Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra vs Huawei P30 Pro

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 P30 Pro, which is powered by HiSilicon Kirin 980 and came out 3 years and 11 months 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
Memory

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
  • 2.3x better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (1762K versus 751K)
  • Higher display refresh rate – 120 Hz
  • Delivers 110% higher peak brightness (1271 against 605 nits)
  • Better camera quality (According to DxOMark rating)
  • The rear camera has a 10x optical zoom
  • Shows 22% longer battery life (26:01 vs 21:15 hours)
  • 26% higher pixel density (500 vs 398 PPI)
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.3)
  • Has a 0.33 inch larger screen size
  • More recent OS version: Android 16 versus 10
  • Comes with 800 mAh larger battery capacity: 5000 vs 4200 mAh
  • Compatible with Wi-Fi 6 wireless networks
  • Stereo speakers
Reasons to consider the Huawei P30 Pro
  • Has 2 SIM card slots
  • Weighs 41 grams less
  • Has a built-in infrared port

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and Huawei P30 Pro 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
NanoReview Score
Final comparison evaluation
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate NanoReview Score
📱 Primary usage:

Value for money (Beta)

Should I update?
No 96% Yes
Yes, this is a clear and meaningful upgrade.
Updating from Huawei P30 Pro to Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is a clear step forward, and the improvements should be easy to notice.
Main improvements: performance, display, and gaming.

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type Dynamic AMOLED OLED
Size 6.8 inches 6.47 inches
Resolution 1440 x 3088 pixels 1080 x 2340 pixels
Aspect ratio 19.3:9 19.5:9
PPI 500 ppi 398 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 60 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes (24-120 Hz) No
Max rated brightness 1200 nits 570 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR 1750 nits -
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, HDR10
Touch sampling rate 240 Hz -
Screen protection Gorilla Glass Victus 2 Tempered glass
Screen-to-body ratio 89.5% 88.6%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DC Dimming
Display tests
RGB color space 96.9% 99%
PWM 240 Hz 231 Hz
Response time 2 ms 3.6 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity ∞ Infinity
Screen space comparison
Galaxy S23 Ultra
6.8″ (19.3:9 ratio) = 17.7 in2
P30 Pro
6.47″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 15.9 in2
~11% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
1271 nits
605 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 163.4 mm (6.43 inches) 158 mm (6.22 inches)
Width 78.1 mm (3.07 inches) 73.4 mm (2.89 inches)
Thickness 8.9 mm (0.35 inches) 8.4 mm (0.33 inches)
Weight 233 g (8.22 oz) 192 g (6.77 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber Vapor chamber
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors White, Black, Gray, Blue, Green, Red, Purple White, Black, Blue, Orange
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display Yes, in-display
Screen-to-body ratio
89.5%
88.6%

Performance

Chipset specifications of Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and Huawei P30 Pro
SoC
Chipset Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy HiSilicon Kirin 980
Max clock 3360 MHz 2600 MHz
CPU cores 8 (1 + 2 + 2 + 3) 8 (2 + 2 + 4)
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
- 4 cores at 1.8 GHz: Cortex-A55
- 2 cores at 1.92 GHz: Cortex-A76
- 2 cores at 2.6 GHz: Cortex-A76
L3 cache 8 MB -
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Lithography process 4 nanometers 7 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon Yes
GPU
Graphics Adreno 740 Mali G76 MP10
GPU shading units 1536 240
GPU clock 680 MHz 720 MHz
FLOPS ~2089 GFLOPS ~345.6 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and Huawei P30 Pro
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
2010
927
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
5245
2978
Compute Score (GPU)
9254
3750
Compute Score (GPU) 9254 3750
Single-core score 2010 927
Multi-core score 5245 2978
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
1762339
751826
CPU 556398 323300
GPU 445907 106985
Memory 285085 153206
UX 474949 168335
Total score 1762339 751826
Samples [31 tests] [12 tests]
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
3723
676
Stability 69% 49%
Graphics test 22 FPS 4 FPS
Graphics score 3723 676
Sources: 3DMark [5], [6]
PCMark 3.0
16385
8638
Web score 17072 7533
Video editing 7852 5711
Photo editing 33655 14148
Data manipulation 13329 7454
Writing score 19857 10838

