Samsung Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+ Review: Universal Flagships

The Samsung Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+ turned out exactly as expected: practical, comfortable and versatile flagships with good size options. The Samsung Galaxy S22+ is the more traditional big-screen option, the Samsung Galaxy S22 is for those who want a compact flagship that's currently in very short supply. It turned out sregular evolutionary development on all fronts without surprises. Smartphones are equipped with chic and very bright AMOLED screens with an adaptive refresh rate of up to 120 Hz. Water protection has been preserved, but the smartphones themselves feel more durable and solid thanks to the reinforced aluminum alloy. The performance of the new Exynos 2200 processor is sufficient, but you should not expect miracles, and it turned out to be quite "hot". The cameras shoot perfectly, autonomy is at the usual level, and you won’t have to be afraid that the smartphone will be discharged before reaching the evening. The branded shell was made even more convenient and thoughtful. Samsung Galaxy S22 stands now $ 799, Galaxy S22+ - $ 999.

5 reasons to buy Samsung Galaxy S22+ and Galaxy S22:

• stunning AMOLED screens with a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz and an extremely high margin of brightness;
• productive iron;
• solid main camera;
• dust and moisture protection of the case, excellent assembly and materials;
• Convenient updated shell One UI 4.1.

2 reasons not to buy Samsung Galaxy S22+ and Galaxy S22:

• the proprietary Exynos 2200 processor is prone to overheating;
• minimum set without charger.

Fast passage:

1. What's included?
2. What do the Samsung Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+ look like?
3. How good are the screens?
4. What are the unlock methods?
5. What about performance, memory, sound and autonomy?
6. How user-friendly is the interface?
7. How good are the cameras?
8. In the dry matter

What's included?

All Samsung flagships are packed in small black boxes with the bare minimum: smartphone, USB Type-C cable, tray eject tool, and documentation. Nothing interesting, so the lack of a set with review samples is not critical. In some regions, there is a protective film on the screens out of the box. Samsung Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+ arrived to us without it.

What do the Samsung Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+ look like?

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra has a redesigned back panel compared to its predecessor. The younger Samsung Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+ are not much different from last year's Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S21+. Flat front and back, both now with Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+. Last year, the younger Galaxy S21 received a polycarbonate back instead of frosted glass. This year we decided not to save. The frame around the perimeter of the screen is very thin, including the "chin". The front camera is in a small round cutout in the middle of the screen. In a word, everything is already well known, no surprises.

The frame of the smartphone is glossy and has a slightly rounded shape. Made from reinforced Armor Aluminium. Everything is in its usual place. The power and volume buttons are on the right. They are massive, with a clear move, also made of metal and located at a convenient height. You don't have to reach out with your finger, regardless of which hand you use.

On the upper edge of smartphones there is an additional microphone and a thin plastic insert for stable operation of wireless interface antennas.

Everything else is on the bottom: the main speaker, USB Type-C connector, spoken microphone and tray.

Samsung finally abandoned the possibility of installing memory cards in flagship models. The dual-sided tray only holds two SIM cards. Plus there is support for eSIM.

The back panel of smartphones is very similar in design to last year's flagships: a metal camera block in the upper left corner, which smoothly "flows" into a metal frame. Both models are available in four colors: white, black, dark green and pink. In all cases, frosted glass is used, on which traces of use are practically not visible. Looks presentable and feels good.

The rear camera block is metal, with three vertically placed modules and a flash to the right. The module itself protrudes slightly above the body. The smartphone sways a little while lying on a flat surface.

Smartphones look modern and presentable, even if the design cannot be called new. Thanks to the use of glass and reinforced aluminum, the Samsung Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+ feel very solid and solid. There is protection against dust and water according to the IP68 standard: up to half an hour under water at a depth of up to 1.5 m. As for convenience, everyone is free to choose a convenient option for themselves. I found the compact Galaxy S22 incredibly comfortable to use.

How good are the screens?

