Samsung Galaxy S22, S22+, and S22 Ultra hands-on review

Introduction

The Galaxy S22 family has arrived! Samsung's non-foldable top-shelf roster for 2022 includes three phones - standard practice in the last few years, but for the first time one of them is a Note in disguise.

Bringing together the ultimate in camera tech and the productivity of the S Pen into one phone, the Galaxy S22 Ultra is shaping up to be the one phone to rule them all. The most advanced Galaxy that doesn't fold in half (and it's superior to those in many ways, but let's not go into that now) will get you a super-bright 6.8-inch OLED display, an improved main camera and more telephotos than most (two is more than the usual one), the latest chipsets from Qualcomm or Samsung, and the versatility of the stylus for both work and play.

We've heard complaints from both sides, though, and that's just from within our office's four walls. It has way too many cameras, unnecessary for a Note user. It's also wasting valuable space with that S Pen, space that could have been battery instead, the other camp says. Note loyalists will appreciate the shape more than S-fans, we think - it's a lot more Note20 Ultra this, than it is an S21 Ultra.

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G specs at a glance:

• Body: 163.3x77.9x8.9mm, 229g; Glass front (Gorilla Glass Victus+), glass back (Gorilla Glass Victus+), aluminum frame; IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 1.5m for 30 mins), Stylus, 2.8ms latency (Bluetooth integration, accelerometer, gyro).
• Display: 6.80" Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 120Hz, HDR10+, 1750 nits (peak), 1440x3080px resolution, 19.25:9 aspect ratio, 500ppi; Always-on display.
• Chipset: Exynos 2200 (4 nm) - International, Qualcomm SM8450 Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (4 nm) - USA/China/India.
• Memory: 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 12GB RAM, 512GB 12GB RAM, 1TB 12GB RAM; UFS 3.1, .
• OS/Software: Android 12, One UI 4.1.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 108 MP, f/1.8, 24mm, 1/1.33", 0.8µm, Dual Pixel PDAF, Laser AF, OIS; Ultra wide angle: 12 MP, f/2.2, 13mm, 120˚, 1/2.55", 1.4µm, dual pixel PDAF, Super Steady video; Telephoto: 10 MP, f/2.4, 70mm, 1/3.52", 1.12µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom; Telephoto: 10 MP, f/4.9, 230mm, 1/3.52", 1.12µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS, 10x optical zoom.
• Front camera: 40 MP, f/2.2, 26mm (wide), 1/2.8", 0.7µm, PDAF.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 8K@24fps, 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/240fps, 720p@960fps, HDR10+, stereo sound rec., gyro-EIS; Front camera: 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30fps.
• Battery: 5000mAh; Fast charging 45W, USB Power Delivery 3.0, Fast Qi/PMA wireless charging 15W, Reverse wireless charging 4.5W.
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, ultrasonic); NFC; Samsung DeX, Samsung Wireless DeX (desktop experience support), Bixby natural language commands and dictation, Samsung Pay (Visa, MasterCard certified), Ultra Wideband (UWB) support.

The non-Ultra Galaxy S22s are less dividing - they're not as extreme and target a more mainstream clientele. A couple of shrewd choices on Samsung's part certainly help, particularly with the S22 proper - it's got a glass back this year, so it's not missing out on that premium feel, and it's also a touch smaller to lure in the seemingly ever-growing number of consumers looking for a more pocket-friendly alternative.

Even more so this year then, the two sizes differ not in quality, but just in quantity. 6.1 inches vs. 6.6, 168 grams vs. 196, 3,700mAh vs. 4500 - a €/$200 premium gets you the bigger numbers. The non-Ultras get the same chipsets too, lower-res but still spectacular screens, same materials in the body as the true flagship, and a refined design building on last year's.

Samsung Galaxy S22/S22+ 5G specs at a glance:

