Technologies

iPhone 14 Pro vs. Galaxy S23 Ultra: This Ex-Android Lover Has Thoughts

Do I regret switching to Apple?

This story is part of Samsung Event, CNET’s collection of news, tips and advice around Samsung’s most popular products.

Five months ago, I went from being a die-hard Samsung Galaxy fan to a sellout iPhone owner. Since then, I’ve fully adapted to the world of Apple and have been basking in the perks of features like AirDrop and iMessage (mostly to the delight of my friends, who were sick of my green texts).

But I still have a soft spot for Galaxy phones, and when Samsung unveiled the S23 lineup in February, I was eager to see how the top-of-the-line S23 Ultra would compare to my iPhone 14 Pro. So I got my hands on one and began using the phones side by side to compare everything from the cameras to battery life to overall design — and to see whether I’d have any regrets about switching to the «dark side.» Here’s what I found.

The Galaxy S23 Ultra’s display vs. Apple’s Super Retina screen

First things first: I have an iPhone 14 Pro, and not a Pro Max, so the Ultra’s massive screen definitely stands out in comparison. I never feel like I need a bigger screen than what I get on my 14 Pro, but it definitely doesn’t hurt to have that larger display when I’m watching a YouTube video or streaming a show — or spending too much time on TikTok.

The trade-off to having that larger screen is trying to fit it in my pocket and having to carry something a bit bulkier. Still, it’s a pretty sleek phone for all that real estate.

The display quality on both phones is stellar, and I don’t see much of a quality difference between the two. Right out of the box, the S23 Ultra has a nice bright display, which you can achieve on the iPhone by turning off True Tone (a feature that adjusts the color and intensity of your display depending on your environment). If the brightness on the Ultra is too much, you can inversely mimic the effects of True Tone by going into Display settings and either toggling on Eye comfort shield or going to Screen mode and selecting Natural. You can also play with the White balance scale. Images on the iPhone look slightly sharper, but colors pop a bit more on the S23 Ultra. Overall, though, there’s really not much of a difference between the phones.

Galaxy and iPhone keyboards — The keyboard on the Galaxy S23 Ultra (right) places numbers above letters, so you don’t have to hop between the two.

John Kim/CNET

There’s one aspect to having an iPhone that I haven’t quite made peace with yet, and it’s the keyboard. I’m glad Apple added Slide to Type with iOS 13 a few years ago, followed by haptic feedback on the keyboard with iOS 16 (finally), because those are features I loved on Android. But I still get frustrated that I have to switch between numbers and letters when I’m typing on the iPhone. Meanwhile, on the Galaxy, the numbers sit just above the letters, so you can select them more quickly, the way you would on a laptop keyboard. You can download different keyboards on the iPhone like Gboard, but it’s not the same. I’ll admit that’s a minor complaint, but I do think the user experience would benefit from Apple taking a page from Android’s book — you know, like they’ve done many times before. Moving on….

Get up to $750 off a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra with a trade-in

$450 at Samsung

Get up to $600 off an iPhone 14 Pro with a trade-in

$399 at Apple

The Galaxy S23 Ultra’s battery life is next level

I’ve had my iPhone for a few months now and thankfully haven’t seen any noticeable drops in battery life yet. My phone still lasts a full day of heavy use, but I always need to charge at the end of the day.

The Ultra’s battery is next level. I can go a full day of use and still have some juice left over. That’s not surprising, given the S23 Ultra has a 5,000-mAh battery. Apple doesn’t share battery capacity for its phones, but says the 14 Pro has up to 23 hours of video playback. An iFixit teardown found the iPhone 14 Pro has a 3,200-mAh battery.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra — The battery that keeps going.

James Martin/CNET

Even though the Ultra has a bigger battery, Apple is actually able to crank out more efficiency from its batteries thanks to iOS and its own A-series chips. Meanwhile, Android has to work with a variety of devices running different processors, so it becomes more important to have that bigger battery.

