Samsung’s new Galaxy F23 offers solid hardware at an affordable price tag

Samsung has just launched a brand new affordable smartphone in India. The new Galaxy F23 is a direct successor to the Galaxy F22 of the last year and represents Samsung’s latest attempt at cracking the highly competitive budget smartphone segment. To that end, the Galaxy F23 packs some serious hardware, including a 120Hz high refresh rate display, a faster chipset, updated cameras, and a big battery.

The Galaxy F23 sports an updated design. It swaps the square camera module of the last model for a rectangular one the textured back for a smooth one, lending the phone a more premium look. The front is covered by a 6.6-inch FHD+ display with a 120Hz refresh rate. The display is protected by Gorilla Glass 5 covering, but Samsung doesn’t specify anywhere on its website whether it’s an AMOLED panel or an LCD — we’re inclined to believe it’s an LCD panel.

Galaxy F23 in blue and green colors

Under the hood, the Galaxy F23 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G processor, a step up from the MediaTek Helio G80 SoC on the Galaxy F22. The chipset is paired with 4GB/6GB LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB storage with microSD expansion support. The phone also has a heat dissipation system. Samsung calls it “Power Cool” technology, and it’s supposed to drive excessive heat away from the processor area to keep things running relatively cool during long gaming sessions and other intensive workloads.

The primary camera has been upgraded from a 48MP sensor to a new 50MP sensor. However, the 8MP ultra-wide and 2MP macro sensors are unchanged from the last model.

Galaxy F23 in blue colorway

While the last year’s model packed a massive 6,000mAh battery, the Galaxy F23 comes with a smaller 5,000mAh cell. The battery charges via a 25W fast charger.

Other notable highlights of the Galaxy F23 include a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, face unlock, Samsung Pay support, and 5G support. On the software front, the phone runs Android 12 out of the box with One UI 4.1 on top. In addition, Samsung promises two years of OS updates and four years of security updates.

Pricing & Availability

The Galaxy F23 comes in two colors — Aqua Blue and Forest Green — and will go on sale starting March 16 on Flipkart, Samsung’s website, and select retail stores. Pricing starts at ₹17,499 for the base 4GB/128GB model and goes up to ₹18,499 for the 6GB/128GB model. Samsung’s early bird pricing brings the prices down to ₹14,999 and ₹15,999, respectively.