Technologies

5 Hidden Galaxy S23 Features You Should Be Using All the Time

Improve your battery life, take higher-quality photos and more with these lesser-known features.

This story is part of Samsung Event, CNET’s collection of news, tips and advice around Samsung’s most popular products.

During Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked event in February, the electronics giant announced the Galaxy S23 series with several new capabilities, including GIF remastering to improve the quality of GIF files, Astro Hyperlapse to capture time-lapse night videos of the stars and, of course, the massive 200-megapixel camera on the Ultra.

However, underneath all the popular specs, there’s an array of new, lesser-known features and settings that can significantly improve your experience on the Galaxy S23. You just need to know where to look. Here’s where you can find five hidden Galaxy S23 features and what they can do for you.

Don’t have a Galaxy S23 just yet? Check out our review of the Galaxy S23 Ultra, as well as the Galaxy S23 and S23 Plus. And if you’re looking to upgrade, here’s how the Galaxy S23 compares to the Galaxy S22, iPhone 14 and the Pixel 7.

1. Clip objects out of your photos and videos with a single press

Just as Apple added an image-clipping feature to iOS 16, so has Samsung to the Galaxy S23. With image clipping, you can go into any image (or even video) in your photo gallery and separate an object, such as a person or an item, from the background, allowing you to then share it with others.

If you want to cut something out of an image, go to your camera roll and simply press on the object you want to clip from the photo. Not all objects can be clipped, so you may get a notification that says «Couldn’t find anything to clip.» If an object is successfully clipped, you’ll feel a slight vibration and you’ll be able to drag the clipped object around the photo. This also works on videos, but they do have to be paused.

You then have three options: Copy the clip to your clipboard, share the clip (email, SMS, etc.) or save the clip as a new photo in your gallery.

Clipping out Baby Yoda from a photo — For better clipping, choose a photo with a clear object in the foreground and a solid background.

Nelson Aguilar/CNET

2. Take Expert RAW photos from within your camera

In 2022, Samsung released its advanced camera app Expert RAW, allowing seasoned photographers to shoot in Expert RAW format. Like RAW files, Expert RAW files are uncompressed digital images but with the bonus of multi-exposure HDR, giving your images greater dynamic range. The only reason to shoot in Expert RAW is for improved photo editing in the post-processing phase. While Expert RAW is available on the Galaxy S22, it’s only through the Expert RAW app. On the Galaxy S23, Expert RAW is now built-in to the native camera — but you’ll need to enable it first.

In the Samsung camera, swipe through the various camera modes at the bottom and tap on More. Next, tap Expert RAW, which will ask you to then download the Expert RAW application. You only need the app downloaded on your device, but you won’t need to open it to shoot in Expert Raw. Once it’s downloaded, you can freely use Expert RAW mode in your camera to take Expert RAW photos.

Expert RAW mode on the Galaxy S23 — You can control white balance, shutter speed and more with Expert RAW.

Nelson Aguilar/CNET

3. Prioritize your battery life over processing speed

There are many ways to preserve the battery life, including turning your phone off, using dark mode and enabling airplane mode — but Samsung has added a battery-saving feature on the Galaxy S23. The new Light mode prioritizes your battery life and cooling efficiency over processing speed, meaning your phone will use less energy to preserve battery life without affecting general use.

To enable the new Light performance mode, go to Settings and type «performance profile.» A single result, under Battery and device care, should appear — tap it. Next, tap Performance profile and select the Light option. Note that while this feature doesn’t apply while you’re gaming, it may affect the performance of other apps, so go back to Standard if you notice any issues.

Preserve your battery life by enabling this setting.

Nelson Aguilar/CNET

4. Choose which app notifications are shown on your lock screen

If your Galaxy S23 is locked, you may not want to receive notifications for every single application on your lock screen. Instead of enabling Do Not Disturb mode, which stops all alerts in general, there’s a new feature that allows you to customize what shows up on your lock screen.

In the Settings application, go to Notifications > Lock screen notifications and tap the gear icon next to Show content. A list of every application on your phone will appear — if you don’t want to see certain app notifications on your lock screen, toggle it off here.

Lock screen notification setting on the Galaxy S23 — You can choose to disable lock screen notifications for all your apps or individually.

Nelson Aguilar/CNET

5. Check out the battery life for all your Galaxy devices on your home screen

Samsung now makes it easier to keep an eye on the battery life of all your Galaxy devices. In your home screen customization settings, you’ll find two new battery widgets you can add to your home screen to check out the battery life of your Galaxy Watch, Galaxy Buds and more from your Galaxy S23.

