As these words are being written, we’ve had one of Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra smartphones in our possession for about… two hours. That’s not a lot of time, but you can get a fair amount done in that period. You can have at least five terrible dates. You can go for lunch (twice). Or you can attend roughly one standard meeting where you’re not actually needed but are roped into anyway.
Two hours isn’t enough to decide whether a smartphone, even a smartphone as slick as Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra, is worth buying. But it is long enough to get a good idea of what works and what, if anything, doesn’t. So here’s our initial assessment after spending a couple of hours with Samsung’s latest big-boy phone.
Something to take Note of
Right away, we noticed that this might as well be a Galaxy Note. In other words, the question’s settled. The Note and the Ultra are now the same thing. We can stop hoping for a new stylus superstar. It’s here. If your condition for your smartphone is that there’s a stylus in the body, you can stop reading now. Go pre-order your pre-order, so you can pre-order when pre-orders actually open. Or something.
Most of the other design notes are also present. The slightly curved edges, and the finicky screen that looks nice but tends to complicate closing auto-play ads? Those are in attendance. The S Pen placement has been shifted from right to left, based on the old Note 10+ we’ve got knocking around the office. There’s a finely-textured metal backplate, in a lovely blue-green hue on our review unit. And there’s a solid metal frame surrounding the whole thing. The camera array is there, but it’s not nearly as imposing as the S21 Ultra was. Premium build? You better believe it.
What’s in the box?
Out of the box… actually, there was barely a box. Samsung sent us a non-retail version of the phone, in a box without any of the packagings. Those are on the way, but we’re not expecting a charge block or anything else handy to be included. If you can afford the Galaxy S22 Ultra, you can afford an extra grand for a charge block, apparently.
This was a touch confusing. We were still a little uncertain about which processor South Africa is getting. Is it the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 or the Exynos 2200? We haven’t got a straight answer yet, but we can say that this particular Galaxy S22 Ultra is packing Exynos internals. Even if the likes of CPU-Z can’t give us a straight answer either, the Samsung Xclipse 920 GPU is a bit of a giveaway. Along with that, there’s a mere 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage to play with on this handset.
Still, initial impressions are… impressive. You’ll have to crank the display up to its max 3,088 x 1,440 resolution yourself and that’ll kick the battery right in the electrodes. We’ll have a battery report once we’ve had a chance to burn some of it, but that 6.8in 120Hz Dynamic AMOLED display does look awfully pretty right now. We’ve got the screen refresh set to adaptive and navigation and apps are fantastically smooth so far. Not as smooth as they’d be with 12GB of RAM in the back-end. You’re unlikely to notice the difference unless you’re extremely pedantic.
Baked nuts
This brings us, by a slightly roundabout route, to the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s camera setup. There aren’t many surprises here, if we’re being honest. ‘Ultra’ usually means that Samsung’s gone all-in on its cameras and that’s true here. The rear end squeezes that 108MP sensor into very little space, along with dual 10MP (one telephoto and one periscope telephoto) and a lone 12MP (ultrawide) sensor. There’s very little change compared to the cameras on the S21 Ultra on paper. We’d be surprised if you will see much difference in practice either.
And that’s because, just as the S21 Ultra improved on zoom over the S20 Ultra, the S22 Ultra has jumped ahead as well. Camera performance at a distance has been improved, though that improvement is thanks to software trickery. As such, your mileage may vary. Shooting images using the 100x zoom has the potential to look better thanks to the whole ‘shoot a mini video’ tactic Samsung’s using. But they might also look awful. Don’t rely on it, is what we’re saying. And if you’ve actually found a practical use for the extreme zoom feature, please let us know. We’d love to identify one.
There is one other point to note. Firing up the Galaxy S22 Ultra rear cameras lead to the phone immediately building up heat. We’re not saying you’ll experience anything negative from it. We haven’t had time to see that. But it’s warm enough that if your camera app accidentally fires up in your hip pocket, you’ll end up with some roasted thighs. Or other bits, depending on how your pockets are constructed. We’re fully expecting the heat issues to factor into battery life, since it’s not just the camera that turns up the temperature, but that’s a question that will take a day or three to answer. For now, phone = hot when camera = on. Takes decent snaps, though.
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Initial Verdict
Should you buy Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra? Well, if you’re a Note fan and your Note 20 is getting a little laggy then the answer is already ‘Yes’. But if you’re fond of Samsung’s high-enders and picked up the S21 Ultra last year, there’s no immediately compelling reason to get in line on launch day. Especially since your handset from last year shipped with at least 12GB of RAM and this one starts with just 8GB. The screen and camera aren’t different enough to make a purchase essential either. If, on the other hand, you have money to burn on the new design alone then you do you. For the rest of us, let’s wait and see what options Samsung actually drops in South Africa when pre-orders officially open. It might not turn out to be much of an upgrade over a 2021 smartphone at all.