• Body (S22): 146.0x70.6x7.6mm, 168g; Glass front (Gorilla Glass Victus+), glass back (Gorilla Glass Victus+), aluminum frame; IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 1.5m for 30 mins).
• Body (S22+): 157.4x75.8x7.6mm, 196g (S22: 146.0x70.6x7.6mm, 168g Glass front (Gorilla Glass Victus+), glass back (Gorilla Glass Victus+), aluminum frame; IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 1.5m for 30 mins).
• Display (S22): 6.10" Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 120Hz, HDR10+, 1300 nits (peak), 1080x2340px resolution, 19.5:9 aspect ratio, 422ppi; Always-on display.
• Display (S22+): 6.60" Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 120Hz, HDR10+, 1750 nits (peak), 1080x2340px resolution, 19.5:9 aspect ratio, 390ppi; Always-on display.
• Chipset: Exynos 2200 (4 nm) - International, Qualcomm SM8450 Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (4 nm) - USA/China/India.
• Memory: 128GB 8GB RAM, 256GB 8GB RAM; UFS 3.1.
• OS/Software: Android 12, One UI 4.1.
• Rear camera: Wide (main): 50 MP, f/1.8, 24mm, 1/1.56", 1.0µm, multi-directional PDAF, OIS; Ultra wide angle: 12 MP, f/2.2, 13mm, 120˚, 1/2.55" 1.4µm, Super Steady video; Telephoto: 10 MP, f/2.4, 70mm, 1/3.94", 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom.
• Front camera: 10 MP, f/2.2, 26mm (wide), 1/3.24", 1.22µm, Dual Pixel PDAF.
• Video capture: Rear camera: 8K@24fps, 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/240fps, 720p@960fps, HDR10+, stereo sound rec., gyro-EIS; Front camera: 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30fps.
• Battery (S22): 3700mAh; Fast charging 25W, USB Power Delivery 3.0, Fast Qi/PMA wireless charging 15W, Reverse wireless charging 4.5W.
• Battery (S22+): 4500mAh; Fast charging 45W, USB Power Delivery 3.0, Fast Qi/PMA wireless charging 15W, Reverse wireless charging 4.5W.
• Misc: Fingerprint reader (under display, ultrasonic); NFC; Samsung DeX, Samsung Wireless DeX (desktop experience support), Bixby natural language commands and dictation, Samsung Pay (Visa, MasterCard certified), Ultra Wideband (UWB) support.

We got to spend some time with the three phones and have some early impressions to share. We'll build up to the Ultra starting with the S22 and S22+ on the next page.

Galaxy S22 and S22+ hands-on

The Galaxy S22 and S22+ are brand new, yet so very familiar. Following up on last year's Contour cut design, the 2022 models adopt the same basic principle for the camera island - the one area left where phones can have any personality, only draw a little bit less attention to it.

Samsung Galaxy S22 and S22+

Last year's hero color, Phantom Violet, which had contrasting colors for the frame and back panel, is now gone. Out of the standard 4 colors for this year, only the Phantom White has traces of contrast between frame and panel, the silver-ish finish of the metal somewhat sticking out against the matte white back - it's more or less the same as last year's white version. The other colorways available at launch include Phantom Black, Green and Pink Gold and all have frames to match the color of the handset's back panel.

Samsung Galaxy S22 next to S21There's a wider selection of colors available on Samsung.com - Graphite, Cream, Sky Blue and Violet.

Speaking of that back, it's important to point out that the vanilla S22 model now too has glass covering its internals, replacing the plastic of last year. We ourselves complained a bunch about the 'flagship' S21 having plastic touching your fingertips, on principle more than out of real dislike for the material. Other outlets expressed... disagreement with Samsung's choice, too. Whether this public outcry was entirely responsible or there were other reasons behind the change, but now all three phones have Gorilla Glass Victus+ front and back.

Samsung Galaxy S22

Another subtle change for this generation is the way the camera surround meets the frame. It's less fluid, less 'contour'-y, but sharper and chiseled instead. It still almost looks like the camera island is part of the frame, but there's less continuity between the two elements than on the previous models.

The island itself remains essentially unchanged and pokes out some - not too much, not a little.

Samsung Galaxy S22 camera island

What's contained inside it is different, though. A new 50MP primary camera utilizing the in-house ISOCELL GN5 sensor (1/1.53", 1.0µm, Tetrapixel color filter) replaces the 12MP 1/1.76", 1.8µm unit found on the S21.

 

The telephoto is now more of a real telephoto, delivering 3x optical zoom to a 10MP sensor (1/3.94", 1,0µm), as opposed to the hybrid/lossless 1.1x 64MP unit on the outgoing model - this will certainly make for an interesting comparison. Oddly enough, it's not the same unit as the Ultra's short telephoto.

There'll be little to compare on the ultrawide end, where the hardware remains the same (and that means no autofocus, which... should we even bother complaining about?).

This whole comparison thing is for future us to deal with, however, since we neither had the time, nor were we actually allowed to do one at this point.

