https://techcrunch.com/2023/02/10/samsung-galaxy-s23-ultra-review/

Samsung is the best at big. Big, brash, bold, kitchen sink phones. The company that mainstreamed the phablet a dozen years ago has never given up on big dreams about big phones. Last year, the company took a risk — sunsetting the beloved Note line. While I stand by my initial assessment that the Samsung Galaxy S22 Note would have served as a good branding compromise, the justification behind the move made sense.

For one thing, there was little daylight left between the Galaxy S and Note lines. From a design standpoint, the two had become increasingly difficult to distinguish. The idea of a big phone is more normal than novel these days, and the addition of S Pen functionality to the former was the last straw. There’s also the simple fact that people just aren’t buying phones like they used to, so combining two similar premium lines was a logical move.