Samsung S23 or A55 ?

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Which to get?

https://www.flipkart.com/samsung-galaxy-s23-5g-cream-256-gb/p/itm745d4b532623e

Or

https://www.amazon.in/Samsung-Awesome-Iceblue-Storage-Nightography/dp/B0CWPCFSM3/

Both S23 (8GB+256) & A55 (8GB+256) for 43k

For 3k more you can get the A55 with12GB+256

Both will get four OS upgrades but the A55 starts at 14 whereas the S23 launched with 13

The A55's battery will beat galaxy S+ (let alone S) models for half the price if you accept a slightly less capable camera.

Did I mention the A55 comes with a microSD slot.

It's possible the A55's price will reduce further but the S23 might not be available later.

I'm also wondering whether the FK S23 offer can be trusted as Amazon can't match it for much more?

And Samsung wants 70k on their site for the same specs S23

 

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Phone arrived and the open box experience was stress free. Delivery agent was patient and allowed me to check the box seals. All good. Switched the phone on and verified IMEI, storage etc. Cream colour phone in mint condition. All legit from what I can see.

Phone was ordered yesterday morning just in the nick of time before the price increase. Arrived today as it originated in the same state. Asked the delivery guy how FK was able to offer this phone for so low. He said they buy wholesale. Must have been a huge order to get the price. And Sammy must have cooperated with their deep price cuts a year and a half after launch.

Phone was manufactured in June this year and arrived with 48% charge. Was nervous it would be much older when I saw an unboxing with the back of the box dated Jan 2023.

The phone flies. First proper galaxy S for me. Can see the one handed appeal.

The last time i considered a Galaxy S was a decade ago after the S4 came out and went with something else.

One UI 6.1 installed with Android 14. April security patch. Says i need to get the September security patch that weighs in at 2.8 GB (!)

 

[rockstah]

Got the Black S23 today, they are very busy with the orders, it was in the nearest warehouse for 4 days. The delivery guy was patient as I unboxed it myself, all the Samsung box seals were intact and the phone is nice, perfect upgrade from my Pixel 4a.

Congrats on the mobile, how are you liking the one UI experience compared to pixel's so far?
Could you share the manufacturing year if possible?

Phone arrived and the open box experience was stress free. Delivery agent was patient and allowed me to check the box seals. All good. Switched the phone on and verified IMEI, storage etc. Cream colour phone in mint condition. All legit from what I can see.

Phone was ordered yesterday morning just in the nick of time before the price increase. Arrived today as it originated in the same state. Asked the delivery guy how FK was able to offer this phone for so low. He said they buy wholesale. Must have been a huge order to get the price. And Sammy must have cooperated with their deep price cuts a year and a half after launch.

Phone was manufactured in June this year and arrived with 48% charge. Was nervous it would be much older when I saw an unboxing with the back of the box dated Jan 2023.

The phone flies. First proper galaxy S for me. Can see the one handed appeal.

The last time i considered a Galaxy S was a decade ago after the S4 came out and went with something else.

Congrats, hoping for your review later on regarding battery life. I got the February 2024 stock when I purchased it last month! At least it wasn't 2023 stock i guess.

One UI 6.1 installed with Android 14. April security patch. Says i need to get the September security patch that weighs in at 2.8 GB (!)

Get the update, i just installed it. The phone feels snappier but it could be placebo

 

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Get the update, i just installed it. The phone feels snappier but it could be placebo

Update went quicker than expected.

Going to do the S20FE next.

Done. Sept 2024 security too

 

[altair21]

@blr_p did you manage to get fast charging working with s23? I'm using a moto edge 30 fast charger which charges at 33W and still the phone is taking more than an hour to charge fully from 30%.

fast charging is enabled in battery settings and the phones does show as fast charger connected but it's still so slow :/

 

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@blr_p did you manage to get fast charging working with s23?

I actually disable it. So effective charge rate is 9W from inline meters. Keeps the battery temperature down.

I'm using a moto edge 30 fast charger which charges at 33W and still the phone is taking more than an hour to charge fully from 30%.

