is Samsung's new 200 megapixel s23 Ultra really that big of an upgrade or is it
all marketing and how does it compare to the s22 and the S21 well I went out I
took a ton of different pictures with all the cameras different modes I took a
bunch of different video and today I will show you where I was really
disappointed and where I was surprised looking at the full shot right here it's
very hard to tell a difference now you see a dynamic range difference but we'll
talk about that in just a bit crapping in here 400 percent I can see that the
200 megapixel shot on left is the most detailed but honestly the difference is
minimal in this next shot we have a lot going on first off dynamic range we'll
talk about that but as far as sharpness it doesn't look much better than the s22
ultra so let's crop in and here we see more of a difference the s23 looks more
natural less artificial sharpening and the one that actually looks bad is the
S21 now do we see a difference when it's all scaled down to 12 megapixel to me it
looks even more similar than before dynamic range is helped for the other
ones same thing for this shot right here it's a lot more even with the way most
people are going to use it and cropping into my surprise the s22s 108 megapixel
actually looks more detailed when scaled down to 12. now I took more shots but
the results are basically the same which is a little bit unfortunate now I'm also
going to be comparing the 200 megapixel to Apples 48 megapixel Pro rods so make
sure you guys are subscribed but where I did start to see more differences and
changes was when it got darker now in this shot not a huge difference other
than the S21 starting to fall behind the same thing in here the s20 looks
slightly better than this s22 but the S21 looks bad in this shot the S21 has
some smearing it's a little bit soft and honestly I think the s22 looks the best
once again the S21 is falling behind here and the other two are almost
identical now when it really gets dark the s23 starts taking the lead like in
this shot but I also noticed that it can have some different kind of flaring
that's more noticeable in certain shots like this one on the left hand side and
here honestly I think the s22 looks the best and the same thing here the s22
looks great now people had concerns that the shutter lag is going to be too bad
with the sensor but honestly it did great in my testing now one issue I did
find is that sometimes when it's really dark the new s23 will push up the
Shadows way too much especially in this shot right right here where it doesn't
look like daytime but doesn't look like night time I think they gotta update the
software now it doesn't always happen so sometimes hit or miss here the image
looks great and better than the other two but another issue I found is banding
and artifacting the s182 looks solid the S21 has a lot of noise but the s23 has
this weird color noise and Bandy you can see it at the top left in the darks in
this shot as well and in this shot as well even on the ground there overall
when this kind of stuff happens the s22 definitely takes the win Now setting
these up on a tripod the s23 gets a lot more detail better Shadows the water
looks nicer it is a great shot these were at 200 megapixel but they down
sampled and here this is a 30 second exposure it was Pitch Black it's amazing
these phones could do but I prefer the s22 honestly I think the s23 needs
another six months or so with new software updates or maybe closer to a
year before the hardware is fully realized because the sensor seems good
but we have a lot of inconsistencies now testing out the ultra wide in the
daytime there is literally no difference they look so similar it's only at night
time where the s23 starts coming ahead depending on the shot now in some shots
the s22 actually looks better it just looks a little bit sharper a little bit
more contrast but the S21 really starts to fall apart the same thing here the
other two are fairly close a little bit more detail in the s23 here but the S21
if you have one of those you should probably upgrade now as far as 10x
telephoto can we see a difference well honestly it's quite hard when you're
looking at all the feather they look so similar in daytime here I think the s22
looks a little better I think it just might be because of extra contrast being
added we have slight differences in color but in terms of detail looks so
similar now in night time we start seeing a difference we have less noise a
little bit more detail getting even darker the difference is even more
noticeable it's definitely an improvement but looking at this classic
moonshot we like to do the quality is the same or slightly worse looking at
this 3x the detail looks practically the same I just see a little bit Improvement
in processing with dynamic range same thing here but the S21 was just miss
focusing on multiple shots I want to see if we have a difference in detail at
night since that's what we're kind of seeing in here not a big difference in
detail but the s22 pushed up the mids too much and here they're like fairly
similar but that's 23 has a little bit more detail in the face a little bit
better processing now one thing I did see is a difference in motion blur here
the S21 looks the best it had the fastest shutter speed in this shot the
oldest and newest look good with s23 taking the win but the s22 is suffering
from motion blur and the same thing here motion blur on the s22 3x but the s23
looks the best in the S21 looks the worst with a lot of noise which is
apparent in multiple different shots so as far as 3x I would give it to the s23
but not by a huge margin over the s22 next we're going to look at Portrait
shots which I love taking the s22 is pretty good but it was behind the iPhone
and with the 200 megapixel sensor is that can make it better or worse I was
hoping for some better processing for portraits and it looks slightly
different a little bit more contrast but not by that much the edge detection
looks to be very similar maybe even slightly worse than the s22 but we have
better white balance and a little bit better HDR as well a little bit more
contrast but it's not really worth upgrading for what is worth upgrading
for is if you like taking white portraits here only the s22 could take
one at this distance and the same thing here at night time it was able to do a
portrait shot where the others weren't and it looks surprisingly natural and
just like before we start noticing a bigger difference when you're taking
night mode portraits you get a little bit more detail a little bit better
contrast less noise so the difference is noticeable but once again I wouldn't
upgrade just for a little bit more detail now let's flip around to the
selfie cameras for some reason Samsung went from a 40 megapixel selfie camera
down to a 12 on the new one maybe cost savings I don't know but that is weird
