Samsung Galaxy S23 vs Apple iPhone 13
69
out of 100
VS
65
out of 100
Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.1-inch Samsung Galaxy S23 (with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy) that was released on February 1, 2023, against the Apple iPhone 13, which is powered by Apple A15 Bionic and came out 1 year and 5 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
Key differences
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S23
- The rear camera has a 3x optical zoom
- Higher display refresh rate – 120 Hz
- Has 2x more RAM: 8GB versus 4GB
- Better camera quality (According to DxOMark rating)
- Delivers 44% higher peak brightness (1195 against 829 nits)
- Newer Bluetooth version (v5.3)
- Fingerprint scanner
- Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
- 21% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (1712K versus 1413K)
- The phone is 1 year and 5 months newer
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 13
- 13% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 2241 and 1987 points
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 | 6.1 inches | 6.1 inches |
| Resolution | 1080 x 2340 pixels | 1170 x 2532 pixels |
| Aspect ratio | 19.5:9 | 19.5:9 |
| PPI | 425 ppi | 460 ppi |
| Refresh rate | 120 Hz | 60 Hz |
| Adaptive refresh rate | Yes (24-120 Hz) | No |
| Max rated brightness | 1200 nits | 800 nits |
| Max rated brightness in HDR | 1750 nits | 1200 nits |
| HDR support | Yes, HDR10+ | Yes, Dolby Vision |
| Screen protection | Gorilla Glass Victus 2 | - |
| Screen-to-body ratio | 88% | 87.1% |
| Display features | - DCI-P3 - Always-On Display |
- DCI-P3 |
| RGB color space | 98.9% | 129% |
| PWM | 240 Hz | 609 Hz |
| Response time | 1 ms | 7.5 ms |
| Contrast | ∞ Infinity | ∞ Infinity |
Peak brightness test (auto)
Design and build
| Height | 146.3 mm (5.76 inches) | 146.7 mm (5.78 inches) |
| Width | 70.9 mm (2.79 inches) | 71.5 mm (2.81 inches) |
| Thickness | 7.6 mm (0.3 inches) | 7.65 mm (0.3 inches) |
| Weight | 168 g (5.93 oz) | 174 g (6.14 oz) |
| Waterproof | IP68 | IP68 |
| Advanced cooling | Vapor chamber | - |
| Rear material | Glass | Glass |
| Frame material | Metal | Metal |
| Colors | White, Black, Gray, Green, Purple, Yellow | White, Black, Blue, Green, Red, Pink |
| Fingerprint scanner | Yes, in-display | No |
Screen-to-body ratio
Performance
| Chipset | Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy | Apple A15 Bionic |
| Max clock | 3360 MHz | 3230 MHz |
| CPU cores | 8 (1 + 2 + 2 + 3) | 6 (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 2.02 GHz: Blizzard - 2 cores at 3.23 GHz: Avalanche |
| L3 cache | 8 MB | - |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | TSMC |
| Lithography process | 4 nanometers | 5 nanometers |
| Neural processor (NPU) | Hexagon | Apple Neural Engine |
| Graphics | Adreno 740 | Apple GPU (4 cores) |
| GPU shading units | 1536 | 640 |
| GPU clock | 680 MHz | 1338 MHz |
| FLOPS | ~2089 GFLOPS | ~1712.6 GFLOPS |
Benchmarks
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
| Compute Score (GPU) | 9410 | 18447 |
| Single-core score | 1987 | 2241 |
| Multi-core score | 5171 | 5317 |
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
| CPU | 587063 | 410975 |
| GPU | 434955 | 370837 |
| Memory | 275390 | 164151 |
| UX | 414985 | 467312 |
| Total score | 1712393 | 1413275 |
| Samples | [29 tests] | [26 tests] |
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
| Stability | 76% | - |
| Graphics test | 8 FPS | - |
| Graphics score | 1069 | - |
3DMark Solar Bay
| Stability | 73% | 76% |
| Graphics test | 20 FPS | 12 FPS |
| Section 1 | 23 FPS | 16 FPS |
| Section 2 | 20 FPS | 12 FPS |
| Section 3 | 18 FPS | 9 FPS |
| Graphics score | 5348 | 3225 |
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
| Stability | 61% | 74% |
| Graphics test | 21 FPS | 14 FPS |
| Graphics score | 3669 | 2445 |
PCMark 3.0
| Web score | 15188 | - |
| Video editing | 7873 | - |
| Photo editing | 33939 | - |
| Data manipulation | 12935 | - |
