Technologies

Samsung Galaxy S23: The Biggest Features I Want to See

Commentary: The Galaxy S23 needs longer battery life, more useful camera features and faster charging.

The Galaxy S22 is a modest but appreciated upgrade over the Galaxy S21, bringing refinements like a brighter screen, better camera with improved night mode and a more attractive design. Such advancements are to be expected from the world’s biggest smartphone-maker. According to Counterpoint Research, Samsung captured 21% of the worldwide market in the second quarter of 2022. However, as inflation weakens demand for new electronics, even giants like Samsung might have to work harder to drive new smartphone purchases.

And there’s plenty of room for Samsung’s phones to evolve, especially as they face increased competition from Google’s Pixel family. Samsung typically releases new Galaxy S devices in the first couple of months of the year, meaning we can likely expect the Galaxy S23 to arrive in January or February.

I hope the new Galaxy family gets longer-lasting batteries and more photography features that make use of the S line’s excellent cameras. I’d also like for Samsung to end its practice of charging a premium to take advantage of the Galaxy S22’s fast charging speeds, since the power adapter is sold separately. The Galaxy S22 lineup already provides a lot of value for Android fans, but these improvements could help Samsung take the Galaxy S23 to the next level.

Here’s everything I’d like Samsung to add and upgrade for the Galaxy S23 family.

Longer battery life for the regular Galaxy S23

Samsung Galaxy S22 — The Galaxy S22

Lisa Eadicicco/CNET

Battery life can never be long enough, but the standard-issue Galaxy S device is in particular need of a boost. The 6.1-inch Galaxy S22 generally lived up to Samsung’s claims of all-day battery life, but sometimes just barely. After using it for a month straight, I noticed the battery level dipped roughly to 30% or 40% by 9 p.m., even with the always-on display turned off and the screen’s refresh rate set to standard. That’s enough to get through a work day, but you’ll likely want to pack a charger if you have after-work plans or a long commute home.

The Galaxy S22 has the smallest battery (3,700-mAh capacity) of the three phones in the Galaxy S22 lineup, and it shows. For example, I was pleasantly surprised when the 6.6-inch Galaxy S22 Plus, which has a larger 4,500-mAh capacity, lasted for about a day and a half when I reviewed it in February. I also had the refresh rate set to high, which typically drains battery more quickly. The Galaxy S22 Ultra, which has a 6.8-inch screen and a 5,000-mAh battery, had similar battery life.

It makes sense that the Galaxy S22 line’s smallest phone would also have the smallest battery. But I hope Samsung finds a way to improve battery life on next year’s 6.1-inch Galaxy phone, whether it’s through better power efficiency or a larger physical battery. After all, Apple made upgrades to the iPhone 13 Mini that gave it an extra two to three hours of battery life compared to the iPhone 12 Mini. Battery life is the main complaint I had about the Galaxy S22, and addressing that would make the Galaxy S23 an even more compelling choice for Android fans who prefer smaller phones.

Korean news outlet The Elec indicates that could indeed be the case, as it reports that Samsung aims to increase the Galaxy S23’s battery capacity by about 5%.

More clever camera features

Samsung S22 and S22 Plus and S22 Ultra compared — The cameras on the Galaxy S22 (top), Galaxy S22 Plus (middle) and Galaxy S22 Ultra (bottom)

Lisa Eadicicco/CNET

The Galaxy S22’s 50-megapixel camera and the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s 108-megapixel camera capture impressively colorful and detailed photos. I only wish there was more you could do with those cameras when it comes to editing and software features.

The Galaxy S22 lineup has shooting options like panorama, night mode, portrait mode, slow motion, super slow motion and Director’s View, which lets you record video using two different lenses simultaneously. Then there’s Single Take, which creates multiple stylized shots with a single press of the shutter button. You can also download the Expert Raw app to get more granular control over photo settings.