because they went with 200 on the back so let's go ahead and take a look one
thing that kept coming up for selfies is that sometimes the darks are just pushed
up too much it makes it look a little bit flat now with really good bright
lighting the difference is very minimal between the s22 and both of them look
sharp but in more even indirect lighting you start getting those Grace coming up
and you see less detail the same thing at night the s22's 40 megapixel camera
definitely looks better but the S21 looks the worst so yes unfortunately I
would say that the selfie Camera downgrading 12 megapixels did make it
worse overall as for the macro well the s23 struggled to focus and to take this
shot the s22 did the best being able to get close and when you're doing the same
distance it just looks sharper overall now the next section is what's surprised
me the most and where I saw the biggest improvement with the s23 that might make
it worth upgrading for some of you now where I noticed a big difference is
dynamic range now this is the portrait shot right here and the S21 allows a 2X
which I like but the dynamic range is way worse this shot right here wasn't as
crazy so it's not as noticeable but here the s23 isn't blowing out any of that
platform or the building in the background it definitely looks the best
here it pulls down the sky nicely and the light bulbs aren't distracting like
on the S21 and the faces look nice and clear and with that the white balance is
more accurate as well with a little more detail and a nice pleasing dynamic range
now at night time with a bright screen you guys see the difference this shot
might be even more clear where the screen is fully visible compared to the
other two running a longer night mode shot you also see the difference and
with neon signs my goodness it's the only one that can get the color right
you have less noise than the s22 and a lot more detail now switching to that 3x
lens the s22 looks terrible whereas the other two look pretty good but dynamic
range is the best on the s23 here's another example right here it's a pretty
massive difference we see the same thing with the ultra wide the image just looks
really nice on the s23 a and with the 10x lens I mean look at that nice sharp
image nothing blown out the S21 looks like garbage so to me the biggest
Improvement in camera quality is dynamic range look at that the s23 looks amazing
it has the sky details of the s22 and the subject details and brightness of
the S21 looks amazing and in this 30 second exposure on a tripod I mean the
difference is startling at 200 megapixels so overall for camera quality
even a 200 megapixels doesn't give us a big difference in the daytime I think
the sensor is a lot newer has faster readouts so Samsung can get better
dynamic range it gives some improvements in certain night mode aspects and you
guys saw that last shot was very impressive so overall is it a sucky
update like some people are saying I would say it's an iterative upgrade that
they're trying to sell as a revolutionary upgrade but with that said
what about video I saw a bunch of different modes I shot AK let's go ahead
and take a look
starting out with portrait video now it's the only one that could do so in a
higher resolution and the S21 has bad dynamic range bad quality it's wider but
it looks quite a bit worse so definitely an improvement and it's also the only
one that can record portrait with objects which is also really nice now as
far as slow motion you actually get an upgrade in camera quality it's doing
this I believe in 4k instead of 1080p so we do have some improvements but it's
not massive other than some extra sharpness here we also have a little bit
more detail a little bit better dynamic range for this slow motion not massive
but it is noticeable as far as super slow motion it can now do so at a higher
resolution look at that extra sharpness in detail it is definitely nice the
water looks more natural but unfortunately both s23 and s22 to record
clips that are half the length of the S21 so I had a really hard time trying
to get this shot with other two now this is 8k through some glass so we do have
some Reflections now the first thing you'll notice is it's quite a bit wider
as far as detail doesn't look that much better but dynamic range and the
highlights are pulled back quite a bit better this is where the 8K really
impressed me once again look at the difference in how much wider the 8K is
now it used to be really cropped not only that we have less noise we have
better dynamic range the detail of the AK also looks better now I cropped it in
so that the framing is the same and even with zooming in it still looks quite a
bit better and more usable so AK is now a reality switching over to 4K we have a
little bit extra contrast in detail I was worried about artifacts because of
such a large sensor but Samsung is doing a good job the image is improved and
another tall shot over here with less Reflections dynamic range is slightly
better looks a little bit flat right now but even for 4K we're not seeing any
issues with such a large sensor and this is from facing camera comparison
and the left side we have on the left side we have the S21 Ultra
middle s22 Ultra and on the right s23 Ultra testing out the super smooth
footage the s23 can actually have a higher resolution it's about 1440p now
here I'm walking and I'm trying to walk with a lot of shakiness and the
difference isn't huge now I did go inside and I'm glad that I did because
look at all of that noise on the s23 the s22 looks a bit better and the S21 has a
lot more contrast so it hides the noise so even though we have higher resolution
the actual video if you're mid to low lighting looks quite a bit worse now
recording AK footage at night time with some decent lighting around so it's not
crazy dark it also looks just so so good way more closer to photo quality than
before we have less stuttering a lot more detail less noise and a much wider
shot so now I would actually use the AK this is incredible so even though we do
have some downgrades in terms of video because of higher resolution or things
like that overall I say it's a major win especially because the AK is such a big
Improvement the damage range is a bigger Improvement it's actually usable and if
this was my daily driver I would be shooting an 8K all the time so if you
care about the best quality video I would say it's amazing and now I have to
compare it to the iPhone which has been the video quality king for a long time
so there you guys go let me know your thoughts in the comment section below I
did a super detailed look were you impressed by the s23 Ultras the camera
upgrades or do you think it is not that big of a deal go ahead and click that
Circle above to subscribe check out one of those videos right over there that's
been Max and I'll see you in the next one