Samsung S23

[CropDuster]

Kicking around trading my S20+ for the regular 23 since I've never really liked it and Vzw is offering $800 trade in credit. Seems like the 20+ specs are still competitive though unless I'm missing something? But if the S23 isn't much different then I probably won't like it and be stuck with it another 3 years. Analysis paralysis. *sigh*

 

[CP5670]

The camera is substantially better. The faster CPU and other features are minor except for games, but they add up. It's worth it with the credit, and you can trade in an old phone off ebay and sell your current one separately to get the new one basically for free. I wouldn't upgrade without the credit though.

The pen on the Ultra is nice and more useful than I first thought. It's good for classic emulated games (ScummVM and Basilisk) that expect to see a mouse cursor. It is also a very large phone compared to my S10+, especially the thickness. I got the Spigen transparent cover which makes the phone even thicker, but also balances out the phone better if put on a table (otherwise the camera bumps make it shake if you type on it).

 

[Oyeve]

The camera is substantially better. The faster CPU and other features are minor except for games, but they add up. It's worth it with the credit, and you can trade in an old phone off ebay and sell your current one separately to get the new one basically for free. I wouldn't upgrade without the credit though.

The pen on the Ultra is nice and more useful than I first thought. It's good for classic emulated games (ScummVM and Basilisk) that expect to see a mouse cursor. It is also a very large phone compared to my S10+, especially the thickness. I got the Spigen transparent cover which makes the phone even thicker, but also balances out the phone better if put on a table (otherwise the camera bumps make it shake if you type on it).

What are you comparing to when you say the camera is substantially better? I have an s22 ultra and pixel 7 pro. I have seen side by side comparisons and the Pixel seems to win a lot of em.

 

[CP5670]

I was referring the S20+, which is a few generations old now. The Pixel 7 Pro seems to be comparable camera-wise.

 

[thilanliyan]

Just a notice if you traded in your s22 devices.

I sent in my S22U last week and today I got an email saying I would be charged $155 because the device had a cracked screen or cracked body. I took pictures before I packaged the phone and I called Samsung and asked them to provide me a picture of the phone with the cracked screen or body.

Few minutes later they came back and said to disregard and I got an email saying there will be no charge back, they took care of it and that they were getting a lot of calls from customers about this. So I dunno who's checking the trade in devices but they must not be wanting to do the paperwork or they may have gotten them mixed up.

Several others on Reddit report the same thing.

Or they're charging you and pocketing the difference

I traded in an old Note 9 which was worth $92, so hopefully they don't do that with mine. I also took pics and a video of the phone booting up just in case.

 

[daveybrat]

Verizon gave me an $800 credit for trading in my old Samsung Galaxy S7 phone. I couldn't pass it up as i was currently using an S10e phone. So far i'm loving the new S23 i got.

 

[nOOky]

I was going to just order one of these phones, the 512gb ultra. The best deal I have seen is on Amazon as it includes a $100 gift card. I do not want 3 years of payments, it seems so hard to get any deals right now unless you chose the payment plan. Maybe I'll swing by Best Buy this weekend and see what they have in stock just to hold one.

Edit: nice phone, nice display, camera seems an upgrade for me. Unfortunately most of the deals have ended, and I would have to upgrade to a 5g plan to trade in my old phone. Right now I have an older 8gig plan, but they upgraded me to basically unlimited for $5 a month, and some of the features of the Verizon plan aren't as good as what I have. Looks like I'm either buying from Amazon or keeping what I have and sending it in for repair.

 

[accguy9009]

Everyone was talking about how good Samsung trade in values were. First year I own an S22U and was looking to get the S23U because of the 8 gen 2 chip and rumors that battery life will be much better.

They only offer $500 for any model S22U so I don't feel like paying $700 to find out if the battery life is better. Now is it drastically much better? If yes it may be worth it but right now it looks like an incremental upgrade.

I'm gonna hang on to my S22U until the pixel 8 pro is out.

I am also. The S22U & the S23U are very similiar. My battery hasn't been a problem except sometimes after an update I need to make sure settings stay how I want them. I wasn't impressed with the trade in offers either. I'd rather keep using my 22U rather than giving them $ 700 to trade in for the 23U.

 

[accguy9009]

Verizon gave me an $800 credit for trading in my old Samsung Galaxy S7 phone. I couldn't pass it up as i was currently using an S10e phone. So far i'm loving the new S23 i got.

