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Carl Pei reviews the Galaxy S23 Ultra: Here are some choice quotes
It's kind of like Quentin Tarantino reviewing The Man With No Name trilogy.
TL;DR
- As part of his continuing series on the Nothing YouTube channel, Carl Pei reviewed the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra.
- He clearly respects Samsung and loves the phone overall, but he had plenty of criticisms.
- Of course, he can’t help but bring up the Nothing Phone 1 as a comparison.
Carl Pei is starting to develop a third career. First, he co-founded OnePlus, then started Nothing, and now he’s becoming a top tech YouTuber. He’s already reviewed a few phones, including the OnePlus 11. Today, he’s reviewing a flagship from a different company.
On the Nothing YouTube page, Carl Pei reviewed the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. You can watch the full review for yourself in the video embedded above. However, we’ve got some choice quotes for you below:
- For One UI, the Android skin on top of Android 13 with the Galaxy S23 Ultra, Pei says it “still has a lot of similarities to when I used it, like, 12 years ago.” He explains that the last time he used a Samsung phone was the Galaxy S3, which he called “peak Samsung.” He also heavily criticized the number of pre-installed apps and called the overall look “dated.”
- “On the hardware design, it’s very hard to say something bad about it,” Pei says in the review. However, he also says it’s “pure science and no art,” criticizing it for being bland. He then goes on to lambast Samsung for not having a distinct design identity but, after a diatribe about this topic, admits that “most consumers don’t care about what I just said.”
- Talking about the S Pen, Pei says it “looked really useful on paper,” but found it to be useless for his own needs. He also criticized how much space the S Pen takes up in the already heavy and bulky Galaxy S23 Ultra. In the end, Pei called the S Pen “one of the worst parts” of the phone.
- Pei briefly discusses the controversy surrounding moon photography. He brushes it aside by pointing out that this “controversy” comes up every few years, and we should just ignore it going forward.
- Towards the end, Pei heaps praise on Samsung. “Everyone in our industry should respect Samsung,” he said. “They built the Android ecosystem together with Google. If it wasn’t for Samsung, [Nothing] wouldn’t be here.”
- Pei’s final verdict: “I think the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is one of the best flagship Android phones on the market right now.” However, he also can’t help but point out that, for the $1,199 asking price of a Galaxy S23 Ultra, you could get three Nothing Phone 1 devices at $399 each.
We’ll need to wait and see what Pei reviews next.