Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra vs Huawei Mate 90 Pro Max

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.8-inch Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra (with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy) that was released on February 1, 2023, against the Huawei Mate 90 Pro Max, which is powered by HiSilicon Kirin 9050 Pro and came out 3 years and 9 months after. 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
Memory

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
  • The rear camera has a 10x optical zoom
  • 10% higher pixel density (500 vs 455 PPI)
  • Supports Dolby Atmos sound technology
  • 23% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 2010 and 1636 points
Reasons to consider the Huawei Mate 90 Pro Max
  • Comes with 1800 mAh larger battery capacity: 6800 vs 5000 mAh
  • Has 50% more RAM: 12GB versus 8GB
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v6.0)
  • Waterproof body (IP69 classification)
  • Supports higher wattage charging (100W versus 45W)
  • Compatible with Wi-Fi 7 wireless networks
  • Has 2 SIM card slots
  • Faster storage type - UFS 4.1 versus UFS 4.0
  • CPU with a higher amount of cores (+1)
  • Has a built-in infrared port

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and Huawei Mate 90 Pro Max crucial features
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
Scores with a red asterisk (*) are approximate and may change in the future as we gather more data.
NanoReview Score
Final comparison evaluation
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate NanoReview Score
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Value for money (Beta)

Should I update?
No 57% Yes
Maybe, but mainly if you specifically want better battery life.
This is a situational upgrade. It makes the most sense if better battery life matters to you.
Main improvements: battery life, camera, and connectivity.

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type Dynamic AMOLED OLED
Size 6.8 inches 6.9 inches
Resolution 1440 x 3088 pixels 1320 x 2848 pixels
Aspect ratio 19.3:9 19.5:9
PPI 500 ppi 455 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes (24-120 Hz) Yes (1-120 Hz)
Max rated brightness 1200 nits -
Max rated brightness in HDR 1750 nits 12000 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, HDR10+
Touch sampling rate 240 Hz -
Screen protection Gorilla Glass Victus 2 Huawei Kunlun Glass 3
Screen-to-body ratio 89.5% 90.2%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DC Dimming
Display tests
RGB color space 96.9% -
PWM 240 Hz -
Response time 2 ms -
Contrast ∞ Infinity -
Peak brightness test (auto)
Sources: NotebookCheck [3]

Design and build

Height 163.4 mm (6.43 inches) 164.5 mm (6.48 inches)
Width 78.1 mm (3.07 inches) 78.7 mm (3.1 inches)
Thickness 8.9 mm (0.35 inches) 8.15 mm (0.32 inches)
Weight 233 g (8.22 oz) 234 g (8.25 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP69
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber Vapor chamber
Rear material Glass -
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors White, Black, Gray, Blue, Green, Red, Purple White, Black, Gold, Green
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display Yes, in-button
Screen-to-body ratio

Performance

Chipset specifications of Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and Huawei Mate 90 Pro Max
SoC
Chipset Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy HiSilicon Kirin 9050 Pro
Max clock 3360 MHz 3100 MHz
CPU cores 8 (1 + 2 + 2 + 3) 9 (1 + 2 + 4 + 2)
Architecture - 3 cores at 2 GHz: Cortex-A510
- 2 cores at 2.8 GHz: Cortex-A710
- 2 cores at 2.8 GHz: Cortex-A715
- 1 core at 3.2 GHz: Cortex-X3
- 2 cores at 1.75 GHz:
- 4 cores at 2.2 GHz:
- 2 cores at 2.7 GHz:
- 1 core at 3.1 GHz:
L3 cache 8 MB -
Manufacturing TSMC SMIC
Lithography process 4 nanometers 3 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon Da Vinci
GPU
Graphics Adreno 740 Maleoon 955
GPU shading units 1536 1536
GPU clock 680 MHz 1050 MHz
FLOPS ~2089 GFLOPS ~3225.6 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and Huawei Mate 90 Pro Max
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
Compute Score (GPU) 9254 8603
Single-core score 2010 1636
Multi-core score 5245 5775
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
1902468
CPU 556398 579000
GPU 445907 543500
Memory 285085 440168
UX 474949 319800
Total score 1762339 1902468
Samples [31 tests] Less than 3
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Stability 81% -
Graphics test 8 FPS -
Graphics score 1098 -
3DMark Solar Bay
Stability 77% -
Graphics test 20 FPS -
Section 1 23 FPS -
Section 2 20 FPS -
Section 3 18 FPS -
Graphics score 5383 -
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Stability 69% -
Graphics test 22 FPS -
Graphics score 3723 -
Sources: 3DMark [5]
PCMark 3.0
Web score 17072 -
Video editing 7852 -
Photo editing 33655 -
Data manipulation 13329 -
Writing score 19857 -

