best camera out there. I just need a good one. Which is what I have.

4)Could care less for nightography and astrography.

5)I am still salty about Samsung asking $350 to "repair" my S21U when I dipped it in water and the charge port died. When I told them this fucking thing was advertised to be waterproof, their reply was "it's water resistant" not waterproof. I told them to go play with themselves and bought a used Z Fold 3 in mint condition for $525.

 

[dainthomas]

I think they're just giving everyone the same trade in, which is why S10's and S22U's are both getting $500.

My Note 10+ has basically stopped getting regular updates (my last security update was November), so I preordered a S23U. Samsung has said it'll get 5 years of OS updates, so I wanted something with healthy enough specs to last that long.

 

[sze5003]

There is a Google Fi promotion going on but the s23U is sold out at Fi.

Basically let's you get the s23U for $600 as long as you port a number to fi and activate it.

If you trade in your s22U to Fi they give you $280 credit on a visa card.

You can probably just buy a boost mobile sim for $15 if you just want to port a random number over so you can throw that sim in the phone to activate the fi plan then put your real sim in and keep the boost sim card in a drawer for 120 days.

 

[CP5670]

I was looking into the differences between the carrier and unlocked versions, having only used unlocked phones before. The former has extra carrier bloatware, which I think can be disabled with adb, or you can flash the unlocked image onto it. I also need USB tethering using PDANet+ and have been using it for years on my S10+. On the other hand, carrier support for network features tends to be better on their own phones. Wi-fi calling did not work on mine originally and only started working after one of the Android updates last year.

Given the price difference with the AT&T deal, I think it's worth taking a chance on the locked one.

 

[Oyeve]

I was looking into the differences between the carrier and unlocked versions, having only used unlocked phones before. The former has extra carrier bloatware, which I think can be disabled with adb, or you can flash the unlocked image onto it. I also need USB tethering using PDANet+ and have been using it for years on my S10+. On the other hand, carrier support for network features tends to be better on their own phones. Wi-fi calling did not work on mine originally and only started working after one of the Android updates last year.

Given the price difference with the AT&T deal, I think it's worth taking a chance on the locked one.

I just read a blurb that the s23 is loaded with bloatware that takes up to 60gb. That will only grow with updates. Other than being done with Samsung in the future, I will hold onto my s22 ultra and pixel 7. When the Pixel 8 comes out I will sell off the S22 ultra.

 

[CP5670]

I just read a blurb that the s23 is loaded with bloatware that takes up to 60gb. That will only grow with updates. Other than being done with Samsung in the future, I will hold onto my s22 ultra and pixel 7. When the Pixel 8 comes out I will sell off the S22 ultra.

Samsung does include a lot of bloat but most of it can be disabled with adb. Apparently stuff like FB, Twitter, etc. has extra services to reinstall itself if you delete it, but you can disable the services with adb. AT&T reportedly has plenty of their own bloatware on top of that. As long as I can remove it permanently, I don't mind.

Despite this, I've found Samsung phones to be the most hassle-free Android models. I had several other brands in the past and they all had little issues with bluetooth dropouts, odd camera behavior and other small issues. Some Galaxy Watch features only work with Samsung phones as well.

 

[MrSquished]

Yep. Here, lots of bloat. Not interested in a phone like that anymore

Bloatware pushes the Galaxy S23 Android OS to an incredible 60GB [Updated]

Samsung's Android build is 4x bigger than Google's.

arstechnica.com