Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra vs Google Pixel 8 Pro

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.8-inch Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra (with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy) that was released on February 1, 2023, against the Google Pixel 8 Pro, which is powered by Google Tensor G3 and came out 8 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 Ultra
  • Shows 34% longer battery life (26:01 vs 19:29 hours)
  • The rear camera has a 10x optical zoom
  • Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
  • 29% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (1762K versus 1367K)
  • Supports higher wattage charging (45W versus 30W)
  • Faster storage type - UFS 4.0 versus UFS 3.1
  • Supports Dolby Atmos sound technology
  • 14% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 2010 and 1765 points
Reasons to consider the Google Pixel 8 Pro
  • Better camera quality (According to DxOMark rating)
  • Has 50% more RAM: 12GB versus 8GB
  • Delivers 26% higher peak brightness (1600 against 1266 nits)
  • Compatible with Wi-Fi 7 wireless networks
  • More recent OS version: Android 17 versus 16
  • CPU with a higher amount of cores (+1)
  • Weighs 20 grams less
  • The phone is 8 months newer

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and Google Pixel 8 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
12 / 128 GB
49.0
(Average)
Value Index
67.9
(Good)

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type Dynamic AMOLED OLED
Size 6.8 inches 6.7 inches
Resolution 1440 x 3088 pixels 1344 x 2992 pixels
Aspect ratio 19.3:9 20:9
PPI 500 ppi 489 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes (24-120 Hz) Yes (1-120 Hz)
Max rated brightness 1200 nits 2400 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR 1750 nits 1600 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, HDR10+
Touch sampling rate 240 Hz -
Screen protection Gorilla Glass Victus 2 Gorilla Glass Victus 2
Screen-to-body ratio 89.5% 87.1%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
Display tests
RGB color space 96.9% 99.5%
PWM 240 Hz 120 Hz
Response time 2 ms 1 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity ∞ Infinity
Peak brightness test (auto)
1266 nits
1600 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 163.4 mm (6.43 inches) 162.6 mm (6.4 inches)
Width 78.1 mm (3.07 inches) 76.5 mm (3.01 inches)
Thickness 8.9 mm (0.35 inches) 8.8 mm (0.35 inches)
Weight 233 g (8.22 oz) 213 g (7.51 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber -
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors White, Black, Gray, Blue, Green, Red, Purple Black, Gray, Blue
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display Yes, in-display
Screen-to-body ratio
89.5%
87.1%

Performance

Chipset specifications of Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and Google Pixel 8 Pro
SoC
Chipset Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy Google Tensor G3
Max clock 3360 MHz 3000 MHz
CPU cores 8 (1 + 2 + 2 + 3) 9 (1 + 4 + 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 1.7 GHz: Cortex-A510
- 4 cores at 2.37 GHz: Cortex-A715
- 1 core at 2.91 GHz: Cortex-X3
L3 cache 8 MB -
Manufacturing TSMC Samsung
Lithography process 4 nanometers 4 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon Yes
GPU
Graphics Adreno 740 Immortalis-G715s MC10
GPU shading units 1536 896
GPU clock 680 MHz 890 MHz
FLOPS ~2089 GFLOPS ~1594.8 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and Google Pixel 8 Pro
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
2010
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
5245
Compute Score (GPU)
9254
Compute Score (GPU) 9254 6573
Single-core score 2010 1765
Multi-core score 5245 4297
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
1762339
1367231
CPU 556398 468427
GPU 445907 384941
Memory 285085 182041
UX 474949 331822
Total score 1762339 1367231
Samples [31 tests] [14 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Stability 81% 74%
Graphics test 8 FPS 7 FPS
Graphics score 1098 982
3DMark Solar Bay
Stability 77% -
Graphics test 20 FPS -
Section 1 23 FPS -
Section 2 20 FPS -
Section 3 18 FPS -
Graphics score 5383 -
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Stability 69% 75%
Graphics test 22 FPS -
Graphics score 3723 -
Sources: 3DMark [5], [6]
PCMark 3.0
Web score 17072 -
Video editing 7852 -
Photo editing 33655 -
Data manipulation 13329 -
Writing score 19857 -