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-09-28 -> Saad_irqAnTuTu 121959121
📘 2026-09-23 (Horizon377)AnTuTu 121894819
📘 2026-09-19 -> PhonePornAnTuTu 121873287
📘 2026-08-07 (Turtle tech)AnTuTu 111789039
📘 2026-07-21 (Jedidiah)AnTuTu 111621561
Huawei P30 Pro
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-09-28 (Adiit)AnTuTu 12919298
📘 2026-08-14 (Adiit)Geekbench 6 GPU4204
📘 2026-08-01 (Kiên 🐜)AnTuTu 11738484
📘 2026-05-16 (Absolute_Subzero)AnTuTu 11746551
📘 2026-05-01 (gay)AnTuTu 11756021

Memory

RAM
RAM size 8 GB 6 GB
Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR4X
Memory clock 4200 MHz 2133 MHz
Channels 4 2
Storage
Storage size 256 GB 128 GB
Storage type UFS 4.0 UFS 2.1
Memory card No Nano Memory
Memory card max size - Up to 256 GB

Software

Operating system Android 13 (Can be upgraded to Android 16) Android 9.0 (Can be upgraded to Android 10)
ROM One UI 8.0 EMUI 12
OS size 39.9 GB 13.4 GB
OS updates 4 years -
Security updates 5 years -

Battery

Capacity 5000 mAh 4200 mAh
Max charge power 45 W 40 W
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Po
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (15 W) Yes (15 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) Yes, (wireless)
Bypass charging Yes -
Fast charging Yes (68% in 30 min) Yes, SuperCharge (70% in 30 min)
Full charging time 0:59 hr 1:05 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing 09:57 hr 08:25 hr
Watching video 15:38 hr 13:36 hr
Gaming 06:22 hr 05:24 hr
Standby 130 hr 99 hr
General battery life
26:01 hr
21:15 hr

Main camera

Matrix 200 megapixels 40 megapixels
Image resolution 16320 x 12240 7360 x 4912
Zoom Optical, 10x Optical, 5x
Flash LED Dual LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 30FPS No
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 30FPS
1080p video recording Up to 120FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 960 FPS (1080p) 960 FPS (720p)
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: 40 MP
2) Telephoto: 8 MP
3) Ultrawide: 20 MP
4) Depth
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Standard lens
Image resolution 200 MP 40 MP
Aperture f/1.7 f/1.6
Focal length 23 mm 27 mm
Sensor Samsung ISOCELL HP2 Sony IMX650
Sensor size 1/1.3" (≈ 0.77 inch) 1/1.7" (≈ 0.59 inch)
Pixel size 0.64 micron 1 micron
Autofocus Laser autofocus Phase autofocus
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution 10 MP 8 MP
Aperture f/4.9 f/3.4
Focal length 230 mm 125 mm
Sensor Sony IMX754 -
Sensor size 1/3.52" (≈ 0.28 inch) 1/4" (≈ 0.25 inch)
Pixel size 1.12 micron -
Stabilization Optical Optical
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 12 MP 20 MP
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 13 mm 16 mm
Sensor Sony IMX564 -
Sensor size 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch) 1/2.7" (≈ 0.37 inch)
Pixel size 1.4 micron -
Stabilization Digital Digital

DxOMark main camera tests

Photo quality
139
119
Video quality
Generic main camera score
140
112
Bokeh 70 -
Preview 73 -
Zoom 141 -
Samples Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra from DxOMark Photo samples of Huawei P30 Pro from DxOMark

Selfie camera

Megapixels 12 megapixels 32 megapixels
Image resolution 4000 x 3000 6528 x 4896
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.0
Focal length 26 mm 29 mm
Sensor Samsung S5K3LU BSI CMOS
Sensor size 1/3.24" (≈ 0.31 inch) 1/2.8" (≈ 0.36 inch)
Pixel size 1.12 micron -
Autofocus Phase autofocus No
Stabilization Digital Digital
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 1080p (Full HD) at 30 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No No
DxOMark front camera
141
118
Photo 139 110
Video 145 130

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6E (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi 5 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
- Dual Band
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
Bluetooth version 5.3 5
Bluetooth features LE LE, A2DP
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 -
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo
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 No
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat* 20 21
5G support Yes No

Sound

Speakers Stereo Mono
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos Yes Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness
91.8 dB
87.5 dB

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced February 2023 March 2019
Release date February 2023 May 2019
Launch price (MSRP) $1199 $1000
Successor - Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra - Huawei Pura 80 Pro
SAR (head) 0.96 W/kg 0.154 W/kg
SAR (body) 1.4 W/kg 0.63 W/kg
Sensors - Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
Bundled charger Not included -
*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 Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is definitely a better buy.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
14 (29.8%)
33 (70.2%)
Total votes: 47

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