Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus vs Apple iPhone 16 Pro

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.6-inch Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus (with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy) that was released on February 1, 2023, against the Apple iPhone 16 Pro, which is powered by Apple A18 Pro and came out 1 year and 7 months after. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

Select the amount of RAM to evaluate performance and value for money more precisely
Memory

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus
  • Comes with 1118 mAh larger battery capacity: 4700 vs 3582 mAh
  • Has a 0.3 inch larger screen size
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
  • Supports higher wattage charging (45W versus 30W)
  • CPU with a higher amount of cores (+2)
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 16 Pro
  • Better camera quality (According to DxOMark rating)
  • Delivers 46% higher peak brightness (1751 against 1196 nits)
  • The rear camera has a 5x optical zoom
  • Compatible with Wi-Fi 7 wireless networks
  • 17% higher pixel density (458 vs 393 PPI)
  • The phone is 1 year and 7 months newer
  • 74% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 3591 and 2064 points

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus and Apple iPhone 16 Pro 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
DeviceFacts Score
Final comparison evaluation
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Value for money (Beta)

To get an accurate value-for-money index, update the default prices with actual prices from your country’s retailers (for the selected memory configs) and press the "Calculate" button.
Currency
8 / 256 GB
VS
8 / 128 GB
122.3
(Excellent)
Value Index
61.8
(Average)

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type Dynamic AMOLED OLED
Size 6.6 inches 6.3 inches
Resolution 1080 x 2340 pixels 1206 x 2622 pixels
Aspect ratio 19.5:9 19.5:9
PPI 393 ppi 458 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes (24-120 Hz) Yes (1-120 Hz)
Max rated brightness 1200 nits 2000 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR 1750 nits 1600 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, Dolby Vision
Screen protection Gorilla Glass Victus 2 -
Screen-to-body ratio 89% 91.1%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
Display tests
RGB color space 97.4% 99.9%
PWM 240 Hz 239 Hz
Response time 1 ms 1 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity ∞ Infinity
Screen space comparison
Galaxy S23 Plus
6.6″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 16.6 in2
iPhone 16 Pro
6.3″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 15.1 in2
~9% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
1196 nits
1751 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 157.8 mm (6.21 inches) 149.6 mm (5.89 inches)
Width 76.2 mm (3 inches) 71.5 mm (2.81 inches)
Thickness 7.6 mm (0.3 inches) 8.25 mm (0.32 inches)
Weight 195 g (6.88 oz) 199 g (7.02 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber -
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors White, Black, Gray, Green, Purple, Yellow White, Black, Silver, Gold
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display No
Repairability - Average (2.83/5)
Drop resistance - Good (C) · 90 drops
Screen-to-body ratio

Performance

Chipset specifications of Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus and Apple iPhone 16 Pro
SoC
Chipset Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy Apple A18 Pro
Max clock 3360 MHz 4040 MHz
CPU cores 8 (1 + 2 + 2 + 3) 6 (2 + 4)
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
- 4 cores at 2.42 GHz: Sawtooth
- 2 cores at 4.05 GHz: Everest
L3 cache 8 MB -
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Lithography process 4 nanometers 3 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon Neural Engine
GPU
Graphics Adreno 740 6 core Apple GPU
GPU shading units 1536 640
GPU clock 680 MHz 1490 MHz
FLOPS ~2089 GFLOPS ~2289 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus and Apple iPhone 16 Pro
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
33278
Compute Score (GPU) 8934 33278
Single-core score 2064 3591
Multi-core score 5334 9090
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
1744323
1801176
CPU 581203 555276
GPU 446806 546980
Memory 272465 176885
UX 443849 522035
Total score 1744323 1801176
Samples [23 tests] [9 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Stability 79% 71%
Graphics test 8 FPS 13 FPS
Graphics score 1068 1732
3DMark Solar Bay
Stability 78% -
Graphics test 20 FPS 29 FPS
Section 1 23 FPS 35 FPS
Section 2 20 FPS 30 FPS
Section 3 18 FPS 21 FPS
Graphics score 5364 7585
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Stability 66% -
Graphics test 22 FPS -
Graphics score 3712 -
Sources: 3DMark [5], [6]
PCMark 3.0
Web score 14728 -
Video editing 7866 -
Photo editing 33422 -
Data manipulation 12880 -
Writing score 18951 -