You got a nice trade in. I pay $ 29 for an unlimited Spectrum 5G monthly service. Last time I had Verizon their monthly rates were more than I wanted to pay so I moved on from Verizon

 

[nOOky]

Verizon won't allow trade in because we have an older plan, they required an unlimited 5g plan which would be $35 more a month by itself. I get unlimited now with actually better perks on my old plan because they started giving some plans 999 gigs a month for only $5 a month.

 

[sze5003]

I am also. The S22U & the S23U are very similiar. My battery hasn't been a problem except sometimes after an update I need to make sure settings stay how I want them. I wasn't impressed with the trade in offers either. I'd rather keep using my 22U rather than giving them $ 700 to trade in for the 23U.

I did actually end up getting the s23 ultra. Battery is definitely an improvement for sure.

I can charge it to 100%, at 630am and not need to charge it until the next day that evening or night. I dont use my phone much at work but the building im in has crap reception and I'm surprised the phone only loses 20% or so with about an hour or so of screen time.

The S22U would be at around 50% by the time I left work around 5-6pm. It can be even better if I don't use always on display but I like that feature too much.

 

[lsd]

So far I'm extremely happy with my s23u. Coming from a s22 plus this feels like a big upgrade. Battery life has been amazing for me, I can go an entire weekend without charging. After a 10hr work shift with a lot of screen time I'm coming home with at least 50% charge.
The only thing I wish it had was an audio jack...

 

[Puffnstuff]

I'm happy with the battery life on the S23U vs my old fold 3 which was a battery eating pig. I do wish that it had expandable storage, 3.5mm audio jack and an IR blaster.

 

[thilanliyan]

I'm happy with the battery life on the S23U vs my old fold 3 which was a battery eating pig. I do wish that it had expandable storage, 3.5mm audio jack and an IR blaster.

Gotta go to Sony for that these days.
I dont think 3.5mm jack and storage expansion are coming back to Samsung, Apple, etc.

I'm also loving the S23U compared to the Pixel 6 I was using. Screen, speakers, performance, and battery life are amazing. For the camera, I think night shots are maybe just slightly in favour of the pixel, but besides that the S23U is way more versatile with the 4 cameras.

I'll be keeping this for a few years (kept my Note 9 for 3 yrs) and hopefully by then foldables have had their issues worked out.

 

[nOOky]

After multiple attempts at Samsung chat to send my Note in for repair I finally got a human instead of the AI. I ended up buying a S23 Ultra 512 for $779.99, normally it's $1,379 so they gave me $600 for my old Note. I just paid for it right away so no payments. I suspect the cost to repair the old Note would have been over $200 at least so I'm not unhappy. It gets here Friday.

 

[HutchinsonJC]

Verizon won't allow trade in because we have an older plan, they required an unlimited 5g plan which would be $35 more a month by itself. I get unlimited now with actually better perks on my old plan because they started giving some plans 999 gigs a month for only $5 a month.

Verizon won't even offer any of their unlimited plans where I live because the company they have to pass their data through who owns the cell towers here charges more than Verizon would like to allow customers in the area to use an unlimited plan.

So because of that, combined with their trade-in practice as of now making it a requirement to have an unlimited plan, comes off to me as ridiculously disappointing. What's the point of being their customer if their frustrations with local companies cost me opportunities extending beyond just the plan availability? Now it affects trade-ins, too?

 

[nOOky]

Honestly after using it a couple days I can't tell much difference between the 23 Ultra and my Note 20 Ultra. Physically they are almost identical, especially in a case. I decided to install all of my apps and pictures on the new phone from scratch, rather than copying from the old phone. It took hours, downloading and guessing logins and passwords. I put all of the pictures from the Note on my computer, intending to go through and delete the duplicates or bad images. After only going through 500 of about 22,000 pictures I quit lol. I set the S23 to 120hz at the highest resolution, everything else is pretty much set as my old phone for settings. So far I can't say the camera blows the old phone away. I can't honestly tell much difference on the phones themselves or my crappy 1080p work monitor. On my home 34" I can start to see some improvement, although I did not take any side by side comparison images.

That's not to say I don't like the S23 Ultra, except for being a tad bit heavier, and having a slightly smaller display, so far it seems excellent, except for low light photos where it still struggles. The 10x zoom also doesn't wow me. I guess the bottom line is that I have to start going though and deleting photos that didn't turn out right away now, instead of letting them pile up n my limited storage.