Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra review

Greatest Costs At the moment: Samsung Galaxy S22 Extremely

$999.99

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When Samsung revealed the brand new Galaxy S22 vary, it was largely enterprise as regular – for the Galaxy S22 and S22+, anyway. The Galaxy S22 Extremely, alternatively, gives a way more radical change that brings it nearer than ever to the Galaxy Notice vary, with a redesigned chassis and a built-in S Pen.

The query is, does the non secular successor to the Galaxy Notice 20 Extremely provide sufficient to tempt customers, particularly at such a excessive worth level? Whereas it’s not the good smartphone, there’s rather a lot to like about Samsung’s top-end Galaxy S22 Extremely in 2022.

We now additionally know precisely how the Snapdragon and Exynos variants of the top-end Galaxy S22 examine. Learn on to seek out out extra.

Design & Construct

• Galaxy Notice design language
• Slick, premium construct
• Barely curved body is good within the hand

In comparison with Galaxy smartphones earlier than it, some would possibly say the Galaxy S22 Extremely appears a bit simplistic – however I feel simplicity appears nice on a smartphone. We don’t all want in-your-face designs, refractive glass patterns, or huge, brilliant flashy logos, particularly on such a premium little bit of package.

In terms of the S22 Extremely, much less is definitely extra, with a slick mix of steel and glass that does a lot of the speaking.  

Essentially the most notable distinction in comparison with the remainder of the S22 line is the dearth of a digital camera ‘island’ surrounding the rear-facing cameras. Whereas it does alienate the S22 Extremely from the remainder of the vary, it ties in with the minimalist design, with small particulars like polished steel housing across the cameras contributing to the high-end look.

The sharp, squared-off corners are paying homage to the Galaxy Notice 20 Extremely design (I ponder why…) and assist make the S22 Extremely stand out from the ocean of rounded smartphones, however in contrast to the flat-sided
iPhone 13, it options ever-so-gently curved edges to assist it sit comfortably within the palm.

The curved edges of the 6.8in show aren’t anyplace close to as excessive as waterfall shows like that of the
Motorola Edge a couple of years in the past, with no actual drawback with unintended display screen presses or textual content disappearing off the sting of the show. It’s simply sufficient to see a little bit of curvature on the sting, which additionally makes for a {smooth} side-swipe expertise.

That 6.8in show – bigger than the
iPhone 13 Professional Max – does imply that the S22 Extremely could be a bit unwieldy at instances, measuring in at 8.9mm thick and 229g. It’s not an issue for me with pretty giant fingers, however displaying the S22 Extremely to pals actually demonstrated the way it’s probably not designed for smaller mitts – particularly with regards to one-handed use.  

In any other case, the Galaxy S22 Extremely appears and seems like a premium little bit of package with a stable really feel within the hand. It’s protected by Gorilla Glass Victus+ on the rear to assist defend it from harm, and there’s IP68 mud and water resistance.

I’ve seen plenty of different critiques get scratches on the again seemingly too simply, however presumably from having a second cellphone of their pocket which isn’t typical utilization. My pattern did take a tumble throughout a tiled ground and survived the incident unscathed. 

The Galaxy S22 Extremely is offered in a variety of colors together with Phantom Black, Phantom White, Inexperienced and Burgundy.

Show

• Gorgeous 6.8in AMOLED show
• Buttery-smooth 120Hz adaptive refresh fee
• Spectacular brightness

The 6.8in AMOLED show of the S22 Extremely is undoubtedly one of many highlights of the smartphone and a key cause to purchase it over different telephones. It gives a brilliant, vivid, detailed expertise with a {smooth} refresh fee.

The show sports activities a 3088 x 1440 (WQHD+) decision that equates to a pixel density of round 500ppi – a stark distinction to Apple’s top-end iPhone and its 2316 x 1080 (FHD+) show.

Earlier than you get too excited, it’s value noting that the S22 Extremely comes working a decrease 2316 x 1080 (FHD+) decision out of the field and also you’ll should manually change the setting your self. That’s as a result of that top decision can actually drain the battery, particularly when gaming. The excellent news is that, even on the FHD+ decision, the show appears good and crisp.  

One saving issue is the adaptive refresh fee, which not solely makes apps and video games appear and feel {smooth}, however the skill to shift from 1- to 120Hz means it’ll draw much less battery energy than an ordinary 120Hz show with none actual noticeable distinction in efficiency.

The S22 Extremely is straightforward to make use of exterior, even in direct daylight, with one of many brightest smartphone shows available on the market proper now. Samsung claims at customary ranges it may well attain as much as 1250nits, whereas a boosted brightness mode (very best for outside use) cranks it as much as a fair increased 1750 nits.