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-10-07 (Azure)AnTuTu 121945847
📘 2026-10-04 (Gordon)AnTuTu 121994946
📘 2026-10-02 (Gordon)AnTuTu 121966748
📘 2026-09-26 (Moha_X)AnTuTu 121931558
📘 2026-09-26 (Bo)AnTuTu 121822126
Apple iPhone 16 Pro
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-09-27 (FontFrontPromptORG)Geekbench 7 CPU3087 / 8369
📘 2026-08-21 (Neuron)AnTuTu 111500141
📘 2026-07-04 (Lks jaay)Battery lifeBattery report
📘 2026-06-15 (Anton)AnTuTu 111782199
📘 2026-06-04 (Rain)Geekbench 6 CPU3656 / 9628

Memory

RAM
RAM size 8 GB 8 GB
Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR5X
Channels 4 4
Storage
Storage size 256 GB 128 GB
Storage type UFS 4.0 NVMe
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 13 (Can be upgraded to Android 16) iOS 18 (Can be upgraded to iOS 27)
ROM One UI 8.0 -
OS size 42.5 GB 18 GB
OS updates 4 years 7 years
Security updates 5 years 7 years

Battery

Capacity 4700 mAh 3582 mAh
Max charge power 45 W 30 W
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (10 W) Yes (15 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) Yes
Bypass charging - No
Fast charging Yes (57% in 30 min) Yes (58% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:05 hr 1:38 hr
Battery cycles - 1000 cycles
Battery life tests
Web browsing 10:37 hr 11:41 hr
Watching video 15:54 hr 17:46 hr
Gaming 06:37 hr 05:35 hr
Standby 128 hr 132 hr
General battery life
26:32 hr
28:13 hr
Smartphones With Long Battery Life (119th and 85th place)

Main camera

Matrix 50 megapixels 48 megapixels
Image resolution 8160 x 6120 8064 x 6048
Zoom Optical, 3x Optical, 5x
Flash LED Dual LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 30FPS No
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 120FPS
1080p video recording Up to 120FPS Up to 120FPS
Slow motion 960 FPS (1080p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 120° 120°
Lenses 1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Telephoto: 10 MP
3) Ultrawide: 12 MP
1) Standard: 48 MP
2) Telephoto: 12 MP
3) Ultrawide: 48 MP
4) Depth
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Standard lens
Image resolution 50 MP 48 MP
Aperture f/1.8 f/1.8
Focal length 23 mm 24 mm
Sensor Samsung S5KGN3 Sony IMX803
Sensor size 1/1.57" (≈ 0.64 inch) 1/1.28" (≈ 0.78 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 1.22 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution 10 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/2.4 f/2.8
Focal length 70 mm 120 mm
Sensor Samsung S5K3K1 Sony IMX913
Sensor size 1/3.94" (≈ 0.25 inch) 1/3.06" (≈ 0.33 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 1.12 micron
Stabilization Optical Optical
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 12 MP 48 MP
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 13 mm 13 mm
Sensor Sony IMX564 Sony IMX972
Sensor size 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch) 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch)
Pixel size 1.4 micron 0.7 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital

DxOMark main camera tests

Photo quality
Video quality
Generic main camera score
Bokeh 70 80
Preview 72 93
Zoom 126 142
Samples Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus from DxOMark Photo samples of Apple iPhone 16 Pro from DxOMark

Selfie camera

Megapixels 12 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 4000 x 3000 4032 x 3024
Aperture f/2.2 f/1.9
Focal length 26 mm 23 mm
Sensor Samsung S5K3LU Sony IMX714
Sensor size 1/3.24" (≈ 0.31 inch) 1/3.6" (≈ 0.28 inch)
Pixel size 1.12 micron 1.12 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus Phase autofocus
Stabilization Digital Optical
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No Yes

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6E (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
- Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 5.3 5.3
Bluetooth features LE LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 3.2 3.2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
DisplayPort Yes, DP 1.2 Yes
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM* 1 -
Type of SIM card Nano eSIM
Multi SIM mode Standby -
eSIM support* Yes Yes
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat* 20 -
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos Yes Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness
91.8 dB
79.6 dB

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced February 2023 September 2024
Release date February 2023 September 2024
Launch price (MSRP) $999 $999
Successor - Samsung Galaxy S25 Plus - Apple iPhone 17 Pro
SAR (head) 0.57 W/kg 1.24 W/kg
SAR (body) 1.4 W/kg 1.48 W/kg
Sensors - Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Face recognition sensor
Bundled charger Not included Not included
Further details
Notes on iPhone 16 Pro:
    - In the US, the smartphone only supports eSIM, while the international model comes with 1 physical SIM slot plus eSIM capability.
*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 Apple iPhone 16 Pro is definitely a better buy.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
34 (58.6%)
24 (41.4%)
Total votes: 58

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