Samsung Galaxy S22 and S22+ now have 'real' zoom

Circling back to topics that are more tangible, the S22's reduced display diagonal by a mere 0.1-inch makes what was already a reasonably compact phone even more pocket-friendly. The smallest of the three S22s is 0.6mm narrower than last year's model, but more importantly, it's nearly 6mm shorter. And at 146x70.6mm in footprint, it's just barely smaller than an iPhone 13 or 13 Pro. Its 168g are also noticeably less than the 13 Pro's 204-gram heft, though the difference of 7g against the 13 is more or less negligible.

Samsung Galaxy S22 vs. iPhone 13Pro

What we're getting at here is that the Galaxy S22 is now as premium as the premium-est Galaxy thanks to the all-glass build, but is also even more pocketable than last year's model - an unfortunate combination of circumstances for someone who recently defended the iPhone 13 Pro as the ultimate premium compact.

Same size, very different weight

The Galaxy S22+, on the other hand, is a full-size handset at 157.4x75.8x7.6mm. Having said that, Samsung has shaved off 0.1 inches from its diagonal as well, and that's made it a little shorter too, though the 4mm here are less noticeable than the 6mm on the smaller handset.

The Plus has also gotten marginally lighter, though it's not really 'light' at 196g. An iPhone 13 Pro Max is still way chunkier at 240g.

Samsung Galaxy S22+

Over on the front both phones have gorgeous OLED displays, Dynamic AMOLED 2X if you insist on using Samsung's nomenclature. They support refresh rates up to 120Hz, and Samsung has extended their adaptive behavior to what the Ultra could do last year - they can go as low as 10Hz, compared to the S21s' 48Hz minimum. This year's Ultra, meanwhile, can drop to 1Hz, they say, so the non-Ultras are still a notch below in adaptive refresh rate capabilities.

Samsung Galaxy S22 (left) can't go quite as bright as the S22+

The Plus matches the Ultra for peak brightness, there's some parity on that front at least, and the number is a crazy high 1750nits peak (for HDR use) or 1200nits in 'high brightness' mode (general use in bright ambient conditions). The vanilla S22 peaks at 1300nits, and we didn't get its high brightness mode number, but whatever it is, we're certain that outside of numerical comparisons the phone will be plenty good enough.

The Galaxy S22+ (left) does match the S22 Ultra for peak brightness

Samsung is also advertising a new feature called Vision Booster, which aims to further improve outdoor visibility by tonal remapping and tweaking brightness, contrast, and color. That's going to require more of a subjective evaluation because we can imagine colors will be all out of whack to the eyes of the measuring equipment.

Samsung Galaxy S22+

As usual, the S22 and S22+ are IP68-rated for dust and water protection, but Samsung only covers the standard's mandatory 1.5m for 30mins requirements, unlike Apple which has been outspeccing the minimum since the iPhone XS and the latest models are rated for up to 6m submersion.

 

Galaxy S22 Ultra hands-on

Isn't this obviously the Galaxy Note21 Ultra that never happened? With a last-minute update to 2022-appropriate chipsets, naturally. Wild speculation on our part, of course, because this in front of you is obviously the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

But for a Galaxy S, it sure looks a lot like a Galaxy N. It's got the blocky rectangular shape of the latest (last?) Note, the 20 Ultra, and it's more or less that exact size too. It measures 163.3x77.9x8.9mm so it's just 1.5mm shorter and actually 0.7mm wider and 0.8mm thicker than that last model to bear the Note moniker. In all fairness, the Galaxy S21 Ultra is actually taller than the new generation handset - this new one is some 2mm shorter, but 2.3mm wider. So it's as big as a Note, and is shaped like one too.

With the more angular shape and different proportions, this one would certainly appeal more easily to folks with previous Note experience. It's a slab with a commanding presence that's anything but compact. Slip it in a case and not a lot of jeans pockets will comfortably accommodate it. But that's precisely the form factor Note-loving die-hards appreciate so at least that group should be happy.

The Galaxy S22 Ultra comes in a selection of 4 colors in retail channels and 3 more online-exclusive options. The standard ones are called Burgundy, Green, Phantom White, and Phantom Black, while the ones you can only get on Samsung.com are Graphite, Sky Blue, and Red.

There's no single common camera 'island' to speak of, which is a departure from pretty much every Samsung we've seen as of late. Instead, each camera gets its own separate circular protrusion, and so does the laser AF window. This unusual aesthetic seems well in line with the already different and more technical Note-inspired looks, so we're on board.