The Samsung Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+ have flat Dynamic AMOLED 2X displays with a resolution of 2340x1080 (aspect ratio - 19.5: 9), a refresh rate of 120 Hz and a sensor reading rate of 240 Hz. The Galaxy S22 is one of the most compact current flagship smartphones, it is equipped with a 6.1-inch screen and a pixel density of 425 ppi. The Galaxy S22+ has a larger screen, 6.6 inches, with a pixel density of about 393 ppi. Screens support HDR10+, promise 100% DCI-P3 color gamut. The Galaxy S22+ is claimed to have a peak brightness of 1750 cd/m², while the Galaxy S22 has 1300 cd/m². Although it is worth remembering that "peak" brightness is a very arbitrary concept: the maximum possible short-term brightness of a small white area of ​​the screen. The settings have almost everything you need. Dark theme, brightness (including high brightness mode), screen refresh rate, color display mode (saturated with color temperature adjustment and natural), "comfort for the eyes" (automatic adjustment of color temperature depending on the ambient light), interface scale, font.

As well as Always on Display with different types of dials.

Visually, there are no complaints about the screens at all, both in terms of the quality of the picture itself and viewing angles, and in terms of brightness. The picture does not fade in the sun, everything remains readable. This is confirmed by hardware measurements. Both screens show a really impressive margin of brightness and very good color reproduction. The maximum screen brightness of the Samsung Galaxy S22 in "saturated" mode was 725.835 cd/m², the color gamut is significantly wider than the sRGB color space, all indicators are very close to the reference ones, the color temperature ranges between 6500K (reference) and 7000K.

In "Natural" mode, the color gamut is close to sRGB, and the maximum brightness is slightly lower: 689.802 cd/m².

The screen brightness of the Samsung Galaxy S22+ was slightly lower. In "Saturated" mode - 702.715 cd/m². At the same time, the color reproduction is very similar to the younger model:

Brightness in "Natural" mode: 666.05 cd/m².

Comparison with other models:

What are the unlock methods?

As in the older model of the line, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, both younger ones are equipped with an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner. Which, unlike optical ones, can cope with its task if the hands are wet. Scanners work quickly and accurately. According to personal feelings, a little slower than in Ultra, but the difference is minimal. Face recognition is implemented as standard, using the front camera without additional sensors. Works quickly in good light. In advanced settings, there is a less secure "faster recognition", preventing recognition when eyes are closed, increasing the brightness of the display in low light, and the ability to add additional views for better recognition.

What about performance, memory, sound and autonomy?

The entire flagship line of Samsung Galaxy S22 uses the system-on-a-chip of its own design Exynos 2200, there is a version with Snapdragon, but not for our region. Exynos 2200 is eight-core processor, which is manufactured according to the 4 nm process technology. It includes one core ARM Cortex-X2 at 2.8 GHz, 3x ARM Cortex-A710 at 2.5 GHz, and energy efficient 4x ARM Cortex-A510 at 1.7 GHz. The graphics accelerator is Xclipse 920, which was developed jointly with AMD. In action, we have already seen this processor in the review Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. RAM - 8 GB. The expansion function is supported by a 2/4/6/8 GB drive. Built-in storage - 128 or 256 GB UFS 3.1 standard, no memory card support. Smartphones demonstrate, albeit not the maximum at the moment, but very high performance, somewhere between Snapdragon 888 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Samsung Galaxy S22:

It is quite logical that the Galaxy S22+ demonstrates similar results in synthetic tests, but for those who are interested, you can see:

CPU Throttling Test showed that under prolonged loads, the Samsung Galaxy S22 performance drops to an average of 81%. The case near the camera becomes noticeably warm.

The Samsung Galaxy S22+ performed a little worse in this regard: performance drops to about 72%.

In real life, smartphones can handle any heavy applications in any quantity without noticeable brakes. Everything is loaded and works quickly, without brakes and "thoughtfulness". Modern games at maximum or high graphics settings run at 50-60 FPS. There are Game Launcher and Game Booster utilities, as in all Samsung smartphones. There is a hub with all installed games, performance priority settings, the ability to turn off notifications, an on-screen overlay with an FPS counter and other useful information, as well as tools for creating screenshots and videos.

