Samsung Galaxy S23 FE (Snapdragon) vs Apple iPhone 13
66
out of 100
VS
65
out of 100
Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.4-inch Samsung Galaxy S23 FE (Snapdragon) (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1) that was released on October 4, 2023, against the Apple iPhone 13, which is powered by Apple A15 Bionic and came out 2 years and 1 month before. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.
Select the amount of RAM to evaluate performance and value for money more precisely
Key differences
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE (Snapdragon)
- The rear camera has a 3x optical zoom
- Higher display refresh rate – 120 Hz
- Comes with 1273 mAh larger battery capacity: 4500 vs 3227 mAh
- Has 2x more RAM: 8GB versus 4GB
- Newer Bluetooth version (v5.3)
- Has a 0.3 inch larger screen size
- Fingerprint scanner
- Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
- Uses a faster type of memory: LPDDR5 3200 MHz
- Delivers 18% higher peak brightness (991 against 837 nits)
- Has 2 SIM card slots
- The phone is 2 years and 1 month newer
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 13
- Shows 15% longer battery life (23:23 vs 20:15 hours)
- 14% higher pixel density (460 vs 403 PPI)
- 30% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 2241 and 1720 points
- Weighs 35 grams less
- Better grip in hands – the body is 5 mm narrower
Review
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate NanoReview Score
Value for money (Beta)
Tests and specifications
Comparison table of technical specifications and testsDisplay
| Type | Dynamic AMOLED | OLED |
| Size | 6.4 inches | 6.1 inches |
| Resolution | 1080 x 2340 pixels | 1170 x 2532 pixels |
| Aspect ratio | 19.5:9 | 19.5:9 |
| PPI | 403 ppi | 460 ppi |
| Refresh rate | 120 Hz | 60 Hz |
| Adaptive refresh rate | Yes (60-120 Hz) | No |
| Max rated brightness | 1450 nits | 800 nits |
| Max rated brightness in HDR | - | 1200 nits |
| HDR support | Yes, HDR10+ | Yes, Dolby Vision |
| Screen protection | Corning Gorilla Glass 5 | - |
| Screen-to-body ratio | 83.2% | 87.1% |
| Display features | - DCI-P3 - Always-On Display |
- DCI-P3 |
| RGB color space | - | 129% |
| PWM | - | 609 Hz |
| Response time | - | 7.5 ms |
| Contrast | - | ∞ Infinity |
Screen space comparison
Galaxy S23 FE (Snapdragon)
6.4″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 15.6 in2
iPhone 13
6.1″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 14.2 in2
~10% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
Design and build
| Height | 158 mm (6.22 inches) | 146.7 mm (5.78 inches) |
| Width | 76.5 mm (3.01 inches) | 71.5 mm (2.81 inches) |
| Thickness | 8.2 mm (0.32 inches) | 7.65 mm (0.3 inches) |
| Weight | 209 g (7.37 oz) | 174 g (6.14 oz) |
| Waterproof | IP68 | IP68 |
| Advanced cooling | Vapor chamber | - |
| Rear material | Glass | Glass |
| Frame material | Metal | Metal |
| Colors | White, Black, Green, Purple | White, Black, Blue, Green, Red, Pink |
| Fingerprint scanner | Yes, in-display | No |
Screen-to-body ratio
Performance
| Chipset | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 | Apple A15 Bionic |
| Max clock | 3000 MHz | 3230 MHz |
| CPU cores | 8 (1 + 3 + 4) | 6 (2 + 4) |
| Architecture | - 4 cores at 1.8 GHz: Cortex-A510 - 3 cores at 2.5 GHz: Cortex-A710 - 1 core at 3 GHz: Cortex-X2 |
- 4 cores at 2.02 GHz: Blizzard - 2 cores at 3.23 GHz: Avalanche |
| L3 cache | 6 MB | - |
| Manufacturing | Samsung | TSMC |
| Lithography process | 4 nanometers | 5 nanometers |
| Neural processor (NPU) | Hexagon | Apple Neural Engine |
| Graphics | Adreno 730 | Apple GPU (4 cores) |
| GPU shading units | 1024 | 640 |
| GPU clock | 818 MHz | 1338 MHz |
