Samsung Galaxy S23 vs Apple iPhone 13 Pro

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.1-inch Samsung Galaxy S23 (with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy) that was released on February 1, 2023, against the Apple iPhone 13 Pro, which is powered by Apple A15 Bionic and came out 1 year and 5 months before. 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
  • 40% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (1712K versus 1222K)
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.3)
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
  • Comes with 805 mAh larger battery capacity: 3900 vs 3095 mAh
  • Delivers 13% higher peak brightness (1191 against 1054 nits)
  • Has 33% more RAM: 8GB versus 6GB
  • The phone is 1 year and 5 months newer
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 13 Pro
  • Better camera quality (According to DxOMark rating)
  • Shows 7% longer battery life (23:32 vs 22:02 hours)
  • 23% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 2450 and 1987 points

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy S23 and Apple iPhone 13 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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📱 Primary usage:

Value for money (Beta)

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Currency
8 / 128 GB
VS
6 / 128 GB
80.6
(Good)
Value Index
29.9
(Mediocre)

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type Dynamic AMOLED OLED
Size 6.1 inches 6.1 inches
Resolution 1080 x 2340 pixels 1170 x 2532 pixels
Aspect ratio 19.5:9 19.5:9
PPI 425 ppi 460 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes (24-120 Hz) Yes (10-120 Hz)
Max rated brightness 1200 nits 1000 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR 1750 nits 1200 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, Dolby Vision
Screen protection Gorilla Glass Victus 2 -
Screen-to-body ratio 88% 87.1%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
Display tests
RGB color space 98.9% 99.8%
PWM 240 Hz 510 Hz
Response time 1 ms 4.8 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity ∞ Infinity
Peak brightness test (auto)
Galaxy S23 +13%
1191 nits
1054 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 146.3 mm (5.76 inches) 146.7 mm (5.78 inches)
Width 70.9 mm (2.79 inches) 71.5 mm (2.81 inches)
Thickness 7.6 mm (0.3 inches) 7.65 mm (0.3 inches)
Weight 168 g (5.93 oz) 204 g (7.2 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber -
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors White, Black, Gray, Green, Purple, Yellow Black, Silver, Gold, Blue, Green
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display No
Screen-to-body ratio
88%

Performance

Chipset specifications of Samsung Galaxy S23 and Apple iPhone 13 Pro
SoC
Chipset Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy Apple A15 Bionic
Max clock 3360 MHz 3230 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 2.02 GHz: Blizzard
- 2 cores at 3.23 GHz: Avalanche
L3 cache 8 MB -
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Lithography process 4 nanometers 5 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon Apple Neural Engine
GPU
Graphics Adreno 740 Apple GPU (5 cores)
GPU shading units 1536 640
GPU clock 680 MHz 1338 MHz
FLOPS ~2089 GFLOPS ~1712.6 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Samsung Galaxy S23 and Apple iPhone 13 Pro
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
1987
2450
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
5171
6170
Compute Score (GPU)
9410
21903
Compute Score (GPU) 9410 21903
Single-core score 1987 2450
Multi-core score 5171 6170
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
Galaxy S23 +40%
1712393
1222533
CPU 587063 311650
GPU 434955 389528
Memory 275390 136036
UX 414985 385319
Total score 1712393 1222533
Samples [29 tests] [3 tests]
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Stability 76% -
Graphics test 8 FPS -
Graphics score 1069 -
3DMark Solar Bay
Galaxy S23 +42%
5348
Stability 73% 71%
Graphics test 20 FPS 14 FPS
Section 1 23 FPS 19 FPS
Section 2 20 FPS 14 FPS
Section 3 18 FPS 9 FPS
Graphics score 5348 3765
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Galaxy S23 +24%
3669
Stability 61% 70%
Graphics test 21 FPS 17 FPS
Graphics score 3669 2949
Sources: 3DMark [5], [6]
PCMark 3.0
Web score 15188 -
Video editing 7873 -
Photo editing 33939 -
Data manipulation 12935 -
Writing score 19390 -

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Samsung Galaxy S23
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-10-13 (Ct)AnTuTu 121868238
📘 2026-09-21 (Mil)AnTuTu 121763249
📘 2026-09-16 (Fluffyicebite:3)AnTuTu 121835927
📘 2026-09-09 -> Rafarobbie22AnTuTu 111708074
📘 2026-09-09 (Rafa)AnTuTu 111708074
Apple iPhone 13 Pro
DateBenchmarkResult
📘 2026-10-07 (Hoz4ik)AnTuTu 111127460
📘 2026-05-21 (Amogoose_)Geekbench 6 GPU21903
📘 2026-05-21 (Amogoose_)Geekbench 6 CPU2475 / 6154
📘 2026-04-13 (sgynonj)AnTuTu 111322345
📘 2026-03-02 (Vladi)AnTuTu 111222533