The display of the Galaxy S22 Ultra measures 6.8 inches in diagonal and even though it's nominally smaller than the S21 Ultra's, it's in fact ever so slightly bigger in area thanks to the more squarish aspect.

We've reached a point where Samsung's moved away from curved screens on more mainstream devices and it's only the Ultra that gets this polarizing design this year, much like in 2021. It has its pros and cons with the former rooted mostly in looks and premium-ness and the latter related to handling and possibly palm rejection mishaps.

It's the only one of the trio with QHD+ resolution (the others are FullHD+) and it's also the only one to get the most advanced adaptive refresh rate behavior that lets it go all the way down to 1Hz from its 120Hz maximum. The 1750nits of peak brightness (for smaller areas in HDR scenarios) and 1200nits in high brightness mode (larger lit areas, bright ambient light) are industry-leading numbers too.

It's a spectacular display, no doubt about that.

But, this being a Note(-like handset), other specs can be more important. S Pen input latency has been dramatically reduced - Samsung quotes a 2.8ms number compared to the 9ms on the S21U and the Note20U. That should make for an even more natural writing experience and it's been achieved through improved AI-based coordinate prediction in conjunction with upgraded Wacom hardware. The fine print does say that the 2.8s are measured in the Samsung Notes app, though, so you may have to settle for more milliseconds in other apps.

By the way, the number of supported languages for handwriting recognition has been increased to 88 (12 more than before).

Speaking of the S Pen, it's essentially the same unit as the one on the Note20 Ultra, complete with a super capacitor, gyro and accelerometer, enabling active input (Anywhere actions, camera and gallery operation from a distance, music controls, and whatnot).

Unlike the S21 Ultra, which sort of supported an S Pen, but you had to carry it separately, the one on the S22 Ultra can be tucked away inside the phone, so it's always there when you need it and you're way less likely to misplace it after use.

A neat new feature this year called Collaboration View lets you use the S22 Ultra together with a Tab S8 - you connect the two and the phone becomes your tool palette while the tablet is just your canvas. It's a not the most affordable of setups though, starting at roughly €2200 for a base model S22 Ultra and a non-OLED vanilla Tab S8.

The other pillar of the S22 Ultra's feature set is the camera and that's more intrinsic to the S series of Galaxies. So the Ultra comes with a competent quad camera that's based on a 108MP Nonapixel main unit and includes two telephotos (3x and 10x) and an ultrawide unit with autofocus - a feature, which remains exclusive to the S22 Ultra and S21 Ultra in the company's lineup.

The primary camera has new processing tricks up its sleeve and is able to blend 12MP nonabinned images with full-res ones for improvement in both light capture and detail. It's otherwise essentially the same hardware - a 1/1.33" sensor with 0.8µm pixels behind a stabilized lens with an f/1.8 aperture.

The ultrawide, too, is unchanged. You'd be getting a 1/2.55" sensor with 1.4µm pixels and an f/2.2 aperture lens that covers a 120-degree field of view. The S22 Ultra will be the Samsung to get, if you want an ultrawide that can focus on near objects, the lesser ones get a fixed-focus unit.

While the above cameras have the same specs as last year, the telephotos have seen somewhat of a downgrade. Both the 3x and 10x modules remain at 10MP, but sensor and pixel size have been reduced (1/3.52" vs. 1/3.24" and 1.12µm vs. 1.22µm). Lens aperture remains at f/2.4 and f/4.9 respectively and both lenses feature OIS. We'll need to test just how much of an impact the smaller sensors will have on image quality - perhaps improved processing will make up for it.

There were talks of a new AI stereo depth map, driven by deep learning, which should make for some more precise subject detection in Portrait mode. Portraits were indeed a major subject in the presentation, and we'll now be getting Night Portrait mode for those darker scenes (even on the front camera), as well as Pet portrait mode - not strictly a mode in itself, but improved recognition of pets in Portrait mode.

Expert RAW is a new optional camera app that's now being made available alongside the S22 Ultra. It offers much the same functionality as Pro mode in the main camera app, including exposure, white balance and focus controls, but saves multi-frame DNG RAW files with extra wide dynamic range that give you more latitude to edit in post.

Most of these software features will be available on the non-Ultras as well. Again, we can't wait for real review units to show up at our doorstep so we can see the magnitude of all the improvements in the real world.

   

Chipsets

In another episode of the Great Chipset Divide, the Galaxy S22 models will be available with either the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 or the Exynos 2200 chipset, depending on where in the world you're getting the phones, and it's seemingly even more unclear which market gets which SoC this year.

