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With just a day more left in January, the launch season for premium flagship Android smartphones and other tech products is about to begin. Just like last year, Samsung is all set to unveil the much-hyped Galaxy S23 series of smartphones on February 1 at its Galaxy Unpacked event, which will be live-streamed on various social media platforms.
The upcoming flagship series will consist of three phones – the Galaxy S23, Galaxy S23 Plus and the Galaxy S23 Ultra. With several leaks and rumours finding their way to the internet, here are five things we about the Galaxy S23 series of smartphones.
All devices in Samsung’s Galaxy S23 series will be powered by a custom version of Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, which was launched back in November 2022. To give you a quick recap, the processor is based on ARMv9 architecture and is manufactured by TSMC.
Qualcomm says its latest chipset offers 40 per cent improved power efficiency over the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, improves GPU performance by 25 per cent and supports hardware-backed ray tracing. The latest chipset also features a dedicated AI processing chip and brings support for dynamic head tracking and Bluetooth 5.3.
It looks like the Samsung Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23 Plus will have the same camera sensors. Both phones will have a triple-camera setup which consists of a 50MP primary camera with an f/1.8 aperture, a 10MP telephoto lens with an f/2.4 aperture and 3x optical zoom and a 12MP 120° ultrawide sensor with an f/2.2 aperture.
Unlike the above variants, the Galaxy S23 Ultra will be the first Samsung smartphone to feature the recently announced in-house developed 200MP ISOCELL HP2 sensor accompanied by a 12MP ultrawide lens and two 10MP telephoto cameras. The new sensor significantly improves low-light photography, introduces a new advanced pixel binning technology called Tetra pixel and lets users record videos in 8K at 30fps.
Samsung says the new ISOCELL HP2 sensor on the Galaxy S23 Ultra will fix the problem of images getting washed out in brightly lit environments and can help enhance colour reproduction. All phones in the series are also expected to get an improved front camera.
The Samsung Galaxy S23 series is expected to get a small bump when it comes to battery. The Galaxy S23 might come with a 3,900mAh battery whereas the Galaxy S23 Plus will have a larger 4,700mAh battery. Both phones are said to support up to 25W wired charging.
The most expensive phone in the lineup, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is said to be backed by a 5,000mAh battery with 45W wired charging. All phones are expected to offer both Qi-based wireless and reverse wireless charging. The improved CPU power efficiency combined with the slightly increased battery capacity means the Galaxy S23 series of devices might last a bit longer compared to their predecessor.
According to several tipsters, it looks like Samsung is increasing the price of the Galaxy S23 series. In select European countries, S23 series might see a price hike of up to 100 Euros. Samsung might increase the price of the Galaxy S23 by Rs 7,000 in India whereas the Galaxy S23 Plus and the Galaxy S23 Ultra are expected to cost Rs 5,000 more compared to their 2022 counterparts.
This means that the base variant of the Samsung Galaxy S23 will likely be priced at Rs 79,999 while the Galaxy S23 Plus and the Galaxy S23 Ultra are expected to start from Rs 89,999 and Rs 1,14,999 respectively.
If true, this will be the biggest price bump the series has seen in the last three years. Even though the company has been increasing the price steadily, the hike was limited to somewhere around Rs 3,000 every year.
Apart from the standard botanic green, cotton flower, mystic lilac and phantom black colour options for the Galaxy S23 series, Samsung might also bring some exclusive colour options for the upcoming Galaxy S23 Ultra. Some suggest that the new colour options might also find their way to the Galaxy S23 and the Galaxy S23 Plus.
According to the latest leak by the known tipster Ross Young, the Galaxy S23 Ultra will be available in new colours like blue, light green and red. However, the Samsung website suggests that these new colours will be exclusively available if you order the phones from the company’s online store.
Samsung might also increase the RAM on the base variant of the Galaxy S23 Ultra. Last year, the base version of the Galaxy S23 Ultra come with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage, but it looks like the company is bumping up the storage and RAM on the cheapest Galaxy S23 Ultra to 256GB and 12GB respectively.
Talking about storage, the upcoming phones will feature UFS 4.0. However, a recent report by the known tipster Ice Universe suggests that the 128GB storage variant of the Galaxy S23 will pack the slower UFS 3.1 storage while other models will have UFS 4.0. According to the tipster, Samsung made the move because only one Japanese company called Kioxia makes 128GB UFS 4.0 storage modules. This might have discouraged the South Korean phone maker to skip the latest technology on the base variant.
The Galaxy S23 series is currently available for pre-order in India. Those interested can book the upcoming smartphones from the official Samsung website, Samsung Exclusive Stores, Amazon and leading retailers for just Rs 1,999.
The company is also offering benefits worth Rs 5,000 for those who purchase and activate their S23 series device before March 31 this year. Those who pre-book the phones will also get early access to the device, ensuring availability on launch.