Memory

RAM
RAM size 8 GB 6 GB
Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR4X
Memory clock - 2133 MHz
Channels 4 2
Storage
Storage size 128 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 15 (Can be upgraded to iOS 27)
ROM One UI 8.0 -
OS size 29.7 GB 15.2 GB
OS updates 4 years -
Security updates 5 years -

Battery

Capacity 3900 mAh 3095 mAh
Max charge power 25 W 23 W
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (10 W) Yes (7.5 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) No
Bypass charging Yes No
Fast charging Yes (57% in 30 min) Yes (60% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:16 hr 1:38 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing 08:12 hr 09:39 hr
Watching video 13:41 hr 15:16 hr
Gaming 05:20 hr 05:20 hr
Standby 109 hr 107 hr
General battery life
22:02 hr
23:32 hr

Main camera

Matrix 50 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 8160 x 6120 4032 x 3024
Zoom Optical, 3x Optical, 3x
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° 120°
Lenses 1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Telephoto: 10 MP
3) Ultrawide: 12 MP
1) Standard: 12 MP
2) Telephoto: 12 MP
3) Ultrawide: 12 MP
4) Depth
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Standard lens
Image resolution 50 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/1.8 f/1.5
Focal length 23 mm 26 mm
Sensor Samsung S5KGN3 Sony IMX703
Sensor size 1/1.57" (≈ 0.64 inch) 1/1.66" (≈ 0.6 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 1.9 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 77 mm
Sensor Samsung S5K3K1 Sony IMX713
Sensor size 1/3.94" (≈ 0.25 inch) 1/3.4" (≈ 0.29 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 1 micron
Stabilization Optical Optical
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 12 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/2.2 f/1.8
Focal length 13 mm 13 mm
Sensor Sony IMX564 Sony IMX772
Sensor size 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch) 1/3.4" (≈ 0.29 inch)
Pixel size 1.4 micron 1 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital

DxOMark main camera tests

Photo quality
Video quality
Generic main camera score
Bokeh 70 75
Preview 72 81
Zoom 126 119
Samples Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S23 from DxOMark Photo samples of Apple iPhone 13 Pro from DxOMark

Selfie camera

Megapixels 12 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 4000 x 3000 4032 x 3024
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 26 mm 23 mm
Sensor Samsung S5K3LU Sony IMX514
Sensor size 1/3.24" (≈ 0.31 inch) 1/3.6" (≈ 0.28 inch)
Pixel size 1.12 micron -
Autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Digital Digital
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No Yes
DxOMark front camera
Photo - 128
Video - 143

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6E (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
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
Bluetooth features LE LE, A2DP
USB type USB Type-C -
USB version 3.2 2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
DisplayPort Yes, DP 1.2 -
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, 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 18
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

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced February 2023 September 2021
Release date February 2023 September 2021
Launch price (MSRP) $799 $1000
Successor - Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus (Snapdragon) - Apple iPhone 17 Pro
SAR (head) 0.96 W/kg 0.99 W/kg
SAR (body) 1.3 W/kg 0.98 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 -
Further details
Notes on Galaxy S23:
    - The 128GB version uses slower UFS 3.1 memory, while the 256GB and 512GB models have UFS 4.0.
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

If the camera, performance, gaming, and software are more important to you, then choose the Apple iPhone 13 Pro. But if the connectivity is more of a priority – go for the Samsung Galaxy S23.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
655 (64%)
368 (36%)
Total votes: 1023

User opinions

You can share your opinion or ask a question in the comments below
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Avatar
K1z1in March 10, 2025 at 04:01 AM
S23 is insane, this phone can hit 14 pro
+9 Reply
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Iphone rule January 11, 2024 at 07:59 AM
The iPhone from 3 years ago matches the latest Samsung, hilarious.
+3 Reply
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Samsung dex February 22, 2024 at 09:37 PM
Well, they are compatible for this fight. This is not the only place where you'll find people sharing the same idea. To illustrate what I mean, if you go to YouTube, there are videos of this same comparison.
+8 Reply