The first half of the year will be packed with weak phone announcements ahead of the Mobile World Congress in late February and early March.
While 2022 was a year of repeated upgrades when it comes to smartphones, 2023 is shaping up to be a year that will pave the way for technology in the years to come. The launch of the flagship smartphone has already started with the announcement of the iQOO 11 5G. Another device to look forward to is the Galaxy S23 Ultra, which will launch on February 1st, followed by the OnePlus 11 on February 7th. The first half of the year will be full of weak phone announcements leading up to Mobile World Congress in late February to early March.
CES 2023 also showed various new technologies that could be coming to the next device you buy, and the Qi2 wireless charging standard is one of them. Apple is helping WPC (Wireless Power Consortium) introduce Qi2 wireless charging solutions to the Android world.
The mobile world will see a new foldable boom in the form of the Google Pixel Fold expected in May, so Samsung will finally see competition in the foldable segment in markets other than Europe and China. This will lead to the launch of the new foldable Samsung in August and the iPhone 15 and Apple Watch Series 9 around September.
More exciting introductions will come in the second and third quarters of 2023. Apple is said to be preparing to introduce its first AR/VR headset, which is speculated to be called the Apple Reality headset. It could potentially change the way we interact with AR/VR content. While the company has already launched the new M2 chips alongside its latest MacBook Pros, the much-anticipated 15-inch MacBook Air is still under wraps.
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
This year’s first Samsung flagship will be launched on February 1. It is said to have a simpler design language. The phone will be powered by Qualcomm’s latest chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, paired with up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. On the optics side, it will have a 200MP primary camera along with an ultra-wide-angle sensor and two telephoto lenses for 3x and 10x optical zoom needs. Pre-orders are already open and you can expect its release in mid-February.
Google Pixel Fold
Since the launch of the first Galaxy Fold in India, Samsung has had virtually no competition. The Galaxy Z Flip and Galaxy Z Fold series are the only options for you if you want to buy a foldable smartphone. However, 2023 could be the year that foldable devices penetrate further into the smartphone market due to more competition.
The Pixel Fold is an exciting proposition, as design leaks show that it folds more like the Oppo Find N than the Galaxy Z Fold 4. For the uninitiated, the latest Galaxy Z Fold has a thin front display that’s hard to type past. Additionally, most apps have issues with display scaling. These two are the main issues addressed by the China-exclusive Oppo Find N and N2.
The Pixel Fold will have a design similar to the Find N. According to leaked renders, the Pixel Fold unfolding would provide a large tablet-like display in landscape orientation. There are large bezels at the top and bottom of the inner screen. The top bezel could hide a 9.5MP camera for selfies and video calls. It’s not confirmed that the Google Pixel Fold will make its way to India, but you can expect it to go official at Google’s I/O in May 2023.
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5
The Samsung Galaxy Fold series has had a “creasing problem” for years. If you don’t know, the screen doesn’t fit on the Galaxy Folds. But that could change with the Galaxy Z Fold 5. According to some accounts, Samsung will change the hinge design on the Fold 5, which will change the way we interact with the Galaxy Fold series.
As far as speculation goes, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 is expected to have better optics in the same triple-camera design. It will still work with the S-Pen, but don’t expect an S-Pen slot on the device. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 is likely to launch in August 2023 and will be Samsung’s second flagship this year after the Galaxy S22 Ultra.
iPhone 15
The basic iPhone 15 is likely to be the most popular choice among Indian consumers in 2023. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the iPhone 15 will get the Dynamic Island from the iPhone 14 Pro. This feature was introduced in 2022 and was limited to Pro models. It is likely to be powered by its own A16 chipset. Other than that, nothing major has been said about the next iPhone. When launched in September 2023, you can expect the same dual-camera hardware and no design changes.
HTC Vive XR Elite
HTC announced its Vive XR Elite at CES 2023. It’s the latest version of HTC’s VR/AR headset, and it might be the best Vive yet when it comes out in late February for $1,099. India’s launch date and price are not yet known.
With the Vive XR Elite, the company has shrunk the VR headset down to almost normal goggle size, which is a big deal for any AR/VR headset. It features adjustment wheels or diopters that can change the lens prescription in real-time, so you don’t need to wear glasses or contact lenses to operate the headset.
Apple Reality headset
The Apple AR/VR headset has been touted as the next big product from the house of Apple since the launch of the iPhone in 2007. You can expect it to launch later this year. It is expected to redefine the AR/VR industry and open up new ways of interacting with the technology. With the kind of support Apple has from developers, the company has a lot going for it.
The Apple Reality headset is speculated to be incredibly light as the battery could be worn around the waist. It’s designed to feature a hot-swap design for the battery, making the claimed one to two hours of battery life palatable. Apple’s new product could be made of aluminum, carbon fiber and glass, offering a very high-resolution display and thin optics. It is rumored to offer a 120-degree field of view that would surpass other VR headsets.