Both chipsets are made on a 4nm process for the cutting edge in performance and power efficiency. CPU configuration is also similar between the two with both Qualcomm and Samsung opting for a 1+3+4 design, with minor differences in the peak clock rates.

Controversies have been sparked in the past about the mostly academic advantages of the Snapdragon over the Exynos in direct comparisons, but this year it may be the Samsung in-house silicon that attracts more of the good kind of attention. The Xclipse GPU in the Exynos 2200 is a result of Samsung's collaboration with AMD and is the first mobile GPU to feature ray tracing for the most natural rendition of light in your games as well as variable rate shading (VRS) for maintaining stable refresh rates.

Naturally, both chips support 5G connectivity.

Battery

While the S22 Ultra keeps the 5,000mAh battery capacity of its predecessor, the other two phones come with smaller power packs, and the consequences of this are among the things we're most curious to look into. There are a lot of variables that go into this, including the smaller displays, more advanced adaptive refresh rate, newer chipsets, and all that, but we're never particularly enthused to hear about a reduced battery capacity. And while the S21+ was no slouch in terms of endurance, the S21 left us wanting, and we fear the S22 won't be a step in the right direction.

There's one more semi-related bit of the S22's specs that is sort of bugging us, and that's its 25W charging capability, while the two bigger phones can take up to 45W. Having said that, judging by previous experience with Samsung charging, we can cautiously speculate that the Plus and Ultra won't be charging dramatically faster than the vanilla model or the respective previous-gen ones. Though, again, we're open to being pleasantly surprised.

All three phones support wireless charging and can also themselves charge other devices.

OneUI 4.1 and Android 12

The three new phones come with OneUI 4.1 over Android 12. It's a newer version than the OneUI 4.0 that's been running on the S21 generation and the foldables for at least a month now but the (relatively) big changes came from 3 to 4, and the update after the decimal point isn't making a huge difference.

The key words that Samsung says summarize OneUI 4 are customization and privacy. Theming, color palettes to match your wallpaper (native Android 12 feature), and a wide variety of GIFs and stickers in the keyboard were among the things mentioned. On the privacy front, you'd be getting a privacy dashboard in settings giving you an overview of which apps are making use of sensitive permissions. Additionally, an icon indicator will show up in the top right corner of the screen when an app is using the camera or listening in on the microphone. These are already available on OneUI 4.0.

A brand new development this year is Samsung's promise for 4 generations of major OneUI and Android OS updates and 5 years of security patches.

Camera samples

It's past ideal picture-taking time where we are, and not being able to go outside the venue means low-light shooting scenarios are also limited. Still we grabbed a few quick snaps with the Galaxy S22, the S22 Ultra, and a Galaxy S21 we had on hand.

Main camera comparison: Galaxy S22 • Galaxy S22 Utlra • Galaxy S21 Ultra

Ultrawide camera comparison: Galaxy S22 • Galaxy S22 Utlra • Galaxy S21 Ultra

Telephoto camera comparison, 3x: Galaxy S22 • Galaxy S22 Utlra • Galaxy S21 Ultra

Selfie camera comparison: Galaxy S22 • Galaxy S22 Utlra • Galaxy S21 Ultra

We won't be analyzing these too closely just yet, but we figured we'd just slap them here for you to marvel at.

Early verdict

As Samsung's top-tier trio for 2022 (foldables excluded), the Galaxy S22s are by definition going to be great smartphones. The extent to which they excel in this or that area (or fall slightly short) will remain a mystery for a couple more weeks until review units start arriving, but a few things are clear already.

For starters, the Galaxy S22 is leaning more towards being marketed as a true compact flagship, thanks to its smaller size than last year and the build to match the other two. On the flipside, the smaller battery capacity could be its most serious con.

The Galaxy S22+ makes a simple trade-off then, offering longer runtimes and larger screen area at the expense of taking up more space in your pocket (though it will 'help' by freeing up an extra €/$200 worth of its contents).

Another €/$200 on top will get you the Galaxy S22 Ultra and it's trying to be everything to everyone. Whether you look at it as an S21 Ultra successor, or the reincarnation of the Note lineup in all but name, it's packed to the brim with hardware. We'd like to think that Note loyalists will like it for it's Note-ness, while S-series fans will appreciate that not a lot was compromised for the sake of the stylus. We'll see how it all plays out in the coming weeks.

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