Galaxy S23 Plus vs iPhone 14 Plus: Which one’s a plus and which one’s a minus?

Design and Display Quality

Galaxy S23 Plus official design image

As their names suggest, both the Galaxy S23 Plus and iPhone 14 Plus are basically larger variants of the base S23 and iPhone 14, respectively. And in today’s world, where we do almost everything on our phones, it makes perfect sense to want a bigger phone, with a bigger screen, and… well, a bigger battery would be nice too, right?

Galaxy S23 Plus display

Starting with the Galaxy S23 Plus, it’s coming out on February 17, and features a very familiar design, identical to its predecessor, besides the fact that its camera island on the back was removed, and each of its three rear cameras are now their own separate element. We’re talking about a minimalist, premium-feeling glass back with just a Samsung logo and three cameras on it. The Galaxy S23 Plus is a flat phone with a flat screen too, which many may appreciate.

Speaking of the screen, the S23 Plus sports a 6.6-inch AMOLED screen, and has a refresh rate of up to 120Hz. This bodes well for future users of this phone, as we know Samsung’s AMOLED displays are beautiful, vivid, with great contrast and pitch blacks, and that 120Hz refresh rate means everything on it will appear super smooth. Good stuff!

iPhone 14 Plus display

As for the iPhone 14 Plus, its back is also premium-feeling and minimalist, with again just the Apple logo and a camera square adding a bit of character. The camera module here does have a defined rounded-corner square, so we could argue this is the less minimalist phone, oddly enough for Apple.

But on the front – we have an ever so slightly larger 6.7-inch screen, albeit a good chunk of it at the top is covered with a notch, so… Don’t let those diagonal inches fool you; the Galaxy S23 Plus offers more screen real estate. Also, while the iPhone 14 Plus’ display is OLED, meaning once again great contrast, colors and pitch blacks, it’s only clocked at 60Hz refresh rate. So while you may not notice anything wrong with it at all, if you’ve never used a phone with a 120Hz screen, it does feel less fluid if you compare it with one side-by-side.

Both phones are IP68 dust and water resistant, meaning you should be fine using either one outside during a light rain, but still – it’s advised to keep them away from beaches and pools.

In terms of weight, the Galaxy S23 Plus is 196 grams (6.91 oz), while the iPhone 14 Plus is ever so slightly heavier at 203 grams (7.16 oz).

Performance and Software

Android 13 and One UI 5

The Galaxy S23 Plus is packing the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor and 8GB of RAM, which basically means – modern flagship specs. It also means we can expect smooth performance from the phone, during both everyday use, multitasking, and even gaming, but stay tuned for our full review when it comes out for concrete results. Will it have throttling or overheating issues, or will it perform like a champ without breaking a sweat? We’re yet to find out, but the expectations are high.

On the software side, the Galaxy S23 Plus comes with Android 13 with Samsung’s One UI 5 interface on top. One UI has traditionally been my personal favorite Android interface for its many, many great features, such as enhanced multitasking with both split screen apps and windowed apps, and best of all – Samsung DeX, which can turn your phone into a PC replacement when you hook it up to a TV or any external display.

Yes, on the software side, the S23 Plus comes packed with awesome features, and of course, we can’t understate how nice One UI 5 and Android 13 look too. Both also allow for lots of user customization, from how your lock screen looks, to the primary colors of the entire Android system. And, as with any Android phone, you can even change your home screen launcher and download icon packs – the sky’s the limit!

iOS 16 on the iPhone 14 Plus

As for the iPhone 14 Plus, it’s powered by the Apple 15 Bionic chip and 6GB of RAM. Now, that might not sound impressive on paper, but iOS is extremely optimized, so 6GB of RAM is plenty enough for smooth switching between apps and even editing videos or images on your phone without an issue. The A15 Bionic chip is also quite a beast, and in fact, one of the highest-performing processors on any phone. Since this phone is out, we’ve been able to benchmark its performance, so let’s just look at the stats and let them speak for themselves:

Whether you’re gaming, working, or just using your phone for basic tasks, the iPhone 14 Plus will handle it all beautifully.

On the software side, we have Apple’s iOS 16 running on this one. While iOS has traditionally been way less customizable than Android is, iOS 16 does bring a lot of lock screen customization features; it has home screen widgets too. And while it doesn’t have huge desktop-mode features like Samsung DeX, iOS does come with a slew of great professional apps to get you started with any hobby you may have. Those include the iMovie video editor and GarageBand music-maker, plus office apps, and so on. Nice bonuses!

Camera

Galaxy S23 Plus camera

Check out our Samsung Galaxy S23 camera article for everything on that topic, but in short – the Galaxy S23 Plus packs three cameras. Those are a 50-megapixel main one, a 12-megapixel ultra-wide, and a 10-megapixel telephoto camera with 3X optical zoom. So, a pretty versatile camera setup! And based on our experience with this phone’s predecessor, the Galaxy S22 Plus, we can expect excellent camera performance from it, whether taking photos or capturing videos. Which, by the way, can now be up to 8K, 30FPS!

The iPhone 14 Plus’ camera

As for Apple’s “Plus” phone, in our iPhone 14 Plus review we were very pleased with the photos it takes and videos it records, and have sample ones for you to check out below:

We have some true-to-life colors, with good clarity and dynamic range, plus a nice background blur for certain shots. However, when it comes to camera options, the iPhone 14 Plus only has two for you to choose between – a main 12-megapixel camera and a 12-megapixel wide camera with 120° field of view. No optical zoom here, only digital.

And when it comes to filming videos, the iPhone can only film at up to 4K resolution, which is only half of the Galaxy S23 Plus’ 8K.

Audio Quality

It appears that Samsung has improved the Galaxy S23 Plus’ speakers when compared to its predecessors, which is good news. The setup itself is the same – a bottom-firing speaker, plus the earpiece chiming in, creating a stereo effect when gaming or watching movies in landscape. Now, Samsung’s phones, unfortunately, have always been a bit disappointing in the sound department, when compared to iPhones, sounding a bit more tinny. But stay tuned for our full review, where we’ll find out exactly how much of an improvement the Galaxy S23 speakers are.And as for the iPhone 14 Plus, it also packs a bottom firing speaker, plus an earpiece, but that speaker actually kicks out loud, full sound with even some bass, so gaming and movie-watching feels a bit more impactful and satisfying.

And of course, neither of those phones have a headphone jack, if that’s even worth mentioning anymore. But you can use all of your favorite Bluetooth headphones or speakers, or, plan B – get a dongle for that.

Battery Life and Charging

The Galaxy S23 Plus is now confirmed to be packing a 4,700 mAh battery, which is bigger than its predecessor’s 4500 mAh battery, so that’s good news when it comes to our battery life expectations – it should be improved.

In our testing of last year’s S22, we got over 8 hours of streaming, or alternatively over 15 hours of web browsing on a single charge, which are already impressive numbers. In our mid-to-heavy usage it usually comfortably lasts through a full day, while light users are capable of using it for two days. So, we can expect similar, or more likely – even better results from the S23 Plus.

In terms of charging speeds, the Galaxy S23 Plus has 45W wired charging, and 10W wireless charging.

As for the iPhone 14 Plus, it packs a smaller 4,325 mAh battery, slower 20W wired charging, but slightly faster 15W wireless charging.

Despite the (mostly) lower numbers, in our testing, it too is a battery life champ, lasting two days between charges comfortably. Apple even marketed the iPhone 14 Plus as having the “longest battery life ever” on an iPhone, but we’ll let our benchmark tests speak for themselves:

Specs Comparison