Specs and logistics aside, I’m amazed by the Ultra’s battery life, as was CNET’s mobile reporter Lisa Eadicicco when she reviewed the Ultra.

The S23 Ultra’s 200-megapixel camera

Camera quality is the most important aspect of any phone for me. I take a lot of pictures and videos for work and social media, including for my very niche tea account on Instagram. The camera on the Galaxy phones kept me in the Samsung family for a decade, so I was eager to compare the S23 Ultra’s cameras to the iPhone 14 Pro’s.

What I noticed right away is how much more saturated photos on the Ultra are. In most cases, that saturation adds a nice color boost to images and makes them stand out more. Pictures of my colorful teacups look even more vibrant on the Ultra. Sometimes, that saturation can be a bit overwhelming and makes photos look unnatural, as if there’s a filter on them. But other times, it makes colors and subjects stand out, in a good way.

A floral teacup and saucer taken with the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra — The Galaxy S23 Ultra’s 200-megapixel sensor brings out details and color in this decorative teacup.

Abrar Al-Heeti/CNET

The 200-megapixel sensor on the Ultra punches up color and detail even more. A picture I took of a decorative teacup emphasizes the intricate floral design and gold trim and another image of a Klay Thompson mural shows vivid blues and yellows.

Not all moments are made for a 200-megapixel sensor, though. In another image taken outdoors, the sensor removed a few too many highlights, so it was harder to see detail and make sense of what’s going on.

Overall, I appreciate the softness and brightness of photos on the Ultra. Shadows on the iPhone are often a bit too harsh and give some images a darker overtone. An image of the sky on the Ultra will look nice and bright, while on the iPhone, there might be distracting shadows under clouds. The Ultra’s softness and brightness also make for more flattering selfies. You can adjust the iPhone’s camera settings and play around with things like contrast, tone and color temperature, and even mimic photography styles on the Galaxy (and vice versa), but I do wish the iPhone just automatically adjusted for things like shadows a little better.

The camera feature that surprised me most was Portrait mode. I think of Portrait mode on the iPhone as the gold standard. The subject is usually in perfect focus, the background is smoothly blurred and the colors are more natural looking. But I noticed there’s something the Ultra did better than my iPhone. I took a picture of my friend while she had sunglasses on top of her head, and the iPhone struggled to keep the bridge and sides of the glasses in focus, while the Ultra didn’t. It’s that small detail that shows how far Portrait mode has come on Galaxy phones. I still prefer the look of iPhone portraits because of the lower saturation, and you can catch a bit more detail in the background, which is nice.

Portrait mode on iPhone 14 Pro vs Galaxy S23 Ultra — The picture on the left was taken with Portrait mode on the iPhone 14 Pro, while the one on the right was taken with the Galaxy S23 Ultra. If you look closely, you’ll nice the iPhone blurs the bridge and sides of the glasses, while the Ultra doesn’t.

Abrar Al-Heeti/CNET

Does the Galaxy S23 Ultra beat the iPhone at video?

Given the popularity of TikTok and Instagram Reels right now, video is a huge focus for both Apple and Samsung — and also important for folks like me who take a lot of videos. Since switching to the iPhone, I’ve seen an uptick in the quality of my videos. The colors are more natural and the images sharper. Cinematic mode makes subjects pop and lends a more professional look to my content. Samsung has its own Cinematic mode equivalent, called Portrait video. It also does a great job of blurring the background, but objects and people look a little less defined than they do on iPhone.

One area where the Ultra is a clear winner is with video stabilization. Even walking down the stairs, the footage is incredibly smooth, as if you’re using a gimbal. With the iPhone, you can still sense each step being taken, and there’s a lot more movement.

The S23 Ultra’s design vs. iPhone 14 Pro

Let’s be honest: the iPhone’s camera bumps are ridiculous. The Ultra is a breath of fresh air because the cameras don’t stick out as much, so it wobbles less when you set it down.

The S Pen on the Ultra is a fun extra, though I never found myself reaching for it. There’s not much I want to write by hand, and I can just tap the screen for pretty much all functions. Still, I’m glad the legacy of the retired Galaxy Note series lives on.