| Writing score | 19390 | - |
Recent User Tests
Samsung Galaxy S23
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 📘 2026-09-21 (Mil) | AnTuTu 12 | 1763249 |
| 📘 2026-09-16 (Fluffyicebite:3) | AnTuTu 12 | 1835927 |
| 📘 2026-09-09 -> Rafarobbie22 | AnTuTu 11 | 1708074 |
| 📘 2026-09-09 (Rafa) | AnTuTu 11 | 1708074 |
| 📘 2026-08-09 (Sevin) | AnTuTu 11 | 1700056 |
Apple iPhone 13
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 📘 2026-09-19 (Vova) | AnTuTu 11 | 1297615 |
| 📘 2026-09-18 (charlesddd) | AnTuTu 11 | 1461749 |
| 📘 2026-09-08 (lUjekSh) | Geekbench 6 GPU | 18864 |
| 📘 2026-09-08 (lUjekSh) | Geekbench 6 CPU | 2327 / 5604 |
| 📘 2026-09-03 (Yulik🇺🇦) | AnTuTu 11 | 1289105 |
Memory
| RAM size | 8 GB | 4 GB |
| Memory type | LPDDR5X | LPDDR4X |
| Memory clock | - | 2133 MHz |
| Channels | 4 | 2 |
| Storage size | 128 GB | 128 GB |
| Storage type | UFS 4.0 | 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 | 29.7 GB | 18 GB |
| OS updates | 4 years | - |
| Security updates | 5 years | - |
Battery
| Capacity | 3900 mAh | 3227 mAh |
| Max charge power | 25 W | 20 W |
| Battery type | Li-Ion | Li-Ion |
| Replaceable | No | No |
| Wireless charging | Yes (10 W) | Yes (7.5 W) |
| Reverse charging | Yes, (wireless) | No |
| Bypass charging | Yes | No |
| Fast charging | Yes (57% in 30 min) | Yes (54% in 30 min) |
| Full charging time | 1:16 hr | 1:46 hr |
| Web browsing | 08:12 hr | 09:29 hr |
| Watching video | 13:41 hr | 13:58 hr |
| Gaming | 05:20 hr | 05:12 hr |
| Standby | 109 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 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) | 240 FPS (1080p) |
| Angle of widest lens | 120° | 120° |
| Lenses | 1) Standard: 50 MP 2) Telephoto: 10 MP 3) Ultrawide: 12 MP |
1) Standard: 12 MP 2) Ultrawide: 12 MP |
| Camera features | - Bokeh mode - Pro mode - RAW support |
- 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 | 10 MP | - |
| Aperture | f/2.4 | - |
| Focal length | 70 mm | - |
| Sensor | Samsung S5K3K1 | - |
| Sensor size | 1/3.94" (≈ 0.25 inch) | - |
| Pixel size | 1 micron | - |
| Stabilization | Optical | - |
| Image resolution | 12 MP | 12 MP |
| Aperture | f/2.2 | f/2.4 |
| Focal length | 13 mm | 14 mm |
| Sensor | Sony IMX564 | Sony IMX372 |
| Sensor size | 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch) | 1/3.4" (≈ 0.29 inch) |
| Pixel size | 1.4 micron | 1.4 micron |
| Stabilization | Digital | Digital |
DxOMark main camera tests
Photo quality
Video quality
Generic main camera score
| Bokeh | 70 | 65 |
| Preview | 72 | 76 |
| Zoom | 126 | 65 |
| Samples | Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S23 from DxOMark | Photo samples of Apple iPhone 13 from DxOMark |
Selfie camera
| Megapixels | 12 megapixels | 12 megapixels |
| Image resolution | 4000 x 3000 | 4032 x 3024 |
| Aperture | f/2.2 | f/2.2 |
| Focal length | 26 mm | 23 mm |
| Sensor | Samsung S5K3LU | Sony IMX514 |
| Sensor size | 1/3.24" (≈ 0.31 inch) | 1/3.6" (≈ 0.28 inch) |
| Pixel size | 1.12 micron | - |
| Autofocus | Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) | 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, DP 1.2 | - |
| GPS | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS |
| NFC* | Yes | Yes |
| Infrared port | No | No |
| Number of SIM* | 1 | 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 | February 2023 | September 2021 |
| Release date | February 2023 | September 2021 |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $799 | $800 |
| Successor | - Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus (Snapdragon) | - Apple iPhone 17 |
| SAR (head) | 0.96 W/kg | 0.99 W/kg |
| SAR (body) | 1.3 W/kg | 0.98 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 |
| Bundled charger | Not included | - |
Further details
Notes on Galaxy S23:
- The 128GB version uses slower UFS 3.1 memory, while the 256GB and 512GB models have UFS 4.0.
*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. But if the software is more of a priority – go for the Apple iPhone 13.
Cast your vote
Total votes: 2785
