One word, iterative, frequently deflates the hype around smartphone debuts. Too frequently, a brand-new, flashy phone falls short of adding anything novel to the list of functions found in the prior versions. If there is a wild new trick, it is gimmicky; if not, then perhaps there is no need to upgrade.
The Galaxy S23, Galaxy S23+, and Galaxy S23 Ultra are Samsung’s newest flagship smartphones, which have been unveiled in predictable fashion. Although calling these phones iterative would be an overstatement, you won’t find any gimmicks here. On the surface, these new Android phones appear to have not significantly improved upon their predecessors.
The business has made other hardware announcements in addition to the Galaxy S23 series. Samsung also introduced a whopping five new laptops at its major media event today in San Francisco—the first in-person Galaxy Unpacked since the epidemic. All of these new notebooks are labelled with the new Galaxy Book3 brand. Here is a list of everything Samsung revealed at the event.
The Galaxy S23 line of smartphones from Samsung closely resembles the S22 series. Particularly, the S23 Ultra and S22 Ultra have very identical appearances. The rear camera casing has been removed from the S23 and S23+, and their “floating” camera design now resembles that of their more expensive brother. The phones have become more basic; from a distance, they don’t differ much from Samsung’s less expensive phones. (This, in my opinion, is not a good thing.) Phantom Black, Cream, Green, and Lavender are the only colours available for the new Galaxy S-series phones, but Samsung also offers special online-only hues (Lime, Graphite, Sky Blue, and Red).
With a 6.1-inch AMOLED screen, the S23 continues to be the smallest of the group. With a 6.6-inch screen, the S23+ occupies the intermediate position. The 6.8-inch screen size of the S23 Ultra is still enormous compared to previous Ultras, but one improvement is that Samsung has lessened the curve of the glass edges surrounding the screen. (Google sharpened the corners of the Pixel 7 Pro in a similar change.) Although the Ultra now has a slightly more comfortable grip, the screen is still not completely flat like the ones on the S23 and S23+. The S Pen that comes with the Ultra is also advantageous. Yes, the stylus is back in the biggest Galaxy phone this year. It protrudes from the phone’s bottom edge. And since the edges of the Ultra’s screen are flatter, you get a slightly larger surface to doodle on. There’s still no S Pen for the other two devices.
Samsung is using Corning’s Gorilla Glass Victus 2, which is allegedly more durable than Corning’s previous recipes and contains more post-consumer recycled material, to make the screen more resistant to scratches and cracks. And although Samsung’s phones are almost all still made of aluminium, Apple has long employed stainless steel for its iPhone Pro models, a decision that increases those phones’ durability and scratch resistance. However, the S23 range does have more recycled parts compared to last year; according to the manufacturer, the S23 Ultra features 12 recycled parts in total, from the speaker module to the volume keys.
All S23 devices, including the Ultra, feature a 120-Hz screen refresh rate, similar to the models from a year ago. With this feature, the screen’s frame rate may be adjusted from 1 to 120 per second depending on the situation, which helps the phone use less battery power. Speaking of efficiency, the Ultra maintains its 5,000 mAh battery, though Samsung claims hardware improvements allow it to last up to 20% longer than the S22 Ultra. Both the S23 and S23+ batteries gain 200 mAh, increasing their capacities to 3,900 and 4,700 mAh, respectively. Before requiring a recharge, each of these phones should comfortably last more than a day.
The latest flagship chipset from Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy, paired with 8 gigabytes of RAM power the entire new Samsung mobile lineup. Samsung claims that the unique designation “for Galaxy” here denotes higher clock rates, with the ability to reach 3.3 GHz (a 0.1 GHz increase from the base Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor) with the primary core. This basically indicates that it is a little bit speedier than the average Snapdragon chip right now. The global versions of the S23 range, which typically run on Samsung’s own Exynos chipsets, will now use the same Snapdragon chip from Qualcomm, which is an intriguing thing to notice. Additionally, a newly created cooling chamber that is two times bigger for enhanced thermal performance which should mean you can game for longer periods before the phone gets so hot that it automatically starts throttling its performance to keep cool.
The primary camera of the S23 Ultra is the greatest modification. A 200-megapixel sensor has taken the place of the camera’s previous 108-megapixel sensor. You can choose a 200-megapixel setting to acquire images with incredible detail and high resolution that are pleasing enough to print in large formats or to get images that you can crop closely without losing clarity. This means that when shooting in the 200-megapixel setting, you should prepare for relatively hefty file sizes. To create brighter images at 50 or 12 megapixels, the camera by default employs pixel binning, a technique that groups pixels on the image sensor so they can absorb more light. Those file sizes ought to be considerably easier to handle. When shooting video, the S23 Ultra has double the correction angles for optical image stabilization, so it offers smoother results than its predecessor.
The other cameras on the phone haven’t changed all that much. A 12-megapixel ultrawide camera and two unique 10-megapixel telephoto sensors with 3X and 10X optical zoom are added to the primary camera. Samsung believes that even though the technology hasn’t changed much, the improved image processing algorithms will result in better photos. In particular, a “sophisticated object-based AI” scene analyzer that can automatically adjust lighting in a scene, remove noise, and find other defects that require improvement is included with all the new S23 phones.
The 50-megapixel main camera on the S23 and S23+ is reportedly four times more dynamically coloured than the previous one. Additionally, each of these phones now has a 12-megapixel selfie camera (up from a 10-megapixel camera) with improved autofocus.
Strangely, two of the more intriguing photo updates are found in Samsung’s Expert RAW programme. Granular control over the camera’s settings is possible with this software, which also makes use of certain of Samsung’s image processing models. Multiple Exposures and Astrophoto are two new modes that are now more easily accessible as Expert RAW was previously a totally distinct programme. The former enables you to take many photographs and combine them for a creatively enjoyable impact. When using the latter, you can adjust the camera’s settings, such as extending the long exposure duration to 10 minutes, to better capture the stars. Since working with RAW photographs necessitates more capable software, Samsung claims it is collaborating with Adobe to provide the expert app Lightroom as the solution.
One of the strongest software policies you’ll find in Android land guarantees that all three phones will get four Android OS upgrades (they launch with Android 13) and five years of monthly security updates. The cost of the phones has not altered. Priced at $1,200 for the Galaxy S23 Ultra, $1,000 for the S23+, and $800 for the S23. Only the Galaxy S23 continues with 128 GB; the Galaxy S23+ and S23 Ultra now both offer 256 GB of internal storage for the base models. Preorders can be made today, and sales start on February 17.