One of the reasons Quest 2 or HTC Vive hasn’t bridged the gap between AR/VR and consumers is that there aren’t many developers making apps for the hardware currently available. However, Apple’s Reality headset could change that with the Reality Kit software, while the hugely popular Unity developer kit could also be supported. That being said, it would still be a stretch for Apple to justify the alleged $2,000-$3,000 price tag for its headset. A new report from Bloomberg also claims that Apple is already looking at a cheaper alternative for its Reality headset, which could launch in 2024.
15-inch MacBook Air
Apple is expected to introduce a new 15-inch MacBook Air in 2023. The latest M2 MacBook Air has a 13.6-inch screen. The upcoming product would sit between the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros.
It is said to have a 15.2-inch display, which is 0.2 inches smaller than the previously available 15.4-inch MacBook Pro. However, given the thin bezels on the M2 MacBook Air design, the 15-inch Air could be smaller overall than the previous 15-inch MacBook Pro.
The upcoming MacBook Air is expected to feature a MagSafe charging port, two USB Type-C ports, a 1080p camera, and an improved speaker system. Don’t expect the display to have ProMotion technology or to be made of mini-LEDs – those are limited to MacBook Pros. Its launch is expected in the second half of 2023.
Wireless TVs
CES is the big show for TVs. From Sony to LG, all the big names showed off their flagships at CES this year. While Sony didn’t show off any Bravia TVs this year (which is a bit odd), Samsung and LG went all-in with OLED. But the standout TV was a $3,000 wireless TV announced by a company called Displace.
The Displace Wireless TV relies on batteries rather than a power cord, making it truly wireless. And if you’re anything like me and hate getting complicated with their technology, this has got to be exciting news. However, convenience comes at a cost. Since there are batteries, they will need charging. According to the company, if you were to use the TV for six hours every day, you would need to recharge the batteries at the end of the month.
Qi2 wireless charging
I love wireless chargers on my desk, but there are times when the phone rings or vibrates and my phone falls out of the charger, stopping the charge. Apple came up with MagSafe charging, which solves exactly this problem using magnets. And now the company is working with the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) to introduce the Qi2 (pronounced chi-2) wireless charging solution.
Qi2’s magnetic force profile opens the door to a whole future ecosystem of snap-on accessories. This is a much-needed upgrade from the Qi wireless charging standard for both convenience and functionality. And it’s always great to see companies use standards to make things that reduce the friction between consumers and their products.
In a statement provided to The Verge, the WPC said it will also mandate the size and strength of magnets to ensure a strong connection. While Qi2 will likely be available in 2023 for phones and headphones, the consortium says it will bring an updated Qi2.1 wireless charging standard that will add support for smartwatches and tablets around mid-2024.
ChatGPT is the next big thing
The release of ChatGPT to the general public demonstrates what a powerful AI system can do. It can remember the thread of your dialogue from previous questions and answers in a conversational tone. Unlike Google, it does not search the entire Internet in real-time but has been trained to a certain limit with the vast amount of information available on the Internet.
A friend of mine asked him for suggestions on how to help my sleep schedule, and he responded, starting with, “Convincing someone to change their behavior can be challenging, especially when it comes to something as personal as sleep habits.” That gave me five suggestions for improving the quality of sleep. You can ask it to write an essay and after the answer type “make it more exciting” and the AI will do it for you. There’s a lot going on here.
I noticed that ChatGPT offers advice on both sides of the coin, so the final decision is up to you which one you choose. It can be used in a variety of ways – you can create a new bedtime story for the kids every night, have her write recipes from the food you have, practice for interviews – the possibilities are endless. However, OpenAI, the chatbot’s developer, warns that ChatGPT “may occasionally generate incorrect or misleading information.”
Notably, ChatGPT is already being misused by students to write essays. High school teacher Daniel Herman concluded that ChatGPT already writes better than most of today’s students. That being said, the influence of Google, Wikipedia, and the Internet itself was once thought to destroy education, but it didn’t. I guess we’ll wait and see how it turns out, but AI will definitely change education from what we know about it today.
Not just education, AI is impacting jobs around the world. Companies like CNET and Forbes are already using AI to create content. However, CNET says a team of editors fact-checks and fine-tunes pieces before anything is published. Whatever content AI creates, until it learns to share personal experiences and create stories, reporters’ jobs are safe. On the other hand, StackOverflow has already banned software generated by ChatGPT, so developers are still using their brains to create things.
“AI is going to reinvent how you do everything in Windows.” The statement comes from Microsoft EVP and Chief Product Officer Panos Panay. At AMD’s CES 2023 press conference, he explained how AI will change the way you use Windows. For context, AMD announced the Ryzen 7000 mobile processors, which are claimed to be the first x86 chips to feature a dedicated AI engine that could help with all the AI activities going on in your gadget.
While Panay didn’t go into detail, one of his suggestions included how special AI chips can help detect eye contact, add background blur, and automatically frame someone on a conference call, all part of Windows Studio Effects.