Technologies
iPhone 14 Pro vs. Galaxy S23 Ultra: My Thoughts As An Ex-Android Lover
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.
The keyboard on the Galaxy S23 Ultra (right) places numbers above letters, so you don’t have to hop between the two.
John Kim/CNETThere’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….
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.
The battery that keeps going.
James Martin/CNETEven 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.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra’s 200-megapixel sensor brings out details and color in this decorative teacup.
Abrar Al-Heeti/CNETThe 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.
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/CNETDoes 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 S Pen returns on the Galaxy S23 Ultra.
James Martin/CNETThe 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
Those camera bumps on the iPhone 14 Pro feel a little excessive.
John Kim/CNETIt’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.
Technologies
Tariffs Explained: Latest on Trump’s Shifting Import Tax Plan, and What It Means
Technologies
Apple, I’m (Sky) Blue About Your iPhone 17 Air Color
Commentary: The rumored new hue of the iPhone 17 Air is more sky blah than sky blue.
I can’t help but feel blue about the latest rumor that Apple’s forthcoming iPhone 17 Air will take flight in a subtle, light-hued color called sky blue.
Sky blue isn’t a new color for Apple. It’s the featured shade of the current M4 MacBook Air, a shimmer of cerulean so subtle as to almost be missed. It’s silver left too close to an aquarium; silver that secretly likes to think it’s blue but doesn’t want everyone else to notice.
Do Apple employees get to go outside and see a real blue sky? It’s actually vivid, you can check for yourself. Perhaps the muted sky blue color reflects a Bay Area late winter/early spring frequent layer of clouds like we typically see here in Seattle.
«Who cares?» you might find yourself saying. «Everyone gets a case anyway.» I hear you and everyone else who’s told me that. But design-focused Apple is as obsessive about colors as they are about making their devices thinner. And I wonder if their heads are in the clouds about which hues adorn their pro products.
Making the case for a caseless color iPhone
I’m more invested in this conversation than most — I’m one of those freaks who doesn’t wrap my phone in a case. I find cases bulky and superfluous, and I like to be able to see Apple’s design work. Also, true story, I’ve broken my iPhone screen only twice: First when it was in a «bumper» that Apple sent free in response to the iPhone 4 you’re-holding-it-wrong Antennagate fiasco, and second when trying to take long exposure starry night photos using what I didn’t realize was a broken tripod mount. My one-week-old iPhone 13 Pro slipped sideways and landed screen-first on a pointy rock. A case wouldn’t have saved it.
My current model is an iPhone 16 Pro in black titanium — which I know seems like avoiding color entirely — but previously I’ve gone for colors like blue titanium and deep purple. I wanted to like deep purple the most but it came across as, in the words of Patrick Holland in his iPhone 14 Pro review, «a drab shade of gray or like Grimace purple,» depending on the light.
Pros can be bold, too
Maybe the issue is too many soft blues. Since the iPhone Pro age began with the iPhone 11 Pro, we’ve seen variations like blue titanium (iPhone 15 Pro), sierra blue (iPhone 13 Pro) and pacific blue (iPhone 12 Pro).
Pacific blue is the boldest of the bunch, if by bold you mean dark enough to discern from silver, but it’s also close enough to that year’s graphite color that seeing blue depends on the surrounding lighting. By comparison, the blue (just «blue») color of the iPhone 12 was unmistakably bright blue.
In fact, the non-Pro lines have embraced vibrant colors. It’s as if Apple is equating «pro» with «sophisticated,» as in «A real pro would never brandish something this garish.» I see this in the camera world all the time: If it’s not all-black, it’s not a «serious» camera.
And yet I know lots of pros who are not sophisticated — proudly so. People choose colors to express themselves, so forcing that idea of professionalism through color feels needlessly restrictive. A bright pink iPhone 16 might make you smile every time you pick it up but then frown because it doesn’t have a telephoto camera.
Color is also important because it can sway a purchase decision. «I would buy a sky blue iPhone yesterday,» my colleague Gael Cooper texted after the first rumor popped online. When each new generation of iPhones arrive, less technically different than the one before, a color you fall in love with can push you into trading in your perfectly-capable model for a new one.
