If you always felt like the closest rival to your Galaxy S23 FE was the Galaxy S22, and if you ever doubted choosing the Fan Edition phone over the Galaxy S22 or S22+, you might soon rest easy knowing you made the right decision.
Had I been in that position last year, I probably would've picked the Galaxy S22+ instead of the Galaxy S23 FE. And, in the end, I would have missed out on Samsung's latest Galaxy AI features.
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You see, while Samsung has confirmed that it will bring One UI 6.1 with Galaxy AI to last-gen devices through a firmware update, it also made it pretty clear that older phones, like the Galaxy S22, won't enjoy this treatment.
Not every Exynos 2200 device is treated equally
What's interesting to me is that, in most markets, the Galaxy S23 FE and the Galaxy S22 use the same Exynos 2200 chip. Despite this, your Galaxy S23 FE will get Galaxy AI features, whereas the Galaxy S22 series will not. What gives?
Well, it turns out Samsung has to put in a lot of work to optimize Galaxy AI for each device, which means the company had to manage its time and resources wisely (via TechRadar).
Furthermore, Samsung is still testing the waters and doesn't want to bite off more than it can chew with these new AI features. It's uncharted territory. So, retroactively, Samsung chose to limit its efforts to bringing Galaxy AI to select last-gen (2023) Galaxy phones.
Luckily, the Galaxy S23 FE has made the cut, but sadly for other Exynos 2200 users, the Galaxy S22 series has not. So, the Exynos 2200 chip and its NPU capabilities have nothing to do with the availability of Galaxy AI. It's all about resource management and Samsung taking a careful step into the AI realm.
Regardless of the reasons why Samsung will approach Galaxy AI updates in this manner, the fact remains that the Galaxy S23 FE will soon have another reason to claim it's a better phone than the Galaxy S22, even if they share the same platform.
Galaxy AI is a big deal for Samsung as artificial intelligence becomes more prevalent across industries. And the more time passes, the more the Galaxy S22 will feel more outdated than the Galaxy S23 FE because of its future bereft of AI.
