Galaxy S23 and S23 Plus First Look: Greater Battery and Extra Energy

With the Galaxy S23 and S23 Plus, Samsung is prioritizing sensible enhancements that might make doing all of your every day duties extra handy, moderately than making sweeping adjustments. The 2 new telephones made their debut final week alongside the Galaxy S23 Extremely and a brand new Galaxy E book at Samsung’s Unpacked occasion in San Francisco. The Galaxy S23 and S23 Plus carry a slew of upgrades, together with bigger batteries, higher selfie cameras and a barely up to date design, whereas the Plus mannequin additionally has twice as a lot storage. 

The Galaxy S23 begins at $800 (£849, AU$1,349), whereas the bigger Plus begins at $1,000 (£1,049, AU$1,649). Each units launch on Feb. 17, with preorders starting as we speak. These costs are just like what Apple fees for the iPhone 14 lineup, which begins at $799 for the common model and $999 for the Professional. The launch additionally comes as Google has been undercutting Samsung on value with its latest Pixel telephones, which begin at $599 for the Pixel 7 and $899 for the Pixel 7 Professional. 

The brand new pair of telephones embody incremental updates in comparison with the Galaxy S22 lineup. However these upgrading from the Galaxy S21 or earlier will possible have quite a bit to realize from the S23’s enhancements. It is one other signal that phone-makers are focusing extra on normal, pragmatic updates for his or her entry-level premium telephones moderately than introducing radical adjustments. Apple took an analogous method with 2021’s iPhone 13, which featured longer battery life and extra storage on the base stage. 

Each new telephones have a battery that is 200 mAh bigger than those in final 12 months’s units, which quantities to a 3,900-mAh capability for the S23 and a 4,700-mAh capability for the S23 Plus. I hope this transformation makes for a big enchancment in battery life, since final 12 months’s Galaxy S22 generally struggles to get via a day. 

Although it is a small replace, it is one which I believe folks will admire — so long as the change in battery life is definitely noticeable. A 2018 survey from YouGov America discovered that 41% of respondents selected battery life as the highest function they needed in a brand new cellphone. Charging speeds stay the identical, with the Galaxy S23 supporting 25-watt wired charging and the S23 Plus able to as much as 45-watt speeds. 

The Galaxy S23 and S23 Plus can be found in the identical sizes as final 12 months: 6.1 inches for the S23 and 6.6 inches for the S23 Plus. The bottom mannequin of the Galaxy S23 Plus has extra storage, now starting at 256GB as an alternative of S22 Plus’ 128GB beginning capability. The common S23 nonetheless begins at 128GB of storage. 

Once I reviewed the Galaxy S22 Plus final 12 months, I wrote that it was my favourite cellphone within the trio as a result of it strikes an excellent stability of offering a big display and longer battery life with out feeling overwhelming. It is good to see Samsung give the Plus mannequin extra consideration by additional distinguishing it from the common model. 

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Samsung’s Galaxy S23 Lineup Is Here With Big Camera Upgrades

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The phones generally look similar to last year’s devices, until you flip them over and notice that the camera bump is gone. Instead, Samsung has implemented the same floating camera lens design as the Ultra model, which creates a little more consistency throughout the line. All three phones come in the same four colors: black, cream, green and lavender. 

The Galaxy S23 and S23 Plus’ camera hardware is largely the same as last year’s phones. There’s a 50-megapixel main camera, 12-megapixel ultrawide and 10-megapixel telephoto. Samsung says it’s made some under-the-hood improvements that should increase dynamic range and other capabilities like glare reduction. The new phones get a new 12-megapixel selfie camera that should be better at identifying objects in frame and optimizing the image accordingly. 

That upgraded selfie camera is thanks in part to the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip found inside the S23 lineup, which is responsible for some of the S23’s photo-processing enhancements. All three S23 series phones run on a customized version of the processor that Samsung said has been optimized for faster performance. It’s a unique version of the chip that is distinct from the one we’ll see in rivals like the OnePlus 11 5G.

The launch comes as smartphone upgrades have begun to feel less monumental than in years past. The Galaxy S23’s upgrades in total feel like practical changes rather than groundbreaking ones. That continues a theme we saw throughout 2022, as companies such as Apple, Google and Samsung prioritized factors like privacy, safety and longevity in their new products. The S23 Ultra, on the other hand, is getting a more substantial upgrade to a new 200-megapixel camera, although we’ll have to try it before we know how much of a difference it makes.

Overall, the Galaxy S23 and S23 Plus seem like small but important steps forward for Samsung’s smartphone lineup. These phones are likely best suited for Android fans upgrading from a phone that’s at least two years old, but we’ll know more once we’ve had the chance to review them.