Samsung didn't bring any radical changes to its flagship phones in 2022, and it instead focused on improving them with modest upgrades. The Galaxy S22 Ultra was essentially the only one to bring significant changes as it brought the Galaxy Note back to life. We're glad Samsung was able to deliver quality products this year, but it also left the door open for a lot of improvements.

The first in line to receive an update in 2023 is the Samsung Galaxy S23 series, and these phones definitely have some big shoes to fill. What could Samsung possibly have in store for this upcoming lineup? Will it be a major departure from what we already have, or will Samsung stick to the basics to deliver a modest but appreciated upgrade over the Galaxy S22 series? Here's everything you need to know about Samsung's S series flagships for 2023.

Samsung Galaxy S23 series: Pricing & release date

Samsung has officially confirmed that its first Galaxy Unpacked event of the year will take place on February 1. This is the event in which the company is planning to unveil the next Galaxy flagships, so the new phones are just a couple of weeks away. The Unpacked event will be an in-person event that will also be streamed live for those who are not in attendance. The live stream will start at 10 AM PT on February 1, and you can watch it live on Samsung's official website.

We don't have the pricing info, but we doubt if Samsung will change the price for its flagships this year. There's not a lot of room to reduce the prices at this point without compromising on quality, and the company already lowered the price significantly back in 2021 with the Galaxy S21 series. If anything, Samsung is far more likely to increase the prices depending on the upgrades it brings to the table this year.

Until then — or until we get an official word from Samsung — the Galaxy S23 prices will be the same as the current flagships: $799, $999, and $1,199 for the Galaxy S23, Galaxy S23 Plus, and the Galaxy S23 Ultra, respectively. You can expect to see a lot of launch offers next month when these phones will officially go on sale. Samsung has already opened up reservations for its upcoming Galaxy smartphones and is offering up to $100 credits.

You can hit the link below to submit your reservation for the upcoming Samsung Galaxy smartphone and receive a credit worth up to $100.

Samsung Galaxy S23 Series

Submit your reservation for the upcoming Samsung Galaxy smartphone and receive a credit worth up to $100.

Reserve at Samsung

The new phones are also expected to go on sale next month shortly after the official announcement, so stay tuned for more info on this.

Samsung Galaxy S23 series: Leaked design and specifications

We've already seen a few leaked renders of the Galaxy S23 series, leaving almost nothing to our imagination. The Galaxy S23 Plus was the first one to leak, followed by the vanilla Galaxy S23 leak, and then eventually, the Galaxy S23 Ultra renders. Here, take a look:

3 Images

Looking at these leaked renders, it's safe to say that only the regular Galaxy S23 and the Galaxy S23 Plus bring noticeable differences compared to the existing models. The Galaxy S23 Ultra follows the same design language as the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Samsung is also expected to go all in on Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip instead of splitting its inventory to utilize its own chips in many regions. It's hard to tell whether we'll see a new Exynos chip next year, but there is more on this in our wishlist section below. Samsung is also said to pack a bigger battery inside both the Galaxy S23 and the Galaxy S23 Plus next year. Both phones are said to get a 200mAh boost, but there's no official confirmation on that yet.

It appears that the Galaxy S23 Ultra will be the one to receive meaningful upgrades this year in the camera department. While both Galaxy S23 and the Galaxy S23 Plus are expected to carry over the same wide, ultrawide, and telephoto cameras from the existing models, the Galaxy S23 Ultra is said to be getting a 200MP ISOCELL sensor. There's no official confirmation on this either, but this piece of information is coming from a reliable source with a proven track record of accurate leaks.

There's very little other leaked information right now, but we'll keep an eye on the updates to add more details to this page leading up to the big reveal next year.

Samsung Galaxy S23 series wishlist: What we want to see

There's only so much you can do to improve upon the already excellent Galaxy S22 series are some of the best phones released this year. Samsung doesn't have to change too many things to make the upcoming phones shine, but here are a few ways in which some of our XDA staff think the new phones could be better than last year.

Make them last longer, Samsung!

As I stated when I revisited the Galaxy S22 after using it as my primary phone for more than 6 months, my biggest complaint was the battery life. It struggled to last an entire day, even with moderate usage, so I didn't feel comfortable recommending it to others. Samsung reduced the size of the batteries inside both the Galaxy S22 and the Galaxy S22 Plus this year, and it's part of the reason why we're here. The battery situation isn't as drastic on the Plus model, but the vanilla Galaxy S22 really struggles to keep up.

