Hello and welcome to my review of the Itel S23. Itel has dropped its best phone yet and they've been making a lot of noise about this. So join me as we look through the specs on Itel’s latest device and see if it's worth the hype.

The Itel S23+ is a lower Midrange phone from Itel. For those who do not know, Itel is a subsidiary of Chinese tech giant, Transsion. Transsion is the parent company of Tecno, Infinix, Oraimo, and of course Itel. Transsion also owns the after-sales service brand known as Carl Care.

Itel is very popular. Believe it or not, by sales, they're the fourth most popular brand in Africa. Only Samsung, Tecno, and Infinix are more popular.

They also sell a lot of phones too. This is because Itel lives to service the low-end (entry-level) market. However, it seems that this is about to change.

With their recent releases such as the Itel P40 plus, Itel S18, and Itel S23, Itel has begun making a push into the Midrange market and no phone typifies this sentiment more than the Itel S23+. This phone could be Itel's breakthrough device.

Key specifications of the Itel S23+
Body: 178g, plastic frame
SoC: Unisoc T616 + Mali G57 MP1
Software: Android 13, Itel OS13, Dynamic bar, GPT AI
RAM: LPDDR4X (1866MHz)
Display: 6.78" curved FHD+ AMOLED, 388ppi, 500nits, Gorilla 🦍 glass
Camera: 50MP + 0.08MP
Selfie: 32MP
Video: 1080p @30fps
Battery: 5,000mAh, 18W fast charge
Network: 4G LTE (Cat. 7), BT 5, WiFi 5, 3.5mm, OTG, USB-C (2.0)
Colors: Blue, Cyan
Variants: 4+128GB (N120,000), 8+256GB (148,000)

Body

The phone is typically what you'll expect from any midrange phone. It has a plastic frame that holds all of the phone's components and gorilla glass protection. This part shocked me. An Itel phone and Gorilla Glass in the same sentence. The phone comes in 2 colors. Elemental blue and Lake cyan.

Performance

Now this is where this phone gets even more interesting. The Itel S23+ runs using a Unisoc T616. This SoC has a similar performance to the Helio G85. Thus this phone is definitely lower midrange.

Other SoCs within the same performance range include:

Snapdragon 680: Redmi Note 11, Redmi 10c, Samsung Galaxy A23, Vivo Y22s, Vivo Y90, Oppo A96
Helio G88: Redmi 10, Redmi 12, Infinix Hot 30, Infinix Note 12, Tecno Pova 3, Tecno Spark 10 Pro
Helio G85: Moto G23, Infinix Hot 12, Redmi 12c
Helio G80: Infinix Note 8, Poco M2, Samsung Galaxy A14, A22, M22, F22; Vivo Y21s, Y33, Y33s

This SoC is capable of running many B titles at mid to low settings. Games such as eFootball 2024, Call of Duty Mobile, PUBG Mobile, SimCity, Free Fire, etc. However, triple-A titles like Genshin Impact, NBA 2K, Fortnite, and Call of Duty Warzone may not run.

I've always maintained that Unisoc has good SoCs but it is the smartphone companies that are refusing to use them.

Software

Itel has typically used Android Go 32-bit OS due to the weak SoCs that they utilize on their phones. However, with a better Unisoc T616 SoC on board the S23+, they've chosen to install a 64-bit Android 13 with their in-house Itel OS13.

To sweeten things, they've ripped off the iPhone's Dynamic Island and added a GPT AI assistant.

Display

Here comes another big surprise. The display on the Itel S23+ is a curved 6.78" FHD+ AMOLED display. No, you did not read that wrong. There's actually an AMOLED display with Gorilla Glass screen protection!

Camera

This S23+ ships with a dual camera setup sporting a 50MP main camera and a 0.08MP depth sensor. At the front of the device, there's a 32MP sensor for selfies. The cameras are decent in good lighting conditions and awful in low light.

Battery

There's a standard 5000mAh battery here with a decent 18W fast charge. The T616's 12nm is not exactly topnotch when it comes to battery life but it should get you through one day on a single charge if you use it lightly.

