Samsung launches Galaxy S23: camera specs, pricing and availability

Morning! At least, it is here in the UK. Around the world, the Samsung Galaxy S23 series is now just eight hours away. The exciting phones are due to be unveiled during the Unpacked event later today, which starts at 10 AM PST / 6 PM UTC.

Despite still getting not official word from Samsung that it's the Galaxy S23 launch, little signs and clues are popping up all over the world (and therefore the internet)!

Samsung Unpacked - sustainability

In the last two camera phone launches from major manufacturers (the Apple iPhone 14 series and Google Pixel 7 series) we've seen a big focus on sustainability. 

Making environmentally-friendly devices is incredibly important for today's consumers – particularly those who trade in their devices more often.

It looks like we could see Samsung covering its own sustainability mission in today's launch.

Will BTS be making an appearance this time, as they did at last year's Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4 launch? Asking for a friend...

Let's talk about chips for a moment (and not the tasty kind). If you're even a little bit into smartphone tech, you'll know that the chipset inside controls everything going on – processing speed, display, cameras. Rumor has it that even the entry-level/vanilla Galaxy S23 will have a new Snapdragon chipset set to improve smartphone photography, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. 

The chip features what Qualcomm is calling Snapdragon Sight - the first Cognitive ISP (image signal processor), which the company says “defines a new era of professional quality camera experiences.” 

With Snapdragon Sight, the new chip automatically enhances photos and videos in real time with semantic segmentation. This is done using an AI neural network that the company explains makes the camera contextually aware of faces, facial features, hair, clothes, skies, etcetera – and is then able to optimize individually, essentially giving all details customized image tuning. Pretty cool!

So we've talked a lot about Samsung phones, but today Samsung is also set to unveil a new Galaxy Book laptop (or it could be several). We know this because you can already reserve your preorders from the Samsung website!

Just an hour and a half to go, gang! 

The official tag line of this launch event is "Epic nights are coming" so we're expecting to see plenty of features for low light shooting and even astrophotography – finally, will we get a Galaxy phone that lives up to its name?

The Samsung Galaxy Unpacked February 2023: Official Livestream landing page has changed to LIVE status, and we're seeing a loop of the original trailer being played in the meantime. 

It also features a pretty funky little music clip. Reminiscent of 00's video game menus, if you ask me – enough to drive you mad after ten minutes, but here we are.

3 minutes to go, and over 95,000 people are currently watching the livestream. Let's see how big that number gets when the event starts!

Here we goooooooo!

"I can feel the energy in the room. It feels good to be back in person".

Samsung says it is pushed to build a brand you can be proud of, with technology that is great right now, that is still great years from now – with less impact on our planet.

"The Galaxy S23 has redefined what a smartphone can deliver"

Sustainability (called it)! Samsung is using:

- Recycled metals and glass
- Purposeful design
- Ocean-bound plastic

Samsung is starting with the Galaxy S23 Ultra, and pushing its "groundbreaking" camera capabilities first. Samsung says it was inspired by the original Galaxy Note.

The legendary director Ridley Scott (Alien, Gladiator) has been challenged to create a film using just the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, which is what we're seeing now. "I like to be able to go into real environments where rooms can be very small, so it's [the S23 Ultra] very useful"

The whole film, called Behold will be released soon. Boo - show us now!

Now we're hearing from Jacklyn Wyatt at Samsung, who's here to tell us about what the S23 series can offer real photographers and users, rather than world-class directors.

• Brighter videos in 4K
• Video Super HDR
• 4K 60fps on front and back camera
• 200MP main wide camera sensor
• Pixels transform thanks to adaptive pixel sensor
• Optical image stabilizer (OIS) angles in all directions

The Galaxy S23 series offers more flexibility for content creators, filmmakers or just those of us who want to take snaps on holiday!

All the latest Galaxy S23 models are powered by the very latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy. This is a specific model of Qualcomm's most powerful chip designed in collaboration with Samsung to run best on Galaxy. Samsung claims the new Galaxy series offers the best mobile gaming experience available, processing graphics faster than the S22 series.

The phones will be powered by a 5000mAh battery in the Galaxy S23 Ultra, a 4700mAh battery in the Galaxy S23+, and a 3900mAh battery in the smallest S23.

Sorry to get distracted here.... but is that actually how you pronounce GIF?!

Now we're getting on to the less sexy but incredibly important parts of the Galaxy S23 Series – battery, chipset, and design. And there's that Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 platform we talked about earlier! 

The chip is said to be 30% better than last year's S22 devices. The GPU is 41% faster, which is for more immersive and realistic gameplay.

Samsung is "bringing the power of Ultra to its PCs"

Samsung has just launched three new laptops:

• Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra
• Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro 360
• Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro

- Full glass display
- Slim display
- Multiple ports
- 13th-gen Intel core processor (i7 or i9)

Galaxy Book3 Pro and Galaxy Book3 Pro 360

Adobe Lightroom editing in Samsung Galaxy S23 Series

There can be no doubt that Samsung is aiming the S23 Ultra at advanced users, content creators and photographers. We saw on the launch film earlier that the S23 series now integrates Adobe Lightroom for "Expert RAW" photo editing.

Samsung is pushing the "ecosystem effect" wits its products, and that means that Lightroom also integrates Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra and Pro series PCs, so that photographers can synchronize photos across both Galaxy smartphones and laptops.