Samsung’s Unpacked event for 2023 is just around the corner, but despite the myriad of leaks that have taken in most of the curiosity, it’s still one of the most important events of the year.
Galaxy S23 series
It is unlikely that we will see any new tablets, nor will we see any smartwatches or headphones announcements, but we are likely to see the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, along with the S23 and S23+, and possibly some new laptops.
Samsung’s Galaxy S23 Ultra will carry on the design of its predecessor, but will come in a new color, Cotton Flower (light yellow), and Botanic Green (green in a different shade from last year).
With a 6.8-inch display, a 5,000mAh battery, 45W charging, and four cameras on the back, the Ultra will still have an S Pen built-in.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy is a higher-clocked variant of the SD 8 Gen 2, and is one of the biggest changes. Qualcomm’s 4nm chip, built on TSMC’s latest power-efficient process, is expected to be exclusively used by Samsung’s flagship phones.
The 5,000mAh battery should be able to deliver more endurance while ensuring the best possible performance.
Another big change is the 200MP ISOCELL HP2 sensor, which has been newly announced. With the 16-to-1 output resolution, 12.5MP and 50MP will have different output resolutions. It will also be equipped with 8K video recording capabilities.
With the new sensor, you can capture better night mode images and better portrait videos, among other things.
It is likely that Samsung will improve the quality of the other two cameras on the back by 3x and 10x, even down to the sensors. A 12MP ultrawide camera will still be available on the Galaxy S23 Ultra, but it will be equipped with a new imager. It will also be capable of Space Zoom 100X and Moon Shot.
We also know that there will be a new selfie camera, but it won’t be as high resolution as the 40MP sensor on the Galaxy S22 Ultra.
Speculative rumors suggest Samsung will bring emergency satellite connectivity to the Galaxy S23 series, but it seems unlikely at this point.
The other two phones will be even more incremental in their changes over their predecessors. The Galaxy S23 and S23+ will retain their 6.1-inch and 6.6-inch resolutions but will get a 200mAh boost to their battery capacities at 3,900mAh and 4,700mAh each.
The plus model will have faster 45W charging, compared to just 25W on the vanilla S23.
The S23 and S23+ will also get access to the faster Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy chipset. The rear panel will once again be glass (likely Corning of some sort) and the pair will come in a new Mystic Lilac color option.
Samsung is expected to start taking orders for the Galaxy S23, S23+, and S23 Ultra from February 1. If you live in the States, then the prices will be unchanged from last year. The Galaxy S23 Ultra will start at $1,200, the S23+ at $1,000, and the S23 at $800. European buyers will have to accept a price
hike, however. The Galaxy S23 will start at €100 more than its predecessor, while the S23+ will be €150 more – that’s for the corresponding base configurations.
The base Galaxy S23 Ultra will be €150 more expensive than the base Galaxy S22 Ultra, but there are differences in the configurations – the new phone’s base model is 8/256GB, while the old one started at 8/128GB.