Battery widget on the Galaxy S23 — As long as your other Galaxy devices are connected to your S23, you can monitor their battery from your lock screen.

Nelson Aguilar/CNET

Press your finger down anywhere on a blank space on your home screen and then go into Widgets. You now have two new battery widgets you can add to your home screen: battery status circles in a 4×1 grid and a battery status list in a 4×2 grid. As long as your other Galaxy products are connected to your S23, you can check out their battery life from your home screen.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for May 18, #707

Hints and answers for Connections for May 18, #707.

Looking for the most recent 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, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections puzzle is a mix of difficult and easy. The purple category does what most purple categories do, and makes you really break down how you think about the words. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

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

Yellow group hint: School days.

Green group hint: About there!

Blue group hint: Sure, let’s go.

Purple group hint: The Scarlett Letter.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Tasks for a student.

Green group: Encouraging responses in a guessing game.

Blue group: Up for anything.

Purple group: What «A» might mean.

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

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is tasks for a student. The four answers are assignment, drill, exercise and lesson.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is encouraging responses in a guessing game. The four answers are almost, close, not quite and warm.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is up for anything. The four answers are easy, flexible, game and open.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is what «A» might mean. The four answers are area, athletic, excellent and one.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for May 18, #441

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 441 for May 18.

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

Today’s NYT Strands will probably be easier if you have some basic knowledge about a certain type of vessel. You don’t really need to have ever been on one, since the answers show up in books and movies all the time. If you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Riding the wind.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: famed song by Christopher Cross.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

DULL, TILE, TILER, SEER, GALE, GALES, HAIL, SAIL, LEEK, GLUE, HALL, TALL, HEAT

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you’ve got all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

HELM, HULL, KEEL, MAST, STERN, RIGGING, RUDDER, TILLER

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is SAILBOAT. To find it, start with the S that’s four letters down on the farthest row to the left, then wind across, up and down.

Technologies

Google I/O 2025: How to Watch and What to Expect

With Android 16 out of the way, Google I/O will certainly be all about AI.

Google I/O 2025 takes place on May 20 and 21 with Google’s big keynote happening on day 1. We expect Big G to talk about its myriad innovations across its ever-expanding portfolio of products — almost certainly with a huge focus on AI every step of the way. If we collectively cross our fingers, promise to be good and eat all our vegetables then we may even be treated to a sneak peek at upcoming hardware.

Read more: Android 16: Everything Google Announced at the Android Show

Google also hosted a totally separate event that focused solely on Android. The Android Show: I/O Edition saw the wrappers come off Android 16, with insights into the new Material 3 Expressive interface, updates to security and a focus on Gemini and how it’ll work on a variety of other devices.

By breaking out Android news into its own virtual event, Google frees itself to spend more time during the I/O keynote to talk about Gemini, Deep Mind, Android XR and Project Astra. It’s going to be a jam-packed event, so here’s how you can watch I/O 2025 as it happens and what you can look forward to.

Google I/O: Where to watch

Google I/O proper kicks off with a keynote taking place on May 20, 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT, 6 p.m. BST). It’ll almost certainly be available to stream online on Google’s own YouTube channel, although a holding video is yet to be available. There’s no live link on the I/O website yet, either, though you can use the handy links to add the event to your calendar of choice. Expect links to a livestream to be available closer to the day.

What to expect from Google I/O 2025

Little chat about Android 16: As Google gave Android 16 its own outing already, it’s likely that it won’t be mentioned all that much during I/O. In fact at last year’s event, Android was barely mentioned, while uses of the term «AI» went well over a hundred.

Android XR: Google didn’t talk much about Android XR during the Android show, focusing instead on the purely phone-based updates to the platform. We expected to hear more about the company’s latest foray into mixed-reality headsets in partnership with Samsung and its Project Moohan headset, so it’s possible that this is being saved for I/O proper.

Gemini: With Android being spun out into its own separate event, Google is evidently clearing the way for I/O to focus on everything else the company does. AI will continue to dominate the conversation at I/O, just as it did last year (though hopefully Google can make it more understandable) with updates to many of its AI platforms expected to be announced.

Gemini is expected to receive a variety of update announcements, including more information on its latest 2.5 Pro update which boasts various improvements to its reasoning abilities, and in particular to its helpfulness for coding applications. Expect lots of mentions of Google’s other AI-based products, too, including DeepMind, LearnLM and Project Astra. Let’s just hope Google has figured out how to make this information make any kind of sense.

Beyond AI, Google may talk about updates to its other products including GMail, Chrome and the Play Store, although whether these updates are big enough to be discussed during the keynote rather than as part of the developer-focused sessions following I/O’s opening remains to be seen.