The in-screen fingerprint reader was a favorite feature of mine on my Galaxy phones, and it’s nice to have that option again while using the Ultra. I missed it when I first switched to the iPhone, but Face ID is solid enough that I quickly got over it. Unlocking both phones has been seamless.

The Galaxy S23 Ultra’s price is the same as the iPhone

The S23 Ultra is $1,200 for 256 GB of storage and is priced similarly to the iPhone 14 Pro Max with the same amount of storage. The smaller iPhone 14 Pro is $1,100 for 256GB. Whether you’re a Galaxy fan or an iPhone lover, $1,200 is a lot. But in this case, you get what you pay for.

Galaxy S23 Ultra vs. iPhone 14 Pro final thoughts

iPhone 14 Pro and Galaxy S23 Ultra cameras — Those camera bumps on the iPhone 14 Pro feel a little excessive.

John Kim/CNET

It’s been fun to revisit a world I’ve abandoned and compare the iPhone I have now to the one I could’ve had if I’d stayed in the Galaxy family. While there are aspects to the S23 Ultra that I appreciate, like brighter and more colorful images, better video stabilization and incredible battery life, there are advantages to having an iPhone that go beyond specs that’ll likely keep me in the Apple ecosystem for a while. Features like Airdrop and iMessage have made the user experience more seamless. And I don’t know if I could give up the iPhone’s video quality for anything else.

Still, I know that if I want to take a picture that makes people’s jaws drop, I’ll likely reach for the S23 Ultra. Then I’ll wait for the look of shock when I tell them it wasn’t taken with an iPhone.

Check out the video above to see more of my experience trying out these two phones, along with some side-by-side examples of photos and videos taken on each.

Galaxy S23 Ultra: Take a Closer Look at Samsung’s Giant New Phone

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See all photos

Technologies

TMR vs. Hall Effect Controllers: Battle of the Magnetic Sensing Tech

The magic of magnets tucked into your joysticks can put an end to drift. But which technology is superior?

Competitive gamers look for every advantage they can get, and that drive has spawned some of the zaniest gaming peripherals under the sun. There are plenty of hardware components that actually offer meaningful edges when implemented properly. Hall effect and TMR (tunnel magnetoresistance or tunneling magnetoresistance) sensors are two such technologies. Hall effect sensors have found their way into a wide variety of devices, including keyboards and gaming controllers, including some of our favorites like the GameSir Super Nova.

More recently, TMR sensors have started to appear in these devices as well. Is it a better technology for gaming? With multiple options vying for your lunch money, it’s worth understanding the differences to decide which is more worthy of living inside your next game controller or keyboard.

How Hall effect joysticks work

We’ve previously broken down the difference between Hall effect tech and traditional potentiometers in controller joysticks, but here’s a quick rundown on how Hall effect sensors work. A Hall effect joystick moves a magnet over a sensor circuit, and the magnetic field affects the circuit’s voltage. The sensor in the circuit measures these voltage shifts and maps them to controller inputs. Element14 has a lovely visual explanation of this effect here.

The advantage this tech has over potentiometer-based joysticks used in controllers for decades is that the magnet and sensor don’t need to make physical contact. There’s no rubbing action to slowly wear away and degrade the sensor. So, in theory, Hall effect joysticks should remain accurate for the long haul.

How TMR joysticks work

While TMR works differently, it’s a similar concept to Hall effect devices. When you move a TMR joystick, it moves a magnet in the vicinity of the sensor. So far, it’s the same, right? Except with TMR, this shifting magnetic field changes the resistance in the sensor instead of the voltage.

There’s a useful demonstration of a sensor in action here. Just like Hall effect joysticks, TMR joysticks don’t rely on physical contact to register inputs and therefore won’t suffer the wear and drift that affects potentiometer-based joysticks.

Which is better, Hall effect or TMR?