Network Connectivity and sensors

The S23+ supports 4G LTE (Cat. 7) with download speeds of 300Mbps. It also supports Bluetooth 5, WiFi 5, a 3.5mm Audio jack, USB OTG and USB-C (2.0)

There's an in-screen fingerprint, accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity, and light sensor as well as GPS.

Pricing

The S23+ sells in two memory variants:

4+128GB (N120,000),
8+256GB (N148,000)

I'm a bit torn here. I mean, Gorilla Glass, AMOLED display, in-screen fingerprint sensor, and fast charging do not come cheap. However, for a phone with that T616 SoC, I think it's a little bit overpriced. Just a little bit.

Clarification: For 148,000 you could buy Helio G95 or Dimensity 6020 phone that is far better than this lower midrange device.

Besides the pricing, this is a phone that I could happily recommend to anyone. I think Itel is ready to chill with the big boys now.

What do you think?

Link: https://inquisitiveuniverse.com/2023/09/20/itel-s23-review/

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Lmao

daintyprincess:

Hi, can you suggest a good phone between 150k to 200k. Was thinking of getting a redmi note 12 or 12s but the reviews are discouraging. Almost all phone guys on yt are saying it is a downgrade from its predecessors. Please help. Thanks.

You'll wait small sha

micxwell:

Which supports the main reason why the video was made in the first place.

Yes na. It's because of people like him.

DyingFetus:


Africa na itel

😂😂😂😂😂

Itel is a Chinese subsidiary

Elxandre:

The day Samsung outsells apple in the USA is the day they get banned 😂
As far as I'm concerned westernization is the cause for Apples dominance in the flagship space.
Americans are always seen as the standard in the tech space. Right from the days of Blackberry having a dominant SHARE ahead of the likes of symbian in the USA despite being a glorified Java OS.

Very much possible.

Apple can never outsell Huawei in China
Huawei can never outsell Apple in the US
No one can outsell Samsung in Korea

Africa no get anyone

9jatriot:
When this bros made this comment in another thread, some folks were coming for his head. One day we will need to tell ourselves the truth, many folks who complain about corruption including many of those on this thread only do so because they are not the ones directly or indirectly benefiting.

Every sector of this country is roten. Almost like a mindset thing. It is not just politicians abeg.

Factos

DyingFetus:


Huawei is shit


It's Samsung topping the chart

After them you get Sony then Motorola

How many people use Huawei and actually like the phone ??

Huawei was number one in world up until recently

Ogbemuo:


I doubt that, to me i think Huawei is way ahead in terms of innovations if not for the banned US placed on them they would be far way ahead of Samsung, in terms of Camera, design Huawei has been leading even in market share Huawei has more market share than iphone and Samsung, but the banned really affected them.

Huawei's situation na just pure bad belle

Captainjack100:


Bro stop with all your cap alright
Iphones don't make mid-range phones like Androids. Even the iphone6s plus. 6s and other iphone were once flagships
So when comparing with other Androids. Be specific and not take a mid-range up with an iPhone. That's the issue with you iphone people. Flagships should be against flagships and all Iphones are flagships. They release phones like once in a year. Other brands could be three/four times or more in a single year

Simple

Renewed Shege

Deandean:


I just discovered understanding is basically the issue. How exactly does ecosystem translate to chipset.

Don't switch sir. I was talking to him. Not you. Please revert back to previous reply.

chizzypresh:


This is exactly what I keep facing in my redmi note 7 and I keep deleting a lot before I can open any app
Everytime WhatsApp, Facebook, gallery nd d likes keep crashing nd I do lose some chats not backed up😞😞

You may have a RAM and Storage issue me thinks. You may need to backup your data and format ya phone.

phr0nesis:

It seems you are still living in 2019. Apple ecosystem was far ahead of that of any Android device, but presently that gap is very slim. In fact many mobile experts view the Samsung ecosystem as a match to the apple ecosystem

He's living in 2016 actually.