And lest you think Apple should just stick with black and white for its professional phones: Do you mean black, jet black, space black, midnight black, black titanium, graphite or space gray? At least the lighter end of the spectrum has stuck to just white, white titanium and silver over the years.
Apple never got ahead by being beige
I’m sure Apple has reams of studies and customer feedback that support which colors make it to production each year. Like I said, Apple’s designers are obsessive (in a good way). And I must remind myself that a sky blue iPhone 17 Air is a rumored color on a rumored product so all the usual caveats apply.
But we’re talking about Apple here. The scrappy startup that spent more than any other company on business cards at the time because each one included the old six-color Apple logo. The company that not only shaped the first iMac like a tipped-over gumdrop, that not only made the case partially see-through but then made that cover brilliant Bondi blue.
Embrace the iPhone colors, Apple.
If that makes you nervous, don’t worry: Most people will put a case on it anyway.
Technologies
Astronomers Say There’s an Increased Possibility of Life on This Distant Planet
Using the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers are working to confirm potential evidence of life on a distant exoplanet dubbed K2-18b.
Astronomers are nearing a statistically significant finding that could confirm the potential signs of life detected on the distant exoplanet K2-18b are no accident.
The team of astronomers, led by the University of Cambridge, used data from the James Webb Space Telescope (which has only been in use since the end of 2021) to detect chemical traces of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and/or dimethyl disulfide (DMDS), which they say can only be produced by life such as phytoplankton in the sea.
According to the university, «the results are the strongest evidence yet that life may exist on a planet outside our solar system.»
The findings were published this week in the Astrophysical Journal Letters and point to the possibility of an ocean on this planet’s surface, which scientists have been hoping to discover for years. In the abstract for the paper, the team says, «The possibility of hycean worlds, with planet-wide oceans and H2-rich atmospheres, significantly expands and accelerates the search for habitable environments elsewhere.»
Not everyone agrees, however, that what the team found proves there’s life on the exoplanet.
Science writer and OpenMind Magazine founder Corey S. Powell posted about the findings on Bluesky, writing, «The potential discovery of alien life is so enticing that it drags even reputable outlets into running naive or outright misleading stories.» He added, «Here we go again with planet K2-18b.Um….there’s strong evidence of non-biological sources of the molecule DMS.»
K2-18b is 124 light-years away and much larger than Earth (more than eight times our mass), but smaller than Neptune. The search for signs of even basic life on a planet like this increases the chances that there are more planets like Earth that may be inhabitable, with temperatures and atmospheres that could sustain human-like lifeforms. The team behind the paper hopes that more study with the James Webb Space Telescope will help confirm their initial findings.
More research to do on finding life on K2-18b
The exoplanet K2-18b is not the only place where scientists are exploring the possibility of life, and this research is still an early step in the process, said Christopher Glein, a geochemist, planetary researcher and lead scientist at San Antonio’s Southwest Research Institute. Excitement over the significance of the research, he said, should be tempered.
«We need to be careful here,» Glein said. «It appears that there is something in the data that can’t be explained, and DMS/DMDS can provide an explanation. But this detection is stretching the limits of JWST’s capabilities.»
Glein added, «Further work is needed to test whether these molecules are actually present. We also need complementary research assessing the abiotic background on K2-18b and similar planets. That is, the chemistry that can occur in the absence of life in this potentially exotic environment. We might be seeing evidence of some cool chemistry rather than life.»
The TRAPPIST-1 planets, he said, are being researched as potentially habitable, as is LHS 1140b, which he said «is another astrobiologically significant exoplanet, which might be a massive ocean world.»
As for K2-18b, Glein said many more tests need to be performed before there’s consensus on life existing on it.
«Finding evidence of life is like prosecuting a case in the courtroom,» Glein said. «Multiple independent lines of evidence are needed to convince the jury, in this case the worldwide scientific community.» He added, «If this finding holds up, then that’s Step 1.»
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