The Galaxy S23 Ultra has many qualities we detailed in our recent review, but one of the most unexpected is the amount of time this phone can run on a single battery charge. Battery life is fantastic! And there may be many reasons for this, including the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 “for Galaxy” chipset and better software optimization.
Yet another reason for the Galaxy S23 Ultra's battery life may be the materials Samsung used to manufacture the AMOLED display, as per a report by @dylan_raga. Although the S23 Ultra screen still appears to be using M11 materials for blue pixels rather than M12 materials, there's “a divergence in the individual emitters,” the source explains. So it's not as straightforward as putting the S23 Ultra's display under the M11 classification.
In practice, all this means that the Galaxy S23 Ultra display is highly energy-efficient, even more so than the panel used by the iPhone 14 Pro Max, which relies on M12 materials.
Galaxy S23 Ultra display is impressively energy efficient
The Galaxy S23 Ultra's display seemingly has broader green emissions than the M12-based panels. Furthermore, it appears to use new red light emitters. And even though it has M11-based blue light emitters, it achieves higher energy efficiency than the iPhone 14 Pro Max display at similar brightness levels. Take a look at the graph below, comparing the Galaxy S23 Ultra, the Galaxy S22+, and the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
As per this demonstration, the Galaxy S23 Ultra and the iPhone 14 Pro Max are on equal footing in terms of screen brightness and energy consumption, but only up to a point. After roughly 400 nits, the Galaxy S23 Ultra display shows a higher energy efficiency. And at 1150 nits of fullscreen brightness, in HBM (high brightness mode), the Galaxy S23 Ultra display uses roughly 600 mW less than the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
And, yes, even the Galaxy S22+ display has a higher energy efficiency than the iPhone 14 Pro Max after a certain brightness level (roughly 800 nits). But the Galaxy S23 Ultra display is even more impressive, especially since it doesn't outright use M12 materials, and beats the iPhone 14 Pro Max throughout the fullscreen brightness curve.
Samsung really seems to have hit the ball out of the park with its new Galaxy S23 Ultra. The new flagship may not look very different from the 2022 model. But it brings many improvements that ultimately lead to a superior user experience across the board.
