Back to basics for Samsung with Galaxy S23: Executive

Tech

Published: 02 Mar. 2023, 18:50

Back to basics for Samsung with Galaxy S23: Executive

Choi Won-joon, executive vice president of the mobile experience division of Samsung Electronics, speaks during a press conference at the MWC 2023 held in Barcelona, Spain, on Monday. [SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS]

The Galaxy S23 is all about sticking to basics, according to a Samsung Electronics executive.

“The theme we set when we began to develop the Galaxy S23 series was ‘back to fundamentals,’” said Choi Won-joon, executive vice president of mobile R&D at Samsung Electronics, on Monday in Barcelona where the MWC 2023 is taking place.

“Having various features matters too, but our goal was to focus on the basics,” said Choi.

The Galaxy S23 was introduced last month.

Choi worked for global electronics companies, including Qualcomm, and has expertise in wireless chipsets and handsets. He joined Samsung Electronics in 2016.

Choi named three priorities that Samsung set for the Galaxy S23 project: smooth co-optimization of hardware and software, improved gaming performance and longer battery life.

“Though there are many indicators in evaluating a smartphone’s performance, our priority this time was to make the device’s hardware and software work together in harmony through optimization,” said Choi.

This means the smartphone’s hardware parts, such as the application processor, display and battery were developed to work well with the software of the device.

Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S23 Ultra model displayed at the MWC 2023 held in Barcelona, Spain [NEWS1]

Unlike the previous S22, which runs on the Samsung Electronics Exynos chipset or the Qualcomm Snapdragon depending on the region, Galaxy S23s are powered solely by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, a Qualcomm processor manufactured by Taiwan's TSMC.

With the new chipset, the S23’s GPU processing speed improves 41 percent compared to its predecessor, and that of neural processing unit (NPU) is up 40 percent.

Improving the gaming performance of the new Galaxy model was also one of the priorities for Samsung.

Samsung Electronics came under fire last year after it was found that an app in Galaxy S22 devices intentionally slowed the performance of the devices.

The game optimizing service (GOS) app that the manufacturer installed by default on smartphones reduces the performance of processors by almost half when users play data-heavy apps, such as high-performance mobile games.

When the Galaxy S22 was first released last year, consumers were not able to shut off the GOS app, which ultimately led to a class action lawsuit from the Galaxy S22 buyers.

“Playing a mobile game requires the strong performance of the device,“ said Choi.

When asked whether the improved gaming performance was thanks to Qualcomm’s application processor, Choi said that “application processor alone cannot improve the overall performance.”

The Exynos processor adopted in earlier models has been blamed for poor computing speeds and overheating, especially compared with Apple’s iPhones.

But Choi stressed that the synchronization of the whole device ecosystem is just as important as performance of an application processor.

“The improvement in the performance was enabled by optimization of both hardware and software,” emphasized Choi.

To prevent overheating while gaming, Samsung Electronics adopted bigger vapor chambers designed to spread heat of the device.

MWC, the world’s largest connectivity event, held in Barcelona, from Monday, Feb. 27 to Thursday.

At this year’s MWC, Chinese smartphone manufacturers, such as Honor, Oppo and Huawei, put forward their latest foldable technologies.

Oppo's Find N2 Flip foldable smartphone during the MWC 2023 in Barcelona, Spain [AP/YONHAP]

Honor showcased its Magic Vs foldable smartphone, which resembles Samsung’s Galaxy Z Fold series that folds sideways, and Oppo introduced Find N2 Flip, which folds horizontally with a vertical axis like a Galaxy Z Flip model. Huawei introduced Mate Xs2, which adopted outward-folding mechanics.

Samsung is “welcoming” the influx of new foldable devices, said Choi.

“If more people experience foldable smartphones and the market grows, Samsung will benefit from it as well,” said Choi.

Regarding Apple’s possible foldable market entry, Choi also said that “we will welcome the decision since that would mean that Apple acknowledged the value of foldable devices which Samsung Electronics has pioneered.”

Samsung Electronics began to sell its first foldable smartphones in 2019.

Huawei's Mate Xs 2 foldable smartphone at the MWC 2023 event held in Barcelona [AFP/YONHAP]

Han Jong-hee, Samsung Electronics vice chairman, visited the MWC event on Tuesday.

When asked “if there’s any Chinese smartphone maker that caught attention,” Han said that “more intense competition would lead to better competence, and ultimately improve our reputation.”

BY KWEN YU-JIN [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]