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

Design and Display Quality

As their names suggest, both the Galaxy S23 Plus and iPhone 14 Plus are basically larger models 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?

Starting with the Galaxy S23 Plus, it’s likely to come out in February of 2023, and feature a very familiar design, possibly identical to its predecessor. We’re talking about a minimalist, premium-feeling glass back with just a Samsung logo and three cameras on it, adding some flair.

On the front, the S23 Plus will sport a 6.6-inch screen, using Dynamic AMOLED technology and refreshing at twice the standard refresh rate – 120Hz. All 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

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

Performance and Software

Android 13 and One UI 5

The Galaxy S23 Plus is expected to pack a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor and 8GB of RAM, which basically means – a fast, flagship processor. It also means we can expect smooth performance from the phone, in 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 expectations are high.

On the software side, the Galaxy S23 Plus will be running 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 will be 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 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

The iPhone 14 Plus’ camera

Check out our Samsung Galaxy S23 camera article for everything we know so far on that topic, but in short – we expect that the Galaxy S23 Plus will pack three cameras. Those will be a 108-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.

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.

Audio Quality

It seems like the Galaxy S23 Plus won’t change anything about the speakers from its predecessors, so we’ll be getting a bottom-firing speaker, plus the earpiece chimping in, for creating a stereo effect when gaming or watching movies in landscape. Now, Samsung’s phones, unfortunately, have always been pretty disappointing in the sound department, being tinny and unimpressive, especially compared to what Apple’s iPhones deliver in terms of sound.

The iPhone 14 Plus 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 way more impactful and satisfying. If audio quality matters to you, sadly I can’t recommend the S23 Plus over the iPhone 14 Plus, at all.

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 currently expected to pack a 4500 mAh battery, just like its predecessor. In our testing of the latter, we can expect over 8 hours of streaming, or alternatively over 15 hours of web browsing on a single charge, which are impressive numbers. In our mid-to-heavy usage it usually comfortably lasts through a full day, while light users are capable of going for two days. So, we can expect similar, or hopefully even better results from the S23 Plus’ battery endurance.

The Galaxy S23 Plus is also expected to have 45W wired charging and 15W wireless charging, but we’ll let you know once more concrete information on that pop up, as for now, those are speculative numbers.

As for the iPhone 14 Plus, it packs a smaller 4325 mAh battery, 20W wired charging and 15W wireless charging. 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