The wonderful Galaxy S23 has me excited for the S23 FE

Samsung abruptly ended a brief custom final 12 months when it opted to skip the Fan Version of the Galaxy S22. The corporate’s FE smartphones have historically provided practically top-tier specs at a barely lower cost than the flagship Galaxy S lineup. Nevertheless, provide chain delays meant that Samsung needed to push again the Galaxy S21 FE’s launch to the beginning of 2022. That positioned it simply weeks away from the S22 collection’ launch — awkward timing, to say the least.

We didn’t get a second Fan Version smartphone launch in 2022, doubtless as a result of Samsung didn’t wish to cannibalize the S21 FE’s gross sales. However this 12 months may be completely different, as rumors point out that the Korean big will launch a Galaxy S23 FE in spite of everything.

Regardless of the S21 FE’s lackluster worth proposition final 12 months, I picked one up on sale and have used it as my every day driver ever since. Whereas I don’t outright remorse my buy, the telephone does undergo from a number of flaws. Fortunately, although, the Galaxy S23’s wonderful displaying this 12 months makes me consider that the upcoming Fan Version would be the smartphone to get in 2023 if you happen to don’t wish to go all out.

The Galaxy S23 bought an enormous improve this 12 months within the type of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, however I’m not speaking about efficiency alone right here.

For the previous couple of generations, Android flagship smartphones have been affected by throttling controversies. The issue first emerged a few years in the past, however lastly reached a tipping level with the Galaxy S22 collection. To assist with the latter, Samsung silently restricted the efficiency of 10,000 apps and video games. So what went unsuitable? You see, earlier years’ flagship chips required an excessive amount of energy to achieve peak efficiency. That resulted in not only a hotter telephone but in addition worse efficiency inside a number of seconds of heavy load.

The brand new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip discovered within the Galaxy S23 is much more environment friendly. We truly first noticed an enchancment with the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 late final 12 months, and issues bought higher with the 8 Gen 2. Each of those chips have one factor in frequent: Qualcomm sources them from Taiwanese firm TSMC, which has a extra environment friendly manufacturing node. The earlier Snapdragon chips have been manufactured by Samsung Foundry as an alternative.

Now, a current leak signifies that Samsung will carry the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 to the upcoming S23 FE. Whereas that’s not the top-of-the-line chip anymore, it’s nonetheless extra environment friendly than the S21 FE’s Snapdragon 888 and Samsung’s Exynos 2100.

Anecdotally, my Exynos-powered S21 FE reveals throttling (pictured above) in medium-to-heavy workloads even earlier than it could turn into noticeably heat. This ends in unpredictable UI stutters and longer-than-usual digital camera processing.

Fortunately, we additionally know that Samsung is planning to ship Snapdragon chips in flagship telephones globally. We’re already seeing the consequences of this with the Galaxy S23, which didn’t get an Exynos mannequin. In different phrases, patrons in Europe have entry to the identical efficiency and effectivity as different markets.

The newest Qualcomm chipsets don’t simply ship extra constant efficiency. In the actual world, improved chip effectivity has made even the diminutive Galaxy S23 an all-day smartphone. Regardless of its below-average capability of three,900 mAh, my colleagues have reported wonderful battery life — definitely higher than final 12 months’s mannequin.

However, final 12 months’s Galaxy S21 FE doesn’t supply groundbreaking battery life. Ample? Positive, however 5 to 6 hours of screen-on time from a 4,500mAh battery isn’t what I’d name top-tier. I’ve additionally observed the battery drains quicker with a 5G sign after I’m out and about. Dropping right down to LTE considerably mitigates this, so it’d merely be one other case of chipset inefficiency.

As 5G connectivity turns into extra widespread, smartphone modem know-how has additionally lastly began to mature. The Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 SoC makes use of Qualcomm’s last-gen X65 modem, which billed higher energy effectivity as one in every of its headlining options. That side coupled with the overall effectivity beneficial properties I discussed earlier ought to assist the Galaxy S23 FE attain higher battery life figures this 12 months.

The Galaxy S21 FE might have launched in early 2022 however a few its key specs are holdovers from the S20-era. The latter had turned two years previous by the point the S21 FE hit the market.

Take the first digital camera on the S21 FE, for instance, which makes use of the identical 12MP, 1/1.76″ sensor as its predecessor and the mainline Galaxy S20 collection. Shortly after the S21 FE’s launch, nonetheless, Samsung launched a bigger 50MP sensor alongside the Galaxy S22. This 12 months’s flagship packs the identical succesful digital camera {hardware} too. In our Galaxy S23 assessment, we praised the sensor for its wonderful all-around efficiency because it allowed the telephone to ship nice outcomes even when the solar goes down.

With that in thoughts, I’m hoping that Samsung will match the S23 FE’s main digital camera with the mainline flagship collection because it did with the first-ever Fan Version smartphone. However even when Samsung retains to a 12MP sensor, we’ll doubtless nonetheless get delicate enhancements just like the Galaxy Z Flip 4’s bigger pixel dimension and improved computational images.

Digicam specs apart, the S21 FE’s base mannequin included simply 6GB of RAM final 12 months. That’s not woefully insufficient, however I’ve undoubtedly observed bigger apps getting kicked out of reminiscence whereas multitasking. I don’t know why Samsung selected to stint right here, particularly as most $700 smartphones provided no less than 8GB of RAM in 2022. Fortunately, the subsequent Fan Version smartphone ought to bump up the bottom mannequin’s reminiscence to 8GB and repair this downside as soon as and for all.

Whereas all of those upgrades sound promising for the Galaxy S23 FE, why not simply purchase the common Galaxy S23 at this time? The reply will depend upon who you ask, however I a lot choose the Fan Version’s barely bigger show. Whereas the bounce from 6.1 to six.4 inches may not sound like loads, it’s truly a ten% improve in floor space. That locations it nearer to the Galaxy S23 Plus, which retails at a a lot larger $999.

It additionally helps that the Fan Version line enjoys Galaxy S-exclusive options reminiscent of Samsung DeX assist and reverse wi-fi charging. Furthermore, the construct high quality compromises between the full-fledged flagship and FE fashions don’t actually faze me as I exploit a case always. So contemplating the $300 distinction in worth between the Galaxy S23 Plus and former FE fashions, it’s exhausting to justify the upsell.

That stated, if you happen to’re after a smaller telephone, the Galaxy S23 ticks all the proper bins and retails for simply $100 greater than prior Fan Version telephones. You get an excessive amount of worth for that additional money too within the type of higher construct high quality, quicker internals, and barely newer show tech. Which telephone would you fairly purchase in 2023?