Okay, so we just attended the hands-on session of the new Galaxy S23 series – and I am going to summarize all of the new things that are packed into the Samsung Galaxy S23 series.
I’ll also split this article into two segments – because Samsung also launched 4 new laptops. However, these laptops will not be coming to many markets, so feel free to skip that section if you want to. I’m only doing it for the sake of completion.
So, let’s begin. I highly recommend you watch the video. We’re talking about the same thing between this article and the video anyway, but you don’t have to read. 😉
The Samsung Galaxy S23 series
The new Galaxy S23 comes in a total of 3 different variants – we have the base version Galaxy S23, then the bigger Galaxy S23+, and finally – the Galaxy S23 Ultra.
All 3 variants will have the exact same colors – Phantom Black, Lavender, Green, and also Cream. They all look a bit muted and personally, I like all of the colors this time – especially the cream color. It’s not white or beige – it’s ever so slightly yellow.
There will also be colors that are exclusive to Samsung.com – but they saved the surprise for the reveal instead. From what we were told, there are 2 more exclusive colors for both the S23 and S23 Plus, whereby the Ultra has 4.
Samsung also has this new logo. Yes, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy. That means all 3 variants are using Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 across all regions – so goodbye Exynos and all hail the Snapdragon monopoly. All of them are manufactured by TSMC.
The briefing also mentioned enlarged cooling systems for the phones but they did not mention for which phone in particular or all 3 phones. We only know that the cooling pad – presumably the vapor chamber – is 2.7x bigger than the previous generation.
It should have better performance overall and probably will not throttle as much, hence maintaining high performance for a longer period of time.
Also, I want to quickly highlight that all 3 variants will be getting 5 years of security patches and 4 generations of Android OS upgrades, just like before.
In terms of design, they all changed. Both the Galaxy S23 and S23+ are using the Ultra’s camera cutout whereby each camera is a protruding circle. Honestly, It looks really good and just makes the phones look more elegant – especially the small S23.
The Galaxy S23 Ultra looks pretty much the same, but it is definitely a bit more squarish compared to the S22 Ultra. You might like this more than the rounded design of the S22 Ultra – but that’s what we have now.
The S Pen is still placed at the bottom left corner of the phone – which is the same as the S22 Ultra. Some people don’t like this but I personally don’t really bother if it’s on the bottom left or right corner.
The screen is what excites me. They all got the same screen specs – and they all have the same 120Hz refresh rate and the max peak brightness of 1750 nits. I’m not sure what’s the resolution for each variant but I think it’ll follow back last year’s S22. The sizes are also the same as last year.
All of these phones are covered by the latest Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 and the S23 series are the first in the market to use this glass.
Samsung also talked about two more notable new features. The first one is a new advanced vision booster which has 3 levels to automatically adjust the color tone and contrast according to the environment’s lighting, and also enhanced comfort to make the screen more comfortable to look at in the dark.
As for the brightness – I’m really curious what’s the average maximum brightness that we can get. Remember – the Galaxy S22 series, Z Fold4, and Z Flip4 already managed to get a maximum brightness of 750 nits average. That’s the brightest display on a smartphone that we’ve tested so far. Seeing 1750 nits peak brightness – I think we can achieve like 1000 nits average.
The battery is also 200mAh larger for both the Galaxy S23 and S23+, though I’m still worried about the small S23’s 3,900mAh battery – but I think it should suffice for a day’s use if we’re thrifty with our usage. The Galaxy S23+ and S23 Ultra shouldn’t have an issue lasting for a day, though.
Charging speed remains the same as last generation as the standard S23 remains at 25W max whereby the Plus and Ultra are at 45W.
Then, the cameras. Both the base S23 and S23 Plus has the exact same cameras as the S22 counterparts – same sensor, same lens, same everything. What we do know is that the ISP and software have improved, hence resulting in much better picture quality. We have to test that when we get our hands on it.
