On February 9th, the day Samsung revealed the S22 series, MobileSyrup saw a few reports from other publications that the tech giant’s pre-order website was experiencing issues. So I decided to pre-order the $1,800 phone to see if the site would work for me. It couldn’t be that hard to return over the two weeks before the phone’s launch on February 25th, could it?
A few days after the Samsung event, I attempted to cancel my pre-order through Samsung’s online chat portal. After opening it up, I was greeted with a message that said someone would help me in around two and half hours. I accidentally closed the Chrome tab three hours later, so I still don’t know if anyone from Samsung support ever saw that ticket.
A day after that, I spent time on the phone with Samsung support, and a friendly representative told me that he’d requested my cancellation, so I should expect a confirmation email shortly. That email never arrived, and I forgot about this whole adventure until a few days later when I saw my credit card had already been charged for the phone. After a mini heart attack, because I forgot that I bought an $1,800 phone that I didn’t want, I got back on the line with Samsung’s support.
This agent was also friendly. He told me that he could see my first cancellation request and that he was sending another one with an urgent tag attached to it. That was Friday, February 18th, which is still a solid seven days ahead of the phone launch.
Then on Tuesday the 22nd, I received a knock on my door, and a postal worker handed me a package. I didn’t pay that much attention to it since I often have a lot of packages coming in as part of my job. Plus, I was also expecting a Pixel 6 to arrive that day. When I opened the box, my heart sank.
Inside was the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s slim box — a full four days ahead of its official release on the 25th. So I did what any tech reviewer would do and unboxed it.
I also took a few demo photos, so you can check them out below if you’re interested in those. Overall the camera is far more solid than I expected. That said, none of the pictures blew me away, but after comparing them to my iPhone 13 Pro’s shots, I went back and turned off the rich contrast filter on Apple’s smartphone since it made the photos look more processed and over-sharpened compared to Samsung’s processing.
Stay tuned for Dean Daley’s full review of the Galaxy S22 Ultra it the coming days for more robust camera impressions.
On February 9th, the day Samsung revealed the S22 series, MobileSyrup saw a few reports from other publications that the tech giant’s pre-order website was experiencing issues. So I decided to pre-order the $1,800 phone to see if the site would work for me. It couldn’t be that hard to return over the two weeks before the phone’s launch on February 25th, could it?
A few days after the Samsung event, I attempted to cancel my pre-order through Samsung’s online chat portal. After opening it up, I was greeted with a message that said someone would help me in around two and half hours. I accidentally closed the Chrome tab three hours later, so I still don’t know if anyone from Samsung support ever saw that ticket.
A day after that, I spent time on the phone with Samsung support, and a friendly representative told me that he’d requested my cancellation, so I should expect a confirmation email shortly. That email never arrived, and I forgot about this whole adventure until a few days later when I saw my credit card had already been charged for the phone. After a mini heart attack, because I forgot that I bought an $1,800 phone that I didn’t want, I got back on the line with Samsung’s support.
This agent was also friendly. He told me that he could see my first cancellation request and that he was sending another one with an urgent tag attached to it. That was Friday, February 18th, which is still a solid seven days ahead of the phone launch.
Then on Tuesday the 22nd, I received a knock on my door, and a postal worker handed me a package. I didn’t pay that much attention to it since I often have a lot of packages coming in as part of my job. Plus, I was also expecting a Pixel 6 to arrive that day. When I opened the box, my heart sank.
Inside was the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s slim box — a full four days ahead of its official release on the 25th. So I did what any tech reviewer would do and unboxed it.
I also took a few demo photos, so you can check them out below if you’re interested in those. Overall the camera is far more solid than I expected. That said, none of the pictures blew me away, but after comparing them to my iPhone 13 Pro’s shots, I went back and turned off the rich contrast filter on Apple’s smartphone since it made the photos look more processed and over-sharpened compared to Samsung’s processing.
Stay tuned for Dean Daley’s full review of the Galaxy S22 Ultra it the coming days for more robust camera impressions.
