Galaxy S23s pricier, all are Snapdragon powered

Samsung Electronics is upping the price of its phones, against an unfavorable backdrop of weak consumer sentiment and economic uncertainties, and is equipping them exclusively with Qualcomm processors.

Four Galaxy S23 Ultra phones are displayed [SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS]

Samsung Electronics is upping the price of its phones, against an unfavorable backdrop of weak consumer sentiment and economic uncertainties, and is equipping them exclusively with Qualcomm processors.

Its Galaxy S23 models, introduced on Wednesday in San Francisco, will retail at about 150,000 won ($122) more than S22 models, a jump of roughly 15 percent.

The standard Galaxy S23 will go for 1.15 million won for the lowest storage option, and the bigger Galaxy S23 Plus 1.35 million won. The high-end Galaxy S23 Ultra, which comes equipped with a stylus and advanced cameras, will be priced at 1.59 million won.

A special 1 terabyte Ultra will go for 1.96 million won and will be only sold via the online mall of Samsung Electronics.

Orders can be made from Feb. 7 in Korea, with delivery starting Feb. 17.

One of the biggest changes involves an upgrade of the application processor, the chipset that houses the central processing unit (CPU) and graphics processing unit (GPU).

A lavender-colored Galaxy S23 [SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS]

Galaxy S23s will be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, a Qualcomm processor manufactured by Taiwan's TSMC.

With the new chipset, the S23’s GPU processing speed improves 41 percent compared to its predecessor, and that of neural processing unit (NPU) is up 40 percent.

Developers have tested the processing speed of the S23 models on benchmark test sites, and the performance of the GPU was much better than that of S22 devices.

This is the first time a Galaxy S series doesn't run on the Samsung Electronics Exynos chipset. The Exynos processor has been blamed for poor computing speeds and overheating, especially compared with Apple’s iPhones. In earlier models, Exynos and Snapdragon chips were used depending on region in which the device was being sold.

To prevent overheating while gaming, the manufacturer adopted bigger vapor chambers designed to spread heat of the device.

The S23 Ultra will be the first smartphone with a 200-megapixel main camera.

The Ultra has a quad-camera setup at the rear including a 200-megapixel wide-angle main camera, a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera and two 10-megapixel telephoto cameras, along with a 12-megapixel selfie camera in the front.

The cameras will be optimized depending on lighting conditions in a place where photos are taken.

“For instance, in the dark environment, the camera will split the 200 megapixels into 16 of 12 megapixels to bring in more light,” Samsung Electronics said in a statement.

The S23 and S23 Plus will be fitted with a triple-camera setup at the rear, including a 50-megapixel main camera, a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera with autofocus and a 10-megapixel telephoto camera, and a 12-megapixel lens in the front, the specifications widely in line with the S22s.

The Ultra packs a battery with storage capacity of 5,000 milliampere hour (mAh), while the standard will have a 3,900 mAh battery and the Plus 4,700 mAh.

The S23 comes in black, green, lavender and cream. On the own online shop, more colors, including sky blue, red and lime, will be available.

BY PARK EUN-JEE [park.eunjee@joongang.co.kr]