I'm considering the S23 Ultra

[VidJunky]

Don't know why this weekend it struck me to go look at Samsung, maybe watching too many tech videos or something. Anyway the S23 Ultra is discounted $200 and they are offering me $750 for my S22 Ultra and my cost before taxes was $249. I feel like that is a good deal for half through the year but that lead me to go back and watch more videos comparing the two and... I'm just not sold. Yeah the new chip and flatter screen but everything else is about the same. Cameras, same, maybe slightly worse on one or two of them. S-Pen mostly the same and I have a custom color so mine matches the phone and they don't on the 23. I know ascetics don't mean much but when there's little else different the little things matter. I could wait for the the S24 because that is usually when you see at least some difference, enough to justify the upgrade, but there is a good chance I won't be in a position to trade up for that, just like I wasn't in the position to trade up when the 23 released. On the other hand though, I would probably get more for the 23 when trade in time rolls around and this may be the most I get for my 22 towards a new device and at $250 they are sure to offer more than double that towards a new device. So I would be getting more than I paid for towards the new device... Just not sure.

 

[notforhire]

I upgraded my bride's S22U to the S23U because of the exact deal you referenced. In my case, my S22U is 512GB, and I'm not interested in paying $429 (I think) before taxes for an iterative upgrade.

Instead, I'll wait for the 24, or 25, and pay for it straight up.....no trade-in. I'll keep my S22U as a backup device for the household.

 

[fuzzylumpkin]

It's a shame you're in the US, much easier decision for us Rest of Worlders.

From the anecdotal stuff I've heard though, even in the States there's enough real world difference that the 250 may be justified... it can be hard to seperate the honest opinions from the purchase justifications though.

 

[VidJunky]

It's a shame you're in the US, much easier decision for us Rest of Worlders.

Yeah I imagine it might be since this will be the first time they are offering Snapdragon to everyone. I mean even the minor improvements pale in comparison to the improved battery life and cooler running you would expect. See if I had such an incentive this thread might not even exist.

I upgraded my bride's S22U to the S23U because of the exact deal you referenced. In my case, my S22U is 512GB, and I'm not interested in paying $429 (I think) before taxes for an iterative upgrade.

Instead, I'll wait for the 24, or 25, and pay for it straight up.....no trade-in. I'll keep my S22U as a backup device for the household.

Yeah I looked at the 512 but I have 256 and I'm not really even close. That isn't to say that I don't wish we still had SD, I very much do, but it would be an even trade for me. Have you all received the device yet? From a non-commercial user perspective, was it worth it? Is there a noticeable difference? More than one review mentioned the better optimization improving the battery life. I don't struggle but I have forgotten to plug in a night or two and woken up to a dead device.

 

[notforhire]

Yeah I looked at the 512 but I have 256 and I'm not really even close. That isn't to say that I don't wish we still had SD, I very much do, but it would be an even trade for me. Have you all received the device yet? From a non-commercial user perspective, was it worth it? Is there a noticeable difference? More than one review mentioned the better optimization improving the battery life. I don't struggle but I have forgotten to plug in a night or two and woken up to a dead device.

We've had the phone for almost a month, now. I'd say that there's zero noticeable difference for her. To be fair, though, she's mostly a PC girl and doesn't use her phone the way I use mine, which is all day long.

 

[Rose4uKY]

We went from the 21U to the 22U only because of the 1000 trade in they were giving. We wanted the S23U all along but figured we would get more of as trade in if we had the 23U. I think the battery is better on the 23U and I love it and plan on keeping it for a while. I have no interest in the 24 but I don't know much about it.

 

[fjd726]

Where did you find that deal on Samsung.com? Shows 1199 then a 750 for the s22 ultra.

 

[notforhire]

Where did you find that deal on Samsung.com? Shows 1199 then a 750 for the s22 ultra.

you get the extra $200 if you go through the Samsung Shop app (download from the Galaxy Store)

 

[Joshua Luther1]

Best Buy also has a good deal on the S23 ultra. They also allow you to put a down payment on the phone instead of trading in or in addition to trading in, to lower the payment.
Or maybe that's Samsung that allows you to put a down payment on it.

 

[VidJunky]

Yeah I found the deal through the app. I do most of my shopping on my device. Thanks for posting that @notforhire . I kind of wish you could tell me more about the device. I wouldn't say I'm an extreme user but for sure I'm a heavy user. I don't social media on it and all that but I for sure use it in about every other way. It's my bank, my navigation, my find things to do and places to go, as well as my entertainment most days either listening to streams on my journeys or watching stuff while the TV is occupied. Oh and let's not forget gaming on breaks and pics of the family. I mean I don't need another device but for the price and the side benefit next year when I most certainly will want a new device it's a hard thought to shake.

@Joshua Luther1 I haven't made payments on a device since I got the kids phones in 2015 or 16 and then only because they were branded devices from the carrier for like $15 bucks a month. Since then everything has been cash and carry. Well credit and carry usually from the manufacturer. I didn't look too hard either because I could also get one of the exclusive colors.

