This is the Samsung Galaxy S23 line: a high-end trio with a new design and better cameras

Samsung has just launched its new S23 family of mobile phones. The series consists of three models and focuses on the Ultra variant as the brand’s new flagship.

With an improved camera and a proven design, the Galaxy S23 Ultra mounts a new homemade image sensor with a resolution of 200 megapixels. This is practically double the 108 pixels of the predecessor S22 Ultra.

By grouping 16 of the pixels into one big one, the magnification is meant to improve image quality in low light. Other vendors also combine pixels to capture more light, but none have yet reached 16. The new sensor increases the resolution of an Expert RAW image goes from 12 megapixels to 50 megapixels.

In general, Samsung keeps the S23 series within the already known parameters: in addition to the Ultra with 6.8-inch screenthe manufacturer offers the most affordable models S23 and S23+. As usual, these have rounded corners – and not angular like those of the Ultra – and diagonals of 6.1 and 6.6 inch screen, respectively.

The S23 Ultra also retains the retractable stylus pen S Pen inherited from the discontinued Galaxy Note series.

There’s one major design change, though: the camera bump is also gone on the two cheaper models, and the lens rings now sit directly on the backs of the devices.

What is new is that the S23 series is now a Qualcomm Snapdragon Processor, instead of the Exynos chip system developed in-house for the previous generation. However, the Qualcomm chip has been specially adapted for Samsung with a higher clock speed than basic chips.

Samsung has largely left the memory sizes unchanged. The cheapest version, the S23, has 128 gigabytes (GB) of memory. In addition, a model with 256 GB is included. There is no longer a 128GB variant for the S23+ and Ultra. Both versions start from 256 GB of storage space.

The higher version of the Ultra, with 1 terabyte of storage, is only available directly from Samsung.

In addition to the S23 series, Samsung also introduced several notebook models, extending the name Ultra to the top variant of the new Galaxy Book3. The most affordable model of the Book 3 comes with a 15-inch screen; the Ultra version with a 16-inch screen and 32 GB of RAM.

What about the price? In Ecuador, Samsung’s online store is ready for presale, offering the 512GB Ultra model for $1,406.25. The 1T is not yet available. The S23 costs $1,003.57, in its two versions, 512 and 256 GB. The 256 and 128 GB S23 5G costs $850.