Even when it didn’t hit fairly such lofty heights in benchmarking, scoring 711 nits through a Spyder X, it’s comfortably brighter than most different flagships proper now. That’s thanks partly to Samsung’s Imaginative and prescient Booster tech that’ll robotically modify the brightness, colors and extra relying on ambient lighting circumstances for an optimum viewing expertise.

Hidden beneath the show is an ultrasonic fingerprint reader, and whereas they’ve had a nasty rap up to now, I discovered it to work near-perfectly on the S22 Extremely. It’s situated roughly a 3rd of the best way up from the underside edge, which is the place my thumb naturally lands, and the unlock course of is near-instantaneous.

You do even have facial unlock, however it’s not as safe as PIN or fingerprint – it’s no Face ID, in spite of everything.    

There’s additionally a small 40Mp holepunch digital camera, centrally positioned on the high of the show, however the giant dimensions of the show meant it was barely noticeable typically use.

S Pen

• Unimaginable low-latency efficiency
• Saved inside the smartphone when not in use
• Strain and tilt delicate

Whereas final 12 months’s Galaxy S21 Extremely provided compatibility with the S Pen stylus, the S22 Extremely goes full-Notice by including help for an built-in S Pen, thus finishing its transition to Notice-but-not-Notice. When you love the expertise on provide from the Notice 20, the Galaxy S22 Extremely is its successor in all however identify.  

The sunshine and versatile stylus is hidden inside the physique of the cellphone when not in use, accessible by pushing down on the pen to pop it out. It’s not more likely to fall out by chance both, with a grippy end on the pen requiring you to actively pull it out of its hidey-hole.

Whereas it’s personally somewhat small for this reviewers’ fingers, the stylus is a pleasure to make use of – and that’s primarily all the way down to Samsung’s latency magic, lowered from 9ms to an unimaginable 2.8ms on the S22 Extremely.

That interprets to near-instant response when writing textual content, offering extra of a pure pen-to-paper feeling when jotting notes on the go and doodling utilizing PenUP – particularly when mixed with Samsung’s scribbling sound results.

It’s simply top-of-the-line stylus experiences available on the market, even when in comparison with the Apple Pencil 2’s 9-20ms response time, and it comes at no additional cost both.  

Apart from being helpful for notetaking and drawing, the S Pen permits additional performance, together with the flexibility to make good choices of something on display screen, annotate screenshots, doodle in AR and the flexibility to translate handwritten textual content to plaintext.

The button on the facet of the stylus even doubles up as a distant set off, permitting you to set off photographs and movies with out being behind the digital camera.

Not everybody will make full use of the additional performance on provide from the built-in S-Pen, however the skill to make use of a high-quality stylus everytime you like is one thing that’ll attraction to rather a lot of customers – particularly with an expertise as true-to-life because the S Pen. It’s simply my favorite characteristic of the S22 Extremely, and the characteristic I’ll miss most as soon as I transfer again to my common smartphone.

Cameras

• The most effective rear digital camera setups round
• Massive enhancements to the 100x house zoom
• Nice low-light efficiency

Many regarded the
Galaxy S21 Extremely’s digital camera setup as one of the best available in the market in 2021, and it appears Samsung agreed – as a result of the sensors on the rear of the cellphone are virtually equivalent to its predecessor.

The S22 Extremely has the identical 108Mp important extensive lens, 12Mp 120-degree ultrawide and twin telephoto lenses providing 3x and 10x optical zoom on the rear, with the latter able to extending to 100x, and a 40Mp selfie digital camera on the entrance.  

Right here’s a group of photographs taken on the S22 Extremely throughout testing:

One of many solely notable adjustments to {hardware} is the pixel dimension of the primary 108Mp snapper, which has elevated to a powerful 2.4μm. Mixed with the f/1.8 aperture, that interprets to much-improved low-light pictures with extra element, gentle and extra balanced distinction.

It’s nonetheless not fairly as clear as daytime photographs, however it’s definitely spectacular to see how a lot it may well choose up in darkish circumstances.

There’s additionally improved optical picture stabilisation (OIS) and a greater picture sign processor (ISP), however the outcomes of those adjustments are tougher to note in day-to-day use. As a substitute, a lot of the digital camera enhancements appear to be software-based and that’s not a nasty factor contemplating the {hardware} remains to be top-of-the-line in most regards.

For one, the S22 Extremely has vastly improved the Tremendous Regular System used with the 100x house zoom, which helps preserve these excessive close-ups from wobbling as you are taking snaps.

It appears the picture processing of those extreme-zoom pictures has been improved too. Whereas it’s nonetheless blurry at instances, there may be lastly the potential to get usable pictures for sharing on social media. They nonetheless have the Picasso-esque watercolour impact, however it’s a lot much less noticeable this time round.

