Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra’s 5,000 mAh battery spotted in the wild
Another big battery, but let's hope the S23 Ultra does more to offer better battery life
One key battery spec for the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra may have just been confirmed, adding to the growing pile of Galaxy S23 rumors.
Ice Universe's Weibo account (via GSMArena) has provided an alleged photo of the Galaxy S23 Ultra's battery surrounded by a set square, suggesting this was taken by a national tech regulator or similar body. Although there's no visible label on the battery revealing its capacity, IU claims that this has a capacity of 5,000 mAh.
That's pretty much what we expected, and other rumors have claimed before. The Galaxy S22 Ultra has a 5,000 mAh battery, as did previous Ultra models, which would make the S23 Ultra the fourth year in a row that Samsung's used this size of cell.
Analysis: Galaxy S23 Ultra battery life needs boost
The problem with this leak is that the battery life on the S22 Ultra wasn't that good, considering it has one of the biggest batteries of any of the best phones on the market right now. The S22 Ultra lasted 10 hours and 18 minutes on our web surfing battery test, compared to 13.5 hours for the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
The handsets that make our best phone battery life list last 11.5 hours or longer. Therefore, we're hoping to see some improvements in efficiency in other areas of the S23 Ultra, like the display or chipset.
On the silicon front, the S23 series could be powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 or Exynos 2300, which could go some way to reducing the phones' average power draw. Equally, we've heard that the Galaxy S23 Ultra's display is getting some kind of currently unknown upgrade, which we're also hoping could mean it'll need less juice to run.
Other upgrades we expect to see for the Galaxy S23 series include a 200MP main camera for the Ultra model, and larger batteries and new designs for the Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23 Plus. With Samsung's tipped January/February launch window only a couple of months away, it hopefully won't be too long until we get these features confirmed.
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Richard is based in London, covering news, reviews and how-tos for phones, tablets, gaming, and whatever else people need advice on. Following on from his MA in Magazine Journalism at the University of Sheffield, he's also written for WIRED U.K., The Register and Creative Bloq. When not at work, he's likely thinking about how to brew the perfect cup of specialty coffee.