Samsung Galaxy S22 Review

The Design

The design of the galaxy s22 is an evolution of the s21. The camera is no longer part of the frame, instead it's a separate element. The three lenses sit symmetrical in a row recessed in metal, which protects them from scratches or in case of a drop. A clever beautiful and striking design that samsung in my eyes could keep forever.

Protection

The back and front are made out of gorilla glass victors plus. It is 12 and a half percent more stable than the glass of the predecessor which was already scratch and break resistant. To begin with twelve and a half percent there's of course no way to verify this number but i'm having a good day today so i would be fine if it's only 11.8 percent. The matte coating feels great and so does the more angular shape of the harder armor aluminium frame. Very comparable to iphone 13 pro but i think it's a bit more ergonomic. I would have liked to see it even better if it was matte and not polished. It comes in black white pink and a nice dark green with a touch of blue colors.
The ip68 certification protects against water for 30 minutes at one and a half meters deep and the vibration motor finally feels more like a tuck blop.

The Display

The highlight is for sure lights out curtains up. The display, compact 6.1 with oled full hd plus resolution without a curve, 48 to 120 hertz refresh rate and yes finally finally symmetrical bezels all around only one tiny punch hole is in the middle at the top.
For me this is the most beautiful smartphone front ever, it is a dream to surf the web take pictures or watch videos on it. The super loud, really good stereo speakers also contribute to the latter but that's not all. The display also gets brighter than all the others, 1000 nits full screen and 1300 nits peak, the s22 plus even goes 1200 nits full screen and 1750 in its peak.
Samsung has also the best fingerprint sensor available. Outside of china, it is based on 3d ultrasonic which not only makes it more secure and always active, it is enough to tap it briefly. A reliable and quick way to enter the software.

The Software

The galaxy s22 comes with android 12 and one ui 4.1 and it will get four major os upgrades. That is insane. The color scheme of many apps adapt to the wallpaper and i can see which apps access the camera microphone or location and forbid them to do so. The photo quality is now much better in snapchat tiktok and instagram because now it is using the camera and not a screenshot. You can even use the ultra wide angle and telephoto, all this is realized by the processor in many regions.

The Hardware

it's the snapdragon 8gen1, in others the exynos 2200. i used the latter which is from my testing about five to ten percent slower but a bit more energy efficient. Not a huge difference and probably no one will notice it in day to day use. The performance is comparable to the s21 but not quite as smooth as an iPhone or Pixel. That's something updates can fix and knowing samsung, they will.

Cameras

Time to talk about cameras. Since the ultra model got all the attention over the last two years, the regular galaxy s was a bit half-hearted. But now everything is new, the ultra wide angle has 12 megapixel and the f 2.2 aperture. The main sensor revolves with 50 megapixel and has a 1.8 aperture. The zoom is finally optical. And with 10 megapixel and a 2.4 aperture it's the same tele as used in the s22 ultra. I like it very much, not too close not too far. The color reproduction is natural and when you zoom very very far, samsung applies a kind of magic in post-processing so that text and textures are surprisingly sharp.
I still think the 3x zoom of the iPhone 13 pro is a bit better because it has more natural sharpness and the ultra wide angle on the iPhone is also a bit better because it has autofocus and a macro mode. Samsung only has those features on the ultra model nonetheless the photos are very good, dynamic range is high. Off course the 50 megapixel main camera is the best with the 2.0 micrometer pixel size and the new super resolution technology, it first combines 4 pixel into 1 for more light intensity and then adds the full 50 megapixel. Voila a bright and detailed photo respawn. The sharpness is high but not synthetic. Samsung avoids overexposure at all costs and gladly accepts underexposed areas for it this makes the pictures look more contrasty. Dark areas are often simply black. If you don't like this you can control everything yourself with the new expert draw mode.
The s22 also records videos in 8k and 4k 60fps, the latter is impressingly good and stabilized. The portrait effect has also been greatly improved. It now recognizes edges very well and has a believable bokeh also in selfies by the way. All in all a solid camera system.
I don't avoid any of the focal lengths because they are all comparable to each other. Just knowing the s22 ultra is even better shows that the s22 still has room for improvement.

Battery

Samsung has made the batteries smaller 3700 and 4500 milliampere hours. "The Efficient" new tag sadly can't cover that up.
i got between three and maybe sometimes a little bit above four hours of screen on time. For me that is just enough to get through one day and a little bit worse than the predecessor. And i just don't get it. The device is slim and light and i mean the same size battery as last year or a little bit bigger would have made an amazing battery life.
So yeah it's super sad to see. The s22 plus lasts one to one or may be a half hours longer, from everything i've seen and heard. You can fully charge it with the optional 45 watt power supply in 40 minutes, while the s22 is still struggling with the old 25 watt.
Wireless charging is available, reverse wireless charging is also possible but 15 watts are still not exactly fast either. It has been quite a while since i've been that excited for a samsung smartphone in the recent years they only made small but mighty steps and now the s22 is really a high-end smartphone but a compact one and those are really rare and it is 200 dollars cheaper than the iphone 13 pro but the battery life really is its only weakness.
The s22 plus on the other hand, it's comparable to the Oneplus 10 Pro, Pixel 6 Pro or Xiaomi 12 Pro and even though it's a bit more expensive than those for 1049 dollars, it is also a little bit more beautiful more stable has four years of software updates and that really nice screen.
The galaxy s22 is a nice smartphone, the prices will calm down in the future as always and i think it will be a great smartphone even in the foreseeable future.
That was my review, hope you liked it.
Thank you.

Naveed.