Mobile UX

Having already welcomed the Galaxy S23 and S23 Ultra in our office, it's now time to complete the set with the Galaxy S23+.As we pass the phone to our review team we figured we'd share a peek at the middle member of the S23 family.Except for a redesigned camera bump, updated Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, and a modest bump in battery capacity, the Galaxy S23+ follows the formula of its predecessor.

IDC's full-year 2022 and Q4 2022 market report on tablets and Chromebooks is here and the results are not ideal.Overall, the tablet market shrunk by 3.3% throughout 2022, but posted a flat growth of 0.3% for Q4 of the same year.After a strong 2021 year with insane 180.5% growth, however, the Chromebook market was bound to normalize and it recorded a 48% decline in shipments for the full 2022 year and 24.3% fewer units in Q4 2022.

The underdogs have won - the Moto G73 left would-be buyers hesitant while the G53, G13 and E13 received a warm welcome in last week's poll.Do our eyes deceive us, a phone with an HD+ display won out against an FHD+ one?It did indeed, though there is more to it than that.The Moto G53 is cheaper, which helps a lot - these are affordable phones, after all.

The OnePlus Buds Pro 2 are the company's second-generation premium wireless earbuds.The first-generation model was a decent attempt and a good overall product for the $149 asking price but was a letdown in terms of audio quality and noise cancellation.The Buds Pro 2 promise improvement across the board; better audio quality with a new dual-driver system tuned by Dynaudio, improved adaptive noise cancellation, and improved battery life.

The big Unpacked event is over and Samsung unveiled three new S-series flagships, plus the next-generation of Galaxy Book laptops.We have extensive coverage of the event, including some face-to-face time with the new devices, but since it is spread out across multiple posts, we wanted organize a quick index.

Apple is not planning to launch new iPads until 2024, according to Ming-Chi Kuo's latest notes.The analyst revealed there aren't going to be any releases in the next "9-12 months," and first in line for an announcement will be the iPad mini, expected to begin mass production in Q1 2024.Kuo also shared that a foldable iPad is coming in 2024 as well, and the main beneficiary will be Anjie Technology, a Suzhou manufacturer that will make "a carbon fiber kickstand".

As if the Samsung Galaxy S23 series leaks so far weren't detailed enough, we now have a fresh new one about One UI 5.1 and all the new features coming alongside it.WinFuture posted a detailed changelog of the new Samsung OS which will be based on Android 13 just like One UI 5.0.Based on the provided list of new features, One UI 5.1 will be a minor update over the current version, focusing on adding useful tweaks and customization options.

Canalys published its latest report on smartphone sales in China regarding the final quarter of 2022 and the full calendar year.The results are bleak, as the market saw a 14% decline in overall shipments, dipping below 300 million units for the first time since 2013.During Q4, Apple was the top maker with a 22% market share, although shipments declined 24%.

As anticipated, Honor scheduled an event on February 27 during MWC in Barcelona.The company confirmed it will launch the Magic5 series and finally bring the Magic Vs to the global scene.The arrival of the foldable is hardly a surprise, as Tony Ran, President of Honor EU, already promised in an interview the phone will arrive in the first quarter of 2023.

As the future Galaxy S23 series approaches, the vanilla Galaxy S23 is set to keep one foot in the past - it will launch with 128GB base storage.Leakster Ice Universe brings some more bad news for would-be S23 buyers, apparently the 128GB version will use the older UFS 3.1 storage format.The higher 256GB version will utilize the new, faster, more efficient UFS 4.0 and at least at launch it will be available at the same price as the 128GB model.

Razer hasn't made a smartphone in a while, but it just released an Android-powered gaming handheld, the Razer Edge.The device is built very much like a smartphone as you can see in the teardown video by PBKreviews.Only a few things set it apart, e.g.no cameras on the back - but there is one on the front, on the long edge of the display since this is intended for landscape use.