Technologies

Battery Battle: Here’s Who Wins Between Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S22

The newest phone from Samsung has a larger battery. We compare to see which one has the most power.

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

My biggest complaint about last year’s Galaxy S22 was that its battery didn’t last long enough on a single charge. Samsung addressed that shortcoming with the recently launched Galaxy S23, which has a larger battery and a more efficient processor.

The Galaxy S23 doesn’t offer record-breaking battery life, but it’s enough of an improvement to make me feel comfortable using it on a busy day without carrying a charger. That’s more than I could say for the Galaxy S22, which left me with battery anxiety on long days spent away from a power outlet.

Petite Android phones like the Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S22 can be hard to come by, which is why I’m glad Samsung made this fix to its 6.1-inch flagship phone.

Galaxy S23’s bigger battery makes a difference

A photo of the battery status screen on the Galaxy S23 — The Galaxy S23 has a bigger battery than its predecessor.

Lisa Eadicicco/CNET

Samsung increased the Galaxy S23’s battery capacity by 200 mAh compared to the Galaxy S22. The new phone has a 3,900-mAh battery; last year’s device had 3,700 mAh. But that’s not the only factor influencing battery life.

The Galaxy S23 family runs on a version of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor that’s been optimized specifically for the Galaxy S23 series. Samsung says this new processor brings better power efficiency, contributing to the phone’s longer battery life.

Even after spending a short time with the Galaxy S23, these changes are noticeable. The Galaxy S22’s battery would sometimes dip to the 30s or 40s by roughly 9 p.m. after a long day in the office. I even had to borrow a colleague’s charger once while attending an all-day work event because I was worried I wouldn’t make it to the evening. (I typically had the always-on display turned off and the refresh rate set to standard instead of adaptive.)

My experience with the Galaxy S23 has been very different so far. I still had 64% of my battery left by 12:36 a.m. on a recent Sunday having taken the phone off its charger at 10 a.m. However, it’s important to note that I also wasn’t using my phone very frequently that afternoon. I was spending time with my family for a large chunk of the day, so I mostly kept my phone tucked away in my pocket, only retrieving it to occasionally check my texts or take a photo.

But even on a busy day, the Galaxy S23 still had more of its battery left than the Galaxy S22 likely would have. After a day of running benchmarks, taking lots of photos, recording videos and streaming YouTube videos as part of my review testing, I still had 46% of my battery left by 9:45 p.m. That’s not so bad when you consider the Galaxy S22 sometimes had 30% to 40% of its battery left by around 9 p.m. after using the phone heavily throughout the day. I also left the adaptive refresh rate setting turned on most of the time I spent with the Galaxy S23.

To further test the battery, I put each phone through a 45-minute endurance test and a three-hour battery drain test. During the 45-minute test, I continuously streamed videos on YouTube, made a video call, played mobile games and scrolled through social media feeds to see how much of a dent these everyday tasks would make in each phone’s battery. For the three-hour test, I streamed YouTube with the display brightness set to 100% and checked the battery percentage once every hour to see how much it had drained.

Unsurprisingly, the Galaxy S23 beat the Galaxy S22 in both tests, as you can see in the tables below.

Galaxy S23 vs. Galaxy S22 45-minute test

Galaxy S23	91%
Galaxy S22	89%

Galaxy S23 vs. Galaxy S22 3-hour test

	1 hour	2 hours	3 hours
Galaxy S23	95%	88%	81%
Galaxy S22	91%	81%	71%

It’s important to remember that battery life will always vary depending on how you use your device. Factors like screen brightness and the types of apps you’re using will impact battery life, so your experience may not directly mirror mine. For example, even though I sometimes struggled to get through a whole day using the Galaxy S22, I was able to preserve roughly 60 to 70% of my battery by 9 p.m. with the always-on display turned off on days mostly spent at home.

How to get the most battery life out of your Galaxy S22

Samsung Galaxy S22 — The Galaxy S22.

Lisa Eadicicco/CNET

If you own a Galaxy S22 and are struggling with battery life, there are a few steps you can take to maximize your device’s longevity. First, try turning down the screen brightness by pulling down from the top of the display to access your phone’s quick settings menu.

You’ll also want to make sure the adaptive brightness setting is disabled to prevent your phone from automatically boosting brightness when needed. While that can be a useful feature under normal circumstances, you might not want the brightness to increase when you’re trying to conserve battery life. Open your Galaxy S22’s settings menu, choose the display option and make sure the switch next to adaptive brightness is toggled off.

It’s also a good idea to try turning off the adaptive refresh rate and always-on display settings if you’re trying to extend battery life, which you can toggle in the settings menu.

Samsung devices have a power savings mode that disables certain settings to make the battery last longer. Open the settings menu, select the battery and device care option and then tap battery to access it. From this battery menu, you can also limit battery usage for apps that you don’t use very often.

These tips will work on the Galaxy S23 too, which also has a light performance mode to prioritize battery life and cooling efficiency over high performance. To turn this on, open the Galaxy S23’s settings menu, tap battery and device care, and select battery. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and choose the more battery settings option. From there, you should see a field called performance profile, which you can tap to switch between standard and light. (During my time with the Galaxy S23, I had it set to standard.)

If that’s not enough, you can try purchasing a portable charger or power bank to power up your device on the go.

With its new $700 price, the Galaxy S22 is a tempting choice alongside the $800 Galaxy S23. Just remember you’ll be sacrificing some battery life to save that money.