There are additionally enhancements to Samsung’s pixel-binning tech on the primary 108Mp lens, dubbed Adaptive Pixel by Samsung. The concept is straightforward; it takes a nona-binned picture (combining 9 pixels into 1 for higher picture gentle, distinction and element) and combines that with a full 108Mp picture with nice outcomes.

There’s loads of element, distinction and dynamic vary are nailed, and colors look vibrant, if not somewhat too saturated at instances. Crucially, you’ll be able to get pleasure from extremely detailed pictures with out having to retailer full-res 108Mp pictures.  

Frankly, that’s a recurring theme throughout all of the S22 Extremely’s cameras, that are in a position to ship among the finest snaps I’ve seen on a smartphone. Are they one of the best round? That’s probably down to private choice, however there’s definitely rather a lot to get pleasure from with Samsung’s succesful digital camera tech.

Video seize is simply as spectacular at as much as 8K@24fps with spectacular optically-stabilised video seize, no noticeable artifacting and nice audio high quality too. It has tried to tackle Apple’s Cinematic Video mode with Portrait Video, however it’s not fairly as superior as what’s on provide from flagship iPhones, solely in a position to apply the faux-bokeh to movies with faces clearly seen.

Nonetheless, with perks like the flexibility to modify between lenses on the fly and the flexibility to pause – not finish – a video recording are very helpful choices not accessible on Apple’s flagship, so it’ll largely rely in your video makes use of.

Specs & Efficiency

• Exynos 2200 lags behind Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in benchmarks
• Not noticeable in use, feels snappy within the hand
• Occasional freeze/restart

Like its predecessors, the chipset discovered inside the Samsung Galaxy S22 Extremely relies on the place you’re on the earth. When you’re within the UK or Australia, you’ll discover Samsung’s personal 4nm Exynos 2200 chipset inside, whereas these within the US and most different territories are handled to Qualcomm’s 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.

That’s paired with both 8GB or 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 128GB/256GB/512GB/1TB of super-fast UFS 3.1 storage. For what it’s value, I used to be equipped with a 12/256GB variant for evaluate.   

I’ll delve into the distinction between the 2 chipsets in additional element under, however the Exynos 2200 efficiency appears comparable within the CPU division in benchmark checks when in comparison with near-identical 8 Gen 1 telephones just like the Oppo Discover X5 Professional.

Nevertheless, Exynos 2200 graphics efficiency at WQHD+ trails barely behind 8 Gen 1 telephones, and it’s solely when the S22 Extremely drops all the way down to FHD+ that it beats the QHD+ efficiency of the likes of the Oppo Discover X5 Professional and
Xiaomi 12 Professional in checks – as you’ll count on.

It can also’t fairly compete with Apple’s iPhone 13 Professional Max and its A15 Bionic within the CPU division, however Apple’s lead in that regard is unsurprising at this level.

Whereas that gives a good suggestion about normal Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 efficiency, I managed to get my fingers on a Snapdragon variant (thanks Qualcomm!) of the S22 Extremely to pit the 2 towards one another, face to face.

With the above in thoughts, it shouldn’t come as a lot of a shock that when evaluating the 2 variations of the Galaxy S22 Extremely, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 variant bests the Exynos 2200-equipped mannequin in GPU benchmarks – and by fairly a methods in some checks.

Nevertheless, whereas the Snapdragon variant gives higher sheer efficiency, it’s bested by the Exynos by way of battery effectivity. It’s not simply by a small margin both, with the Exynos mannequin providing an additional hour or so of screen-on time on common.

That does imply you can theoretically select between the Exynos and Snapdragon variants relying on whether or not you worth efficiency or battery life extra, however with both one or the opposite accessible in most areas world wide, it’s not a alternative you’ll be able to simply make.

Nonetheless, for those who’re curious, you’ll be able to see how the 2 examine right here:

In fact, benchmark numbers solely inform half the story, and it ought to come as no shock that efficiency is mostly speedy throughout each variants, with the Exynos-equipped Galaxy S22 Extremely in a position to deal with absolutely anything I may throw at it in real-world use.

Apps are likely to load immediately, there’s little or no stutter (except for Twitter, which I assume is a bug within the app) and video games run effectively, even in titles like Name of Obligation Cell with high-end textures and VFX enabled. It feels attentive to the contact due to the adaptive refresh fee, with buttery-smooth animations including to the general high-end efficiency on provide.

There are bugs that should be ironed out, with the cellphone utterly freezing and restarting twice in my week-long take a look at, however I’m assured that Samsung will get on high of those points rapidly.

Efficiency apart, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Extremely comes with all of the bells and whistles you’d count on from a top-end flagship in 2022 together with help for the newest 5G connectivity, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, UWB tech and NFC for digital funds.  

Battery Life & Charging

• All-day battery life
• May squeeze 1.5 and even 2 days with display screen changes
• Sooner charging, however not as quick as rivals

The Samsung Galaxy S21 Extremely packs the identical 5000mAh battery as its predecessor, so it ought to come as no shock that battery life is comparable with final 12 months’s S21 Extremely in testing.