| FLOPS | ~1675.3 GFLOPS | ~1712.6 GFLOPS |
Benchmarks
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
| Compute Score (GPU) | - | 18447 |
| Single-core score | 1720 | 2241 |
| Multi-core score | 4204 | 5317 |
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
| CPU | 516037 | 410975 |
| GPU | 391403 | 370837 |
| Memory | 186259 | 164151 |
| UX | 343264 | 467312 |
| Total score | 1436963 | 1413275 |
| Samples | Less than 3 | [26 tests] |
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
| Stability | 68% | - |
| Graphics test | 6 FPS | - |
| Graphics score | 793 | - |
3DMark Solar Bay
| Stability | - | 76% |
| Graphics test | - | 12 FPS |
| Section 1 | - | 16 FPS |
| Section 2 | - | 12 FPS |
| Section 3 | - | 9 FPS |
| Graphics score | - | 3225 |
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
| Stability | - | 74% |
| Graphics test | - | 14 FPS |
| Graphics score | - | 2445 |
PCMark 3.0
| Web score | 11636 | - |
| Video editing | 7420 | - |
| Photo editing | 30352 | - |
| Data manipulation | 12061 | - |
| Writing score | 16397 | - |
Recent User Tests
Samsung Galaxy S23 FE (Snapdragon)
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 📘 2024-09-14 (Luis Maldonado) | GeekBench CPU | 1720 / 4204 |
| 📘 2024-09-07 (Eduardo) | GeekBench CPU | 1652 / 4021 |
Apple iPhone 13
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 📘 2026-09-08 (lUjekSh) | GeekBench GPU | 18864 |
| 📘 2026-09-08 (lUjekSh) | GeekBench CPU | 2327 / 5604 |
| 📘 2026-09-03 (Yulik🇺🇦) | AnTuTu | 1289105 |
| 📘 2026-09-03 (Yuk) | AnTuTu | 1289105 |
| 📘 2026-08-02 (kubasik) | AnTuTu | 1366731 |
Memory
| RAM size | 8 GB | 4 GB |
| Memory type | LPDDR5 | LPDDR4X |
| Memory clock | 3200 MHz | 2133 MHz |
| Channels | 4 | 2 |
| Storage size | 128 GB | 128 GB |
| Storage type | UFS 3.1 | NVMe |
| Memory card | No | No |
Software
| Operating system | Android 13 (Can be upgraded to Android 16) | iOS 15 (Can be upgraded to iOS 26.5) |
| ROM | One UI 8.0 | - |
| OS size | - | 18 GB |
| OS updates | 4 years | - |
| Security updates | 5 years | - |
Battery
| Capacity | 4500 mAh | 3227 mAh |
| Max charge power | 25 W | 20 W |
| Battery type | Li-Ion | Li-Ion |
| Replaceable | No | No |
| Wireless charging | Yes | Yes (7.5 W) |
| Reverse charging | Yes, (wireless) | No |
| Bypass charging | - | No |
| Fast charging | Yes (58% in 30 min) | Yes (54% in 30 min) |
| Full charging time | 1:10 hr | 1:46 hr |
| Web browsing | 07:09 hr | 09:29 hr |
| Watching video | 10:02 hr | 13:58 hr |
| Gaming | 04:27 hr | 05:12 hr |
| Standby | 118 hr | 114 hr |
General battery life
Main camera
| Matrix | 50 megapixels | 12 megapixels |
| Image resolution | 8160 x 6120 | 4032 x 3024 |
| Zoom | Optical, 3x | Digital |
| Flash | LED | Dual LED |
| Stabilization | Optical | Optical |
| 8K video recording | Up to 24FPS | No |
| 4K video recording | Up to 60FPS | Up to 60FPS |
| 1080p video recording | Up to 60FPS | Up to 60FPS |
| Slow motion | 960 FPS (720p) | 240 FPS (1080p) |
| Angle of widest lens | 123° | 120° |
| Lenses | 1) Standard: 50 MP 2) Telephoto: 8 MP 3) Ultrawide: 12 MP |
1) Standard: 12 MP 2) Ultrawide: 12 MP |
| Camera features | - Bokeh mode - Pro mode |
- Bokeh mode - Pro mode |
| Image resolution | 50 MP | 12 MP |
| Aperture | f/1.8 | f/1.6 |
| Focal length | 23 mm | 26 mm |
| Sensor | Samsung S5KGN3 | Sony IMX603 |
| Sensor size | 1/1.57" (≈ 0.64 inch) | 1/1.9" (≈ 0.53 inch) |
| Pixel size | 1 micron | 1.7 micron |
| Autofocus | Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) | Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) |
| Stabilization | Optical | Optical |
| Image resolution | 8 MP | - |
| Aperture | f/2.4 | - |
| Focal length | 76 mm | - |
| Sensor | Hynix Hi847 | - |