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-10-03 -> ThekinggoatAnTuTu 121914947
📘 2026-10-03 (Thekinggoat)Geekbench 7 CPU1471 / 4766
📘 2026-10-03 (Thekinggoat)AnTuTu 121914947
📘 2026-09-28 -> Saad_irqAnTuTu 121959121
📘 2026-09-23 (Horizon377)AnTuTu 121894819
Huawei Mate 90 Pro Max
No benchmark results yet

Memory

RAM
RAM size 8 GB 12 GB
Memory type LPDDR5X -
Memory clock 4200 MHz -
Channels 4 4
Storage
Storage size 256 GB 512 GB
Storage type UFS 4.0 UFS 4.1
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 13 (Can be upgraded to Android 16) HarmonyOS 7
ROM One UI 8.0 -
OS size 39.9 GB -
OS updates 4 years -
Security updates 5 years -

Battery

Capacity 5000 mAh 6800 mAh
Max charge power 45 W 100 W
Battery type Li-Ion Silicon-Carbon (Si/C)
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (15 W) Yes (50 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) Yes, (wireless)
Bypass charging Yes -
Fast charging Yes (68% in 30 min) Yes
Full charging time 0:59 hr -
Battery life tests
Web browsing 09:57 hr -
Watching video 15:38 hr -
Gaming 06:22 hr -
Standby 130 hr -
General battery life

Main camera

Matrix 200 megapixels 50 megapixels
Image resolution 16320 x 12240 8192 x 6144
Zoom Optical, 10x Optical, 4x
Flash LED Dual LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 30FPS No
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 120FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 960 FPS (1080p) 960 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 120° 120°
Lenses 1) Standard: 200 MP
2) Telephoto: 10 MP
3) Telephoto: 10 MP
4) Ultrawide: 12 MP
1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Telephoto: 200 MP
3) Ultrawide: 40 MP
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Standard lens
Image resolution 200 MP 50 MP
Aperture f/1.7 f/1.4 - 4.0
Focal length 23 mm 24 mm
Sensor Samsung ISOCELL HP2 Smartsens SC595XS
Sensor size 1/1.3" (≈ 0.77 inch) 1/1.28" (≈ 0.78 inch)
Pixel size 0.64 micron 1.22 micron
Autofocus Laser autofocus Phase autofocus
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution 10 MP 200 MP
Aperture f/4.9 f/2.6
Focal length 230 mm 89 mm
Sensor Sony IMX754 Smartsens SCC85XS
Sensor size 1/3.52" (≈ 0.28 inch) 1/1.28" (≈ 0.78 inch)
Pixel size 1.12 micron 0.61 micron
Stabilization Optical Optical
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 12 MP 40 MP
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 13 mm 13 mm
Sensor Sony IMX564 Omnivision OV40A
Sensor size 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch) 1/1.7" (≈ 0.59 inch)
Pixel size 1.4 micron 1 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital

DxOMark main camera tests

Photo quality
Video quality
Generic main camera score
Bokeh 70 -
Preview 73 -
Zoom 141 -
Samples Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra from DxOMark -

Selfie camera

Megapixels 12 megapixels 13 megapixels
Image resolution 4000 x 3000 4160 x 3120
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 26 mm 18 mm
Sensor Samsung S5K3LU -
Sensor size 1/3.24" (≈ 0.31 inch) -
Pixel size 1.12 micron -
Autofocus Phase autofocus Phase autofocus
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 139 -
Video 145 -

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6E (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be)
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 6.0
Bluetooth features LE LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 3.2 3.1
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
DisplayPort Yes, DP 1.2 Yes
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port No Yes
Network
Number of SIM* 1 2
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby Standby
eSIM support* Yes Yes
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat* 20 -
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos Yes No
Speakers test
Max loudness

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced February 2023 October 2026
Release date February 2023 October 2026
Launch price (MSRP) $1199 $1420
Successor - Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra -
SAR (head) 0.96 W/kg -
SAR (body) 1.4 W/kg -
Sensors - Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Face recognition sensor
- Fingerprint
Bundled charger Not included Yes, 100 W
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

After analyzing all the data, we think that the Huawei Mate 90 Pro Max is definitely a better buy.

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