Apple's Bionic SoC development team has basically disbanded. Half went to form Nuvia and are now working for Qualcomm. The guy doing the M series has moved to Intel. One Nigerian here says that they're 20 years ahead.

Deandean:


In an effort to avoid admitting you don’t know the difference between RAM and ROM you have said more rubbish.
iPhone 4 doesn’t run a 2GB ram and 2GB ram has never been experimented in it to know how it’ll perform , how do you compare what is a fallacy with a reality.
I can flip it and say S22 ultra can hold a 512mb rRam only Samsung choose not to use it. And then start comparing and imagined s22 with 512mb ram with an existing iPhone 15 promax. Does that make sense to you.

Generalization stands for all , and I ddnt say all.
Admit you know nothing about phones. And if you are looking for performance and durability buy an XS over S22. This is general knowledge. Nobody that knows phones all over the world argues optimization and performance with iPhones. Just say they are overpriced. Yes i agree. You dont get to do many fun stuffs like you have on android, true. It uses a lock-in strategy, fine. But the Apple ecosystem is 20 years ahead of android. Android is an open source OS. It’s a one size fits all system. It can never be optimized to match an IOS.

Stop arguing rubbish bros.

😂😂😂😂😂

It's still your own logic and I'll quote it back to you all day.

You said a 2GB RAM (unnamed) iPhone will beat an 8GB RAM (unnamed) Android device.

I picked the iPhone 4 with the Apple A4 Chip. It is an ARMv7 chip and they can reach a max of 2GB RAM. Even weaker SoCs like the SC7731e and the MT6580 can run 2GB easily. Talk less of the A4.

Another amateur flaw that you've made again. Smartphones don't use ROM or read only memory. They use an Internal Storage. For someone who knows more than me, you shouldn't be goofing like this. The only ROM part is the OS which you're not allowed to tamper with unless you unlock the bootloader and it is hidden deep within the settings.

Also you really should study argumentative logic, you can't flip an argument when you're the one who proposed it 😂😂😂. That's basically backtracking which is something you've been doing this whole time.

Deandean:


You don’t even know what you are saying. iPhone 4 is a 512mb ram phone. Even iPhone 6s is not 2GB.
Meanwhile, read my comment well, i ddnt say it’ll beat all 8GB phones but most. There are phones like pixel and Asus black shark that can take up the optimization battle with iPhone.

But don’t compare iPhone and android when it come to performance. I’ve used really expensive phones and i can tell.

😂😂😂😂😂

You guys are so easy to mess with. I took your outlandish logic and played back to you and even you could see that it made no sense. Instead of admitting it, you're trying very hard to swerve right.

This is what you said.

Deandean:


You may have a point or 2, but i use flagship Samsung galaxy Tab along with a 7year old iPhone 7. When it comes to performance I simply trust the iPhone to deliver. A 2GB ram iPhone will do better than most 8GB ram android. Quote me anywhere

You were not forced to say it. You made a very non specific, vague and sweeping generalization. What I've done is taking the logic now and creating probable scenario based on your logic and you can see that such statement makes no sense.

The iPhone 4 is very much capable of using 2GB, Apple just didn't want to use it.

So if you put 2GB on an iPhone 4, will it beat an 8GB S22 Ultra?

Even if the iPhone XS Max with 4GB won't touch the S22 Ultra but here you are saying that any non specific iPhone with 2GB RAM would. The statement clearly lacks merit and makes no sense. If you can't see it, then I'll recommend that you take classes in argumentative logic. Maybe it'll help you avoid the argumentative fallacy of hasty generalization.

You don't just come and spit silly exaggerations like that because you want to prove a point.

Balderdash, I thought Muslims said that the Sunnahs didn't matter much. That the Qur'an was the ultimate?

Hypocrisy smells.

Ogbemuo:

Am not talking about mid end android phone users switching to iphone, am talking about game's in general, I've used an iPhone 12 pro max and am currently using a Samsung Galaxy S22, you saying apple is not known for gaming you're definitely wrong, IOS devices has been the go-to devices when it comes to gaming, forget the fact that epic decide to pull off Fortnite from the apple store, because they don't want to share revenue with apple, when it comes to launching game on mobile, developers prefer to optimize and launch their game's on iOS, before even thinking of bringing that same game to Android.

