Introduction to Samsung Galaxy S22 - Your Next Everyday Companion
While the spotlight may be on its bigger sibling, the Galaxy S22 Ultra, don't underestimate the power of the Galaxy S22. This unassuming phone packs a punch and delivers more than you might expect. Let's explore what this device can offer you.
Design:
The Galaxy S22 maintains a sleek and stylish design that Samsung users have come to appreciate. For those already familiar with the aesthetics of the Galaxy S21, the design of the Galaxy S22 will be a welcome sight. Its compact form makes it comfortable to hold and operate with just one hand, enhancing its overall usability. If you're a fan of Samsung's sleek and minimalist designs, the Galaxy S22 will surely catch your eye.
What sets it apart from other flagship phones? The Phantom White version is visually appealing, featuring a pearly white rear panel and metallic accents. Overall, the build quality is excellent, with a glass back protected by Gorilla Glass Victus. The display is impressive, with thin bezels and a compact form factor, and it feels comfortable to hold, weighing only 167 grams. The haptic feedback has also improved, although personal preference plays a role in how it is perceived.
It is similar to the iPhone 13; both phones offer superior design and build quality, each with its distinct look. The Galaxy S22 embraces a sleek, minimalist design with its slim profile and attractive colour options. However, the absence of a headphone jack means users must rely on wireless headphones. Additionally, neither device features a microSD card slot for storage expansion. Still, they provide ample internal storage capacity to meet the needs of most users.
Performance:
The Galaxy S22 has two versions: Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip and Samsung's Exynos 2200 processor. This article will review the everyday performance of the Exynos 2200, primarily used in Europe and UK.
European users can have a great experience with the Exynos 2200 chip, providing ample power to drive the high-resolution OLED panel smoothly with a 120 Hz refresh rate. This means the Galaxy S22 can handle every task seamlessly, regardless of your lifestyle, including demanding games with graphics settings maxed out. You can enjoy a lag-free gaming experience, as this flagship-level chip performs exceptionally well, delivering fast and responsive performance.
The Galaxy S22 is a reliable and capable device performing various tasks well. It strikes a good balance between power and portability.
Screen:
The Galaxy S22 features a beautiful 6.1-inch HDR10+ Super AMOLED display that will captivate your eyes. But what exactly is AMOLED? Well, it stands for Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode. This display technology brings out vibrant colours and provides high contrast ratios. This means you'll enjoy rich and lifelike visuals when using your phone, especially in Dark Mode.
It also benefits from a high refresh rate of 120Hz, meaning everything feels incredibly smooth and responsive when scrolling through websites, navigating menus, or watching videos. The screen refreshes at a faster rate, resulting in an overall more satisfying user experience.
The Galaxy S22's refresh rate can drop to 24Hz when the phone is unused and sometimes when watching videos on YouTube. However, this won't significantly affect your overall experience because other interactions on the screen will remain at a higher refresh rate.
Camera:
Samsung has equipped the Galaxy S22 with impressive camera features. The primary camera has been upgraded to a 50-megapixel sensor, capturing photos with vivid colours, sharpness, and detail. Samsung has improved colour accuracy, making images look more natural and avoiding oversaturation seen in previous Samsung phones. The portrait mode works exceptionally well, producing photos with a nice depth-of-field effect and accurate edge detection. The studio lighting effects for portraits are also on par with those found on iPhones.
The ultrawide camera maintains colour consistency with the primary camera. Still, it can sometimes cause a slight warping effect, especially around linear objects. The absence of a dedicated macro camera is not a problem as the primary camera can capture stunning close-up shots, and the telephoto camera performs admirably for macro photography.
However, stable hands or fixed support are needed for accurate focus.
Samsung has included night mode support for all three cameras, with the 50-megapixel primary camera excelling in low-light conditions. It accurately captures objects even in highly dark scenarios and paints reasonably accurately. The ultrawide camera takes longer to capture night mode shots and produces less dramatic results than the primary camera. The 3x telephoto camera tends to boost contrast aggressively, resulting in grainier images but with legible surface textures.
In addition to these features, the Galaxy S22 offers camera tricks such as Single Take, portrait video, Director's View, and Super Slow-Mo. The 10-megapixel selfie camera performs decently but tends to lighten the skin tone and increase saturation, even without filters. Some users may prefer this look for their social media selfies.
Video capture options are plentiful, ranging from different frame rates to resolutions up to 8K. However, 1080p at 60 frames per second (fps) provides the best colour accuracy and stabilisation balance. Super slow-motion mode is fun to use and produces impressive clips in daylight, but it may show some banding in low-light or indoor scenarios.
Software:
The Galaxy S22 comes with One UI 4.1, based on Android 12. The overall experience with One UI 4.1 is refined and polished, offering many valuable features not found in stock Android. While it may not bring major functional upgrades, it does introduce some new features. One is Smart Calendar, which automatically recognises dates and times in messages and suggests them as calendar entries.
Samsung Pay has also been enhanced in the Galaxy S22. It can now store driver's licenses, car keys, and movie tickets. Additionally, the Edge panel, a signature feature of Samsung devices, has been improved. It offers a range of convenient tools, including selecting and saving a portion of on-screen content without navigating through the editing controls in the Gallery app. One standout feature is the native GIF maker tool, which quickly turns a selected portion of on-screen activity into a GIF.
One of the significant advantages of choosing the Galaxy S22 is Samsung's commitment to providing four years of Android OS upgrades and five years of security updates. This ensures you can enjoy the latest Android features and security patches for an extended period. Samsung's support duration surpasses that of Google's Pixel smartphones. It is notably longer than what other Android phone manufacturers from China typically offer.
Battery and charging:
The battery life of the Galaxy S22 may not meet everyone's expectations. Samsung has reduced the battery size by 300mAh compared to its predecessor, resulting in a relatively small 3,700mAh battery for the Galaxy S22.
Individuals who remain connected to the internet throughout the day, frequently use social media and multiple communication apps, watch videos, and listen to music for extended periods may find that the Galaxy S22 struggles to last a full day. Users with similar usage patterns need to be mindful of their phone's battery life and consider establishing a charging routine to ensure they can use the phone without running out of power.
Using Samsung's 25W charger for 30 minutes will charge the battery up to 60%, and a full charge typically takes around an hour when the phone is not in use. The Galaxy S22 also supports wireless charging at a maximum wattage of 15W.
Is the Samsung Galaxy S22 worth buying?
The Galaxy S22 is an excellent value-for-money smartphone. If you're in the market for an Android phone, we believe the Samsung Galaxy S22 is a top contender. So, if you're looking for an Android phone that combines sleek aesthetics, impressive cameras, and feature-rich software without breaking the bank, don't miss out on a deal from Savely!