Samsung Galaxy Unpacked: A look at the S23 and Galaxy Book3 lines

Samsung’s next Galaxy mainline S series phone will be the S23 series, the company announced on Wednesday, Feb. 1. Coming Feb. 17, 2023, the baseline Galaxy S23 will retail starting at for $799.99 in 128GB and 256GB variants. It also announced the upcoming Book3 PC and detailed progress on company-wide sustainability efforts.

Here are all of the details from the announcement:

The main event: Galaxy S23

The Galaxy S23 series is composed of three models: Galaxy S23, Galaxy S23+ ($999.99 with 256 GB and 512 GB storage options) and Galaxy S23 Ultra ($1,199.99 with storage capacity options of 256GB, 512GB and 1TB).

The Galaxy S23 Ultra features a 6.8” Dynamic AMOLED 2X display and enhanced camera features. The major consumer-facing change is to the rear cameras, which have been enhanced for night and space photography as well as high-quality daylight images and video.

In total there are five cameras, one 12 MP Ultra-Wide lens, one 200 MP Wide lens, two 10 MP Telephoto cameras and a 12 MP front camera. S23 Ultra’s pro-grade camera adds to last year’s development of “Nightography” capabilities. Its four distinctive rear cameras filter light into a 200MP Adaptive Pixel sensor, which combines multiple levels of high-resolution processing.

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An optical image stabilizer for motion offsetting helps smooth out dark images capturing movement. At the same time an image-processing algorithm with artificial intelligence reduces noise.

The entire series also features Samsung’s first Super HDR selfie camera, shifting the front-facing camera from 30 frames per second to 60fps. They’ve added an AI-powered image signal processing algorithm to the camera to improve detail in both the background and foreground of images, separating and enhancing the details of separate objects.

The proprietary Expert RAW app can now be accessed within Samsung’s native Camera app. Users can record 8K video at 30fps, and the 360 Audio Recording feature on the Galaxy Buds2 Pro enhances the experience if used together.

Visually, the cameras no longer sit inside a contour housing, making the whole device look seamless on the back despite the large cluster of lenses.

Samsung also boosted the wired charging on the S23 Ultra to a 45W that will reach up to 65% charge in around 30 minutes.

Galaxy S23 hardware details

The chip inside is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which has about a 34% increase in CPU processing speed. An optimized GPU boosts the phone’s gaming with ray tracing and a peak brightness of 1,750 nits for improved image quality outside in full light.

Overall, Samsung says the optimized GPU is 41% faster than the Galaxy 22 series and is designed for power users who may be streaming video and downloading apps at the same time, if not gaming. Qualcomm’s chip for Galaxy also provides the 5G modern RF system.

Also inside the box, cooling has improved for the series with a larger vapor chamber to distribute heat.

The Galaxy S23 Ultra also includes the S Pen stylus, which can write directly into various apps, including Google Search.

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is available for preorder now.

New laptop line: Galaxy Book3 Ultra

While last year Samsung expanded the premiere size Ultra line to its Galaxy Tablets, this year it brings the first PC in the line. The Galaxy Book3 Ultra, Book3 Pro 360 and Book3 Pro will be available Feb. 17, starting at $1,449.99 for the Galaxy Book3 Pro in 14” and 16” sizes.

The convertible 16” Galaxy Book3 Pro 360 will sell for $1,899.99 and comes with an S Pen stylus, while the 16” (but bigger on the inside) Ultra retails at $2,399.99.

“Today, we’re seeing an increasing number of people using multiple devices to perform efficiently,” said TM Roh, president and head of Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics. “These new workflows are made possible thanks to our open and extensive Galaxy ecosystem.”

The Galaxy Book3 Ultra runs on a 13th Gen Intel Core i9 processor and NVIDIA RTX Geforce 4070 laptop GPU. The Galaxy Book3 Ultra and Pro series feature Samsung’s Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display, previously available only on premium smartphones, for a 3K (2880×1800) resolution and 120Hz refresh rate.

For those with multiple devices from the same family, Samsung Multi Control lets users copy, paste, and drag and drop between different devices or use a Galaxy Tab as a second screen in one click.

How is Samsung working toward sustainability?

While sustainability can sometimes feel like one step forward and two steps back with the waves of regulation and investment, more and more organizations are emphasizing environmentally friendly practices and making an effort to reduce waste and carbon emissions and prepare for a future with less consumption but equal and greater productivity. Samsung emphasized its sustainability efforts as part of the announcement of the new product lines.

For example, the Samsung S23 series is UL ECOLOGO certified, a voluntary ecological certification which takes into account the full life cycle of a product, including materials, energy, manufacturing and more.

As a corporation, Samsung has a goal of reaching net zero across the Device eXperience division by 2030 goal, which includes the Galaxy S23 and Book3 series. Materials in packaging and the phones themselves include recycled materials in 12 components of the phone, double that of the S22, with recycled materials on external features for the first time. The S23 is the first to use Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2, which is 22% pre-consumer recycled content.

Packaging for the new phones is 100% recycled and certified sustainably sourced, as part of the company’s effort to use less plastic packaging. Four generations of OS upgrades and five years of security updates encourage consumers to hold on to older phones longer, further reducing consumption. The Book3 series uses plastic from discarded fishing nets and water barrels in the manufacturing of the external case.

It’s all part of a larger effort to achieve net zero direct and indirect carbon emissions by 2050 across all of Samsung Electronics.

Samsung also recently announced their new mid-range line, the A14. Last year, their big news included new iterations of the flip phone and Galaxy Watch and rugged smart devices.