It’s a new year, which means a new lineup of flagship smartphones from Samsung. As expected, the Korean technology giant has unveiled three phones under the Galaxy S23 series, namely the Samsung Galaxy S23, Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus, and Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra.

(Update, March 7: The Plus or the non-Plus model? Or should you look for something outside the “Galaxy”? Here’s our review of the Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23 Plus!)

All three are now available for preorder in the Philippines until February 23, 2023, and customers who book their units early through the company’s website will enjoy discounts of up to P76,000 (around $1,405), including a free memory upgrade worth up to P8,000 ($148). This entitles customers to upgrade to a higher memory variant for the price of the cheaper unit with less storage within the same model range.

Those who trade in an older device, on the other hand, will enjoy additional savings of up to P13,000 ($240) on top of the device’s residual value. Additionally, they will receive an e-voucher worth up to P5,000 ($92), as well as 50% off the Galaxy Buds2 Pro and 30% off the Galaxy Watch5 series.

In the Philippines, the newly launched Samsung Galaxy S23 series is priced as follows:

• Samsung Galaxy S23
  • 128GB storage: P53,990 ($998)
  • 256GB storage: P57,990 ($1,072)
• Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus
  • 256GB storage: P68,990 ($1,275)
  • 512GB storage: P76,990 ($1,423)
• Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
  • 256GB: P81,990 ($1,515)
  • 512GB: P89,990 ($1,663)
  • 1TB (online-exclusive variant): P103,990 ($1,922)

The online-exclusive Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra with 1TB of storage is also offered alongside Samsung’s Galaxy VIP bundle, which includes the phone plus a Galaxy Watch5 Pro 46mm, a set of Galaxy Buds2 Pro, a Super Fast Wireless Charger, a leather cover, and one year of Samsung Care+ coverage. The bundle is priced at P119,378 ($2,206).

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Our hands-on video of the Samsung Galaxy S23 series

The Galaxy S23 series is available in Phantom Black, Cream, Green, and Lavender hues. Besides the colors, the biggest visual change to the lineup is the adoption of Samsung’s floating camera layout, which we saw on the Galaxy S22 Ultra. That also means the Galaxy S23 Ultra is pretty much identical to last year’s release. The rear cameras on the vanilla and Plus versions are the same as the previous iteration, with a 50-megapixel primary camera, a 12-megapixel ultrawide lens, and a 10-megapixel telephoto offering 3x optical zoom.

The biggest change to the top-of-the-line variant is the inclusion of Samsung’s 200-megapixel ISOCELL HP2 image sensor, which is also the third 200-megapixel sensor from the Korean manufacturer. This sensor has a 1/1.3-inch optical format and uses advanced pixel-binning technology called Tetra2pixel, which allows it to change pixel sizes depending on the amount of light in the environment. In the real world, that means the sensor captures 50- or 12-megapixel images with a larger pixel size under low-light conditions.

In addition, the sensor can shoot 8K footage at 30 frames per second in 50-megapixel mode with a wide field of view along with bigger pixels to produce sharp cinema-style videos. For selfies and video chat, the new smartphones share a 12-megapixel front camera equipped with a wide-angle lens.

On the software side, Samsung has improved on the low-light performance — or, as Samsung calls it, “Nightography” — of the primary camera, so now you should be able to take decent photos in pitch-black darkness, as well as bright portraits at night. The company has also added support for third-party apps, including TikTok and Instagram, so now users can get the same image quality out of the main camera when using it outside of the default Camera app. That’s definitely good news if you’re planning on using your new Galaxy phone for social media.

And while you’re at it on TikTok, why not use Samsung’s new sticker feature for the Galaxy S23 series, too? Samsung now lets you create stickers from your photos in a few taps without the need to install an app.

Another highlight this year is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 5G platform, which all versions of the phones across the world use. There’s a bit of twist, though: The chipset has been optimized specifically for the Galaxy S23 lineup, which boasts a higher prime clock speed along with a slightly overclocked GPU.

All models have the latest Dynamic AMOLED screen tech and offer an impressive 1,750 nits of peak brightness, which represents a major upgrade over the base Galaxy S23. They likewise get Corning’s toughest-ever Gorilla Glass Victus 2 glass panels on the front and back for added damage resistance.

Samsung Galaxy S23 vs Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus vs Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra: Specs and price comparison

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