There’s no hard and fast answer to which technology is better. After all, the actual implementation of the technology and the hardware it’s built into can be just as important, if not more so. Both technologies can provide accurate sensing, and neither requires physical contact with the sensing chip, so both can be used for precise controls that won’t encounter stick drift. That said, there are some potential advantages to TMR.

According to Coto Technology, who, in fairness, make TMR sensors, they can be more sensitive, allowing for either greater precision or the use of smaller magnets. Since the Hall effect is subtler, it relies on amplification and ultimately requires extra power. While power requirements vary from sensor to sensor, GameSir claims its TMR joysticks use about one-tenth the power of mainstream Hall effect joysticks. Cherry is another brand highlighting the lower power consumption of TMR sensors, albeit in the brand’s keyboard switches.

The greater precision is an opportunity for TMR joysticks to come out ahead, but that will depend more on the controller itself than the technology. Strange response curves, a big dead zone (which shouldn’t be needed), or low polling rates could prevent a perfectly good TMR sensor from beating a comparable Hall effect sensor in a better optimized controller.

The power savings will likely be the advantage most of us really feel. While it won’t matter for wired controllers, power savings can go a long way for wireless ones. Take the Razer Wolverine V3 Pro, for instance, a Hall effect controller offering 20 hours of battery life from a 4.5-watt-hour battery with support for a 1,000Hz polling rate on a wireless connection. Razer also offers the Wolverine V3 Pro 8K PC, a near-identical controller with the same battery offering TMR sensors. They claim the TMR version can go for 36 hours on a charge, though that’s presumably before cranking it up to an 8,000Hz polling rate — something Razer possibly left off the Hall effect model because of power usage.

The disadvantage of the TMR sensor would be its cost, but it appears that it’s negligible when factored into the entire price of a controller. Both versions of the aforementioned Razer controller are $199. Both 8BitDo and GameSir have managed to stick them into reasonably priced controllers like the 8BitDo Ultimate 2, GameSir G7 Pro and GameSir Cyclone 2.

So which wins?

It seems TMR joysticks have all the advantages of Hall effect joysticks and then some, bringing better power efficiency that can help in wireless applications. The one big downside might be price, but from what we’ve seen right now, that doesn’t seem to be much of an issue. You can even find both technologies in controllers that cost less than some potentiometer models, like the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller.

Caveats to consider

For all the hype, neither Hall effect nor TMR joysticks are perfect. One of their key selling points is that they won’t experience stick drift, but there are still elements of the joystick that can wear down. The ring around the joystick can lose its smoothness. The stick material can wear down (ever tried to use a controller with the rubber worn off its joystick? It’s not pleasant). The linkages that hold the joystick upright and the springs that keep it stiff can loosen, degrade and fill with dust. All of these can impact the continued use of the joystick, even if the Hall effect or TMR sensor itself is in perfect operating order.

So you might not get stick drift from a bad sensor, but you could get stick drift from a stick that simply doesn’t return to its original resting position. That’s when having a controller that’s serviceable or has swappable parts, like the PDP Victrix Pro BFG, could matter just as much as having one with Hall effect or TMR joysticks.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Feb. 18, #513

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Feb. 18, No. 513.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition has a fun yellow category that might just start you singing. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: I don’t care if I never get back.

Green group hint: Get that gold medal.

Blue group hint: Hoops superstar.

Purple group hint: Not front, but…

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Heard in «Take Me Out to the Ball Game.»

Green group: Olympic snowboarding events.

Blue group: Vince Carter, informally.

Purple group: ____ back.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is heard in «Take Me Out to the Ball Game.» The four answers are Cracker Jack, home team, old ball game and peanuts.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is Olympic snowboarding events. The four answers are big air, giant slalom, halfpipe and slopestyle.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is Vince Carter, informally. The four answers are Air Canada, Half-Man, Half-Amazing, VC and Vinsanity.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ____ back. The four answers are diamond, drop, quarter and razor.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, Feb. 18

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Feb. 18.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s Mini Crossword is a fun one, and it’s not terribly tough. It helps if you know a certain Olympian. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.