As previously reported, the Samsung Galaxy S23 series is expected to be equipped with new storage and memory technologies. While most of the phones in the series will come with LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage to ensure top performance, Samsung seems to be preparing to launch a specific SKU in the series.
According to leaker Ice Universe, all options of the Galaxy S23 series will be equipped with LPDDR5X memory instead of the LPDDR5 memory used on the Galaxy S22 series. Likewise, UFS 4.0 storage is expected to be available across the lineup — with one notable exception. The base 128 GB model of the vanilla Galaxy S23 will reportedly come with UFS 3.1 storage. While that’s hardly a drastic downgrade, it continues Samsung’s recent trend of treating the regular models in its Galaxy S series as lower-class citizens. For example, previous iterations had to deal with plastic backs and slower charging.
Regardless, it’s important to note that the 256/512 GB models of the vanilla S23 look to use UFS 4.0 storage like the others. The S23+ and S23 Ultra will not offer 128 GB of storage, so this is likely a case of Samsung opting not to manufacture a 128 GB UFS 4.0 module at all. Presumably, only Japanese manufacturer Kioxia currently produces 128 GB UFS 4.0 units, although the actual performance is barely better than Samsung’s UFS 3.1 modules – hence the decision.
The test performance still has not reached the normal level of UFS 4.0. Samsung’s flagship phones have no reason to use Kioxia chips. Even if it is used, the performance is not up to standard and cannot be called UFS4.0, so it is reasonable to use UFS3.1 for 128GB.
– Ice Universe (@UniverseIce) January 28, 2023
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