Total battery life relies on components together with refresh fee and backbone, with the S22 Extremely in a position to final all day with the mixture of an adaptive refresh fee and WQHD+ decision with common use, however it gained’t fairly span a full second day. That may be prolonged to round 1.5 days for those who drop all the way down to FHD+ although – one thing that gained’t be noticeable to most customers anyway.

In testing, the S22 Extremely managed to final 10 hours and half-hour in our benchmark take a look at at full WQHD+ decision, and dropping all the way down to FHD+ offered an additional two hours of battery life, coming in at 12hrs half-hour.

Charging is an space the place the S22 Extremely has improved, up from a somewhat pedestrian 25W to a quicker – however nonetheless not main – 45W when charged through USB-C. The catch is, like most different Samsung telephones, you don’t get a 45W charger within the field.

When you do get your fingers on one, count on to see round 66% in half an hour and a full cost in round an hour. That’s not on the identical degree because the
Black Shark 4 Professional’s 120W quick charging tech, however it’ll suffice for almost all of customers.

It’s an identical story with wi-fi charging, with the 15W lagging behind the super-fast wi-fi charging on provide from key rivals – however at the least the low energy necessities imply you’ll be capable to use most third-party Qi chargers.

Software program & Apps

• Ships with the newest Android 12 with Samsung OneUI 4.3
• Superior options – particularly photo-editing instruments – baked in
• Samsung dedicated to as much as 4 years of OS updates

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Extremely comes working the newest Android 12 out of the field with Samsung’s OneUI 4.3 utilized on high.

It’s not essentially the most dramatic change to the Android OS in comparison with skins like Xiaomi’s MIUI and Oppo’s ColorOS, however there are nuances to the design and performance that may take somewhat little bit of getting used to – particularly as Samsung determined to ship its personal variations of the Messages app and Calendar app alongside pre-installed Google variants.

It is among the stronger Android skins although, particularly with regards to its photograph and video-editing capabilities. Utilizing the built-in modifying instruments inside the Gallery app, you’ll be able to carry out actions like object removing, reflection removing and extra, with typically spectacular outcomes.

There’s additionally the added perk of DeX help, which gives a desktop PC expertise when plugged right into a monitor.

Crucially, Samsung has dedicated to ‘as much as 4 generations’ of Android OS updates, not simply safety updates, which may probably see the Galaxy S22 Extremely supported all through Android 16 – one thing refreshingly totally different to most Android producers. Even Google solely commits to 3 years of OS updates for its Pixel vary!

Worth & Availability

The Galaxy S22 Extremely is among the many most premium smartphones available on the market, beginning at £1,149/$1,199 for the 8GB/128GB variant, though that does signify a $100 drop in comparison with its predecessor.

You may get an upgraded 256GB of storage and 12GB of RAM for a further $100/$100, with further 512GB and 1TB fashions accessible for those who want much more storage.

Right here’s how a lot the Samsung Galaxy S22 Extremely will set you again in all its configurations:

• 8GB + 128GB: $1,199/£1,149/€1,279
• 12GB + 256GB: $1,299/£1,249/€1,379/₹109,999
• 12GB + 512GB: $1,399/£1,329/€1,489/₹118,999
• 12GB + 1TB: $1,599/£1,499/€1,689

These thinking about shopping for the premium smartphone outright can achieve this from the likes of
Samsung and
Amazon within the UK and US, whereas these thinking about a contract can head to carriers together with
EE and
O2 within the UK and
Verizon within the US.

To see the way it stacks up towards the competitors, check out our choice of the
finest telephones. 

Verdict

There’s rather a lot to like concerning the Samsung Galaxy S22 Extremely; it appears premium, the WQHD+ AMOLED show is top-notch, the cameras are among the many finest round proper now and, for the primary time, the Extremely mannequin has a built-in S Pen – identical to the Notice line.

This, coupled with the truth that the design mirrors the Notice 20 Extremely greater than the remainder of the S22 vary, implies that the Galaxy S22 Extremely is a Galaxy Notice in all however branding – and that’s no dangerous factor. The S Pen efficiency is unimaginable, providing decrease latency than the Apple Pencil for an unmatched writing and drawing expertise.

Regardless of Samsung’s work with AMD on the GPU of its new Exynos 2200 chipset, it lags behind near-identical Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 smartphones in benchmarks. That stated, it’s not that noticeable in on a regular basis use, providing a largely buttery-smooth expertise when Instagramming and gaming.

It’s not the right smartphone – the charging speeds are a lot slower than rivals, the big dimensions will put some off and it’s very costly – however the Galaxy S22 Extremely will tick a whole lot of bins for lots of people.