Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra in for review

There’s been a few phone announcements in the past weeks but one stood out in particular - Samsung’s Galaxy S22 series. There’s a clear-cut leader in the trio with the S Pen wielding S22 Ultra which could have just as easily been called Galaxy Note 22. We’ve had the phone with us for a few days now and these are our initial impressions as our review team has already started working on the full written review.

It’s a large phone, dwarfing the other S22 members and most other premium devices. The boxy shape is without a doubt inspired by the Galaxy Note series while the screen curvature is more pronounced than last year’s S21 Ultra.

Galaxy S21 Ultra next to S22 Ultra • S22 Ultra next to Note20 Ultra

Our Phantom Black colored unit is the definition of stealth and fits well with the black USB C cable which is the only accessory you get in the box.

The 6.8-inch, 1440p Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel with a dynamic 120Hz refresh rate looks and feels excellent in all scenarios and the improved 1,750 nits of peak brightness will surely come in handy in bright outdoor environments. There’s Gorilla Glass Victus+ on the front and back.

The S Pen now lives next to the USB C port on the bottom which is a much welcome change compared to last year’s S21 Ultra which needed a specialized case with a holster for the stylus. Functionality is like on the Note20 Ultra with Bluetooth-enabled gestures and air commands.

Next up - cameras. There’s four of them on the back headlined by a 108MP 1/1.33" sensor with 0.8µm pixels just like last year’s Ultra. It outputs 12MP images but manages to get a bit more light and detail than its predecessor but stick around for our full review to get the full gist. The 12MP ultrawide snapper is the exact same one used in last year’s Ultra as well. The two 10MP telephoto sensors do 3x and 10x optical zoom but capture smaller 1.12µm pixels compared to the 1.22µm ones on the S21 Ultra.

The 5,000 mAh battery should theoretically offer better endurance this time around given the new 4nm Exynos 2200 chipset at the helm of our EU unit. Charging is capped at 45W this time around. The software interface is Samsung’s One UI 4 on top of Android 12 and it feels familiar to previous versions. That’s all we have for now, stay tuned for the full review.