Our Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra review test reveals one of the biggest areas of improvement for this flagship phone: battery life. Yes, this phone has the same 5,000mAh battery as its predecessor, but we’re seeing much better endurance this time around.
In the Tom’s Guide Battery Test we take each phone and surf the web over a 5G connection at 150 nits of brightness. Phones that last at least 11.5 hours in this test make it to the list of best phone battery life. And now the Samsung S23 Ultra belongs to that list.
Row 0 – cell 0 | battery size | Battery life (hrs: min) |
Galaxy S23 Ultra | 5000 mAh | 13:09 (60 Hz) / 12:22 (adaptive) |
Galaxy S22 Ultra | 5000 mAh | 10:18 (60 Hz) / 9:50 (adaptive) |
iPhone 14 Pro Max | 4323 mAh | 13:39 |
Pixel 7 Pro | 5000 mAh | 9:21 |
Asus ROG 6 Pro phone | 6000 mAh | 16:27 (60 Hz) / 15:30 (adaptive) |
Moto G Power | 5000 mAh | 13:15 |
iPhone 14 Plus | 4325 mAh | 11:57 |
OnePlus 10T | 4800 mAh | 11:22 |
First, we ran our battery test on the Galaxy S23 Ultra’s adaptive mode, which enables the screen to expand anywhere from 1Hz all the way up to 120Hz. Then, we ran the test again in 60Hz mode, which uses less power.
In adaptive mode, the Samsung S23 Ultra lasted 12 hours and 22 minutes. That’s a big jump from the 9:50 we saw from the S22 Ultra. This may be due to the Galaxy’s new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, which is designed to be more efficient. Although we assume Samsung made other improvements as well.
Runtime got even better in 60Hz mode, with the S23 Ultra lasting 12 hours and 9 minutes. That’s just 30 minutes behind the iPhone 14 Pro Max’s best result of 13:39.
There are other phones that last longer on a charge. The Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro with its 6,000mAh battery lasted 15:30 in adaptive mode and 16:27 in 60Hz mode. The Moto G Power 2022 powered on at 13:15, even though it’s a budget phone.
With this result, the Galaxy S23 Ultra will definitely be among the longest-lasting phones you can buy. There are other phones on the horizon that could beat Samsung, like the OnePlus 11, but we’ll have to see what our testing shows.
When you consider how fast the Galaxy S23 Ultra can handle, based on Galaxy S23 Ultra standards — not to mention what the powerful 200MP camera can do based on our photo tests — you get the best Android phone yet.