Samsung Unveils Galaxy S23 With 200-Megapixel Camera for Better Night Photos

The new Galaxy S23 Ultra has a 200-megapixel camera, and all three models in the lineup have faster processors. Yet none has a new gee-whiz feature to distinguish it from its competition, like the car-crash detection and emergency satellite communication in

Apple Inc.’s

new iPhone 14 line.

Research firm International Data Corp. last week said fourth-quarter smartphone shipments had the largest-ever decline in a single period, tumbling 18% year-over-year in the holiday buying season. Samsung on Tuesday reported a 69% drop in operating profit and said demand for smartphones will remain sluggish early this year.

Yet conditions in the U.S. aren’t as dismal as the global outlook, said

Drew Blackard,

vice president of mobile product management at Samsung Electronics America. “The premium tier of the market has remained very healthy,” Mr. Blackard said, reflecting on demand in the U.S. during the past few months. 

Nearly half of U.S. Galaxy S22 buyers opted for the Ultra, he said, adding that the company expects the trend to continue with the Galaxy S23 lineup.

Steady pricing

For the U.S. market, Samsung kept prices level with last year’s phones—$800 for the Galaxy S23, $1,000 for the S23 Plus and $1,200 for the S23 Ultra. People can trade in older devices to get better pricing on S23 models through the company and U.S. carriers.

Samsung also plans to keep selling its Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S21 FE for $100 less than their 2022 prices, Mr. Blackard said.

Like the S22 Ultra, the new S23 Ultra comes with an embedded S Pen stylus, appealing to fans of Samsung’s discontinued Note devices. The high-end phone’s display measures 6.8 inches diagonally, the same as the past two generations of Ultra. It has an angular body, while the 6.1-inch S23 and 6.6-inch S23 Plus have curved edges.

Android fans looking for emergency satellite communication to rival Apple’s won’t find it here.

Qualcomm Inc.,

which provides the chips for Samsung’s high-end smartphones, signed a deal with satellite-provider

Iridium Communications Inc.

earlier this year to bring satellite connectivity to Android phones, but such capabilities won’t be available until later this year.

High resolution

The biggest draw for buyers likely will be the S23 Ultra’s new 200-megapixel camera, up from 108 megapixels last year. While such high resolution might not be noticeable to most people, the boom in pixels means the camera can capture more light. That should lead to better night photography and videos, though we haven’t been able to test the new devices.

Samsung reduced the time it takes to capture a night photo to one second from two seconds, said

Joshua Cho,

the Samsung executive vice president in charge of developing cameras and AI software for Galaxy devices.

Samsung’s Unpacked event in San Francisco was its first live, in-person mobile launch since February 2020.

Preorders begin Wednesday, and the phones arrive in stores Feb. 17. Along with the new smartphones, Samsung introduced three Galaxy Book3 PCs, available the same day as the Galaxy S23.

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Write to Shara Tibken at [email protected]