The Galaxy S23 Ultra could disappoint some buyers if one renowned tipster's recent claims are anything to go by. Samsung is expected to launch the Galaxy S23 lineup next year as an upgrade over this year's Galaxy S22 series. Like this year, the lineup is likely to include three devices, including a vanilla S23, as well as an S23+ and an S23 Ultra. Samsung could also launch an S23 FE at some stage, but that will be a mid-range phone with no direct correlation with the flagship lineup, apart from its name.
With Samsung getting rid of its famed 'Note' series last year, the 'Ultra' model in its Galaxy S-series has been doing additional duty as the designated phablet in the company's portfolio. The S22 Ultra has already received widespread praise for how it is optimized for the S Pen stylus, and the S23 Ultra is not expected to be any different. Conventional wisdom suggests that Samsung would refine its software even further to make it even more supportive of stylus input. Despite that, reports suggest buyers looking to upgrade might be somewhat disappointed.
According to tipster Ice Universe, the design of the Galaxy S23 Ultra will remain pretty much identical to that of the Galaxy S22 Ultra. However, the new device will be between 0.1mm-0.2mm thicker than its predecessor. Many of the tech specs between the two devices would also be either similar or identical, including a 6.8-inch 3088x1440 display panel.
S23 Ultra May Not Bring Revolutionary Changes
Earlier reports also suggested that the S23 Ultra may not get the battery upgrade some may have hoped for. In a Weibo post earlier this month, Ice Universe claimed that the S23 Ultra will still sport a 5,000mAh battery like its predecessor. In addition, an earlier report by Dutch tech blog GalaxyClub claimed that the Galaxy S23 Ultra might ship with the same 10MP Sony IMX754 telephoto camera with 10x optical zoom as the S22 Ultra, meaning the upcoming device may not get an upgrade in terms of its telephoto camera this year.
However, the new flagship phablet could still ship with a 200MP primary camera instead of the 108MP unit in the S22 Ultra. Another upgrade is expected to be the processor, with earlier reports suggesting that it might be powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC. The current flagship comes with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 under the hood. What's more, reports further suggest that Samsung may not use its in-house Exynos chips in its Galaxy S23-series devices at all, meaning all Galaxy S23 Ultra units will be powered by the same Qualcomm chip, irrespective of the market.
Source: Ice Universe/Twitter