It's been almost six months since the Samsung Galaxy S22 launched, so it's probably coming up to the halfway mark of its reign at the top of the Samsung ecosystem. So, can we expect a worthy taker of the Samsung throne, or will the Samsung Galaxy S23 be something that should've stayed in Samsung's drafts? The Samsung Galaxy S22 brought about an abundance of welcomed alterations from its Galaxy S21 predecessor, including a brand new 4nm Qualcomm processor, Android 12 OS and a refined armour aluminium frame with tougher drop and scratch resistance. So, while it is still early for any talk about the Samsung Galaxy S23, it's safe to say that it will have some pretty big shoes to fill when it arrives.
Now, we've all heard of the space race, but the mobile industry is currently undergoing a 200MP race. There is yet to be a smartphone with a 200MP sensor on its camera (which would be the world's highest resolution camera). Many smartphone manufacturers, such as Motorola and Samsung, have confirmed that they have 200MP sensors in their manufacturing pipeline. The question now is, who is going to release theirs first? To put into perspective just how impressive 200MP is, Samsung showcased this by using a picture of a cat captured by their new sensor and printed it on an enormous 28 by 22-metre canvas. This allowed Samsung to truly illustrate the ultimate benefit of the 200MP sensor, the ability to capture an image that can be zoomed in and cropped without compromising on any image quality. In tandem with photography, a 200MP sensor will also offer future-proofing for mainstreaming 8K video, as it's the optimal quality to support such resolution.
It's unclear what other upgrades Samsung may deliver in its Galaxy S23 camera. However, with our reasonably good track record of forecasting handset developments, we'd predict we'll see either the same 32MP front camera sensor from the Samsung Galaxy S21FE or the 40MP sensor from the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. And while the latter may be a little too ambiguous, we won't rule it out just yet. In terms of video, we expect the Samsung Galaxy S23 and S23 Ultra to both come with 8K recording to use the rumoured 200MP sensor fully. Like the OnePlus 10 Pro, it's possible the Samsung Galaxy S23 could, in fact, support 120FPS video in 4K, which would be the first from a Galaxy smartphone. To further this, we could also see higher frame rate recording at 1080p to give us some truly impressive slow-motion footage, potentially 540fps or even 960fps.
One main focal point around the Samsung Galaxy S23 is that Samsung is stopping production of its renowned Exynos chips and opting to stick with Qualcomm Snapdragon from now onwards. A lot of explanations behind this potential decision are all pointing toward Exynos being too slow to meet the expectations Samsung has for their big tech. What's more likely for the Samsung Galaxy S23 is for it to feature the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor. This chip is miles faster than any Exynos chip Samsung has manufactured, which would, in turn, allow Samsung to implement all the relevant features that can make the Samsung Galaxy S23 successful without any lag or bottlenecking.
While we can expect many aspects to remain the same: Gorilla Glass Victus Plus, IP68 resistance, and a very similar 6-inch body with an AMOLED 120Hz display, some areas around the new device are still cloudy; one, in particular, is the battery-tech. Now, Samsung doesn't exactly have a track record of being consistent or uniform with their battery designs; take the Samsung Galaxy S21 and S22, for example. The Samsung Galaxy S21 featured a 4000mAh battery, which was pretty respectable for a smartphone released in early 2021. However, somehow Samsung managed to go backwards with the Samsung Galaxy S22, giving it a 3700mAh battery, which was, in fact, a downgrade from its predecessor. This clearly reflected their endurance ratings, as GSM Arena gave the S22 85 hours compared to the S21's 93 hours. So at the very minimum, from the Samsung Galaxy S23, we will expect a 4500mAh battery. However, if Samsung wants to impress, they'll need to pull a 5000mAh base model out of the bag.
One aspect where Samsung seems to lag behind the competition is its fast charging. The Samsung Galaxy S22 featured 25W fast-charging, while its older brother saw a slightly faster 45W fast charging support, which takes these devices from 0-50% in a respectable 25 minutes. Many Samsung fans were disappointed by the lack of effect the 45W fast charging had over the standard 25W fast charger, which led many to ask when Samsung would give us sub-20 minute 0-50% charging times. On the other hand, the OnePlus ecosystem has seen years of ultra-fast charging, with the OnePlus 10 Pro charging from 0-58% in a mere 15 minutes. This area alone is where Samsung has the potential to create a true industry-leading flagship device if they do it right.
In recent years, Samsung has always released their S series devices in the first two months of the year, and we expect no different with the Samsung Galaxy S23. Its more than likely, that the Samsung Galaxy S23 will release during or after the MWC Barcelona in Q1 of 2023, which would allow Samsung to showcase all their exciting news at the conference before delivering it to the masses.