On February 9th, the day Samsung revealed the S22 series, MobileSyrup saw a few reports from other publications that the tech giant’s pre-order website was experiencing issues. So I decided to pre-order the $1,800 phone to see if the site would work for me. It couldn’t be that hard to return over the two weeks before the phone’s launch on February 25th, could it?
A few days after the Samsung event, I attempted to cancel my pre-order through Samsung’s online chat portal. After opening it up, I was greeted with a message that said someone would help me in around two and half hours. I accidentally closed the Chrome tab three hours later, so I still don’t know if anyone from Samsung support ever saw that ticket.
A day after that, I spent time on the phone with Samsung support, and a friendly representative told me that he’d requested my cancellation, so I should expect a confirmation email shortly. That email never arrived, and I forgot about this whole adventure until a few days later when I saw my credit card had already been charged for the phone. After a mini heart attack, because I forgot that I bought an $1,800 phone that I didn’t want, I got back on the line with Samsung’s support.
This agent was also friendly. He told me that he could see my first cancellation request and that he was sending another one with an urgent tag attached to it. That was Friday, February 18th, which is still a solid seven days ahead of the phone launch.
Then on Tuesday the 22nd, I received a knock on my door, and a postal worker handed me a package. I didn’t pay that much attention to it since I often have a lot of packages coming in as part of my job. Plus, I was also expecting a Pixel 6 to arrive that day. When I opened the box, my heart sank.
Inside was the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s slim box — a full four days ahead of its official release on the 25th. So I did what any tech reviewer would do and unboxed it.
I also took a few demo photos, so you can check them out below if you’re interested in those. Overall the camera is far more solid than I expected. That said, none of the pictures blew me away, but after comparing them to my iPhone 13 Pro’s shots, I went back and turned off the rich contrast filter on Apple’s smartphone since it made the photos look more processed and over-sharpened compared to Samsung’s processing.
Stay tuned for Dean Daley’s full review of the Galaxy S22 Ultra it the coming days for more robust camera impressions.
The S22 Ultra offers an S Pen, a quad-camera setup with a 108-megapixel camera sensor, a 5,000mAh battery, a 6.8-inch display with a variable refresh rate that drops as low as 1Hz and more.
The S22 offers a 6.1-inch screen and 3,700mAh battery, while the S22+ sports a 6.6-inch panel and 4,500mAh battery. The latter two smartphones also feature a 120Hz variable display refresh rate that drops as low as 10Hz and now sport a 50-megapixel primary shooter.
All three smartphones sport a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, at least 8GB of RAM (12GB of RAM for the S22 Ultra), and start at 128GB of storage (the S22 Ultra offers up to 1TB of storage)
Are you interested in buying one of Samsung’s new phones? Let us know in the comments below.
If you want to know more about the Galaxy S22 Ultra, check out my hands-on with the smartphone. MobileSyrup’s Jon Lamont and I will be reviewing all three devices, so you can expect a full reviews up on the site in the coming weeks.
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Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S22 series at its February 2022 ‘Unpacked’ event.
I went hands-on with the Galaxy S22 Ultra ahead of its reveal and offered up my initial impressions of the device, however, now that I have the S22 Ultra in my hands, I was able to put it through its paces ahead of my full review.
It’s worth noting that Samsung’s Galaxy S22 series are the first smartphones in Canada to feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor. Qualcomm’s 8 Gen 1 focuses on 5G, AI, and uses the 4th-gen Snapdragon X65 5G Modem-RF system, which Qualcomm says can hit 10-gigabit download speeds.
In the charts above, you can see how Qualcomm’s new chipset in the Galaxy S22 series performs pretty similarly to the Snapdragon 888 in the S21 series in terms of single-core and multi-core scores.
Additionally, the iPhone 13 Pro Max’s A15 Bionic still leads the pack, with the Pixel 6′s Tensor chip coming in last.
That said, I don’t put much stock into benchmarks because a device can still offer a great experience and benchmark relatively low. For example, the Pixel 5 remains a great smartphone despite only offering a single-core score of 589 and a multi-core score of 1,603.