| Sensor size | 1/4.4" (≈ 0.23 inch) | - |
| Pixel size | 1 micron | - |
| Stabilization | Digital | - |
| Image resolution | 12 MP | 12 MP |
| Aperture | f/2.2 | f/2.4 |
| Focal length | 13 mm | 14 mm |
| Sensor | Samsung S5K3L6 | Sony IMX372 |
| Sensor size | 1/3" (≈ 0.33 inch) | 1/3.4" (≈ 0.29 inch) |
| Pixel size | 1.12 micron | 1.4 micron |
| Stabilization | Digital | Digital |
DxOMark main camera tests
Photo quality
Video quality
Generic main camera score
| Bokeh | 50 | 65 |
| Preview | 67 | 76 |
| Zoom | 123 | 65 |
| Samples | Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S23 FE (Snapdragon) from DxOMark | Photo samples of Apple iPhone 13 from DxOMark |
Selfie camera
| Megapixels | 10 megapixels | 12 megapixels |
| Image resolution | 3648 x 2736 | 4032 x 3024 |
| Aperture | f/2.4 | f/2.2 |
| Focal length | 26 mm | 23 mm |
| Sensor | Samsung S5K3J1 | Sony IMX514 |
| Sensor size | 1/3" (≈ 0.33 inch) | 1/3.6" (≈ 0.28 inch) |
| Pixel size | 1.22 micron | - |
| Autofocus | No | Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) |
| Stabilization | Digital | Digital |
| Video resolution | 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS | 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS |
| Depth sensor (TOF 3D) | No | Yes |
DxOMark front camera
| Photo | - | 128 |
| Video | - | 143 |
Connectivity
| Wi-Fi standard | Wi-Fi 6E (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) | Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) |
| Wi-Fi features | - Dual Band - Wi-Fi MiMO - Wi-Fi Direct - Wi-Fi Hotspot - Wi-Fi Display |
- Dual Band - Wi-Fi MiMO - Wi-Fi Direct - Wi-Fi Hotspot - Wi-Fi Display |
| Bluetooth version | 5.3 | 5 |
| Bluetooth features | LE | LE, A2DP |
| USB type | USB Type-C | - |
| USB version | 3.2 | 2 |
| USB features | - Charging - USB-Storage mode - OTG |
- Charging - USB-Storage mode - OTG |
| DisplayPort | Yes | - |
| GPS | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS |
| NFC* | Yes | Yes |
| Infrared port | No | No |
| Number of SIM* | 2 | 1 |
| Type of SIM card | Nano | Nano |
| Multi SIM mode | Standby | - |
| eSIM support* | Yes | Yes |
| Hybrid slot | No | No |
| LTE Cat* | 20 | 18 |
| 5G support | Yes | Yes |
Sound
| Speakers | Stereo | Stereo |
| Headphone audio jack | No | No |
| FM radio | No | No |
| Dolby Atmos | Yes | Yes |
Speakers test
Max loudness
Other
| Category | Flagship | Flagship |
| Announced | October 2023 | September 2021 |
| Release date | October 2023 | September 2021 |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $599 | $800 |
| Successor | - | - Apple iPhone 17 |
| SAR (head) | 0.76 W/kg | 0.99 W/kg |
| SAR (body) | 1.04 W/kg | 0.98 W/kg |
| Sensors | - Barometer - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Fingerprint |
- Barometer - Proximity sensor - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Face recognition sensor |
| Bundled charger | Not included | - |
Further details
Notes on Galaxy S23 FE (Snapdragon):
- The Galaxy S23 FE is available in the USA with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, whereas other countries receive a version with the Exynos 2200.
- The base (128 GB) storage utilizes a UFS 3.1 memory type, whereas the higher-tier 256 GB variant is equipped with UFS 4.0.
- Models are available with a single SIM card, dual SIMs, or dual SIMs plus eSIM (depending on the market).
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.
Conclusion
If the display and connectivity are more important to you, then choose the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE (Snapdragon). But if the performance, gaming, and software are more of a priority – go for the Apple iPhone 13.
Cast your vote
Total votes: 442