The Galaxy S23 and S23+ are finally unveiled as the latest additions to Samsung’s flagship S series. As usual, there are only minor design changes and incremental upgrades. This raises the question of whether it truly represents an improvement over the S22 series.

We now have new camera setups and chipsets for each 2023 phone at least. Let’s have a look.

The Galaxy S23 has a 6.1″ screen, while the Galaxy S23+ has a 6.6″ screen. Both models have a selfie camera with a centred punch hole and a fingerprint reader beneath the display.

This year, new features such as Vision Booster, which adjusts colours and contrasts to match the ambient lighting, have been added. In the evening, Enhanced Comfort does the same thing to reduce eye strain, which means it’s just a fancy blue-light filter. Samsung appears to be taking a page from Apple’s playbook with its latest “features.”

Internals and Software

The only significant change for this generation is that all S23 phones will use a customised Qualcomm chipset called the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy, much to the relief of European and Pakistani customers who have been stuck with Exynos chips for years.

This chipset has faster clock speeds than other Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipsets on the market. The phones have different storage options, but the RAM remains at 8 GB, as it has in previous years.

In contrast to the leaks, the two phones do have a 128 GB starter variant, but it is limited to UFS 3.1, whereas higher-end models (256 GB/512 GB) offer faster storage speeds with UFS 4.0.

Samsung is promising 4 years of OS updates and 5 years of security patches yet again.

Cameras

The cameras are the same as last year, with only minor changes. One example is the Camera RAW app’s improved ability to capture photos in 50MP (up from 12MP on the S22 series), which is useful if you’re one of the few people who edit your smartphone’s photos in Photoshop later.

The main camera retains a 50MP sensor and, with the new chipset, can now shoot 8K video at 30fps, a significant improvement over the previous model’s 24fps. The 12MP ultra-wide camera with a 120° field of view and the 3x 10MP telephoto camera remain unchanged.

The new lower-resolution 12MP front camera, which is shared by all three models, is a notable change. Super HDR at 60fps has been added to the camera’s video capabilities.

The resolution is a step down from the S22 series, with the new chipset only benefiting from improved AI processing for better skin tone accuracy.

Battery and Pricing

The batteries in the S23 and S23+ are 200 mAh larger than in previous models, resulting in capacities of 3,900 mAh and 4,700 mAh, respectively. The S23 and S23+ both support 25W wired charging (50% charge in 30 minutes) and 45W wired charging (65% charge in 30 minutes). Both devices continue to support wireless charging and reverse wireless charging.

These phones are not yet available in Pakistan, but they will be soon. More pricing information will be available soon, but for now, here are the starting prices: The S23 (8/128 GB) costs $800, while the S23+ (8/256 GB) costs $1,000.

Both models will be available in the following colours: Cream, Green, Lavender, and Phantom Black.

Specifications