Got myself a new gadget.

This is one of those, rare nowadays, posts where I ramble about some gadget I got or that I want.

A while ago I got a I-want-a-new-gadget craving. Since some time I’m pretty well set up in the computer department as well as when it comes to my home cinema rig. Sure, I really want to get myself and larger OLED TV than the one I have but the one I really want clocks in at around than 3500 EUR thanks to the tax greedy useless political asshats in both France and the European Community.

But there is one gadget that I use all the time and although my “oldish” Galaxy S20 Ultra was working fine I, very irrationally of course, persuaded myself that a three generations old phone deserved being replaced.

So I got myself a new Galaxy S23 Ultra.

Now this is not really a review so if that’s what you were looking for it’s not the page for you. However, I have to say that I am a wee bit impressed with my new S23. Well, compared to my S20 of course since that is the only frame of reference that I have.

I’ve only had it for a few weeks but there are quite a few things where I see noticeable improvements.

The screen is much better and easier to read on a sunny day than the screen on my old phone.

The fingerprint sensor is noticeable faster, and appears to be more reliable so far.

The camera is quite an improvement. Not only are the images overall better, both in JPG and RAW format, but the 3x and 10x zoom lenses (real optical zoom) are so much more useful than the ridiculous ultra zoom lens with its absurd fish eye effect on my S20.

However, there is one improvement that stands above all the others. Battery life!

How much you get out of a single charge is of course really dependent on your usage and I am probably a low battery user. I simply cannot fathom how people can watch videos and stuff on the ridiculously small screen of a phone so that is one power hungry usage I do not do. I don’t make that much actual phone calls either.

Over the day, I use my phone for reading and sending texts and emails. I have my planning / todo list on. I take notes and use it for things like my grocery list. I occasionally read up on the news, some web searches and, if I get stuck and do not have my tablet with me I read a bit in some book.

With that usage my S20 usually got me two days worth on a single charge. Sometimes a bit less.

I really expected more or less the same for my new S23. Usually any improvement in battery capacity is eaten up by speedier CPU or more features in my experience. So imagine my surprise when it turned out that I get TWICE AS MUCH mileage out of the S23 as I got out of the S20.

I have run through a few charge cycles now and every time but one I got FOUR days out of my S23 on a single charge. I just took the screenshot to the right and I am on my fourth full day, it is about lunch-time, and I have 31% charge left.

Maybe my usage pattern is exceptionally well adapted to this phone and other people will not see such and improvement but for me, that improvement alone makes me re-label my purchase of this phone from a silly and irrational splurging on a new gadget just for the sake of it to a really good purchase.