Galaxy S23 Leak Suggests 2022 Is The Year Of The Chip Upset

Samsung typically refreshes its Galaxy S series lineup in the first quarter of every year. Given that we saw the company launch the Galaxy S22 lineup in January 2022, the expectation is that it will follow suit with the Galaxy S23 series at around the same time next year. Even though January 2023 is still five months away, people have already started talking about the features we can likely expect on these flagship-grade devices.

While it had become a norm for renders of upcoming Samsung smartphones to leak months before their supposed launches, this time around, Samsung seems to have been able to control the flow of information, and the company, so far, has been able to contain most Galaxy S23 series-centric leaks. As a result, we are yet to come across the first renders of the Galaxy S23 lineup, and as of now, no one really knows what the next flagship may end up looking like.

While the renders of these devices may be hard to come by, that is not necessarily the case with the expected specifications of the phone. Less than a month ago, noted analyst Ming-Chi Kuo hinted at the possibility of the Galaxy S23 series getting a significant upgrade in terms of the device's processor. Today, popular leaker Ice Universe took to Weibo to claim that the Galaxy S23 Ultra will be an incremental upgrade over its predecessor. He also revealed the possibility of the S23 Ultra retaining the same battery capacity as its predecessor.

Even before we heard about the first of the Galaxy S23-centric rumors, Qualcomm had confirmed that its chipsets would power the entire spectrum of the next generation of Galaxy S devices (via Fool). This is a major change for Samsung, given that the company typically sells different variants of the Galaxy S series in different markets. While North American users almost always got the Qualcomm variants, users in Europe and India usually received the (inferior) Exynos variants.

Anyway, according to IceUniverse, all of the Galaxy S23 devices are likely to use Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chips. This chip is expected to be a massive improvement over its predecessor (the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1) and is rumored to feature a single Cortex-X3 core, twin Cortex-A720 cores, two Cortex-A710 cores, and three Cortex-A510 cores. The graphics are rumored to be handled by Qualcomm's Adreno 740 chip. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is also likely to be based on TSMC's 4nm manufacturing process.

In addition to this, IceUniverse claims that the Galaxy S23 Ultra will likely retain the same 5,000mAh battery we saw on its predecessor. This time around, however, the more efficient Snapdragon chip should help users eke out better battery life on the device. With the launch of the S23 lineup still a few months away, all eyes seem to be set on Samsung's next confirmed launch early next week, when the company will unveil its brand new lineup of foldables.