Samsung Galaxy S23 vs A23 5G

Here we compared two 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 Samsung Galaxy A23 5G, which is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 and came out 6 months before. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S23
  • Waterproof body (IP68 classification)
  • 3.4x better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (1364K versus 406K)
  • The rear camera has a 3x optical zoom
  • Delivers 137% higher peak brightness (1207 against 509 nits)
  • Handles wireless charging up to 10W
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.3)
  • Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
  • Ability to record video in 4K resolution
  • Compatible with Wi-Fi 6 wireless networks
  • Stereo speakers
  • Dynamic AMOLED display (versus competitor's PLS TFT)
  • Thinner bezels – 5.6% more screen real estate
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy A23 5G
  • Comes with 1100 mAh larger battery capacity: 5000 vs 3900 mAh
  • Shows 10% longer battery life (38:04 vs 34:29 hours)
  • Expandable storage via MicroSD card up to 1024GB
  • Has a 0.5 inch larger screen size
  • Includes a 3.5 mm headphone audio jack port

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy S23 and A23 5G 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
Choose the importance of each parameter to more accurately identify the smartphone that best meets your particular needs.
Adjust priorities
Feature
Priority (Weight)
Display:
Camera:
Performance:
Gaming:
Battery Life:
The higher the priority, the more it will affect the final NanoReview score.

Value for money

You can enter your local prices of these phones (in USD or other currency) and click on the "Calculate" button to see which one has a better value for money.
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Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type Dynamic AMOLED PLS TFT
Size 6.1 inches 6.6 inches
Resolution 1080 x 2340 pixels 1080 x 2408 pixels
Aspect ratio 19.5:9 20:9
PPI 425 ppi 400 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes No
Max rated brightness 800 nits 450 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR 1750 nits -
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ No
Screen protection Gorilla Glass Victus 2 Corning Gorilla Glass 5
Screen-to-body ratio 88.1% 82.5%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
Display tests
RGB color space 98.9% 99.9%
PWM 240 Hz -
Response time 1 ms 22 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity 1442:1
Peak brightness test (auto)
Galaxy S23 +137%
1207 nits
509 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 146.3 mm (5.76 inches) 165.4 mm (6.51 inches)
Width 70.9 mm (2.79 inches) 76.9 mm (3.03 inches)
Thickness 7.6 mm (0.3 inches) 8.4 mm (0.33 inches)
Weight 168 g (5.93 oz) 197 g (6.95 oz)
Waterproof IP68 No
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber -
Rear material Glass Plastic
Frame material Metal Plastic
Colors White, Black, Gray, Green, Purple, Yellow White, Black, Blue, Yellow
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display Yes, in-button
Screen-to-body ratio
88.1%

Performance

Tests of Samsung Galaxy S23 and Samsung Galaxy A23 5G in the benchmarks
SoC
Chipset Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy Qualcomm Snapdragon 695
Max clock 3360 MHz 2200 MHz
CPU cores 8 (1 + 2 + 2 + 3) 8 (2 + 6)
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
- 6 cores at 1.8 GHz: Kryo 660 Silver (Cortex-A55)
- 2 cores at 2.2 GHz: Kryo 660 Gold (Cortex-A78)
L3 cache 8 MB -
Lithography process 4 nanometers 6 nanometers
Graphics Adreno 740 Adreno 619
GPU shading units 2560 256
GPU clock 719 MHz 950 MHz
FLOPS ~3481.6 GFLOPS ~486.4 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Galaxy S23 +111%
1828
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Galaxy S23 +125%
4728
AnTuTu Benchmark 10
Galaxy S23 +235%
1364479
406859
CPU 366724 143456
GPU 551228 82937
Memory 192220 82102
UX 247673 95088
Total score 1364479 406859
3DMark Wild Life Performance
Galaxy S23 +905%
12033
Max surface temperature 34.3 °C 43.9 °C
Stability 60% 99%
Graphics test 72 FPS 7 FPS
Graphics score 12033 1197
PCMark 3.0
Galaxy S23 +55%
15508
Web score 13647 9116
Video editing 7797 4805
Photo editing 34238 20729
Data manipulation 12529 8517
Writing score 19579 13323
Sources: 3DMark [3], [4]