Different fast charging protocols between moto & samsung. I didn't get the Samsung 25W charger. I usually charge via power banks. And then I fast charge the power banks.

fast charging is enabled in battery settings and the phones does show as fast charger connected but it's still so slow :/

Why do you expect moto's charger to fast charge a Samsung?

I tried a laptop USB C charger with PD and that wouldn't go faster than 15W either.

Sammy is making doubly sure only their fast chargers work and there is no repeat of the Note 7 debacle.

 

[altair21]

Why do you expect moto's charger to fast charge a Samsung?

I tried a laptop USB C charger with PD and that wouldn't go faster than 15W either.

Sammy is making doubly sure only their fast chargers work and there is no repeat of the Note 7 debacle.

I assumed both were using the same standard? but I guess this might be the issue, time to get a Samsung fast charger then

 

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I assumed both were using the same standard? but I guess this might be the issue, time to get a Samsung fast charger then

The fastest the standard S23 will charge at is 25W. Ultra can go faster.

 

[KNWR]

And Samsung wants 70k on their site for the same specs S23

I usually buy using Samsung Corporate website. Beats offers on Amazon and FK more often than not, and your employer gets GST benefits too.

 

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I usually buy using Samsung Corporate website. Beats offers on Amazon and FK more often than not, and your employer gets GST benefits too.

Not this time though

I assumed both were using the same standard?

Pixel and Apple use the same usb pd standard. Their chargers should be interchangeable and even an intel laptops charger should fast charge them

If memory serves, moto's charger might quick charge them also.

LG when they made phones followed Qualcomms quick charge standard.

Even though the chips are Qualcomm, Samsung uses their own charging protocol in the S20FE or S23 series.

 

[?dOuBtFiRe?]

To all who are having S23, a humble request, please suggest your take on the following:

1) Tweaks done so far
2) Case and Screenguard installed - have installed Spigen Air case & Gadgetshieldz screen protect.
3) Apps recommended and installed by you.

I am way to uneasy visiting Internet and getting views on the above and installing them only to have latter OS update screw everything once again. This is for an elderly person and we will be doing the same tweaks for him to relish the phone. He has been using the phone for over a year and has not even upgraded its OS. When we get time we intend to change that.

 

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3) Apps recommended and installed by you.

Since he's elderly. I find this calculator to be more legible than any other in the store. And this app is over a decade old.

Sammy's calculator has a units converter that can be useful.

This is for an elderly person and we will be doing the same tweaks for him to relish the phone. He has been using the phone for over a year and has not even upgraded its OS. When we get time we intend to change that.

So it will be A13 with OneUI5.0

You can upgrade to A14, OneUI6.1 & latest security version. This process is really smooth considering my S20FE was never upgraded since I got it over two years back.

When my S23 arrived it already had A14 & OneUI6.1. All i had to do was upgrade the security patch which was large but went through smoothly. Make sure you have decent Internet access if you're going to be doing these upgrades.

 

[Heisen]

I actually disable it. So effective charge rate is 9W from inline meters. Keeps the battery temperature down.

Smart, not only the battery temp but also the charging circuitry on the motherboard. It is working hard to step down the high voltage provided by the fast charger to normal charging voltage of the battery.

When we use the normal charger 5V 1A and some fast charger like 9V 1A, in both the cases the current that goes through the charging wire initially is the same, 1A, but the voltage is high on the fast charger, the phone in both the cases steps that voltage down to something like 3.8-4.4 volts. In case of fast charger it has to step down more volts, but the benefit is, while doing that the 1A current now becomes something around 2A while conversion, hence the phone charges fast, but also generates more heat. Coupled with our case and screen protector the heat can't dissipate as quickly as possible.

 

[ze_cook]

Samsung (at least my s23) uses PPS for "Super fast charging", and requires a pd 3.0/pps compatible USB C adapter. My belkin 65w adapter supports it, as does the Moto 68w turbopower adapter (dad's edge 50 neo). PPS will show up as a cyan circle along with the words "super fast charging", compared to green circle with just "fast charging". They even have different charging sounds.

