Samsung will unveil the Galaxy S23 series on February 1st
Samsung will officially announce the Galaxy S23 series on Wednesday, February 1st, 2023, in an epic Galaxy Unpacked event, according to prolific leaker @UniverseIce.
The event will finally lift the cover off the most anticipated Android flagship phone of 2023: the Galaxy S23 Ultra, and also the two more affordable versions, the Galaxy S23 Plus and the compact Galaxy S23.
In the past, Samsung has taken around two weeks from the announcement event to the actual in-store release of the phones, so if the Feb 1st date for the announcement holds, that would mean the Galaxy S23 release date will be on either the 10th of February or the 17th of February. Those specific dates fall on a Friday which is when most companies typically schedule their flagship phone releases.
Do keep in mind, though, that while this information comes from one of the most knowledgeable Samsung leakers, it is by no means official, and considering that there is still a couple of months until that date, Samsung could certainly tweak the date.
With that in mind, here is a quick look back at the...
History of Samsung Galaxy S series release dates
| Model | Announcement date | Release date |
|---|---|---|
| Galaxy S23 series | February 1, 2023 (as per leak) | February 10, 2023 OR February 17, 2023 |
| Galaxy S22 series | February 9, 2022 | February 25, 2022 |
| Galaxy S21 series | January 14, 2021 | January 29, 2021 |
| Galaxy S20 series | February 11, 2020 | March 6, 2020 |
| Galaxy S10 series | February 20, 2019 | March 8, 2019 |
As you can see, there is typically a two to three week window between the announcement date and the release date in Samsung's schedule.
Galaxy S23 new features
What can we expect to see in the Galaxy S23 Ultra, S23 Plus and S23?
The biggest news about the Galaxy S23 family is that Samsung is finally making the switch to Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips and will no longer sell Exynos-powered versions of its flagships.
Previously, the company used a Snapdragon chip on Galaxies in the US, but the rest of the world got phones with a less powerful and generally less power-efficient Exynos chip. After an outcry over the practice in India, Samsung was essentially forced to switch to a Snapdragon chip in that market last year, but the UK and Europe still got Exynos-powered Galaxies. This is allegedly coming to an end, according to the leaks, but we will be looking forward to Samsung officially confirming this at Unpacked 2023.
Galaxy S23 Ultra will come with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and a new 200MP main camera
The Galaxy S23 Ultra is the most exciting phone of the new trio. It retains the familiar Galaxy S22 Ultra design, but refines it with a slightly flatter edge, so it's easier to pick the phone up from a table. It is also expected to bring a massive camera upgrade with the introduction of a new, 200MP main camera that should perform much better and capture cleaner photos and videos in low light conditions.
Expect to see a bunch of other smaller improvements too: a newer OLED screen with even better colors, improvements to the S Pen, and despite an unchanged battery size, we do expect slightly longer battery life thanks to power efficiency gains with the chip and the screen.
The other two models, the Galaxy S23 Plus and the compact Galaxy S23 will adopt the camera styling of the Ultra with separate camera rings for each of the lenses.
These two models will also feature a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, which is great news for the speed and productivity of the phones.
They will also likely come with some camera improvements, but they will NOT have a periscope zoom lens like the S23 Ultra model.
The Galaxy S23 Plus remains the better choice for those who want a larger screen and longer battery life, while the Galaxy S23 prioritizes one-hand operation and convenience, but will have the smallest battery size in the series.
Currently, rumors do not suggest a price hike, so that would mean that the Galaxy S23 Ultra base model will start at $1,200 US dollars, the Galaxy S23 Plus model will be priced from $1,000 and the smaller Galaxy S23 could start at $800.
Are you excited about this possibly earlier launch of the Galaxy S23 series? And which model in particular are you most looking forward to?
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