Samsung promises to be ultrareliable with its new series

Sensible, sustainable and secure are three words that define any successful tech product in 2023. We are in an era of intrusive apps, shiny phones minus enough software upgrades and products that don’t care about sustainability at a time when our planet is being crushed under the weight of trash.

Samsung seems to have figured out a way to combine the three words while designing their first round of flagship devices of the year. There is plenty to unfold — a new series of phones called Galaxy S23 and laptops called Galaxy Book3. We had a chance to play with the new devices in San Francisco where the company hosted its first physical flagship event since the pandemic brought in uncertainty in every walk of life. In fact, Samsung appears to have given the pandemic a hard look and offer meaning to anything the South Korean company is working on. That sustainability needs to be an integral part of the product lineup is a no-brainer.

Despite all the big promises made by rival Android phone manufacturers, the Galaxy S23 series will be the best choice of Android phones for the vast majority.

Last year’s Galaxy S series took a leap forward by merging the unmatched power of the Note series and the pro-grade camera performance of the S series, giving the world the Galaxy S22 Ultra, which came with a built-in S Pen, advanced Nightography and battery life that lasts a day. This year, Samsung takes everything a notch higher by making “ultra” a theme across the board. There is the new Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra (the phone with enough power to gallop) and Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra (16-inch), the company’s first top-of-the-line “ultra” for PCs.

ULTRA-IMPORTANT: ECOFRIENDLY INNOVATIONS

Instead of the usual this-processor and that-camera, the feature that hits the home run is eco-conscious design without compromising on innovations. Through collaborations, the Galaxy S23 series has more recycled materials compared to Galaxy S22 Ultra, including recycled aluminium, recycled plastic and recycled glass sourced from fishing nets, water barrels and PET bottles. The usage of recycled fishing nets in the new series will save more than 15 tonnes from entering the world’s oceans by the end of 2023.

The series is also built to be reliable for years to come. It is the first smartphone to incorporate Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2, which offers more durability for long-term use and contains an average of 22 per cent preconsumer recycled material. Further, each S23 model uses a packaging box made with 100 per cent recycled paper.

ULTRA-PHOTOGRAPHY

Photographing the world in the dark truly separates the best smartphones from the rest. When a phone can capture the night without the help of a flash, pictures turn out to be spectacular. From the little time we had with the phone, there’s something worth talking about on the Galaxy S23 series. On a personal level, it’s the S23 Ultra that wins the day as much as the night. To create bright and detailed shots in the dark of the night, the new Adaptive Pixel Sensor on the S23 Ultra combines 16 pixels into one large pixel to improve lighting.

Further, the Night Portrait on the selfie camera holds the promise of creating outstanding portraits with an excellent sense of depth. The camera’s AI is able to analyse individual features, such as hair, eyes and skin separately and adjusting each element differently to create selfies that are true-to-you in any scenario vis-a-vis photographs where everything is brightened or darkened with one brush.

The night also presents another challenge — holding a camera steady more than usual. This level of image stablisation is achieved with Adaptive VDIS, which analyses and subdivides movements and recognises lighting conditions to stabilise videos. In fact, the S23 Ultra has doubled the OIS angle compared to the Galaxy S22 series to increase stablisation and capture videos that replicate the original scene in terms of lighting and movement. And noise reduction technology has been advanced by multiframing processing, an enhanced AI solution powered by the latest processor that detects noise in lowlight situations to offer crisp videos at night.

At the heart of the camera magic on the Galaxy S23 Ultra is the company’s first-ever 200MP sensor, upgraded from 108MP on the Galaxy S22 Ultra. Almost doubling the megapixel count means ultrafine resolution and millions of colours. It also means being able to print your photos into canvas-sized images for the different walls at home and office. The camera comes with Super Quad Pixel, which uses each of the 200 million pixels to easily bring a subject into sharp focus. By using four adjacent pixels to detect differences from left to right and top to bottom, it allows the camera to focus faster and more accurately because it has more points of reference.

There is also the option to capture videos in 8K at 30fps, with a wider angle from 57 to 80 degrees and a bigger pixel size for a more cinematic feel. Speaking of videos, users can record high-quality video with lifelike sound by pairing with the Galaxy Buds2 Pro.

There is also an update on the Expert RAW front, the app Samsung introduced last year on the Galaxy S22 series. Expert RAW gives photographers access to uncompressed data of an image straight from the camera sensor. With the S23 series, you can now use the Expert RAW app to shoot in 50MP mode compared to 12MP on the S22 series. And the Astrophoto feature lets you capture the sky without any special requirement. Multiple exposure mode lets you layer and combine multiple frames into one picture to make something truly unique.

ULTRA-PERFORMANCE

Needless to say, the Galaxy S23 series runs the show on the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon processor called Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy, which promises to deliver gaming performance in heaps. The S23 series processes graphics faster than the S22 series to deliver a more responsive gaming experience.

ULTRA-PC WORLD

One of the most interesting products that Samsung introduced in India last year was the Galaxy Book2 series. The new range is here and with an addition. Galaxy Book3 has four devices — Galaxy Book3 Pro (16/14 inch), Galaxy Book3 Pro 360 (16-inch) and Galaxy Book3 Ultra (16-inch), which is the company’s first ultra for PCs.

Book3 Ultra and Pro series are built on the latest 13th Generation Intel processors. What makes the series unique is the connected experience it offers. Multi-Control lets you control your Galaxy smartphone and Galaxy tablet using the Galaxy Book3 Ultra and Pro series keyboard and trackpad. You can also copy-paste or dragdrop between devices. When you need more screen real estate, Second Screen lets you do just that. There is also something new called Recent Websites, a feature that lets users multitask between the phone and PC. For example, you begin looking up flight details on the smartphone during your commute to office. Pick up where you left off when you arrive at office using the default web browser on your Galaxy Book3 Ultra and Pro series. The Ultra model also features NVIDIA RTX series graphics card, a high-performance GPU that is ideal for most intensive creation, gaming and heavy data analytics. And with the Ultra and Pro Series, Samsung is introducing a 16-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X 3K display with enhanced colour visualisation. The 16:10 screen ratio allows more content to be visible on the screen, allowing you to see 11 per cent more information at a glance. There is also 120Hz refresh rate, besides 1080p webcam,studio quality Dual Mic with ANC, woofer max 5Wx2 and tweeter max 2Wx2.

If you are wondering about pricing and availability, we will have that in the coming days. These are just the first set of information that we have managed to gather before the official launch of the devices.