 

[notforhire]

I kind of wish you could tell me more about the device. I wouldn't say I'm an extreme user but for sure I'm a heavy user. I don't social media on it and all that but I for sure use it in about every other way. It's my bank, my navigation, my find things to do and places to go, as well as my entertainment most days either listening to streams on my journeys or watching stuff while the TV is occupied. Oh and let's not forget gaming on breaks and pics of the family. I mean I don't need another device but for the price and the side benefit next year when I most certainly will want a new device it's a hard thought to shake.

I can't really tell you more about it...it's the bride's phone and she never really puts it through the paces. Honestly, she only needs an A54 or a base S23. However, I want her to have the same device as I do (for the most part) in the unlikely event something happens to me and I'm out of commission. In this way, she can just grab my phone and get to what she needs in there. We share the same passcode to unlock our phones, and I don't need her being flustered while trying to access an unfamiliar device. Otherwise, I might mess around with a Pixel (just for grins).

I'm sticking with my plan of using my S22U as an emergency backup when I get my next device...either a S24U or S25U (or whatever they're going to call it).

 

[VidJunky]

Well I caved for $342, taxes and a phone case, there's always extras. Anyway I'm no the line now waiting to see if I can pick it up today. The app said there was one near me but when I checked out it showed me a delivery date. I just called and they said I could pick it up today so I'm headed to BB after work.

Ordered the green. I wasn't a big fan of last year's green even though it was popular with several people I saw online but this year's green is more hunter than teal. I'm excited for the flatter screen and flatter sides. Probably should have looked at one in hand before picking this up but there are very few surprises for me.

 

[notforhire]

Well I caved for $342, taxes and a phone case, there's always extras. Anyway I'm no the line now waiting to see if I can pick it up today. The app said there was one near me but when I checked out it showed me a delivery date. I just called and they said I could pick it up today so I'm headed to BB after work.

Ordered the green. I wasn't a big fan of last year's green even though it was popular with several people I saw online but this year's green is more hunter than teal. I'm excited for the flatter screen and flatter sides. Probably should have looked at one in hand before picking this up but there are very few surprises for me.

hammer down, my friend! good luck

 

[VidJunky]

Well I do like the color. It's a matte grey in certain light. I like the flatter screen also. Not that the other was bad but I like the feel of reaching the edge on the flatter panel. One thing that bites though and this one kind of confuses me, they made the camera lenses bigger and shifted the buttons barely, just to make you buy a new case. Which if they were the only ones making cases for it I could understand but everyone is. I guess they are hoping that people will just buy one from them...? IDK but my S22U case fit on it but pressed the -Vol button and of course the lenses didn't fit, my case had the individual holes for each. Other than the buttons not sure how it would fair in one of the large cutout cases. Smart Switch made everything pretty easy except I couldn't get it to transfer my Secure Folder. I only keep one app in there so it wasn't a big deal. I looked at several different articles about how-to but none of them worked for me. One referenced creating a backup but on the new device it warns that SF backups are no longer supported. If you have an old backup, which I don't, it would allow you to restore from that but no new backups could be created.

 

[Grabber5.0]

The flat screen would seal the deal for me. LG did the same thing with the buttons from the V40 to the V50. Other than that the V40 case fit perfectly until I could get the new one delivered. I think the cameras were moved slightly too but that wasn't a concern. It's definitely to make sure people buy new cases.

 

[VidJunky]

Greedy bas... not nice people.

After my first full day with the device I had a few bugs but the battery life was impressive. I was almost 5 hours SOT at the end of my 8 hour work day and still above 50%. I finished out the whole day with something like 23% which said another 5 hours. I didn't look to see what my SOT was then but I was probably closer to 8 than I was to 7.

The bugs I had were connection issues early on. It was like it didn't want to connect to or stay connected to my WiFi. Then at the end of the day yesterday I had no notifications. When I pulled down my notification panel it said no notifications and only showed quick settings. I restarted and everything came back but it was weird. I almost posted a question about that in the S23 forum but didn't see any other posts about such problems so I figured it must be a me thing. We'll see how today goes.

 

[mustang7757]

Don't know why this weekend it struck me to go look at Samsung, maybe watching too many tech videos or something. Anyway the S23 Ultra is discounted $200 and they are offering me $750 for my S22 Ultra and my cost before taxes was $249. I feel like that is a good deal for half through the year but that lead me to go back and watch more videos comparing the two and... I'm just not sold. Yeah the new chip and flatter screen but everything else is about the same. Cameras, same, maybe slightly worse on one or two of them. S-Pen mostly the same and I have a custom color so mine matches the phone and they don't on the 23. I know ascetics don't mean much but when there's little else different the little things matter. I could wait for the the S24 because that is usually when you see at least some difference, enough to justify the upgrade, but there is a good chance I won't be in a position to trade up for that, just like I wasn't in the position to trade up when the 23 released. On the other hand though, I would probably get more for the 23 when trade in time rolls around and this may be the most I get for my 22 towards a new device and at $250 they are sure to offer more than double that towards a new device. So I would be getting more than I paid for towards the new device... Just not sure.

I would definitely jump on that deal and yes the battery is going be much better than the s22u and if you want update in 2 years or 3 after s23u.

 

[bassplayrguy]

The battery life on the 23 is insanely better than the 22. That alone is worth it to me.

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