Samsung Galaxy S22+ Details:
Now, don’t get me wrong—I think this is a reasonably good iterative upgrade from its predecessor. But I can’t help but think how this phone could have been so much better if Samsung had shared some spotlight of the Ultra on to the Plus variant too.
Anyway, I have been using it alongside the S22 Ultra for the past 3 weeks. And in this review, I will be sharing my experience of the Samsung Galaxy S22+ with you guys and also answering the question of whether it’s worth considering it over the Ultra as your daily driver or not. Let’s begin!
Design & Build
- 75.8 x 157.4 x 7.6mm, 196 grams
- Glass front/back, Armored aluminum frames
- IP68 dust-and-water resistant
Okay, let’s start with the design side of things. When I first saw the official renders of the S22+, I thought “hey, it looks exactly like the S21+”. But looks can be deceiving after all since the hands-on feel of this phone turned out to be nothing like the Galaxy S21+.
Ditching the classic curved design, Samsung has gone with a more squared-off form factor with round edges this time—kind of like the iPhones.Happy, because the boxier design helps with the grip a lot. Sad, because, well the edges of the S22+ are a bit… sharp—so holding it might not be that comfortable at times. I just wish Samsung had refined this design a bit more—similar to how the S22 Ultra feels so seamless on the hands.
With the glass back and Armored Aluminum frames, the phone does retain a good heft though. And because Samsung has decided to go with a smaller battery here, the S22+ is actually lighter than the S21+ and a bit thinner too.
And something that I’ve always liked about the “Plus” variants is that they are just the right size. They aren’t too small like the entry-level S-series phone and they aren’t that huge like your Ultras either!
As expected, Samsung hasn’t missed out on any flagship features here. You get Gorilla Glass Victus+ protection—both on front and back—then there’s IP68 dust-and-water resistance and also an awesome pair of stereo speakers.
Audio
- Dual stereo speaker setup
- No 3.5mm headphone jack
Now, these speakers sound really good. Samsung has fine-tuned the already impressive speakers of the S21+ to give us a more balanced output on the S22+. Pitting it against the Ultra, they sound pretty similar. It’s only that this one slightly boosts the highs while the Ultra’s audio is more leveled up. In most cases, you probably won’t notice the difference between the two though!
Display
- 6.6-inches FHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X
- 120/240Hz refresh/touch sampling rate
- Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+ protection
- 1750 nits peak brightness, Vision Booster
Samsung always makes sure to provide the best display experience in its flagship phones and you can expect nothing less from the S22+.
This 6.6 inches Dynamic AMOLED display is crisp, the color reproduction is amazing, and it has double the contrast ratio compared to the S21+, which means darker blacks and brighter whites! Not to forget, it achieves 1750 nits of peak brightness, so using it in the brightest environments is not going to result in any kind of visibility issues either.
Performance
- Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 5G SoC (4nm)
- 8GB LPDDR5 RAM, 128/256GB UFS 3.1 storage (fixed)
- Android 12 with Samsung’s One UI 4.1 on top
- 4 years platform, 5 years security updates guaranteed
Okay, supporting the performance on the S22 series is Qualcomm’s latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 or Samsung’s in-house Exynos 2200 chip depending on where you live. Previously, the Nepali market would always get the Exynos model. But it’s the opposite this time.
I’ll admit—I was quite bummed about not getting the Exynos variant since there was a lot of hype surrounding Samsung’s collaboration with AMD for RDNA 2 graphics on the Exynos 2200.
I remember Samsung even posted a tagline saying “Playtime is over” to promote its latest flagship mobile chip. But ultimately, the Exynos 2200’s real-life performance met with a lot of criticism and the Snapdragon variant turned out to be the superior, more stable option after all!
And with that, I’ve found the real-life performance on the Samsung Galaxy S22+ to be great throughout the review period. The phone is fast, responsive, and capable of handling anything you throw at it. From the most demanding games to heavy multitasking, the S22+ can take it all.