I have been hearing murmurs of a small bump in battery size for both the vanilla model and the Galaxy S23 Plus, but I wonder if it'll be enough. Sure, the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is expected to be more power-efficient, but I also want a considerably bigger battery to help alleviate the battery pain. It's just nice to be able to rely on two things to make these phones last longer instead of putting all the eggs in one basket. - Karthik Iyer

Exynos or Snapdragon? It's harder than ever to tell

The Samsung Galaxy S23 series is expected to pack the newly-launched Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, the latest and greatest flagship Android SoC. With its improved power efficiency and bolstered GPU, it should be a noticeable step up from the models of last year, though it remains to be seen how the chip fares both in benchmarks and in real-world usage.

As for whether Samsung intends to launch an Exynos variant in some regions, it's hard to say. Last year's model had a lot of issues relating to Exynos, and with the company launching a Snapdragon variant in its home country of South Korea, where it would normally launch with Exynos, it seems that Samsung was aware of at least some of those issues.

If the company were to launch an Exynos 2300 chipset next year, we may see the advent of its 3nm GAAFET production node. However, reports suggest that its GAAFET production node is delayed due to low yield, which may also play a part in why rumors suggest that Samsung will be using a Snapdragon chip this year.

Also, at this year's Qualcomm Summit in Maui, Qualcomm announced that Samsung is now the official presenting partner of the Snapdragon Pro series. While the chipset situation is up in the air currently, it would seem quite likely that we'll see a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in more S23 models than ever before. - Adam Conway

Forget more pixels, give us a larger sensor!

Even though nothing is official, reliable rumors shared by leaker Ice Universe suggest the Galaxy S23’s top dog phone, the Ultra, will get a main camera 200MP ISOCELL sensor upgrade. While a 200MP camera – that’s 200 million pixels – sure sounds impressive, it’s also a bit of a gimmick. Having this many pixels allows Samsung to do more aggressive pixel binning and produce “lossless 2x zoom” via in-sensor crops. These are useful features, but there are clear downsides to having so many pixels, such as needing more light to fill all the pixels and more time for autofocus to work.

Ask any photographer or read any camera blog, and the consensus is clear: More megapixels do not mean a better camera. In fact, the megapixel, in this day and age, is arguably the least important factor in how good a camera is. Things like sensor size matter significantly more. This is evident by how Google and Vivo’s flagship phones have used 50MP cameras (ironically, these are also Samsung sensors) over the past two years, and they have been widely considered to be superior to the Galaxy S21/S22 Ultras’ 108MP camera.

The 200MP sensor the Galaxy S23 Ultra is rumored to use features a 1/1.3-inch sensor, which is small by 2023 standards. The iPhone 14 Pro has a larger image sensor, and the 1-inch Sony IMX989 sensor used in the Xiaomi 12S Ultra and the upcoming Vivo X90 Pro Plus are significantly larger. A larger sensor captures more light and image information, resulting in better dynamic range, more natural depth-of-field, and just more information for the smartphone’s ISP to process.

To be honest, it’s already too late for Samsung to make any changes to its S23 series, as the phones are well in the mass production stage. So we can hope the leaked information is wrong or Samsung has developed uncanny software processing tricks to overcome the difference in image sensor size. - Ben Sin

More storage options for the Galaxy S23 and the Galaxy S23 Plus

It's no surprise that Samsung showed more love for the Galaxy S22 Ultra by packing it with all the bells and whistles so it could convince users to spend more money. Paying a premium price for extras like S Pen support and the Periscope zoom lens is nice, but that shouldn't be the case for something basic like storage.

Right now, you can only buy the Galaxy S22 and the Galaxy S22 Plus with 128GB or 256GB storage. The Galaxy S22 Ultra, on the other hand, can be purchased with 1TB of storage. That should change with the Galaxy S23 models. There's no reason why one should have to opt for a bigger phone to get more storage. I am not holding my breath for this one, but I'd love to see at least 512GB of storage for the Galaxy S23 and the Galaxy S23 Plus. - Karthik Iyer

Well, that's everything we have on Samsung's upcoming flagship, but we'll update this post frequently with more leaks, rumors, and other pieces of information, so stay tuned.