Samsung Galaxy S23: what we want to see

The Samsung Galaxy S23 is a long way off yet – don’t expect to see it until early 2023. But already we’re starting to hear the first rumors about this exciting flagship, and we’ve collected them below. We’ll be adding to this article whenever new leaks emerge too, so keep it bookmarked.

In the meantime, you’ll also find our wish list of the things we most want from the Samsung Galaxy S23 and its siblings, based on our experiences with the Samsung Galaxy S22 range.

Plus, we’ve also included information on the likely release date and price of Samsung’s 2023 flagships.

Cut to the chase

• What is it? The next mainstream flagship phone from Samsung
• When is it out? Probably early 2023
• How much will it cost? Likely upwards of $799 / £769 / AU$1,249

Samsung Galaxy S23 release date and price

The Samsung Galaxy S23 will probably be announced in February 2023. We say ‘probably’ not because any leaks point in that direction, but because with the exception of the Samsung Galaxy S21 (which was announced in January 2021), new models in the range have consistently been unveiled in February for years now.

Getting even more specific, based on past form the Galaxy S23 might land in mid to late February, but we’re less sure of that. Given that there have been exceptions to the February launch we can’t even be certain it will land in that month, but within the first few months of 2023 seems very likely anyway.

As for the price, it might be similar to the Samsung Galaxy S22, which starts at $799 / £769 / AU$1,249. That’s the same launch price as we saw for the Galaxy S21 as well, so Samsung might opt for this three years in a row, though the price could also rise slightly.

Of course, that’s just for the standard model. The Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus starts at $999.99 / £949 / AU$1,549 and the Galaxy S22 Ultra starts at $1,199.99 / £1,149 / AU$1,849, so we might also see similar prices for the successors to those phones.

News and leaks

While there aren’t many Samsung Galaxy S23 leaks yet, we’re already hearing a few things, including that the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra might have a 200MP camera. There’s a fair chance this is true, as the claim comes from a leaker with a good track record, and Samsung has already unveiled a 200MP camera.

That said, it’s a very early leak (with the claim being made before even the Galaxy S22 had launched) so we’d take it with a pinch of salt.

The same source has also suggested that the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra might have a screen that curves at all four sides, rather than just two sides, but they don’t sound at all sure of this.

Beyond the leaks, we can predict that Samsung will initially launch three models in the range – the Samsung Galaxy S23, the Galaxy S23 Plus and the Galaxy S23 Ultra, with the last of those likely following in the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra’s footsteps by having an S Pen stylus and a slot to house it.

It’s also likely that the range will use the top Snapdragon chipset (presumably the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2) in the US, and the top Exynos one (likely to be called the Exynos 2300) in Europe, with the rest of the world also getting one or other of those.

What we want to see

While we wait for more Samsung Galaxy S23 news and rumors, here are some things that we really want to see from it.

1. Bigger batteries

The Samsung Galaxy S22 is lumbered with just a 3,700mAh battery, which even given its relatively compact 6.1-inch screen isn’t particularly large. The Galaxy S22 Plus and S22 Ultra fare better at 4,500mAh and 5,000mAh respectively, but even those sizes are unremarkable.

So for the Samsung Galaxy S23 range we want to see every model have a bigger battery, but especially the standard handset. Battery life is one thing that isn’t really improving as phones get better, but we’d really like it to.

2. Snapdragon for all

Samsung provides different chipsets in its Galaxy S flagships for different parts of the world and that’s not ideal, as the chipsets are never equal and that can have impacts not just on pure power but also on battery life and camera capabilities. The upshot being that the same phone can be quite different depending on what country you buy it in.

Aside from that being confusing – and meaning that reviews may not reflect the device you’ll be getting – it’s also the case that inevitably one chipset is worse, and it’s usually Samsung’s Exynos ones that perform more poorly.

So for the Samsung Galaxy S23 range we want Samsung to abandon Exynos and just stick the next Snapdragon in them all. This almost certainly won’t happen, but it would make for a globally consistent experience on its phones.

3. More changes to the standard and Plus models

The Samsung Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus are in most ways very similar phones to their predecessors. They have new chipsets and some camera changes, but the design and some of the other specs are similar.

So for the Samsung Galaxy S23 range we want more radical changes – more like what we saw the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra go through. That could mean a new design or new features, but in short, we want them to feel new.

4. Slicker software

We noted in our Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus review that the phone’s software doesn’t feel quite as fast as some rival interfaces such as those from OnePlus or Xiaomi, and certainly not as fast as stock Android.

While Samsung’s One UI is hardly slow, it can feel ever so slightly sluggish at times, which is the last thing you want with a premium phone. So we’d like the company to work on improving this for the version of its software that the Galaxy S23 range runs.

5. New cameras for the Ultra

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra undeniably has great cameras, but they’re also almost identical to the cameras on the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, so we really want to see some significant changes for the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra.

Early S22 Ultra rumors talked about continuous optical zoom – allowing the phone to optically zoom at any level between 1x and 10x. We didn’t get that in the end, with the phone sticking with 3x and 10x options, but that could certainly help mix things up, as could the rumored 200MP sensor. So this is one wish that we might well get.

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