The Galaxy S22 Ultra’s scores are by no means low, but they are weirdly slightly under than the S22+ for some reason.
The pod squad then shifts the conversation to discussing the Galaxy S22/Galaxy S22+ and breaks down whether this year’s lower-end S series smartphones are a notable upgrade over their predecessors.
As always, you can listen to the show on your favourite podcast platform or watch the video version on our YouTube channel.
At its ‘ Unpacked ‘ event today, Samsung officially unveiled its latest S-Series flagship devices, including the S22, S22+ and the S22 Ultra. While the devices are now available for pre-order in Canada, it’s a good idea to know how the tech giant’s latest flagships compare to its predecessors.
You may be wondering why we decided to add the Note to the mix. In a sense, this year’s S22 Ultra looks like the S21 Ultra and the Note 20 Ultra had a baby. It features S-Pen support — and even comes with one — along with a considerably higher price tag, something the discontinued Note series is known for.
Let’s dive in and see how the S22 series — released over the past three years — compares to each other.
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
Display
6.8-inch Curved Dynamic AMOLED, 1,440 x 3,200 pixels, 20:9 aspect ratio, 120Hz display (variable 1-120Hz), HDR10+, 240Hz Touch Sampling in Games
Colours: ‘Phantom Black,’ ‘Phantom White,’ ‘Green,’ ‘Burgundy,’ and Samsung exclusive colours ‘Gray,’ ‘Light Blue,’ and ‘Red.’ & S Pen with 2.8 m/s latency
Colours: ‘Phantom Black,’ ‘Phantom White,’ ‘Green,’ ‘Burgundy,’ and Samsung exclusive colours ‘Gray,’ ‘Light Blue,’ and ‘Red.’ & S Pen with 2.8 m/s latency
Colours: Mystic Black, Mystic White, Mystic Bronze | S Pen
Display and design
The latest S22 Ultra features a 120Hz Quad HD+ 6.8-inch display with a peak brightness of 1,750 nits, which is higher than the S21 Ultra’s 1,500 nits 6.8-inch 120Hz Quad HD+ display. While less bright than the S22 Ultra, the Note 20 Ultra features 1,609 nits of brightness, which is higher than its successor, the S21 Ultra. The Note 20 Ultra also features a slightly bigger screen, measuring in at 6.9-inches along with a 120Hz Quad HD+ display.
All three devices have a Corning Gorilla Glass Victus screen, along with always-on displays and HDR10+ support. It’s worth noting that all three devices are IP68 dust and water-resistant too, which means they can be submerged up to 1.5m underwater for about 30 minutes.
Surprisingly, the Note 20 Ultra weighs the least of the bunch, coming in at 208g, followed by the S21 Ultra at 227g and the S22 Ultra (heaviest) at 228g.
The odd one out is the 2021-released S21 Ultra, as it doesn’t come with a stylus, and the other two devices do. t’s worth noting that while the S21 Ultra doesn’t come with a stylus, it does support stylus functionality, which means you can purchase an S-Pen separately, and it will work with the device.
Cameras
Samsung takes great pride in its camera tech, and rightfully so. Its introduction of 100x zoom with the S20 Ultra was unprecedented, and the tech has only gotten better since then.
The latest S22 Ultra comes with a quad-camera setup with a camera bump that doesn’t protrude all the way out, but it doesn’t sit flush with the rear either. It features a 108-megapixel f/1.8 main sensor, a 10-megapixel telephoto lens, a 10-megapixel periscope lens and a 12-megapixel ultrawide shooter.
The rear shooters can record 8K at 24fps, 4K at 30 and 60fps and FHD at 30, 60 and 240fps.
On the front, the flagship sports a 40-megapixel selfie camera that can shoot 4K videos at 30 and 60fps and FHD videos at 30fps.
The camera setup on the 2021-released S21 Ultra isn’t that much different. It also sports a 108-megapixel f/1.8 main sensor along with a 10-megapixel periscope lens, a 10-megapixel telephoto lens and a 12-megapixel ultrawide shooter with the same video recording resolutions as the S22 Ultra. The selfie camera on the S21 Ultra is a 40-megapixel f/2.2 one and records 4K at 30 or 60fps.