But, for all 3 phones, they now share a new selfie camera sensor. That new 12MP selfie cam means that all these phones can take 4K 60fps selfies – which I think more people will appreciate.
Now, I want to put more focus on the Galaxy S23 Ultra because it got the biggest main camera sensor upgrade. It’s now using the 200MP sensor with 16-to-1 pixel binning resulting in a 12.5MP picture.
The OIS angle also doubled from ±1.5° to ±3° and should have a much smoother video and picture shooting experience overall – especially for those with shaky hands like me.
It also has enhanced autofocus system which I truly believe we have to test it to know how good it is – and it also has 8K 30fps video recording. Finally, we’re moving forward from 8K 24fps and I think this is the first phone to actually have 8K 30fps recording. All of them can do 8K 30fps!
A few more features Samsung mentioned are advanced night videos, astro hyperlapse, HDR selfies, and also 360° audio recording when paired with the Galaxy Buds2 Pro. This is made possible via a software update about 2 weeks ago.
Expert RAW makes a return once more – and Samsung added support to the S23 Ultra with 50MP mode. I mean, I’m interested to take beautiful 50MP RAW format pictures with this phone! There’s also another multi-exposure photography feature and it’s difficult to describe but I’ll show you an example of how it works.
Comes with One UI 5.1, mostly the same as the Z Fold4. Btw, Bixby Routines is now integrated into the settings menu as “Modes and Routines”. Absolutely love this automation feature.
There’s also a new homescreen widget whereby we can add a few widgets at the same location and swipe to change between widgets – but we got no pics or videos of it. You can also now use a video as your lock screen wallpaper too.
Then, we also have a security and privacy dashboard to see what is going on. Good Lock is also available in many more countries now – even Malaysians have it.
The S Pen also got some enhancement though I think the hardware is the same. We are now able to write on the screen and have it converted to text – works with more Google apps.
lots of accessories as usual – but we do have a new silicone grip case like the Z Fold4’s case
Other accessories will have more partnerships with other brands to make it look nice too – like the Mamee Monster strap we have on the S22 Ultra’s case.
There’s a new case with the carabiner thing that lets us hoop our fingers through to hold the phone – which I really like. It can also be rotated and become a kickstand for the phone too.
But, that’s not all – there is a rugged case for the S23 Ultra. Yes, rugged case. It adds a lot of bulk to the phone and it also has the same carabiner thing but a lot more… well, rugged. It has the same features too – hooping our finger through, rotating it 90 degrees to use it as a stand, all those stuff.
What about the prices?
Now, I don’t know about the prices for the Galaxy S23 series yet, and I’m not sure if Samsung Malaysia will bring in the 128GB version of the Galaxy S23. Going by all the clues and a leak that I’ve gathered, the prices should be increased by around RM200 for each variant.
I’m sure many people will complain saying that 8GB RAM is not enough – to that, I’ll say you need to chill. 8GB RAM is plentiful. You should watch our video where we talk about your smartphone’s RAM usage at the top right corner there. I highly recommend it. I can’t emphasize this enough – unused RAM is wasted RAM.
The new laptops
Now here comes the laptops. Samsung announced a total of 4 laptops – the Galaxy Book3 Pro 14, Galaxy Book3 Pro 16, then the Galaxy Book3 Pro 360, and the Galaxy Book3 Ultra.
The specs of these laptops are shown here – and I have to say, I have no idea what’s the wattage of the NVIDIA GPU since these laptops are super thin but they have the specs of a rather decent gaming laptop.
Cooling the components with such a thin laptop body will also pose some issues – and I really wonder how Samsung is going to do it – especially if coupled the Intel Core i9 with an RTX 4070.
I think they’re also going to be expensive – but I don’t care since it’s not going to be available in Malaysia anyway.
Where to buy? (Affiliate links)
That is all for this time – I hope this summary is short enough.
Like our Facebook Page here at NasiLemakTech.com for more news and in-depth reviews! Also, join our Facebook Group for insightful information and memes!
Subscribe to our YouTube channel too!