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-10-03 -> ThekinggoatAnTuTu 121914947
📘 2026-10-03 (Thekinggoat)Geekbench 7 CPU1471 / 4766
📘 2026-10-03 (Thekinggoat)AnTuTu 121914947
📘 2026-09-28 -> Saad_irqAnTuTu 121959121
📘 2026-09-23 (Horizon377)AnTuTu 121894819
Google Pixel 8 Pro
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-10-04 (Karlik)AnTuTu 121408420
📘 2026-05-05 (s1mpick)AnTuTu 111338293
📘 2026-05-04 (Bilal Ahmed)AnTuTu 111367231
📘 2026-04-13 -> SpaikleonowAnTuTu 111482218
📘 2026-03-26 (Bilal)AnTuTu 111328640

Memory

RAM
RAM size 8 GB 12 GB
Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR5X
Memory clock 4200 MHz 4200 MHz
Channels 4 4
Storage
Storage size 256 GB 128 GB
Storage type UFS 4.0 UFS 3.1
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 13 (Can be upgraded to Android 16) Android 14 (Can be upgraded to Android 17)
ROM One UI 8.0 Stock Android
OS size 39.9 GB 14 GB
OS updates 4 years 7 years
Security updates 5 years 7 years

Battery

Capacity 5000 mAh 5050 mAh
Max charge power 45 W 30 W
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Po
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (15 W) Yes (23 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) Yes, (wireless)
Bypass charging Yes No
Fast charging Yes (68% in 30 min) Yes (53% in 30 min)
Full charging time 0:59 hr 1:23 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing 09:57 hr 08:23 hr
Watching video 15:38 hr 12:10 hr
Gaming 06:22 hr 04:58 hr
Standby 130 hr 87 hr
General battery life
26:01 hr
19:29 hr

Main camera

Matrix 200 megapixels 50 megapixels
Image resolution 16320 x 12240 8192 x 6144
Zoom Optical, 10x Optical, 5x
Flash LED Dual LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 30FPS No
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 120FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 960 FPS (1080p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 120° 126°
Lenses 1) Standard: 200 MP
2) Telephoto: 10 MP
3) Telephoto: 10 MP
4) Ultrawide: 12 MP
1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Telephoto: 48 MP
3) Ultrawide: 48 MP
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Standard lens
Image resolution 200 MP 50 MP
Aperture f/1.7 f/1.7
Focal length 23 mm 25 mm
Sensor Samsung ISOCELL HP2 Samsung GNV
Sensor size 1/1.3" (≈ 0.77 inch) 1/1.31" (≈ 0.76 inch)
Pixel size 0.64 micron 1.2 micron
Autofocus Laser autofocus Laser autofocus
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution 10 MP 48 MP
Aperture f/4.9 f/2.8
Focal length 230 mm 113 mm
Sensor Sony IMX754 Samsung S5KGM5
Sensor size 1/3.52" (≈ 0.28 inch) 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch)
Pixel size 1.12 micron 0.7 micron
Stabilization Optical Optical
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 12 MP 48 MP
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.0
Focal length 13 mm -
Sensor Sony IMX564 -
Sensor size 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch) 1/2.0" (≈ 0.5 inch)
Pixel size 1.4 micron 0.8 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital

DxOMark main camera tests

Photo quality
Video quality
Generic main camera score
Bokeh 70 65
Preview 73 75
Zoom 141 152
Samples Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra from DxOMark Photo samples of Google Pixel 8 Pro from DxOMark

Selfie camera

Megapixels 12 megapixels 10.5 megapixels
Image resolution 4000 x 3000 3648 x 2736
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 26 mm 21 mm
Sensor Samsung S5K3LU -
Sensor size 1/3.24" (≈ 0.31 inch) 1/3.1" (≈ 0.32 inch)
Pixel size 1.12 micron 1.22 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus Phase autofocus
Stabilization Digital Digital
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No No
DxOMark front camera
Photo 139 143
Video 145 149

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, Galileo, QZSS
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM* 1 1
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby -
eSIM support* Yes Yes
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat* 20 20
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

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

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced February 2023 October 2023
Release date February 2023 October 2023
Launch price (MSRP) $1199 $999
Successor - Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra - Google Pixel 10 Pro
SAR (head) 0.96 W/kg -
SAR (body) 1.4 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
- Fingerprint
Bundled charger Not included Not included
Further details
Notes on Pixel 8 Pro:
    - The smartphone includes a temperature sensor.
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

If the performance, gaming, battery life, software, and sound are more important to you, then choose the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. But if the camera and connectivity are more of a priority – go for the Google Pixel 8 Pro.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
487 (67.8%)
231 (32.2%)
Total votes: 718

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