This is why you should skip the 128GB Samsung Galaxy S23
There have been reports claiming that Samsung will offer the Galaxy S23 with a base storage of 256GB, but at the same time there might be markets where the 128GB model will still be sold, presumably at a lower price.
If you are in a region where the 128GB model is being sold, you might want to consider skipping it and paying a bit more for the 256GB model. This is because according to tipster Ice Universe, they claim that for the Galaxy S23, Samsung might end up using UFS 3.1 for the 128GB model, instead of the UFS 4.0 storage that they are rumored to be using for the models with higher storage.
It is understandable that the 128GB of the S23 uses UFS 3.1. There are indications that Samsung does not seem to produce the 128GB version of the UFS 4.0 chip. It is currently known that only Kioxia has produced the 128GB UFS4.0, but through the 128GB UFS4 chip of the Xiaomi 13
— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) January 28, 2023
Now, to be fair, UFS 3.1 is by no means slow. For the average user, they might not necessarily need the faster storage, but that doesn’t mean they cannot benefit from it. Faster storage means that files get written quicker, especially for larger files like photos or videos. It also reads files faster, which is useful if you tend to access a lot of larger files on your phone.
For context, UFS 3.1 has sequential read speeds of up to 2,100MB/s and write speeds of up to 1,200MB/s, versus UFS 4.0 which has read and write speeds of 4,200MB/s and 2,800MB/s respectively.
That being said, if cost is a huge deciding factor for you, then obviously the 128GB model will be cheaper and more affordable, but you may have to put up with relatively slower read/write speeds compared to the 256GB models and above as a result.