The Note 20 Ultra, on the other hand, featured a triple camera setup, with a 108-megapixel f/1.8 primary shooter, a 12-megapixel f/3.0 periscope lens and a 12-megapixel ultrawide shooter. The Note 20 Ultra also shoots video at the same resolutions as the S22 Ultra.
The front camera on the Note 20 Ultra however shows that it’s an older device. It features a 10-megapixel f/2.2 shooter that records video in 4K at 30 or 60fps and 1080p at 30fps.
OS, internals and memory
The S22 Ultra ships with the latest Android 12 operating system update and Samsung’s One UI 4.1.
While the older devices shipped with Android 10 (Note 20 Ultra) and Android 11 (S21 Ultra), they too have already received the Android 12 update and can now run on the latest OS.
The Galaxy S22 Ultra sports up to 12GB of RAM, up to 1TB of storage and Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor.
Last year’s S21 Ultra was released with a Snapdragon 888 chipset and features up to 16GB of RAM and up to 512GB of storage, though Samsung Canada currently only has the 12GB RAM, 128GB storage variant listed.
The oldest device in the mix, the Note 20 Ultra, sports a Snapdragon 865 5G+ chipset and features up to 12GB RAM and 512GB storage. Samsung Canada currently has the 12GB RAM/128GB storage and 12GB RAM/512GB Note 20 Ultra storage variants listed on its website.
All three devices feature an in-display fingerprint scanner, an accelerometer, gyro, proximity and compass sensors.
Battery
The S22 Ultra and the S21 Ultra both feature a 5,000 mAh battery. The former, however, supports 45W fast charging whereas the latter only supports 24W fast charging.
The Note 20 Ultra, on the other hand, features a slightly smaller 4,500 mAh battery with 25W fast charging.
All three devices are capable of reverse wireless charging at 4.5W.
Colours
The Note 20 Ultra offers the least colour variants of the bunch. The device comes in ‘Mystic Bronze,’ ‘Mystic Black’ and ‘Mystic White’ colourways, though only the bronze and black variants are currently available on Samsung’s website.
On the other hand, the S21 Ultra comes in ‘Phantom Black,’ ‘Phantom Silver,’ ‘Phantom Titanium,’ ‘Phantom Navy’ and ‘Phantom Brown’ colourways, though Samsung only has the black variant listed as of right now.
The latest S22 Ultra is available in seven colours, namely, ‘Burgundy,’ ‘Phantom Black,’ ‘Phantom White,’ ‘Green,’ ‘Graphite,’ ‘Sky Blue’ and ‘Red.’ Samsung Canada has the S22 Ultra available in all the colour variants.
Samsung has brought back the Galaxy Note form factor with the new Galaxy S22 Ultra, and if you want it in a fun colour, this is how.
Often Samsung will limit the best colour options to devices sold on its website. That means carriers and Best Buy will likely sell the phone in ‘Burgundy,’ ‘Phantom Black,’ ‘Phantom White’ and ‘Green.’
Samsung’s online exclusive colours are a more silver/grey-tinted ‘Graphite,’ a very distinctive ‘Sky Blue’ that seems to match the Samsung bespoke fridges, and finally a burnt ‘Red.’ Notably, all of these phones still feature black top/bottom rails so the colouring isn’t as cohesive as the ‘Burgundy’ and ‘Green’ variants.
They still look nice, but it seems like these are just the ‘Phantom Black’ phones with different coloured backplates and S Pens.
Samsung has been improving its Android update support over the past couple of years. Though we typically get Samsung Android updates a bit slower in Canada when compared to the rest of the world, future updates will arrive globally.
Samsung says it’s offering four years of major Android updates on the Galaxy S22 and other recent device releases.
Four years of major Android updates is pretty great considering Google only offers three years of major updates and five years of security patches for the Pixel 6. Samsung is also providing five years of security patches to all Samsung smartphones as well.
