itel S23+ review

This review was written after analyzing its features as well as evaluating hands-on video reviews by trustworthy reviewers.

itel S23+ (S23 Plus) is a lower-budget smartphone from itel which is released in India and in some African countries. It is expected to be released in more countries as well. The phone is priced in Amazon India at ₹17,499 (roughly BDT 23,200) which is available at a discount price of ₹13,999 (BDT 18,600). We are talking about the price and currency rate on 11th October 2023 and it may change in the future. Also, this is the 8/256 GB model. There is also a 4/128 GB model which we couldn’t spot on itel India. It could be for some other countries.

We want to divide this review in two sections: Pros and Cons so, you can clearly see its positives and negative. So, let’s get started with the positives.

Pros/Advantages

Design

The main reason why this phone has already been able to grab a significant amount of attention from the market is its design. There is a Cyan Lake color with a gradient or color shifting back panel (similar to what we have seen in the regular itel S23), which seems to be its signature color. There is also an Elemental blue color which is slightly more flat and dark. Both colors look stunning. With that, a curved display joins in the room. All these at a lower cost are definitely a big point, especially in many countries where design plays one of the most important role for smartphone consumers.

Display

Not only that it is curved and stylish but also its 6.78 inches large. It’s one of those grand displays where it reaches the maximum size. And what about the quality? We are talking about a Full HD+ AMOLED display here. There is also always-on display feature. The visual is astounding and should definitely be able to satisfy you.

Build

A 5th generation Corning Gorilla Glass protects that beautiful and precious display a big thanks to itel and it is much appreciated.

Camera

We have seen real camera footages from hands-on video reviewers and the quality is in fact much better than what we have expected. The color tones look very natural, vivid and gentle. It’s one of those cameras which you would definitely want to have and we are talking about both rear and front facing cameras. We liked the result of both equally. The video recording quality is also much pleasing and on top of that there is stabilization for 1080p recording with the back camera.

RAM/ROM

We have already mentioned that there is a 4/128 GB model as well, but here we are talking about the 8/256 GB model, so let’s stick to that. The 8 GB RAM has an additional 8 GB extended RAM facility, which can be a bit of a little help sometimes. The internal storage is UFS 2.0, so it’s quite fast compared to a regular low-cost eMMC 5.1 storage.

Battery

The 5000 mAh battery and 18W charger are just fine. It’s nothing over the top but it’s also not low. It’s balanced.

Fingerprint sensor

There is a fast and accurate in-display fingerprint sensor, something you wouldn’t expect for this cost at all. It adds an extra exclusiveness and stylish touch to it.

Cons/Disadvantages

Despite having some big advantages, itel S23+ also comes with a few strong disadvantages. They are the following:

60Hz refresh rate

There is no 90Hz refresh rate and it is a sort of surprising to see in a modern phone at this time and at this quotation/price. Of course, there had to be a compromise somewhere to afford that quality of the screen and to be honest, it0s not that of a big deal for any average user to have a 60Hz refresh rate phone, so that’s kind of okay.

Lower 500 nits peak brightness

This phone will struggle under sunlight visual or we should say your eyes will struggle. This is not a sunlight screen at all and there is nothing more to say about it.

Low performance Unisoc Tiger T616 chipset

Source: Nanoreview

This is without any doubt the biggest disadvantage of itel S23+. If you are enthusiastic about gaming, there is no way you can pay this amount for a Unisoc T616 chipset. Even big brands like Samsung, Oppo, Vivo etc. will offer you at least something equivalent to a MediaTek Helio G80 chipset. We also have a much faster MediaTek Helio G99 chipset phones in the official Bangladesh smartphone market at a lower price such as the Symphony Helio 80 for BDT 16,999. The same goes for India.

This phone is way below in terms of overall performance and itel has made a very big compromise here to facilitate some other premium features.

No 3.5mm jack and MicroSD slot

Till now, we have been seeing higher-priced 5G phones tend to cut these features. itel is one of the first to cut features like 3.5mm jack and a MicroSD slot under 20K budget. However, 256 GB storage is more than enough for most and there could be USB Type-C earphones included in the box, but it may depend on the country of release. So, be sure to check that out if that’s important for you.