The Galaxy S23 (Ultra) lineup: Looks and Sensitive Features, and Leaked Spec Sheets and More
This one’s easy, and not just because Samsung has announced a new flagship smartphone lineup like clockwork at the beginning of each year for a decade. No, it’s also easy because Samsung’s upcoming smartphones have more or less leaked in their entirety already, meaning we have a pretty good idea of their looks and specs even if we don’t yet know exactly how this will translate into real-world performance.
Like last year, the lineup looks to be three-strong. There’s the standard Galaxy S23, the slightly bigger S23 Plus, and finally, the high-end Galaxy S23 Ultra. Rumors suggest the first two will share similar designs and specs, while the third will be more visually distinct with at least one significant unique feature.
As you’d expect from its name, the Book 3 Ultra will reportedly be the highest-end model. It will have a 16-inch 1800p OLED display, an Intel i9-13900H processor, an lnsr rgs 4070 graphics card, and 128 gigabyte of storage, according to leaker Ishan Agarwal. It could be light and thinner because it has its touch sensors in the panel.
We’re referring to the S23 Ultra’s main camera which has been rumored to have a high-resolution (200-MIP) main sensor. That’s almost double the 108-megapixel sensor found in last year’s Galaxy S22 Ultra. As my colleague Allison Johnson wrote last August, higher resolution sensors like these matter because they mean phones can bin more pixels together to gather more light and produce brighter, more detailed shots. The ISOCELL HP2 is expected to be the exact sensor.
Next up are screens. As its name suggests, the Galaxy S23 is the smallest of the three phones, with a 6.1-inch 1080p 120Hz OLED display. The S23 Plus is slightly bigger at 6.6 inches, though its screen specs are otherwise largely the same. Finally, the S23 Ultra has a larger screen still at 6.8 inches, and importantly, it bumps the resolution to 1440p. It is still 120 frames per second.
The leaked spec sheets show the three phones will be powered by the same processor in Europe as well as in North America. What’s interesting is that there’s no sign of Samsung’s own Exynos processors in the Galaxy S23 lineup, which the company has historically used to power its phones in select regions around the world like Europe and India. Qualcomm suggested as much in an earnings call last year when chief financial officer Akash Palkhiwala said Qualcomm’s processor share would increase from “75 percent in G S22” to “global share in G S23.”
In terms of pricing, internal Verizon documents posted to Reddit suggest we’re looking at a $799.99 starting price for the Galaxy S23, $999.99 for the Galaxy S23 Plus, and $1,199.99 for the Galaxy S23 Ultra, which is in line with last year’s models. European buyers are not likely to be so lucky. In Spain and Germany, starting prices might have gone up by 100 for certain models.
True Wireless Earbuds from Semilow: Updates on Galaxy Buds, Galaxy Watches, and Galaxy Z Series from The Elec
The new Tab S8 tablets came from the company last year. But according to a report from South Korean outlet The Elec, the company pushed back the release of its upcoming tablets (presumably the Tab S9) from their original December 2022 release date due to a drop in demand for consumer tech. According to The Elec, however, we should still expect a new generation of tablets to release this year, which means they might still launch alongside Samsung’s anticipated Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Z Flip 5 foldables at the company’s traditional summer launch. Just don’t hold your breath for an appearance in February.
This is a situation with the true wireless earbuds from smilow. The company currently has between two or three lines of earbuds, depending on whether you think it’ll ever release a follow-up to the (in my opinion excellent) Galaxy Buds Live. The non-Pro Buds 2 was released in August 2021, while the Pro lineup was updated in August last year. It looks like the latter may not get an upgrade for a few months.
Finally, there are smartwatches, which last saw an update with last August’s Galaxy Watch 5 series. Samsung’s smartwatches have been on a 12-month release cadence for the past couple of years, meaning the most likely time we’ll see a Galaxy Watch 6 announced is in August 2023.