Following a long trail of rumors and leaks, Samsung finally held its first Galaxy Unpacked event of 2023 and launched the new Galaxy S23 series. The series consists of the Galaxy S23, the S23+, and the S23 Ultra and puts focus on enhanced low-light photography, and comes with the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 mobile platform, among other things. Have a look at what the new Galaxy S23 phones bring to the table.
Galaxy S23 Ultra: Specs and Features
The Galaxy S23 Ultra succeeds last year’s S22 Ultra, which brought with it the essence of both the Galaxy Note and the S phones. The phone’s primary highlight is the 200MP Adaptive Pixel main camera, which is a first for a Samsung phone. There’s support for the AI-powered image signal processing (ISP) algorithm, which is meant to provide detailed and color-accurate results, especially in low-light conditions. It also gets the doubled optical image stabilizer (OIS) angles.
This is accompanied by a 12MP ultra-wide lens, a 10MP telephoto lens with up to 3x optical zoom, and another 10Mp telephoto lens with up to 10x optical zoom. You also get a 10MP Super HDR selfie camera. The various camera features include support for up to 8K videos at 30fps, object-based AI to recognize every detail in the frame, the Expert RAW app, 100x space zoom, and much more.
For the performance part, the tweaked Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 mobile platform for Galaxy ensures 30% improved CPU, 41% GPU, and 49% NPU performance. It also delivers real-time ray tracing. The Galaxy S23 Ultra comes equipped with up to 12GB of RAM and 1TB of RAM.
As for the design, it matches the rumored expectations. There’s the Galaxy S22 Ultra-like design with 12 recycled elements. It is also the first one to come with the latest Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 at the front. The front has a 6.8-inch QHD+ Edge Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with up to 120Hz refresh rate, a 240Hz touch sampling rate, and Vision Booster.
There’s a 5,000mAh battery on board with a 45W adaptor and wireless charging support. The Galaxy S23 Ultra runs the latest Samsung One UI 5.1 based on Android 13. It gets an IP68 rating, 5G support, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth version 5.3, and Samsung Knox and Knox Vault. And, it also comes with the S Pen and enhanced vapor chamber cooling system.
Galaxy S23+ and S23: Specs and Features
This is the middle child, which has let go of the Contour Cut design and has a slightly smaller 6.6-inch Full HD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with a 120Hz variable refresh rate. The vanilla Galaxy S23, on the other hand, has a 6.1-inch Full HD+ Dynamic AMOLES 2X 120Hz screen. These two also come with a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2.
Both phones are powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy SoC, coupled with up to 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. The Galaxy S23+ and the S23 are backed by 4,700mAh and 3,900mAh batteries. While the Plus model supports a 45W adaptor, the standard model settles for a 25W one.
The camera department is also different than the Galaxy S23 Ultra. Instead of a 200MP main snapper, there’s a 50MP camera. This is along with a 12MP ultra-wide lens and a 10MP telephoto lens. The front snapper stands at 10MP.
The Galaxy S23+ and the Galaxy S23 come with an IP68 rating, 5G support, Android 13-based One UI 5.1, and more.
Price and Availability
The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra starts at $1,199 (~ Rs 98,200), the Galaxy S23+ starts at $999 (~ Rs 81,800), and the Galaxy S23 has a starting price of $799 (~ Rs 65,400), much like the Galaxy S22 series launched last year. The phones will be available in the US, starting February 17.
The Galaxy S23 series comes in Phantom Black, Cream, Green, and Lavender colorways. All three phones will get four years of software updates and five years of security updates.
