The Samsung Galaxy S23 series is here, and it brings a fast new chipset, a 200 MP camera with a new sensor for the Ultra, bigger batteries for the other two and, at least for some regions, new prices.
Samsung Galaxy S23 series infographic
Pricing for most regions was announced on Wednesday, with details for India coming the next day. While North America avoided the price hike, the rest of the world did not. But everything gets more expensive, and Samsung made up for the price bump by doubling the base storage for the S23+ and S23 Ultra. That’s fair – or is it?
If you missed it, check out our hands-on review with the three phones and watch Will’s report from the Unpacked event. Now let’s drill into the details.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra has changed the least on the outside, but has the best upgrades on the inside. Yes, we are talking about Samsung’s first ever 200 MP camera. A sibling company made the ISOCELL HP2 sensor just for the Ultra, it’s different from the HP1 and HP3 we’ve seen on other phones. The Super Quad Pixel autofocus should be a noticeable improvement over the AF systems on previous 108MP and 200MP phones. Samsung has also upgraded the OIS system so that it can now correct angles up to 3.0° (double the 1.5° that the S22 Ultra OIS can handle).
All three phones use the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy chipset, which runs its primary core at 3.36GHz (up from 3.2GHz on other Gen 2 phones). The GPU is also faster, although Qualcomm doesn’t comment on details (we’ll find out through benchmarks, anyway). However, the Ultra is the only one with the option of 12 GB of RAM. Considering phones with 16GB are hardly uncommon, 8GB sounds limiting.
The S23 Ultra offers a take on the smartphone camera king. Whether it serves the crown is a subject that will have to wait for the reviews. But based on what you’ve seen so far, will you pre-order an Ultra today (and take advantage of some of the early bird perks), or would you rather wait and see? Vote below or use this side.
The Samsung Galaxy S23+ and its smaller siblings still have flat screens. We doubt we’ll hear any complaints about that. But they are still FHD+ LTPS panels at a time when QHD+ and LTPO are expected from flagships. We can already hear the complaints.
These two also have less to show in terms of camera upgrades. The new selfie camera has slightly higher 12MP resolution (this is an upgrade to the S23 and S23+, downgrade to the Ultra). Video recording was also improved with support for 8K at 30fps for the rear as well as Super HDR at 60fps for the front cameras. However, there is still no autofocus for the ultra-wide camera.
The Ultra missed out on a battery upgrade, but the S23 and S23+ got a 200mAh increase. The charging speed for the two larger phones is set to 45W, as it was last year. Although Samsung sells self-repair kits for its flagships, they don’t believe in over-exerting the battery (and the kits certainly don’t include new batteries).
What do you think – is this the year to go for the Plus model, or does one of the other two models look better? Vote below or use this side.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 is the only one stuck with 25W charging. And the only one that has a 128GB storage option (with UFS 3.1 on it, although the real-life impact is yet to be determined). Despite missing out on several upgrades, the little S23 didn’t escape the price hike.
Still, there’s a good chance it will outperform its Plus sibling – reports say it did for the S22 generation, and the S23/S23+ have similar pros and cons to each other. It’s one of the smallest Android flagships (it’s about the same size as the Zenfone 9) and it’s the cheapest of the three.
How about you – are you looking at the pre-order page with your finger hovering over the ‘Buy’ button? Vote below or use this side.
