New year, new Samsung Galaxy S-series. The all-new Galaxy S23 lineup is now official, arriving as the successor to last year’s Galaxy S22 series. Samsung revamped the design of the Galaxy S23 phone with a slight change in the camera module. Gone is the contoured housing that we saw on the previous-gen model. However, the Galaxy S23 isn’t completely different from its predecessor. It retains many of the exact specifications as the vanilla S22, but some exciting news emerges as we take a closer look at the specifications of both phones.
The Galaxy S23 is an improved version of everything that made the S22 set the sales charts on fire. So if you’re considering upgrading your current S22 to the S23, read along to learn about all the worthy upgrades it brings to the table.
Samsung Galaxy S23 vs Galaxy S22 Price in India
The Samsung Galaxy S23’s starting price of Rs 74,999 isn’t cheap by any means, but it’s good that Samsung hasn’t increased the retail price significantly. In comparison, the base Galaxy S22 price starts at Rs 72,999. One thing to note, though: The Galaxy S23 8/128GB model comes with a UFS 3.1 chip instead of the newer USF 4.0 solution found on the other storage options.
design
If you have a Galaxy S22, the Galaxy S23 should feel like home to you as its design is very similar to its predecessor. There’s only a fraction of the difference in height and width in the overall footprint of both devices: the S22’s 146 x 70.6 x 7.6mm versus the S23’s 146.3 x 70.9 x 7.6mm. However, we wouldn’t recommend that you use your S22’s case on the S23 unless it fits well.
Samsung religiously puts the latest Gorilla Glass on the displays and backs of its flagship phones, and the S23 is no different. It has the latest Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the S23. Corning claims it has been tailored with an improved solution so that the device can withstand up to 1 meter on an 80-grit sandpaper-like surface and up to 2 meters on a 180-grit surface. This makes the Galaxy S23 theoretically slightly more durable than the S22. The IP rating hasn’t changed either – it’s still IP68, the same as the S22.
The display is also relatively similar to last year’s model. This means you can still expect a great viewing experience on the 6.1-inch full-HD+ Dynamic AMOLED panel with up to 120Hz adaptive refresh rate. This year, Samsung bumped up the maximum brightness to 1,750 nits peak brightness from the 1,300 nits seen on the S22, bringing the vanilla model on par with its bigger sibling.
Samsung Galaxy S23 vs Galaxy S22: Battery and charging
In our review, we highlighted that the Galaxy S22, with its 3,700mAh cell, delivered 11 hours and 31 minutes of battery backup in PCMark’s Battery 3.0 test. The Galaxy S23 packs a slightly bigger battery – 3,900mAh – so, it should last a bit longer than the Galaxy S22. Charging speeds are still limited to 25W speeds via wired charging and 15W wireless and reverse charging speeds.
camera
The Galaxy S23 doesn’t get any exciting camera upgrades like we saw on the S22. You’ll still get the nice point-and-shoot 50MP primary camera, a 12MP ultrawide lens, and two 10MP telephoto shooters that can capture up to 3X optical zoom and up to 30X digital zoom — the same as last year’s S22.
However, you can expect 8K video, as video capturing on the Galaxy S23 gets a slight upgrade: 8K video at 30fps, up from 24fps on the S22. However, once you drop the resolution, the results are the same as last year: 4K at 60fps, 1080p at 120fps, and super slo-mo at 720p at up to 960fps.
However, Samsung refreshed the front-facing camera. While it is a minor upgrade, the Galaxy S23 sports a 12MP selfie shooter as compared to the 10MP snapper found on the S22. This should result in better selfies, at least on paper.
Samsung Galaxy S23 vs Galaxy S22 performance
Samsung’s premium line of smartphones never disappoints in terms of hardware configuration, especially when it comes with the latest and greatest Qualcomm flagship SoC. The latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip is the most powerful mobile processor currently available on the market, and an optimized, overclocked version of it powers the entire Galaxy S23 series of phones. While most people won’t be able to tell the performance difference apart from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 vs Gen 1, the new one isn’t as power-hungry as the Gen 1.
Like last year, the S23 runs on the latest One UI custom skin based on the latest Android OS. With the Galaxy S23, you will get Android 13-based One UI 5.1 out of the box. While the Galaxy S22 boots Android 12 out-of-the-box, you can upgrade the software and set it on par with the S23.
Samsung provides software updates for four years on its premium smartphones, and the S22 will receive Android updates till Android 16. The Galaxy S23, on the other hand, will go ahead and receive updates all the way up to Android 17. Both the phones are future-proof in terms of updates. The S23 will only get one additional OS update compared to the S22, which is not a significant difference.
