Samsung Galaxy Unpacked February 2023: all the news and updates from the event

Apple’s iPhone 14 now has a new rival: the Samsung Galaxy 23. Announced during the company’s recent Unpacked event alongside a slate of new Galaxy Books, the S23 series is available for preorder starting this week with a street date of February 17th. The new phones arrive with faster performance, bigger batteries, and updated selfie cameras, with the Ultra offering an even higher resolution camera than its predecessor.

But before you throw down upwards of $799 on a preorder, you may want to know how Samsung’s forthcoming smartphones measure up to Apple’s latest and greatest handsets. While both lineups include phones with impressive specs, there are a couple of key differences to be aware of.

When Qualcomm announced its Snapdragon Satellite tech that will let Android phone makers compete with Apple’s Emergency SOS via satellite, I was almost certain we’d see the feature on Samsung’s then-upcoming S23 phones.

I mean, why wouldn’t we? Qualcomm said the feature would be available this year for phones using its Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, and Samsung is launching the first big Android flagship of 2023 with that processor — surely, it’ll build in this potentially life-saving functionality, like analysts have been predicting for months.

Samsung announced a new batch of Galaxy S flagship phones at its Unpacked event this week, all of which are set to arrive soon. As expected, the new class to choose from this year includes the Galaxy S23, Galaxy S23 Plus, and Galaxy S23 Ultra. Samsung’s trio of flagships for 2023 offer some refined designs — which look a little iPhone-like, if I’m being candid — with some camera, battery, and processor improvements over last year’s S22 generation. But which one is the right one for you?

It may be a no-brainer if you don’t want a phone that’s too big (the S23 is the smallest of the three) or if you want a stylus (the S23 Ultra is your only option for S Pen use). But if you’re in the margins and need to contemplate which phone is the right one for your specific needs, let’s take a look at how they compare on paper. You can expect our detailed reviews soon, but, in the meantime, there are plenty of things you may be able to determine right now — especially if you’re in need of an overdue upgrade and want to take advantage of some juicy preorder promotions.

It wasn’t just all about smartphones at today’s Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event. In addition to introducing the forthcoming Galaxy S23 series, Samsung took the stage to introduce a new line of laptops. The new Galaxy Book3 series starts at $1,449.99 and consists of three models: the clamshell Book3 Pro, the higher-end Galaxy Book3 Ultra, and the 2-in-1 convertible Book3 Pro 360. Both the Book3 Pro and Pro 360 will be available starting February 17th, while the Ultra will be available less than a week later, but you can preorder all three laptops starting today.

The new laptops are the successors of last year’s Galaxy Book2 line and look very similar, albeit with a few differences. Unlike their predecessor, they feature Intel’s 13th Gen Core processors. Each laptop also comes equipped with a 1800p OLED display that boasts a more spacious 16:10 aspect ratio as well as a fast 120Hz refresh rate. With the higher-end Galaxy Book3 Ultra, Samsung is also introducing a new MacBook Pro rival, one that boasts a 16-inch display and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 GPU.

Another year, another round of flagship Samsung phones. This time around, Samsung used its Unpacked event to announce a new line of Galaxy Books, in addition to the Galaxy S23, S23 Plus, and S23 Ultra. The latter probably feels familiar to last year’s S22 generation, as there are once again three models to choose from: a big-ish one, a bigger one, and the biggest one. That last one, the S23 Ultra, features souped-up specs, a stylus, and some big megapixel gains. However, each member of the S23 family is promising faster performance than last year’s model thanks to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processors.

The S23 flock starts at $799.99 and goes up to $1,199.99 (unless you opt for pricey storage upgrades), and all three models are set to arrive on February 17th. That gives you plenty of time to mull over your purchase decision, especially if you don’t feel obligated to be an early adopter. That said, Samsung is once again getting out of the gate early with some promos for those tempted to spring for a new smartphone right away.

Samsung just held its first Galaxy Unpacked event of the year, where it took the wraps off its new Galaxy S23 devices and the Galaxy Book3.

In case you weren’t able to watch the event live, you can catch up on all the biggest news from Galaxy Unpacked here.

Samsung’s S-series phones actually look like they belong together this year. The S23 and S23 Plus have adopted the floating camera design of the Ultra, making for a much more cohesive trio this time around. They’re even all available in the same colors.

Under the hood, they have all of the incremental updates we expected, including slightly bigger batteries and updated selfie cameras. Both models use a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset, but there’s a twist here: it’s the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy, with an upgraded GPU and overclocked 3.36GHz processor. Pricing for the phones hasn’t budged: the Galaxy S23 starts at $799 and the S23 Plus starts at $999. Both are available for preorder today and will ship on February 17th.