Fixing the material
Galaxy S23 smartphones became the highlights of the event program. Samsung has not changed traditions and is showing three models for the third year in a row: this time the basic Galaxy S23, a slightly larger version – Galaxy S23 Plus and finally the ultimate flagship Galaxy S23 Ultra.
SAMSUNG
The S23 and S23 Plus models have been minimally refreshed. The devices have retained the rounded corners of the case, except that the design of the platform for the cameras has changed – they are no longer combined into a single block.
There is almost nothing to say about the design of the S23 Ultra, as it remains the same (at Samsung it is called another word – “canonical”). The S23 Ultra is still a massive smartphone, with sharp corners, beveled edges of the “waterfall” screen, and a built-in S-Pen stylus.
Galaxy S23, S23 Plus and S23 Ultra received AMOLED displays with diagonals of 6.1, 6.6 and 6.8 inches, respectively. All matrices support refresh rates up to 120 Hz, as well as Vision Boost technology, which increases the peak brightness of the backlight to 1750 nits for better image readability in daylight.
The S23 and S23 Plus received the same set of cameras: a 50 MP main module, a 12-megapixel module with an ultra-wide-angle lens and a 10-megapixel telephoto camera for portrait shots and 3x optical zoom. The S22 and S22 Plus had a similar set last year.
The S23 Ultra received a new 200MP main module, two 10MP telephoto modules with 3x and 10x zoom, and a 12MP ultra-wide-angle camera.
Like last year’s smartphones, the S23 and S23 Plus received versions with 128, 256 and 512 GB of internal memory. The S23 is available in 256GB, 512GB and 1TB storage options. Samsung has decided to leave the top model without a 128GB version in 2023. The S23 and S23 Plus only have 8GB of RAM, while the Ultra has 8 or 12GB of RAM.
Battery capacities range from 3900 mAh in the S23 to 4500 and 5000 mAh in the Plus and Ultra respectively. The Plus and Ultra versions support fast charging up to 45W, while the base model supports up to 25W.
Modest innovation
The main difference between the Galaxy S23 series and the Galaxy S22 series was the processor. If last year Samsung introduced options for smartphones with Qualcomm and Exynos processors, this year it has decided to abandon only models with Qualcomm chips. They are the latest 8-core Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.
This is expected to have a positive effect on the stability of smartphones under high load. Exynos processors have been criticized in the past for causing clock speed drops due to overheating. This issue was particularly severe with the Exynos 2200 chip used in the Galaxy S22 series.
Another “killing feature” of the new series was the 200 megapixel camera Galaxy S23 Ultra. This is the first time Samsung has used such a high-resolution sensor in a smartphone.
Photos taken with Samsung’s top smartphone now come out sharper and more detailed. Night shooting has also gone a step further, with the use of larger pixels that capture more light.
A strong emphasis was placed on the video capabilities of the 200 megapixel camera. With his help, all the commercials and stand-ups of Galaxy Unpacked were shot. The camera supports 4K 60FPS video recording.
Also, as expected, Samsung focused on zooming the S23 Ultra during the presentation. Thanks to neural networks, the smartphone seems to have learned to take flawless quality photos even at 30x magnification. Maximum zoom (x100) is still a great option. It’s still hard not to be impressed with how close the smartphone is to objects on the horizon that are barely visible to the naked eye. However, the quality of the images at this magnification still leaves much to be desired.
Stack and Conquer
Usually, along with the new S series smartphones, Samsung introduces new tablets. This year, however, the South Korean IT giant has decided to announce ultrabooks from the Galaxy Book 3 series instead. It includes five models at once: Galaxy Book 3 Ultra, Book 3 Pro 360, Book 3 360 and Book 3 Pro and Book 3
The flagship of the line was the Ultra model. The device weighs just over 1.5kg and is 1.6cm thick (less than the MacBook Pro 16). The novelty includes a 16-inch OLED display with a resolution of 2880 x 1800 pixels and a refresh rate of 120 Hz, a powerful Intel Core i7 or i9 processor from the H series, a solid Nvidia RTX 4050 or 4070 graphics card, 32 GB of RAM and up to 1 TB of persistent memory. .
Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360, Galaxy Book 3 Ultra, Galaxy Book 3 Pro 14-inch and Galaxy Book 3 Pro 16
Jeff Chiu/AP
The Book 3 Pro 360 and Book 3 360 have the same OLED display as the Galaxy Book 3 Pro, but with a tablet-like hinge and 16-inch and 13-inch diagonals, respectively. Models run on Intel i5-1340P or Intel i7-1360P processor depending on configuration. Integrated graphics chip Intel Iris XE is responsible for the graphics. You can choose up to 16GB of RAM, up to 512TB of nonvolatile memory.
The Book 3 and Book 3 Pro models also received similar features. They differ from Book 3 360 and Book 3 360 Pro in that they are slightly smaller in size and cannot be converted into tablets.
Previously, Samsung showed off the laptops at the Mobile World Congress. It seems that the lack of new products has forced the company to push things around this time. The fact that the company has not yet introduced new headphones from the Galaxy Buds series also shows this situation.
Release dates and prices
Galaxy S23, S23 Plus and S23 Ultra will go on sale on February 17 for $799 (55.5k rubles), $999 (69.5k rubles), $1199 (83.4k rubles). Pre-orders are already open for devices in the US and Europe.
The laptops will go on sale on February 17. Samsung from $ 1000 (69.9 thousand rubles) for Galaxy Book 3, for Book 3 Pro – from $ 1450 (101 thousand rubles), for Book 3 360 – from $ 1300 (91 thousand rubles), Book 3 For Pro 360 – from $ 1900 ( 133 thousand rubles), for Book 3 Ultra – from $ 2400 (168 thousand rubles).
Source: Gazeta
Jackson Ruhl is a tech and sci-fi expert, who writes for “Social Bites”. He brings his readers the latest news and developments from the world of technology and science fiction.