Ryan Haines / Android Authority
đ Good morning, and welcome to a new week, a fresh edition of the Daily Authority! Paula here, covering for Andy, and tomorrow Iâll be leaving you in Hadleeâs capable hands. Today weâve got some excellent headlines for you, including our take on Samsungâs Galaxy S23, everything we know about Googleâs Pixel Watch 2, and a snow-themed Monday Meme, so keep reading.
Samsung Galaxy S23: A giant among small phones
Ryan Haines / Android Authority
Our Ryan Haines reviewed Samsungâs vanilla Galaxy S23, so without further ado, letâs dive into his takeâŚ
The Vanilla S23 is âthe seriesâ pocket-sized sidekick,â writes Ryan.
- It packs a 6.1-inch Dynamic AMOLED panel with Gorilla Glass Victus 2, 120Hz refresh rate, and brightness of 1,750 nits, matching the S23 Ultra, plus an IP68 rating for water and dust resistance.
- This time around, youâre getting a 3,900mAh battery, slightly larger than the S23, with 25W wired and 15W wireless charging (more on that later).
- Thereâs also 8GB of RAM and 128GB or 256GB of onboard storage.
- The S23 is powered by Qualcommâs Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy chip, built on TSMCâs 4nm process.
- Changes to the camera are purely aesthetic, with the familiar 50MP main sensor, 12MP ultrawide, and 10MP 3 x telephoto sensors.
- Samsung also upgraded the selfie cam from 10MP to 12MP.
First impressions, and that battery
- The S23âs design is almost identical to the S22, save for the slimmed-down camera design.
- âThe Galaxy S23âs mix of clean design and premium materials are better than theyâve ever been â even if theyâre not revolutionary,â Ryan writes.
- Onto that battery: âThe Galaxy S23 handles battery life much better than its predecessor, but charging power still lags behind,â he says, and heâs definitely got a point when it comes to charging power.
- The Galaxy S23 offers just 25W wired charging, while the S23 Plus and S23 Ultra bring 45W wired charging to the table.
- Ryan shares, âIn my experience, it takes just about 80 minutes to fill the 3,900mAh cell using a USB Power Delivery PD brick. In fairness, thatâs around 20 minutes faster than an iPhone 14 and Pixel 7, but itâs still a disappointment when you consider that a compatible plug can top up the Galaxy S23 Ultraâs beefy 5,000mAh cell in under an hour.â
- Ryan has a final battery gripe, too: âAlthough the phone will prompt you to turn Power Saving mode on, it doesnât toggle itself back off when you finish charging your battery. Unless you go back in and turn it off, you can go through entire days with limited background network and location use and a refresh rate limited to 60Hz â trust me, Iâve done it.â
Howâs the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy?
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 bumps to four performance cores compared to the trio on offer with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, and splits its load across the Cortex A710 and A715.
- This means it handles multi-core performance better as well as supporting older 32-bit apps.
- The âSnapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxyâ branding brings higher CPU and GPU clock speeds, too.
- Ryan sums up his thoughts, âI didnât notice any problems with apps starting slowly, and the thermal performance was mostly under control, other than when first running through the setup process.â
What else?
- The Galaxy S23 camera setup âsettles for familiar reliabilityâ and Ryan seemed impressed with his results, which you can check out in all their glory over at our Google Drive link.
- Samsung also offers its best in business update policy, with four years of Android updates and five years of security patches, making the S23 a future-proof investment.
In summary, the vanilla Galaxy S23 is âa giant among small phones,â writes Ryan. âIt knows where it sits and what it offers, and it wonât ask for a penny less.â
But is the best, most complete small (or at least small-ish) Android phone out there? We think so.
âThe Galaxy S23 will always be compared to its larger, more powerful siblings, but thatâs no reason for it to stand in their shadows.â
Monday Meme
With snow forecast this week for Scotland, this seems appropriateâŚ
Have an un-brr-lievable week!
Paula Beaton, Copy Editor.