But not much has changed between the Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S22 when it comes to camera features and shooting modes. I’d love to see Samsung take a page from Google, which regularly adds nifty camera tricks that feel practical rather than gimmicky. For example, Google introduced a new feature on the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro called Photo Unblur, which sharpens low-quality photos, even ones taken with an older camera. Photo Unblur builds on Face Unblur, a previous Pixel 6 and 6 Pro camera feature I also appreciate. As the name implies, Face Unblur freezes moving subjects that may otherwise look blurry.

Features like these show that Google is not just thinking about camera quality, but also ways to eliminate everyday annoyances with mobile photography. Many of Samsung’s updates, on the other hand, feel aimed at giving content creators more tools for capturing different types of shots and video clips.

While the Galaxy S23 likely won’t launch for another two to three months, Samsung is already making enhancements to the cameras on its current Galaxy phones. It just added a new feature to the Expert Raw app that helps stargazers take better photos of constellations, similar to Google’s Astrophotography feature for Pixel phones. There’s also a new Camera Assistant app that lets you enable or disable certain features, like a faster shutter or automatic lens switching.

We Put the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s Camera to the Test

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Faster charging that doesn’t cost so much

Samsung S22 Ultra — The Galaxy S22 Plus (left) and Ultra (right) both support 45-watt fast charging. But you have to purchase an adapter separately.

Lisa Eadicicco/CNET

The Galaxy S22 lineup supports fast charging of up to 25 watts for the Galaxy S22 and 45 watts for the Galaxy S22 Plus and Ultra. But you have to purchase a separate charger to do so. Samsung charges $50 for the 45-watt charger and $35 for the 25-watt charger, although you can often find them for less through retailers like Amazon and Walmart. In some scenarios, I also didn’t notice much of a difference between the pricier 45-watt charger and Samsung’s less expensive 25-watt charger when powering up the Galaxy S22 Plus, which you can read more about here.

With the Galaxy S23, I’d like to see a more noticeable improvement in charging speeds, as well as more affordable charger options. The OnePlus 10 Pro, for example, offers either 65- or 80-watt fast charging depending on your region, both of which are speedier than what Samsung has to offer on paper. OnePlus also includes a compatible power adapter in the box.

Samsung and Apple stopped including power adapters in their product packaging to cut down on waste, which is an admirable cause. But I at least wish Samsung would let you choose to include a fast-charging compatible adapter as an option for a discounted price when ordering a new phone, similar to the way it lets you select a storage option or add Samsung Care Plus.

If rumors turn out to be accurate, the base Galaxy S23 model might have the same 25-watt charging speed as the Galaxy S22. That’s according to Ice Universe, a Twitter account with a history of publishing details about unreleased Samsung products.

Samsung is already doing a lot right with the Galaxy S22, particularly when it comes to software support and display quality. But as year-over-year smartphone upgrades have become more incremental than revolutionary, focusing on core elements like the camera and battery are as important as ever.

Technologies

Apple Desperately Needs to Launch a Foldable iPhone Flip Next Year

Commentary: Apple is the only major phone company without a folding phone. That needs to change in 2026.

Apple’s iPhone 17 came and went and while we certainly love the iPhone 17 Pro and its vibrant cosmic orange color, I can’t help but be disappointed that the long-rumored foldable iPhone Flip wasn’t part of the company’s September launch event. Most Android phone-makers, including Samsung, Google, Motorola, OnePlus, Xiaomi and Honor are multiple generations into their own folding phone lineups, and it’s beginning to feel like Apple is late to the party. That might be a problem.

Apple dominates in the premium phone category, but foldables — which fit into the premium space in terms of price — are already nipping at its heels, with Motorola telling CNET that 20% of customers buying its Razr foldable jumped ship from Apple. Meanwhile, Samsung is in the seventh generation of its Flip and Fold series. As Lisa Eadicicco discovered during a visit to Seoul, «foldables are everywhere» in Samsung’s home country of South Korea.

With nearly every major Android phone-maker entering the foldable market, Apple risks losing potential customers. It also runs the risk of letting a rival like Samsung become the go-to name for foldables, which could make it harder for Apple to make an impact if it eventually launches its own device. Furthermore, early adopters drawn to foldable tech may be too entrenched in the Android ecosystem by the time Apple’s phone arrives to want to switch to iOS.