Alright let's say I agree with you.

Just one last question and I'll die the matter. Why did several games like PUBG and PES perform poorly on iOS compared to Android? At one point even Fortnite itself was very laggy.

Deandean:


Even iPhone 6 isn’t 2GB. I’m talking from a user’s experience. You can’t compare the seamless optimization of an iPhone with android

Don't back track now

You said that a 2GB RAM non specific iPhone will outperform an 8GB Android. That statement in and of itself is very false and a complete aberration.

But you said it. So prove how a 2GB iPhone 4 will outperform an 8GB Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Lemme go and buy 1 Amarula.

chariisGRACE:


You obviously don't know about smartphones. How would rate phones based on RAM?

I'm waiting for him to reply my question.

Elxandre:

Which kain talk be this.
Flagship galaxy tab to iPhone 7?
Put the tab model here let's confirm.

Don't bother. Lol 😂

Deandean:


You may have a point or 2, but i use flagship Samsung galaxy Tab along with a 7year old iPhone 7. When it comes to performance I simply trust the iPhone to deliver. A 2GB ram iPhone will do better than most 8GB ram android. Quote me anywhere

Going by your logic, so a 2GB ram iphone 4 will do better than the S22?

Ogbemuo:
Nice video though, but to be honest I'm an Android user but, games are more optimize on IOS devices compare to Android, because developers just need to focus on and optimize that game on a single SOC, unlike android that have snapdragon, MediaTek, Exynos and other's, if you look closely on the Apple app store you see some AAA game's that aren't available on Android, and even with the release of the Iphone 15 pro's with the A17 Pro SOC game developer's are bringing console games to the Iphone.

Apple isn't known for gaming. It's not me saying it. You can look it up anywhere. Even Macs hardly play games.

Now in the video, I said and I quote "if a game is optimized for iOS, it will play it better". That was what I said. On the other hand, if it is not optimized for iOS then Android will do it better.

Just because some select titles like Fortnite run better on iOS doesn't mean that it's the better gaming device. Up until recently, iOS users despite having flagship SoCs were dealing with bugs on PES mobile before it was corrected on eFootball.

Even the AAA they're bringing down is not yet available because it has not been optimized yet. Apple are very specific about what they allow on their platform.

My annoyance usually is when people use lower midrange to entry level devices, to base the whole android capacity and capabilities off their own experience. Many developers are dodging the Apple tax and making games for Android instead. Epic had to pull Fortnite from App Store sef because of Apple's behavior.

tecnolad:
Great video, bro. I like how educational your videos are and I'm always excited to see a new video from you.

However, I nodded my head in agreement to every point you made in this video, until you started comparing iphone 7 plus to Xiaomi Redmi note 12 pro, stating that they are on the same level.

Considering the fact that the iPhone 7 plus is 6 years older than Redmi note 12 pro, doesn't it negate the whole point you're trying to make?

Not necessarily.

Most people I have seen in real life and online believe the iPhone 7 to still be a better phone than most Android devices. However it is no better than a upper Midrange Android in this day and age.

The best example of a current Midranger I could think of was the RN12 Pro. And even at that, I did say that the RN12 Pro boasts better performance, software support and battery life.

But still many people believe otherwise.

Zimri:
I'll be there

Thank you old Friend. It's good to hear from you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fz-_Fj6CBU?si=5cx4vo6t0XtFOCLD

23jerryking:
How does this thread keep disappearing and appearing but people think it is normal?

Nairaland for you. This is the last outpost. The only thing left in Transsion's way.

Jacku:
Will this one be durable?

I'll do a long term review in a few months time

aysnoopy:
Fire
How much will this cost?

25k

Space booked for blog post

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X20lqEPbSmw

If you are interested in this powerbank, contact my inlaw Jboixxx.