Samsung has unveiled the Galaxy S23 family as planned, and there aren’t many surprises. The lineup consists of three phones: the S23, S23+, and S23 Ultra. All three phones will be available unlocked, as well as via your favorite US carrier, and you can pre-order them today. As for which one you should get, well, that depends on how big your hands are.
Internally, these phones are all almost identical. They have the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip and are among the first to ship with Qualcomm’s latest. This isn’t just any Snapdragon, though. Samsung and Qualcomm are keen to point out that it’s the fastest Snapdragon ever — even faster than other SD8 Gen 2 phones. The companies worked together to equip the S23s with an overclocked chip with a maximum clock speed of 3.36GHz on the prime core rather than 3.2GHz. That extra 160MHz won’t change your life, but hey, it’s faster. The GPU, which supports ray tracing and Vulkan 1.3, is also sped up in Samsung’s phone, but Qualcomm didn’t reveal many details about that.
We’re long past the time when smartphones offered major improvements generation after generation, but Samsung still has still addressed a handful of S22 shortcomings. For example, the S23 and S23+ have a 200mAh battery bump compared to last year’s phones (3,900 and 4,700mAh, respectively). That should help with the middling battery life last year’s phones suffered. The S23 Ultra is still 5,000mAh with 45W charging. The S23+ also gets 45W charging, but the S23 still has to make do with 25W. All three phones have 15W wireless charging.
The biggest difference this year is just the size of the phones. The S23 has a 6.1-inch 180p OLED, the plus variant steps up to 6.7 inches, and the S23 Ultra has a 6.8-inch 1440p display. Unlike last year, all the S23 devices have the same typical (1,200 nits) and peak (1,750 nits) brightness. They all support 120Hz refresh rates, too. The S23 and S23+ are flat, but the S23 Ultra has a slight curve on the left and right edges. That should make it a little easier to use the built-in S Pen stylus, which only works on the S23 Ultra. The curve also makes what is indisputably a huge phone slightly easier to hold. The 6.1-inch S23, on the other hand, is remarkably compact for 2023. This is the one to get if you’re sick of choosing between phones that are either too big or too slow.
Perhaps the most notable upgrade this time around is the 200MP camera on the S23 Ultra. It marks a substantial increase over the 120MP sensor used in Samsung’s last few ultra-premium flagships. You can shoot in full resolution if you want, but the phone defaults to binned photos that merge pixels for better overall light sensitivity. The S23 Ultra also has a 10MP 3x zoom, 10MP 10x zoom, and a 12MP ultrawide. The other S23 phones have lesser specs, including a 50MP primary, 10MP 3x zoom, and 12MP ultrawide.
The phones all ship with Android 13, and Samsung promises more updates than any other OEM — even Google. These devices will get four years of Android OS updates (through Android 17) and five years of security patches.
Samsung will happily take your money for the S23 today, but it won’t ship until Feb. 17. There are aggressive deals and trade-in value boosts if purchased from Samsung, but carriers will give you an S23 Ultra for as little as $200 (after bill credits) if you’re switching. Our friends over at PCMag have a hands-on live if you want to learn more.
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