Samsung is preparing to launch the Galaxy S23 soon, with an event already set for February 1. Preparing for launch means there will be plenty of opportunities for leaks, and official S23 images have arrived at WinFuture.
The images correspond to renders shared by OnLeaks several months ago. The Galaxy S line is borrowing camera design cues from the Ultra model this year, opting for individual camera lenses rather than a large corner camera block. We can also see the sides, which are still nicely rounded and should be more comfortable to hold than flat-sided devices. The images on WinFuture are of the base model S23, but the S23 Plus should look identical. According to WinFuture, the colours available are “‘Phantom Black’ (black), ‘Botanic Green’ (green), ‘Mystic Lilac’ (pink/purple), and ‘Cotton Flower’ (white).”
The S23 Ultra is expected to resemble the S22 Ultra. That is, instead of the rounded-corner design of the base model, it is an aggressively rectangular slab of glass with flat edges on the top and bottom. The flat edges and hard corners allow for more space to store an S-Pen, which is a significant upgrade over the standard model.
As is customary, the S23 line will include spec upgrades. The phone will be available in the United States with the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC. Exynos is frequently shipped to some regions around the world, but the phone division has had a rocky relationship with Samsung’s chip division due to the poor performance of Samsung’s in-house system-on-chip line. The Exynos 2200 was used in the S22 in the UK and Europe. This year, that will change, and the information comes from a reliable source: Qualcomm’s chief financial officer.
Qualcomm announced on its most recent earnings call that it had “entered into a new multiyear agreement with Samsung, expanding the use of Snapdragon platforms for future premium Samsung Galaxy products globally.” According to Qualcomm CFO Akash Palkhiwala, the agreement increased “our share from 75% in [Galaxy] S22 to global share in G S23.” What “global share” exactly means is open to interpretation, but there’s a good chance it means a 100 percent share of S23 devices, which means flagship Exynos smartphones are dead.
Qualcomm may give Samsung preferential treatment for going all-in on Snapdragon. Samsung was not listed among the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 launch partners, which could be due to the fact that it will receive a special, faster-clocked edition of the chip.
Megapixels don’t matter when it comes to camera quality, but don’t tell that to the S23 Ultra, which is expected to ship this year with a 200 MP main camera. The default mode will almost certainly include “pixel binning,” or the merging of multiple blocks of pixels, so the output will almost certainly not be a 200 MP image. There are a couple of 200 MP sensor models floating around, so it’s unclear which one it will be.
Another rumour suggests that the minimum base storage will be increased to 256GB, which would be fantastic. Return on February 1st.
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