The set of wireless interfaces differs a little. Both smartphones are equipped with dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6 2.4GHz and 5GHz (Galaxy S22+ also supports the new 6e), Bluetooth 5.2 LE and NFC for contactless payment. Also, the older model has support for Ultra Wideband (UWB). Smartphones work with global positioning systems GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, BDS. Both smartphones reproduce stereo by the main and conversational speakers. Volume and quality are good. With a standard music player in terms of functionality, everything is almost familiar. Of the additional chips there are Dolby Atmos with different modes, UHQ Upscaler enhancer (only works with branded headphones) and Adapt Sound to adjust the sound for you, taking into account age.

The Samsung Galaxy S22 is powered by a 3700 mAh battery, the Galaxy S22+ got a bigger battery: 4500 mAh. The younger model supports fast charging only at 25W, the older one supports 45W. It was not possible to make measurements of the charging time from branded PSUs due to their absence. Both smartphones support up to 15W wireless charging and 4.5W reverse wireless charging for accessories. According to personal feelings, the battery life of smartphones is comparable and it is a little more pleasant than that of the older S22 Ultra, which periodically had to be put on charge in the evening. The Samsung Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+ can easily last 24 hours with everyday use. That is constant connection via LTE / Wi-Fi, 15-20 minutes of calls, 15-20 photos, about an hour of music via Bluetooth, mail, social networks, browser, notifications, Youtube. 

What's with the interface?

We will not consider the shell of smartphones in detail for two reasons. First, we mentioned all the main innovations in Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra review. And secondly, as mentioned above, our samples were with raw firmware with a number of glitches. It has never been updated over the air, and therefore does not reflect what is present in commercial copies. In short: Android 12 OS with One UI 4.1 shell. Everything is standard: desktops, widgets, a switchable application menu, an almost standard curtain, a simple mode. Navigation gesture and push-button.

How good are the cameras?

The set of cameras is slightly inferior to the "main" current flagship Galaxy S22 Ultra, but everything you need is there. The main camera is 50 megapixels with f/1.8 aperture, 24 mm EFR, sensor size 1/1.57", 1.0µm with support for multi-directional PDAF phase autofocus. There is optical stabilization. Telephoto module 10 MP, f/2.4, 70 mm, 1/3.94", 1.0µm, PDAF, OIS, 3x zoom. And an ultra-wide camera: 12 MP, f/2.2, 13mm, 120˚, 1/2.55" 1.4µm, no autofocus. Smartphones can record videos in up to video resolution 8K@24fps. Front Camera: 10MP (f/2.2, 26mm, 1/3.24", 1.22µm, Dual Pixel PDAF)

The app looks familiar: a fully customizable carousel of shooting modes. Of the interesting modes, there is a multi-frame with simultaneous shooting on all cameras, a director's video mode and manual shooting modes. The main screen has everything you need: camera switching buttons (with the ability to smoothly adjust the zoom), flash settings, aspect ratio, resolution, timer and automatic frame enhancement.

The main camera of the Samsung Galaxy S22 does a good job in most cases. Daytime shots are of excellent quality, with very rich natural colors, wide dynamic range and excellent detail. HDR handles shadows well. The night shooting mode works very soundly: detailing practically does not fall, but the consequences of processing algorithms are visible. Those same yellow and orange shades appear.

The ultra-wide-angle camera is, unfortunately, simpler than the Galaxy S22 Ultra. With daytime photos, she copes with dignity, in poor lighting, some photos already turn out to be "noisy":

Telephoto camera with 3x zoom works very soundly:

The set of cameras in the Samsung Galaxy S22 + is absolutely similar and the same raw firmware is installed. But to be honest - similar sets of photos. Main camera:

Ultra Wide:

3x zoom.

Bottom line: four things you need to know about the Samsung Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+.

• The Samsung Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+ are Samsung's traditional yearly flagships with regular improvements in performance, cameras and more, but without any radical changes.
• Smartphones received excellent quality screens with incredibly high brightness.
• The rear camera of each model includes three modules: main, wide-angle and telephoto.
• Performance is not maximum, but sufficient. At the same time, the processor is noticeably heated.

For those who want to know more:

• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra review: A merger of two galaxies