Samsung Galaxy fans will love this major hardware upgrade in 2023

As the year begins to draw to a close, all eyes are looking towards the next-gen flagship handsets for 2023, which will be much lauded by Android fans looking for their best new phone thanks to the arrival of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. And it's suspected that the Samsung Galaxy S23 series is high up the list to receive it.

So what's so exciting about Snapdragon 8 Gen 2? The next-generation processor promises more across the board: better graphics in apps and games, better artificial intelligence (AI) for a more ready-and-waiting response, better sound quality, and even faster connectivity too.

The next flagship Samsung Galaxy is expected to arrive in February 2023, with rumours already pointing towards the top-tier S23 Ultra model looking much more appealing thanks to its 200-megapixel camera (the likes of which we've already seen in the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra). But with the new Qualcomm processor on board it'll be better still, potentially the best phone of the year.  

It's battle of the processors right now: the Google Pixel 7 Pro uses Google's own Tensor G2; the iPhone 14 Pro Max uses Apple's own A16 Bionic; and the also-just-announced MediaTek Dimensity 9200, which rivals the equivalent Qualcomm 8 Gen 2 chip spec for spec, is likely to appear in flagship Xiaomi, Oppo and OnePlus handsets.

But it's Samsung that garners the most interest from many Android fans. Having used its own Exynos hardware in many recent S-series releases, it's now expected that outside of Korea the company will adopt Qualcomm's top-spec hardware instead. That's thanks to the firms announcing a multi-year agreement earlier this year.

So what does that mean in the real world and why will Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 make the Galaxy S23 series the ultimate Android phones to watch out for in 2023? There are numerous reasons: the new Adreno GPU brings graphics advantages such as ray-tracing, bringing real-time reflection and shadows effects in future games (Tencent will have the first to arrive in 2023); Wi-Fi 7 support means the fastest download speeds (before Wi-Fi 7 has even been officially ratified as a standard); and there's Dynamic Spatial Audio support for surround-sound goodness straight to your headphones.

Even if the Samsung Galaxy S23 series isn't the first to receive Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (I'd anticipate that'll be Xiaomi in late 2022 in China), it's clearly going to be a fan favourite with plenty going for it.