On February 1, Samsung will hold its Galaxy Unpacked 2023 event in San Francisco, CA, where it will unveil the new Galaxy S23 series. The phones are expected to set the standard for flagships throughout the year, particularly the first half of the year. That said, Unpacked will likely be more than just about Samsung’s mobile hardware, as the company is also expected to make a few other announcements.
To prepare you for the event, we’ve rounded up some of the biggest announcements we expect to see at Unpacked based on the rumors we’ve seen up to this point.
Galaxy S23 series
The Galaxy S23 series will obviously be the star of the show. The phones will likely consist of Samsung’s usual trio: a standard Galaxy S23, a Plus, and an Ultra model. From the leaks, it seems Samsung is switching up the design of the smaller models to better unify the design language between its phones. That means no camera island, and the phones will instead have individual cameras protruding from the rear.
Internally, we’re expecting a few differences, including the upgraded Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and a new 200MP primary camera sensor on the Ultra model. This is nearly double the resolution on the Galaxy S22 Ultra and should provide much clearer zoom output. Samsung also teases enhanced night photography, something it also highlighted with the Galaxy S22 series. The smaller models are also said to receive a much-needed boost in battery capacities, which could be enticing for anyone who suffers through the middling battery life of the Galaxy S22.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy
One interesting rumor that has made the rounds is the presence of a Snapdragon chip designed specifically for Samsung’s latest phones. It’s not too surprising that Qualcomm and Samsung may have cooked up an exclusive chip, given their growing relationship. The rumored Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy reportedly sports a higher clock speed on its primary Cortex-X3 core; 3.38GHz instead of 3.2GHz.
It’s unclear just how much of a boost this will give the Galaxy S23 over its competition. Still, hopefully, Samsung figured out a way to avoid the same performance issues that plagued the Galaxy S22 series when it launched. We should learn more about this mysterious chip during the launch.
One UI 5.1
Samsung has done a good job updating as many phones as it can to Android 13. Now, the first major update to One UI 5 is expected to launch alongside the Galaxy S23 series. Based on a recent leak, One UI 5.1 will bring a host of new features, some of which are already present in some shape or form on the Pixel series. For example, Samsung is expected to introduce a new battery widget to show the status of your connected Galaxy devices. Additionally, Bixby may get its own Call Screen feature so it can tell you who is calling for you and why.
Other features may include changes to the camera, new gallery features, more connectivity options, and even a more streamlined setup process using Google Fast Pair.
Galaxy and Windows
While we don’t expect to see anything along the lines of new smartwatches or earbuds, Samsung has teased that other devices besides the Galaxy S23 series will be unveiled at Unpacked. Rumors point to a new lineup of Galaxy Book laptops running Windows 11.
At the top will sit the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra, which is said to sport a 16-inch 3K AMOLED display, Intel’s latest 13th-gen CPUs, up to 32GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA RTX4000-series GPU. In addition, Samsung is expected to launch the Galaxy Book 3, Book 3 360, Book 3 Pro, and Book 3 Pro 360, along with new features that will enable better connectivity between the phones and computers.
Galaxy Unpacked 2023 takes place on February 1 at 10 AM PT/1 PM ET. It is an in-person event, although the company will feature livestreams on Samsung.com, the Samsung newsroom, and on the official Samsung YouTube account.
You can set a reminder on the video below, so you don’t miss out on the announcements. There’s also still time to reserve the new devices for the chance to get in on some preorder perks.
