There's already talk of the Samsung Galaxy S23. That's despite the current-generation Samsung Galaxy S22 having only landed in February – but sure as day follows night, you can expect the South Korean firm to reveal the S23 smartphone series, likely in early 2023.
That’s still more than half a year away at the time of writing, but we’re already starting to hear rumours of what the Galaxy S23 will be like, including talk of a massive new rear camera system that could seriously up Samsung’s photography game.
What follows is everything we know so far about the Samsung Galaxy S23, as well as what we predict for the new handset, and what we really want to see from the next-gen flagship series. This article will be updated over the coming months as new rumours and fresh information come to light.
Galaxy S23 key info
It takes only a glance at Samsung’s back catalogue to predict that a family of three new S23 smartphones will arrive in 2023, likely in early February.
The handsets are expected to share their basic appearance with the current S22 lineup, but with improvements to their performance and cameras being the main changes. There could also be an increase in RAM and storage, and potentially upgrades to the handsets' biometric security systems too.
As is often the case, it is entirely possible that screen sizes will grow ever so slightly, while the overall proportions will likely be similar to today’s S22 and last year’s S21 smartphone families.
Naturally, they will run Google’s new Android 13 operating system, which is currently available in beta, with a full release coming this autumn as part of the anticipated Google Pixel 7 launch.
Galaxy S23 release date
As mentioned earlier, it's highly likely that Samsung will announce the new Galaxy S23 smartphones at one of its Unpacked launch events, probably in February 2023. This would be a year after the S22 series arrived and around five months after Apple reveals its next generation of handsets, likely to be the iPhone 14.
We’ll know for sure once Samsung sends out invitations to the early-2023 Unpacked event – and we’ll be interested to see if the company holds its first in-person product launch since the world was turned on its head, or if it’ll stick to the online-reveal format of the past two years.
Whatever happens, we can expect to see pre-orders for the S23 open shortly after the reveal, and for the handsets to go on sale towards the end of February – assuming Samsung sticks to its usual schedule.
Samsung Galaxy S23 models
We don’t know for sure how many members of the Galaxy S23 family there will be, but we can make an informed guess based on how Samsung usually treats its flagship handset.
As such, we’re expecting three variants of Galaxy S23: the S23, S23 Plus, and S23 Ultra. Then, a few months later, we’ll probably see an S23 FE (standing for Fan Edition), too, although we do wonder if the clock is ticking on the relevance of that handset now.
Samsung has occasionally also offered a ‘Mini’ version of its Galaxy S flagship, and while Apple has earned praise for its iPhone 12 mini and 13 mini in recent years, there is currently no indication of Samsung also heading down this route.
Galaxy S23 rumours so far
With its big reveal likely still months away, rumours about the Galaxy S23 are thin on the ground for now. However, one to surface recently is that of Samsung fitting its new flagship with a massive 200-megapixel sensor as part of its rear camera system.
This particular rumour was first reported by GalaxyClub via Notebookcheck.net, and later also reported by ETNews. Such a large resolution would be a big step up from the 108-megapixel capability of the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, and is considerably larger than the 12-megapixel sensor fitted to the back of the iPhone 13 Pro.
Technology leaker Ice Universe, who is often a reliable source for Samsung leaks, tweeted in late-2021 to point out how the company tends to introduce a new imaging sensor, then optimise it for a few years before fitting a new one. The 108-megapixel sensor is now in its third year, so a replacement could well be on the way. We suspect the 200-megapixel sensor will only be available on the flagship Galaxy S23 Ultra.
One other tidbit of information we have so far is that the S23 is known internally as Project Diamond. This was at first believed to be a new folding smartphone, but on 24 March supply chain analyst Ross Young said on Twitter the name now refers to the Galaxy S23. He added on Twitter that he doesn’t think the S23 will have a different design to the S22.
Galaxy S23: The features we want
While we wait for more rumours to surface, here’s a quick look at what we want to see from the new Galaxy S23 smartphone family.
We’d love to see a fresh new design from Samsung, as the last couple of generations of Galaxy S handsets have changed very little. But, given what Ross Young said about what he expects of the S23, we’re not holding our breath just yet. Instead, given the huge new camera sensor tipped for the phone, we expect Samsung will install a redesigned rear camera module and draw attention to the S23’s photography capabilities. A new range of colours would also be welcome.
As ever, improved battery life is high on our wishlist and we would happily see Samsung make the S23 handsets slightly thicker than their S22 predecessors to accommodate this. We think it was a mistake for Samsung to reduce battery capacities when replacing the S21 with the S22, and hope this is rectified with the next model. Improved cooling could also help here and, again, we wouldn’t mind if this meant a fractionally thicker handset as a result.
Something else we want is for Samsung to speed up its One UI interface. In an ideal world we’d like a Galaxy S23 with stock Android, but since that’s very unlikely to happen, we would instead like Samsung to optimise its UI, clear out the performance bottlenecks, and make the phone feel as slick and responsive as a flagship should.