Apple is unlikely to be worried. It’s estimated that around 20 million foldables from all manufacturers were sold worldwide in 2023, while Apple reportedly sold 26.5 million iPhone 14 Pro Max handsets in the first half of that year alone. In 2024, foldable sales were flat — and 2025 isn’t fairing much better, according to analysts at CounterPoint Research, although Samsung did report record numbers of preorders for its latest foldable. Clearly, Apple feels it has yet to miss the boat.

Apple has always found success in biding its time, observing the industry and launching its own take on a product when it’s ready. Apple didn’t invent phones, tablets, smartwatches or computers, but it found ways to take existing products and make them more useful, more valuable in day-to-day life and — dare I say — more exciting. It’s why the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac lines dominate the market today.

For me, I need to see Apple’s take on the foldable phone. I’ve written before about how disappointed I am in foldables. I’ve been a mobile reporter for over 14 years and phones have become increasingly dull as they’ve converged to become slight variations on the same rectangular slab.

Read more: Best Flip Phone for 2025

Foldables promised something new, something innovative, something that briefly sparked some excitement in me, but several years in, that excitement has dwindled to the point of being extinguished. They are fine products and while I like the novelty of a screen that bends, they’re not a revolution in how we interact with our phones. Not in the way that the arrival of the touchscreen was when we were still pushing buttons to type out texts.

I did hope that Google’s Pixel Fold would be the phone to catapult the foldable forward, and while the recent Pixel 10 Pro Fold — the second generation of Google’s foldable — does offer some great updates, it still doesn’t offer any kind of revolution. Instead, it feels more like a «me too» move from Google. Ditto for the OnePlus Open. So I’m left instead to look toward Apple, a company with a track record for product revolutions, to create a new take on the genre that genuinely drives forward how we use our phones.

That innovation won’t just come from the product design. Apple works closely with its third-party software developers, and it’s that input that would help a folding iPhone become genuinely useful. My biggest complaint around foldables right now is that while the hardware is decent, the devices are essentially just running standard versions of Android with a handful of UI tweaks thrown in. They’re regular phones that just happen to bend.

Few Android developers are embracing the folding format, and it’s not difficult to see why; the users aren’t there in sufficient numbers yet to justify the time and expense to adapt their software across a variety of screen sizes. The multiple folding formats already available mean Android foldables face the same fragmentation issue that has plagued the platform since the beginning. Android-based foldables are simply a more difficult platform for developers to build for than regular phones. Apple would be able to change that, as it proved with the iPhone and iPad.

Given Apple’s close relationships with top-tier developers — not to mention its own vast developer team — I expect an eventual Apple foldable to offer innovations that make it more than just an iPhone that folds in half.

And I truly hope it does. I want to look forward to tech launches again. I want to feel excited to get a new gadget in my hands and feel that «wow» moment as I do something transformative for the first time.

In short, I don’t want to be bored by technology anymore. Apple, it’s over to you.

I Took 600+ Photos With the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. Look at My Favorites

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Nov. 27, #430

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Nov. 27, No. 430.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Fittingly, today’s Thanksgiving Day Connections: Sports Edition is mostly about football (although the yellow category covers all sports, really). If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Grab some points.

Green group hint: Pass the turkey.

Blue group hint: Face your big rival.

Purple group hint: Playing with letters in team names.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Places where one scores.

Green group: Associated with the NFL on Thanksgiving.

Blue group: College football rivalry «cups.»

Purple group: NFL teams, with the first letter changed.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is places where one scores. The four answers are end zone, goal, hoop and plate.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is associated with the NFL on Thanksgiving. The four answers are Cowboys, Lions, Madden and Turducken.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is college football rivalry «cups.» The four answers are Apple, Commonwealth, Governor’s and Territorial.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is NFL teams, with the first letter changed. The four answers are fills (Bills), Mets (Jets), pears (Bears) and yams (Rams).

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Thursday, Nov. 27

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Nov. 27.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

It’s Thanksgiving, but I wasn’t too thankful for today’s Mini Crossword. It took me nearly four minutes to solve and has some very tricky clues. Read on for the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.