Below are the Samsung devices that will receive four years of major Android updates:
Galaxy S22
Galaxy S22+
Galaxy S22 Ultra
Galaxy Tab S8
Galaxy Tab S8+
Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra
Galaxy S21
Galaxy S21+
Galaxy S21 Ultra
Galaxy S21 FE
Galaxy Z Fold 3
Galaxy Z Flip 3
Galaxy Watch 4
Galaxy Watch 4 Classic
Upcoming Galaxy A devices
9to5Google points out that Samsung says “up to” four years of major updates, which means it could potentially only give these phones three years of major updates. Hopefully, that’s not the case, though.
As always, the handsets are available in a variety of colours. The S22 and S22+ are available in ‘Phantom Black,’ ‘Phantom White,’ ‘Green’ and ‘Pink Gold,’ as well as Samsung exclusive colours’ Gray,’ ‘Cream,’ ‘Violet’ and ‘Light Blue.’
The Galaxy S22 Ultra, on the other hand, comes in ‘Phantom Black,’ ‘Phantom White,’ ‘Green,’ ‘Burgundy,’ and Samsung exclusive colours’ Gray,’ ‘Light Blue,’ and ‘Red.’
While all three of these phones are flagships in their own right, the S22 Ultra is the star of the show with a different form factor than the other devices in the line.
Samsung Galaxy S22
Samsung Galaxy S22+
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra
Display
6.1-inch Flat Dynamic AMOLED, 1,080 x 2,400 pixels, 20:9 aspect ratio, 120Hz display, HDR10+, 240Hz Touch Sampling in Games
6.6-inch Flat Dynamic AMOLED, 1,080 x 2,400 pixels, 20:9 aspect ratio, 120Hz display, HDR10+, 240Hz Touch Sampling in Games
6.8-inch Curved Dynamic AMOLED, 1,440 x 3,200 pixels, 20:9 aspect ratio, 120Hz display (variable 1-120Hz), HDR10+, 240Hz Touch Sampling in Games
Colours: ‘Phantom Black,’ ‘Phantom White,’ ‘Green’ and ‘Pink Gold’ as well as Samsung exclusive colours ‘Gray,’ ‘Cream,’ ‘Violet’ and ‘Light Blue.’
Colours: ‘Phantom Black,’ ‘Phantom White,’ ‘Green’ and ‘Pink Gold’ as well as Samsung exclusive colours ‘Gray,’ ‘Cream,’ ‘Violet’ and ‘Light Blue.’
Colours: ‘Phantom Black,’ ‘Phantom White,’ ‘Green,’ ‘Burgundy,’ and Samsung exclusive colours ‘Gray,’ ‘Light Blue,’ and ‘Red.’ & S Pen with 2.8 m/s latency
Display
Samsung Galaxy S22
6.1-inch Flat Dynamic AMOLED, 1,080 x 2,400 pixels, 20:9 aspect ratio, 120Hz display, HDR10+, 240Hz Touch Sampling in Games
Samsung Galaxy S22+
6.6-inch Flat Dynamic AMOLED, 1,080 x 2,400 pixels, 20:9 aspect ratio, 120Hz display, HDR10+, 240Hz Touch Sampling in Games
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra
6.8-inch Curved Dynamic AMOLED, 1,440 x 3,200 pixels, 20:9 aspect ratio, 120Hz display (variable 1-120Hz), HDR10+, 240Hz Touch Sampling in Games
Colours: ‘Phantom Black,’ ‘Phantom White,’ ‘Green’ and ‘Pink Gold’ as well as Samsung exclusive colours ‘Gray,’ ‘Cream,’ ‘Violet’ and ‘Light Blue.’
Samsung Galaxy S22+
Colours: ‘Phantom Black,’ ‘Phantom White,’ ‘Green’ and ‘Pink Gold’ as well as Samsung exclusive colours ‘Gray,’ ‘Cream,’ ‘Violet’ and ‘Light Blue.’
