Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra specs just leaked — and first 200MP camera sample

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has received a huge spec leak from leaker billbil-kun on Twitter, giving us all the key details for the new top Samsung phone.

While a different source, the information available matches that in the big leak we just saw for the Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23 Plus' specs. It seems like Samsung's official marketing material for the Galaxy S23 is starting to leak, meaning we should keep a lookout for more images and details dropping soon.

Starting with the display, we'll apparently get a 6.8-inch QHD AMOLED display with a 1 - 120Hz adaptive refresh rate on the Galaxy S23 Ultra, clad in Gorilla Glass Victus 2. That's basically the same as the Galaxy S22 Ultra, except it uses the less tough (but still quite tough) Gorilla Glass Victus Plus.

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For your photography needs, the Galaxy S23 Ultra bas been tipped to offer a 200MP main camera, a 12MP ultrawide camera and dual 10MP telephoto cameras with 3x and 10x zoom on the back, swapping out the 108MP main camera on the Galaxy S22 Ultra but leaving the other cameras in place. This quartet of sensors will apparently let you record 8K video at 30 fps, or 4K video at 60 fps.

Meanwhile on the front, there will be a 12MP selfie camera, replacing the 40MP sensor of the Galaxy S22 Ultra. A resolution drop doesn't look good on paper, but we're hopeful that Samsung will focus on other areas of the sensor that will improve the overall quality.

Within the Galaxy S23 Ultra, we should find a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, no matter where in the world you buy it. The Galaxy S22 Ultra used the previous Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip in the U.S., but elsewhere it used a Samsung-made Exynos 2100 chip, an SoC that offered worse performance than the Snapdragon chip. So while having the latest Snapdragon is only a run-of-the-mill upgrade for American buyers, European customers should be excited at getting the best possible chip in a Galaxy flagship for the first time in years.

Joining the Galaxy S23 Ultra's chipset will, of course, be RAM and storage. There will be

8GB LPDDR5 RAM by default, and 12GB RAM in more expensive versions according to the spec sheet. For storage, the options start at 256GB, and go up to 512GB and 1TB. All this matches up with what the Galaxy S22 Ultra offered.

To keep the phone running, Samsung's using the same 5,000 mAh battery capacity for the Galaxy S23 Ultra as it fitted to the S22 Ultra. The 45W wired charging is the same too, although strangely the 10W wireless charging is a downgrade from the S22 Ultra's 15W maximum.

Lastly, let's go over some miscellaneous spec details. The Galaxy S23 Ultra should be IP68 rated against water or dust intrusion, feature dual speakers compatible with Dolby Atmos and offer an under-display fingerprint sensor for security, just like the Galaxy S22 Ultra. New this time though are the addition of Bluetooth 5.3 support alongside ultrawide-band and Wi-Fi 6E connectivity, and the pre-installed software, that being Android 13 in the form of One UI 5.1.

Just like the Galaxy S23/S23 Plus leak, there's no sign of pricing on the sheet for the Galaxy S23 Ultra. Annoyingly we may see a price hike for the Ultra model this year while the other models keep the pricing of their predecessors, but we'll have to wait for the launch event to find out.

Galaxy S23 Ultra rumored 200MP image sample

Like we mentioned above, the big new feature for the Galaxy S23 Ultra is a 200MP camera, replacing the Galaxy S22 Ultra's 108MP sensor. It's thought that Samsung's newly-announced ISOCELL HP2 will be the sensor that will be used in the S23 Ultra, and as it happens, leaker Ice Universe claims to have a photo sample. 

The impressive thing about the alleged Galaxy S23 Ultra 200MP shot IU shared is that it's apparently zoomed in 12 times. The incredible amount of detail you get when taking 200MP images means you can crop in on parts of the image you like and still get a good-looking image, even if at this magnification it's starting to look a bit fuzzy on larger screens.

As commenters on IU's post point out, having this much freedom to crop in makes the Galaxy S23 Ultra's tipped 3x telephoto camera (a holdover from the Galaxy S22 Ultra) a little pointless. Having a dedicated lens can produce a different, perhaps preferable look to just cropping pixels from one high-res image, so the 3x telephoto still has a place for photography geeks. But perhaps we'll see Samsung try to drop the lower-powered of its two Ultra zoom lenses for future phones now the 200MP camera can fulfill its basic role.

Samsung will undoubtedly have official photo samples and specs to share for the Galaxy S23 Ultra and Galaxy S23 regular at the phone's launch, believed to be coming during Galaxy Unpacked on February 1. That's not a long wait, but if you want more details before then, we have a strong suspicion the leaks are only going to intensify in the coming weeks.