When we use the normal charger 5V 1A and some fast charger like 9V 1A, in both the cases the current that goes through the charging wire initially is the same, 1A, but the voltage is high on the fast charger, the phone in both the cases steps that voltage down to something like 3.8-4.4 volts. In case of fast charger it has to step down more volts, but the benefit is, while doing that the 1A current now becomes something around 2A while conversion, hence the phone charges fast, but also generates more heat. Coupled with our case and screen protector the heat can't dissipate as quickly as possible.

This is correct for older devices, but for devices that adopt PPS, it's slightly different. PPS allows for a very fine grained voltage control, in steps of 20mv, from 3.3v to 12v, typically. PPS capable phones don't use a standard buck converter, but a far more efficient switched capacitor topology, reaching staggering efficiencies of 97%+, link to a Texas Instruments literature -> https://www.ti.com/lit/an/slyt743/slyt743.pdf. If the phone battery is at 3.9 volts, the phone may request 8.12 (just an example) from the adapter at 3 amps, and use the doubler to convert it to 4.06 volts at 6A very efficiently, which then can be directly fed to the battery without incurring much switching losses. The upside to all this is you're doing majority of the voltage conversion in the adapter itself, and not the phone. And I have noticed this in practice as well, phone stays cooler when charging with my PPS capable adapter, as compared to my powerbank which does just PD.

 

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I assumed both were using the same standard?

It's a confusing topic.

A year later, Apple has failed at USB-C (just like everyone else)

It's been a year since the iPhone adopted USB-C. Has Apple's switch been for the best, or is the series worse off?

www.androidauthority.com

I'm amazed to learn the latest iPhones are still on usb 2 and its only the Pro series that gets the usb3.2 interface.

Fun trivia point. None of the iPhones charge faster than 25W and i don't think this is a bad thing.

Fortunately Samsung does not do this kind of downgrading with its base S models. The speed IIANM is 5Gbps out the 3.2 port

Google has made fast charging the Pixel 9 Pro XL an absolute nightmare

Picking the right third-party charger for the Pixel 9 Pro XL is nigh on impossible, thanks to some very specific power requirements.

www.androidauthority.com

Even google is struggling with usb c

 

[desiibond]

I actually disable it. So effective charge rate is 9W from inline meters. Keeps the battery temperature down.

You don’t have to charge this slow. 25W is absolutely safe for today’s batteries. Just make a habit of charging from 40% or so to 80%.

 

[ze_cook]

Google has made fast charging the Pixel 9 Pro XL an absolute nightmare

Picking the right third-party charger for the Pixel 9 Pro XL is nigh on impossible, thanks to some very specific power requirements.

www.androidauthority.com

Even google is struggling with usb c

Just checked my belkin adapter, it does indeed support the higher voltage PPS range (3.3v - 21v). This adapter has been really great, not inexpensive, but worth it.

 

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You don’t have to charge this slow. 25W is absolutely safe for today’s batteries. Just make a habit of charging from 40% or so to 80%.

I prefer to go to 100.

 

[desiibond]

I prefer to go to 100.

You won’t find any difference as charging goes to trickle charging once you hit 80% or so. Using 25W charger and limiting to 80% or 90% is better than using a slow charger and doing full charge from low charge every time. But if you insist on doing full charge, just use normal fast charger. Limiting to 9W won’t bring any advantage.

 

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You won’t find any difference as charging goes to trickle charging once you hit 80% or so. Using 25W charger and limiting to 80% or 90% is better than using a slow charger and doing full charge from low charge every time. But if you insist on doing full charge, just use normal fast charger. Limiting to 9W won’t bring any advantage.

Battery temperature doesn't cross 35 at 9W. Even if using the phone. At 15W it was reaching 40 on a warm day which will cause an automatic slower charge if temperature rises above.

Lowest the battery gets is 30-40%. Its not a full discharge

 

[desiibond]

Bhai, 40 degrees is okay. 50-60 degrees is high temp. I am using wireless charging which generates even more heat. After a year, my phone battery max capacity is at 92% with 263 cycle count.