Samsung has three new phones, one of which looks completely different | Tech

This is a shortened version of two reviews that appeared on Tweakers. Read the review of the Galaxy S22 and S22+or here the review of the Galaxy S22 Ultra†

The absolute top model is the Galaxy S22 Ultra, more than ever overloaded with extra features and put in a design that is more reminiscent of the Galaxy Note series than of last year’s Galaxy S21 Ultra. Like the Notes of yesteryear, for example, the S22 Ultra has the built-in scribe for notes.

The Galaxy S22 and S22+ have a slightly different formula, more focused on design and a nice smartphone experience. They’re also slightly cheaper than the S22 Ultra, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t expensive.

For the Galaxy S22 and S22+, Samsung has retained the recognizable design that was introduced with the Galaxy S21 devices. The back features a camera module with three lenses one above the other in the top left corner. The elevation visually connects to the side, but is actually a separate part, just as was the case with the S21 devices.

Then the Galaxy S22 Ultra: the rounded corners, presence of the S-Pen and the flattened top and bottom seem to have been taken directly from the previous Galaxy Note smartphones. That’s not bad at all. We were generally pleased with the design of the Note devices.

Last year the Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S21+ took a step back in terms of screen resolution; on the Galaxy S22 and S22+, the screen has become a little smaller. The image is especially slightly shorter; a strip has gone off.

The Galaxy S22+, like the Galaxy S22 Ultra, has a screen with a higher peak brightness than its predecessor. The Galaxy S22 is said to be the only one of the S22 trio to use an older generation of OLED materials in the panel, which may explain the lower brightness with this model.

Compared to the top model, the two smaller S22 models also do not support the highly variable refresh rate of this device. With the S22 and S22+, the screen refreshes with at least 48 images. That potentially makes the panel less efficient, although in practice nothing shows up as it should.

The Galaxy S22 and S22+ have exactly the same camera setup, which has quite a lot of innovations compared to the Galaxy S21 and S21+. Two of the three cameras have new hardware, starting with the main camera. It has a 23 percent larger sensor than the S21 and S21+, with a resolution of 50 instead of 12 megapixels.

In the field of camera hardware, Samsung has made few steps with the Galaxy S22 Ultra compared to last year. The configuration has remained almost identical. It is still an impressive setup, with no fewer than five cameras: four at the back and one at the front.

The Samsung phones, of course, run on Android 12 with Samsung’s OneUI 4 on top. This skin contains a number of features taken over from Android 12, such as a privacy dashboard with which you can manage data that apps view. You can also indicate which apps can access the contents of your clipboard.

As with the Galaxy S22 Ultra, there is the option to use the desktop interface DeX, where you get a kind of desktop in front of you when you connect your device to a screen. Your Android apps will then be shown as windows.

Like every year, Samsung makes two versions of the Samsung Galaxy S22 and S22+. So here in Europe we seem to be getting the ‘lesser’ Galaxy S variant again, although we have to put the negative stories about our Exynos chip into perspective. Also on the Galaxy S22 and S22+, apps work very smoothly during normal use, without slowdowns or stuttering.

The random stutters we saw on the S22 Ultra didn’t seem to occur on our S22+ either, perhaps because we tested it a few weeks later when a new software update had appeared. Switching between different apps is also no problem.

In recent years, smartphone batteries have become especially larger, a development that has kept pace with the increase in housing size. Now that Samsung is aiming for a size smaller for the S22 series, the batteries of the two have also shrunk somewhat.

With its 3700mAh battery, the Galaxy S22 has a 22 percent smaller battery than the S22+, but the battery life is not that much shorter in our test: only about 16 percent in both tests. This means that the S22 certainly does not belong to the top battery packs in this overview, but surprisingly it does better than the S21.

The Galaxy S22 Ultra has a battery capacity of 5000mAh. That is exactly the same as with the Galaxy S21 Ultra. In the WiFi browsing test, the S22 Ultra notes an almost 27 percent longer battery life than the S21 Ultra; a big improvement.

Where the Galaxy S22 Ultra looks very different from last year’s S21 Ultra, the Galaxy S22 and S22+ look almost exactly the same. Well, the design has become a little tighter and has now got some flatter sides, which you see with more and more smartphones this spring. Even with the more compact size, Samsung could be a trendsetter.

Due to its new design, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra appears to be a completely different device than last year’s Galaxy S21 Ultra. Secretly that is not so bad, because actually the only major addition is the S-Pen. That is a nice feature that makes the S22 Ultra distinctive compared to other high-end smartphones.

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