If you’ve seen one flashy gadget announcement, you’ve seen them all. They usually start with broad, upbeat updates from whoever’s in charge. Then come the dramatic beauty shots of whatever’s being unveiled, followed by a little too much detail about all the new features and maybe a couple of illustrative skits.
Repeat the process for all the other new products, toss in some proclamations about sustainability, and there you go: another launch event for the books.
Living with the stuff that is announced is a little different. The excitement lingers for a bit, then wears off entirely, and then you actually start seeing your new gadget for what it really is. And for Samsung’s new Galaxy S22 and S22 Ultra smartphones, that means living with devices that really aren’t all that different from ones we’ve seen before.
That’s not to say they’re bad phones — they’re not! But Samsung mostly stuck to by-the-book upgrades here, which can make it hard to tell how truly helpful the changes can be before you go out and nab one of the phones for yourself. To help minimize your chances of feeling some buyer’s remorse, I’ve spent a week testing these phones for performance, camera quality, battery life and more. Here are six things you should know about the Samsung Galaxy S22 and S22 Ultra before you even think of buying one.
The Galaxy Note is back
The flashiest new phone Samsung announced was the Galaxy S22 Ultra, but let’s be honest here: it’s a Galaxy Note. And if you already were a Note fan, your decision just became a whole lot easier. This is the phone for you.
For everyone else, the S22 Ultra makes sense only if there’s room in your life for a gigantic, super-smooth 6.8-inch screen and Samsung’s S Pen stylus.
You can use the S Pen in place of your finger to poke around, as well as to jot down notes and scribble on this big screen. It also makes some mundane tasks, such as selecting text to copy, a breeze.
In some cases, though, the S Pen doubles as a sort of magic wand. Trying to take a picture of you and friends? Prop the Ultra up somewhere, and click the S Pen’s button to snap a photo. What about taking screenshots, or opening your recent apps? Just waggle the S Pen around, and it’s done.
To me, these “Air actions” make the S Pen more than just a gimmick; it’s another way to control your phone even when you’re not holding it. It’s wonderful, but for many people, it can feel completely extraneous.
The Galaxy S22 Ultra is absolutely enormous by smartphone standards: It’s a little taller and a hair thicker than Apple’s already-big iPhone 13 Pro Max. For some people, that size is the whole point, but unless you’re in love with the idea of scribbling on your smartphone, the smaller S22, with its 6.1-inch screen, is far more comfortable to hang onto. (Honestly, it’s the one I’d pick out of all of Samsung’s new gadgets.)
Speed won’t be an issue
All versions of the S22 in the United States use the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset from Qualcomm. That means these phones will rank among the most powerful Android phones you’ll see this year.
I’ve used the S22 and S22 Ultra to play games including “Genshin Impact,” edit and share 4K video clips, and run up to three apps on screen at the same time. (I do not recommend doing this, but it’s possible.) And at no point did either of these phones stutter or falter, although the Ultra’s body can become surprisingly warm when you really start to push it.
But here’s a question worth chewing on: How much power do you actually need? For what do you actually use your phone? We’ve long passed the point where modern smartphones have become more powerful than most people realistically need them to be. Put another way, if you’re mostly just browsing the Web or flicking through TikToks or responding to group chats, both of these phones are total overkill. How very Samsung.
With all that said, there’s one speed increase here some of you are more likely to notice. All versions of the Galaxy S22 have built-in support for the new, mid-band 5G from Verizon and AT&T that recently prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to freak out over fears of interference with the frequencies used for aircraft communications. If you haven’t upgraded your phone in the past year, that means you could start seeing much faster data and download speeds without having to do anything at all.
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