The Galaxy S23 will have advantages over the base model flagship competitors, though price and colors will be an issue
In the week before Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked 2023, I go through stages of smartphone launch grief. The first is denial, then anger that this year’s Galaxy S23 probably looks exactly like last year’s Galaxy S22 (Ultra, at least). Then, acceptance that Samsung didn’t improve the look of the phone, so it must have devoted more time to refining what’s inside. With that in mind, here are six reasons I think the Galaxy S23 is going to be amazing, and a couple reasons it’s going to be terrible.
The Galaxy S23 looks like the Galaxy S22 Ultra, and that is a great looking phone. I don’t see how Samsung could refine this design aesthetic any further without changing the look dramatically. There are no accidental edges, no asymmetrical borders. The phone is thoughtfully and flawlessly machined, achieving all of Samsung’s design goals.
While the Galaxy S22 looked like a bargain version of its premiere sibling, the Galaxy S23 will proudly proclaim its premium heritage. Frankly, even Samsung bargain phones like the Galaxy A13 share a look with Samsung’s most expensive devices, and rightfully so. A cheap BMW should still look like a BMW.
It usually holds true that when a phone looks like last year’s model, there are more improvements on the inside. Until the iPhone 7, Apple used to launch an ‘S’ version of its iPhone in tick-tock, bi-yearly fashion, and the iPhone 6S was a reliable evolution from the iPhone 6.
What can we expect to see improved on the inside? Besides the new components, Samsung has had time to refine and polish the interface. It has had time to calibrate the cameras and tighten up its power management. Hopefully we’ll see improvements in every area from battery life to software reliability. I’d love to see improvements to the One UI interface that make it feel more like a modern, Android 13 system.
When I heard that every Galaxy S23 would use a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, I was delighted. Last year’s phone got a mixed bag of Snapdragon and sub-par Samsung Exynos chips, some owners felt like they got an inferior model. This year, it’s Snapdragon around the world, but the news is even better.
It seems that Qualcomm has agreed to overclock the Gen 2 platform for Samsung’s new flagship, giving it a ‘made for Samsung’ sort of branding. That means that when the competition launches with the same Snapdragon, it may not perform as well as Samsung’s device. This could also put Samsung within striking distance of Apple on benchmark scores for the first time.
Besides the Qualcomm chipset, Samsung gives its base model phones a better display than the competition.