Memory

RAM
RAM size 8 GB 4, 6, 8 GB
Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR4X
Memory clock - 2133 MHz
Channels 4 2
Storage
Storage size 128, 256, 512 GB 64, 128 GB
Storage type UFS 4.0 UFS 2.2
Memory card No MicroSD
Memory card max size - Up to 1024 GB

Software

Operating system Android 13 Android 12 (Can be upgraded to Android 13)
ROM One UI 5.1 One UI 5.0
OS size 29.7 GB -

Battery

Capacity 3900 mAh 5000 mAh
Max charge power 25 W 25 W
Battery type Li-Po Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (10 W) No
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) No
Fast charging Yes (57% in 30 min) Yes (58% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:16 hr 1:08 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing 12:15 hr 13:53 hr
Watching video 15:00 hr 14:37 hr
Gaming 05:56 hr 05:39 hr
Standby 111 hr 134 hr
General battery life
34:29 hr
38:04 hr
Mobile Phone Battery Life Ranking (140th and 52nd place)

Camera

Specs and camera test of smartphones
Main camera
Matrix 50 megapixels 50 megapixels
Image resolution 8160 x 6120 8192 x 6144
Zoom Optical, 3x Digital
Flash LED LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 30FPS No
4K video recording Up to 60FPS No
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 30FPS
Slow motion 960 FPS (1080p) 120 FPS (720p)
Angle of widest lens 120° 123°
Lenses 3 (50 MP + 10 MP + 12 MP) 4 (50 MP + 5 MP + 2 MP + 2 MP)
Wide (main) lens - 50 MP
- Aperture: f/1.8
- Focal length: 23 mm
- Pixel size: 1 micron
- Sensor: 1/1.57", Samsung S5KGN3 (ISOCELL Plus CMOS)
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
- Optical stabilization
- 50 MP
- Aperture: f/1.8
- Pixel size: 0.64 micron
- Sensor: 1/2.76", Samsung S5KJN1 (ISOCELL Plus CMOS)
- Phase autofocus
- Optical stabilization
Telephoto lens - 10 MP
- Aperture: f/2.4
- Focal length: 70 mm
- Pixel size: 1 micron
- Sensor: 1/3.94", Samsung S5K3K1 (Exmor-RS CMOS)
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
- Optical stabilization
-
Ultra-wide lens - 12 MP
- Aperture: f/2.2
- Focal length: 13 mm
- Pixel size: 1.4 micron
- Sensor: 1/2.55", Sony IMX564 (Exmor-RS CMOS)
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
- 5 MP
- Aperture: f/2.2
- Focal length: 13 mm
- Sensor: 1/5", GalaxyCore 5035 (CMOS)
Macro lens - - 2 MP
- Aperture: f/2.4
- Focal length: 26 mm
Depth lens - - 2 MP
- Aperture: f/2.4
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
Samples Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S23 from DxOMark -
Selfie camera
Megapixels 12 megapixels 8 megapixels
Image resolution 4000 x 3000 3264 x 2448
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 26 mm -
Pixel size 1.12 microns 1.12 microns
Sensor type ISOCELL CMOS CMOS
Sensor size 1/3.24" -
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 1080p (Full HD) at 30 FPS

DxOMark camera tests

Photo quality
Video quality
Generic camera score

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
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 5.3 5.1
Bluetooth features LE LE, A2DP
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 3.2 2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS GPS, GLONASS, Galileo
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM* 2 2
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby Standby
eSIM support* Yes No
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat* 20 18
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

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

Other

Category Flagship Mid-range
Announced February 2023 August 2022
Release date February 2023 September 2022
SAR (head) 0.96 W/kg 1.49 W/kg
SAR (body) 1.3 W/kg 1.25 W/kg
Sensors - Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Barometer
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
Bundled charger Not included 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

After analyzing all the data, we think that the Samsung Galaxy S23 is definitely a better buy.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
2 (40%)
3 (60%)
Total votes: 5

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