Technologies

Bishop Takes Rook: You’ll Be Able to Learn Chess on Duolingo Soon

The course is in beta now but will be available to everyone in a few months.

«Hola, ajedrez» means «Hello, chess» in Spanish. You’ve always been able to learn Spanish on Duolingo. And you’ll be able to learn and practice chess on the language learning app soon. Duolingo announced on April 22 that beta testers can practice the centuries-old board game in Duolingo now, and others will be able to learn the game on the app in a few months.

Chess will be the first new Duolingo course since the app began offering math and music lessons in 2023. And Duolingo hopes that to bring the classic board game to more people of all experience levels.

Duolingo chess lessons aim to be friendly to beginners

I spoke with a Duolingo rep about the upcoming lessons. He said the company wants to continue expanding what people can learn through the app, and chess was an early contender.

Chess is «one of those things that … any age group can learn … but then also something that takes the 10,000-hour theory to really master,» Edwin Bodge, a senior product manager with Duolingo, said. «We thought it would fit with the Duolingo medium really well.»

When I asked why people would use Duolingo over other chess learning sites and tools, Bodge said a lot of other chess content is geared toward advanced users, not newcomers. «We really saw a great opportunity to try and cater to more of a beginner, medium (player) and try and increase access to the game,» he said.

The chess lessons are slightly different from others you might find on Duolingo, like Spanish and math, but the progression system is similar. And from what Duolingo showed me, the lessons really do start at square one, or A1 on a chessboard.

Chess lessons feel similar to other Duolingo lessons

When you start, Duolingo asks how much you already know about chess, like in other lessons on the app. Duolingo will then adjust the lessons according to your response. If you say you’re brand-new to chess and have no knowledge of the game, early lessons will focus on how each piece moves before moving on to capturing other pieces and checking the king. Other lessons are similar to mini-puzzles where you might be asked to capture different pieces using a single piece, like your knight or rook, in four moves or fewer.

You can access hints for each lesson, but if you get something wrong, your opponent will react to show you you’ve left a piece open for capture, like in a real match. And if you keep getting something incorrect, Duolingo will show you what to do. «If you get it wrong multiple times, eventually we’ll show you an arrow that shows you exactly where to move,» Sammi Siegel, a software engineer with Duolingo, said.

If you are subscribed to Duolingo Max and make a mistake in a language lesson, the app can explain the mistake — and what the right solution is — with a feature called Explain My Answer. However, that feature won’t be available with the chess lessons for now. It’s not always easy to explain why something is right or wrong in chess because there are so many millions of different moves.

«We want to get better at fuller explanations,» Siegel said. «There is some mix of AI and model training that we’re hoping to use to better explain why a certain move is wrong.» Because there are so many moves in chess, it’s possible to make moves that could be correct but aren’t the best options. In such instances, Duolingo will show a banner that lets you know that a move isn’t wrong but isn’t necessarily the best move.

Duolingo also said each section represents a range on the Elo rating system, the method by which a chess player’s skills are calculated. As you progress, your lessons will be tougher and more challenging. This is similar to the CEFR language proficiency levels attached to the different language sections in the app.

You’ll also have the opportunity to have «mini-matches» or full-on games against Duolingo’s chess coach, Oscar. These matches will scale in difficulty to challenge you as well, so you aren’t facing a grandmaster-level chess player after your first week of playing the game. But that doesn’t mean you can slack off and play sloppily. If you make a mistake, like leaving your queen open to capture, Oscar will take advantage and leave you scrambling to recover.

While playing against Oscar is good practice, you won’t be able to face off against other players when these chess lessons launch. But Duolingo said matches against other people are something they are looking into, so you might be able to play against a friend over the app in the future. «One of the big reasons why we’re doing this is we think we can get a whole generation of people interested in chess,» Bodge said.

Duolingo’s new chess lessons are now available in the beta version now and will start rolling out on iOS in English in May. Duolingo said it is working to bring these lessons to Android devices and more languages in the coming months.

For more on Duolingo, check out how well the free version prepared me for a trip to Italy and our review of the language learning app. You can also check out our best language learning apps.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Sunday, April 27

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

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword isn’t too much of a stumper. A lot of words contain A and E, for some reason. Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in the Times’ games collection. 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 at those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Outdoor spot to people-watch, maybe
Answer: STOOP

6A clue: Big name in health insurance
Answer: AETNA

7A clue: Broadway theater helper
Answer: USHER

8A clue: Easy to understand
Answer: CLEAR

9A clue: When many show up to a job interview
Answer: EARLY

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: What «salsa» literally means
Answer: SAUCE

2D clue: Electric car maker since 2003
Answer: TESLA

3D clue: «… in one ear and out the ___»
Answer: OTHER

4D clue: Tatum ___, youngest-ever Oscar winner (at age 10, for Best Supporting Actress)
Answer: ONEAL

5D clue: Defensive maneuver in fencing
Answer: PARRY

How to play more Mini Crosswords

The New York Times Games section offers a large number of online games, but only some of them are free for all to play. You can play the current day’s Mini Crossword for free, but you’ll need a subscription to the Times Games section to play older puzzles from the archives.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for April 27, #216

Hints and answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, No. 216, for April 27.

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.

Connections: Sports Edition might be a breeze, as long as you know your sports-league commissioners. Read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s a sign that the game has earned enough loyal players that The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times, will continue to publish it. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but now appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can continue to play it 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: Dunk it.

Green group hint: Get it moving.

Blue group hint: They run the leagues.

Purple group hint: Like house, kind of.