A week has passed since Samsung announced the Galaxy S23 series, and all three models already look solid contenders for a spot on our selection of the best Android phones. With a souped-up Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip under the hood, these phones were already equipped to handle demanding Android games. And now we're learning about some software enhancements that let Galaxy S23 phones get the very most out of that cutting-edge silicon — without cooking your battery in the process.

Samsung’s Game Booster utility includes an assuming little setting called "Pause USB Power Delivery," spotted by NL Tech (via SamMobile). The idea here is to totally bypass the phone's battery when you've got it plugged in over USB. That's a mode we've seen on performance-focused gaming phones in the past, like the Asus ROG Phone 5 and ROG Phone 6 — those even had dedicated charging ports.

The feature has a three-fold benefit. First, your battery won’t degrade as rapidly as when it is subject to rapid charge-discharge cycles because of intensive use. Your smartphone processor will have additional thermal headroom to ensure sustained high performance without thermal throttling, because the battery isn’t heating up due to charging. And finally, the charging bypass option also helps you (mostly) maintain your state of charge because power is being drawn from the wall outlet instead. The S23 consumes 6W of power with the feature enabled, but demands 17W when also charging the battery.

For power users, this feature could make a big difference to the battery health and service life in the long term. So far it appears limited to the Galaxy S23 series, and it remains to be seen if Samsung is interested in and able to bring the mode to existing hardware.