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra
Colours: ‘Phantom Black,’ ‘Phantom White,’ ‘Green,’ ‘Burgundy,’ and Samsung exclusive colours ‘Gray,’ ‘Light Blue,’ and ‘Red.’ & S Pen with 2.8 m/s latency
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra
The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is this year’s top-tier S series device. First off, the device looks like a fusion of the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and the S21 Ultra — a perfect combination of the two smartphones. The handset features up to 1TB of memory, up to 12GB of RAM and a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor.
What’s most notable about the Galaxy S22 Ultra is it includes the fan-favourite S Pen. This new S Pen supports 2.8ms latency, which should make it feel very smooth. Additionally, the S Pen features a more advanced version of handwriting that can digitize your messy handwriting into easy-to-read notes, and it works with up to 88 languages.
Further, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra features a 6.8-inch display that offers a 1440 x 3080-pixel resolution and 120Hz variable refresh rate that can reduce to 1Hz when looking at static images. Additionally, it supports a 240Hz touch sample rate when gaming. A touch sample rate or touch-sensing refers to the frequency at which the smartphone tracks the movement of your finger. Typical devices have a 60Hz touch sample rate, which tracks the screen every 16.6ms, while, for example, the iPhone 13 series features a 120Hz touch sample rate that cuts the time by half.
The 240Hz reduces this to 4.15ms, which should make it seem like the handset reacts instantly to each touch.
Camera-wise, the S22 Ultra sports a 108-megapixel primary shooter with an f/1.8 aperture, a 10-megapixel telephoto shooter with 10x optical zoom with an f/4.9 aperture, another 10-megapixel telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom with an f/2.4 aperture, a 12-megapixel ultra-wide shooter with a 120-degree field-of-view, and lastly, a 40-megapixel selfie shooter with an f/2.2 aperture.
The S22 Ultra’s low-light videography and photography have improved thanks to pixels that are 1.23x bigger than the S21 Ultra’s, allowing the camera to capture more light, according to Samsung. The bigger pixels combined with the company’s multi-frame exposure technology should allow the S22 Ultra to capture bright high-resolution images even in low-light. Alongside this technology, the company’s AI reportedly processes 4x more data to sharpen details and reduce noise in low-light images.
There’s also a new auto-framing feature for videography that can detect people within five meters and track up to ten people for better group shots. When you tap a specific person’s face the video automatically shifts and adjusts to keep the subject in the centre.
Samsung says it has upgraded its ‘Portrait mode’ by improving its AI Stereo Depth Map and making depth photos pop in a more natural way. There’s also better studio lighting that should improve selfies, and portrait photos now work at night.
Additionally, Samsung has improved its manual photo-taking mode, allowing users to export 16-bit raw images. Finally, the handset sports a 5,000mAh battery and 45W wired charging and 15W wireless charging.
In a sense, Samsung’s Galaxy S22 and S22+ are in a different ballpark than the S22 Ultra. Both phones look similar to last year’s S21 and S21+ and lack the S22 Ultra’s S Pen stylus.
The S22 features a 6.1-inch FHD+ display, whereas the S22+ offers an S22+ FHD+ panel. Both devices sport a 120Hz refresh rate with a 240Hz touch sample rate when gaming.
Both phones only sport 8GB of RAM, up to 256GB of storage and a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor. Additionally, the devices offer Android 12 and One UI 4.1, 5G, LTRE and Wi-Fi 6E for the Galaxy S22+ and the Wi-Fi 6 for the Galaxy S22.
Additionally, the handset sports a 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera with an f/2.2 aperture and a 120-degree field of view. There’s also a 50-megapixel primary shooter with an f/1.8 aperture, a 10-megapixel telephoto shooter with 3x optical zoom and f/2.4 aperture, and lastly, a 10-megapixel selfie camera with an f/2.2 aperture.
The S22 sports a 3,700mAh battery, 25W wired charging and 15W wireless charging. On the other hand, the S22+ features a 4,500mAh power cell with 45W wired charging like the S22 Ultra and 15W wireless charging.