As I mentioned before, I have been using it alongside the S22 Ultra and have been monitoring both their performances too. Naturally, with the same chipset and the same software optimization, both phones deliver similar performance during regular, everyday tasks.
Samsung Galaxy S22+ Review: Gaming
Hence, demanding games like Genshin Impact play better on the Ultra with slightly higher fps and sustained thermal performance under the highest settings and 60 fps mode turned on. You have to note that the in-game stability is almost similar between these phones though.
It’s just that the S22+ gets considerably warm rather quickly, and reaches around 43°C near and below the camera module after around 20 minutes into the game. To compare, the S22 Ultra was able to keep the thermals in check with a comparatively cooler surface temperature.
In other less demanding games like PUBG and COD though, both phones showed very similar results where the Plus mostly maintained below 40°C temperature, similar to the Ultra.
On a different note, I am also slightly disappointed in Samsung regarding the fact that being a USD 1,000 flagship phone, the S22+ is restricted to just 8GB RAM and up to 256GB storage while you can configure the Ultra with up to 12GB RAM and an insane 1TB storage.
Cameras
- Triple camera setup at the back
- (50MP main, 12MP ultra-wide, 10MP telephoto)
- 10MP selfie camera (hole-punch cutout)
- Alright, let’s talk about cameras now. For this review, I compared the cameras on the Samsung Galaxy S22+ to last year’s S21+. As you might know, the company has made a series of changes in the cameras in this iteration. First off, the main sensor here is a 50MP wide lens followed by a 10MP telephoto camera capable of 3x optical zoom compared to the 3x hybrid zoom on the S21+. Finally, there’s a 12MP ultra-wide lens and a 10MP shooter up front for selfies.
Samsung Galaxy S22+ Specifications:
- Body: 75.8 x 157.4 x 7.6mm, 196 gm, Gorilla Glass Victus+ back, Armored aluminum frames, IP68 dust-water resistant
- Display: 6.6-inches Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 120Hz refresh rate, 240Hz touch sampling rate, Gorilla Glass Victus+, 1750 nits peak brightness, Vision Booster
- Resolution: FHD+ (2340 x 1080 pixels), 393 PPI, 19.5:9 aspect ratio
- Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 5G (4nm mobile platform)
- CPU: Octa-core:
– 1x Cortex-X2 (3.0 GHz)
– 3x Cortex-A710 (2.5 GHz)
– 4x Cortex-A510 (1.8 GHz) - GPU: Adreno 730
- Memory: 8GB LPDDR5 RAM, 128/256GB UFS 3.1 storage (fixed)
- Software & UI: Android 12 with Samsung’s One UI 4.1 on top
- Rear Camera: Triple (with LED flash);
– 50MP, f/1.8 primary sensor, OIS, Dual Pixel AF
– 12MP, f/2.2 ultrawide sensor, 120º FoV
– 10MP, f/2.4 telephoto lens, 3x optical zoom, OIS - Front Camera: 10MP, f/2.2 sensor (hole-punch cutout)
- Audio: Dual stereo speaker, Dolby Atmos audio, No 3.5mm headphone jack
- Security: Ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensor, Face unlock, Knox
- Sensors: Accelerometer, Barometer, Gyro, Geomagnetic, Hall, Light, Proximity
- Connectivity: Dual-SIM (Nano), WiFi 6E a/b/g/n/ac/ax (Dual-band), Bluetooth 5.2, GPS / AGPS / Glonass / Beidou / Galileo / QZSS, USB Type-C, UWB, 4G LTE (VoLTE), 5G
- Battery: 4500mAh with 45W wired charging (no power adapter provided)
- Wireless Charging: Yes (15W), Wireless PowerShare
- Color Options: Phantom Black, Phantom White, Pink Gold
- What’s inside the box: Galaxy S22+, SIM ejector, USB-C to USB-C cable
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