Samsung’s S22 Ultra offers big Note energy, S22 and S22+ similar to S21 series

Samsung has announced its latest flagship smartphones: the Galaxy S22, S22+ and S22 Ultra.

All three of the South Korean tech giant’s new S series devices will launch in Canada on February 25th.

Below is the entire S22 series’ pricing:

• Galaxy S22: 8GB + 128GB – $1,099.99
• Galaxy S22: 8GB + 256GB – $1,169.99
• Galaxy S22+: 8GB + 128GB – $1,399.99
• Galaxy S22+: 8GB + 256GB – $1,469.99
• Galaxy S22 Ultra: 8GB + 128GB  – $1,649.99
• Galaxy S22 Ultra: 8GB + 256GB – $1,789.99
• Galaxy S22 Ultra: 12GB + 512GB – $1,929.99
• Galaxy S22 Ultra: 12GB + 1TB – $2,209.99 (Samsung exclusive)

As always, the handsets are available in a variety of colours. The S22 and S22+ are available in ‘Phantom Black,’ ‘Phantom White,’ ‘Green’ and ‘Pink Gold,’ as well as Samsung exclusive colours’ Gray,’ ‘Cream,’ ‘Violet’ and ‘Light Blue.’

The Galaxy S22 Ultra, on the other hand, comes in ‘Phantom Black,’ ‘Phantom White,’ ‘Green,’ ‘Burgundy,’ and Samsung exclusive colours’ Gray,’ ‘Light Blue,’ and ‘Red.’

While all three of these phones are flagships in their own right, the S22 Ultra is the star of the show with a different form factor than the other devices in the line.

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is this year’s top-tier S series device. First off, the device looks like a fusion of the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and the S21 Ultra — a perfect combination of the two smartphones. The handset features up to 1TB of memory, up to 12GB of RAM and a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor.

What’s most notable about the Galaxy S22 Ultra is it includes the fan-favourite S Pen. This new S Pen supports 2.8ms latency, which should make it feel very smooth. Additionally, the S Pen features a more advanced version of handwriting that can digitize your messy handwriting into easy-to-read notes, and it works with up to 88 languages.

Further, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra features a 6.8-inch display that offers a 1440 x 3080-pixel resolution and 120Hz variable refresh rate that can reduce to 1Hz when looking at static images. Additionally, it supports a 240Hz touch sample rate when gaming. A touch sample rate or touch-sensing refers to the frequency at which the smartphone tracks the movement of your finger. Typical devices have a 60Hz touch sample rate, which tracks the screen every 16.6ms, while, for example, the iPhone 13 series features a 120Hz touch sample rate that cuts the time by half.

The 240Hz reduces this to 4.15ms, which should make it seem like the handset reacts instantly to each touch.

Camera-wise, the S22 Ultra sports a 108-megapixel primary shooter with an f/1.8 aperture, a 10-megapixel telephoto shooter with 10x optical zoom with an f/4.9 aperture, another 10-megapixel telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom with an f/2.4 aperture, a 12-megapixel ultra-wide shooter with a 120-degree field-of-view, and lastly, a 40-megapixel selfie shooter with an f/2.2 aperture.

The S22 Ultra’s low-light videography and photography have improved thanks to pixels that are 1.23x bigger than the S21 Ultra’s, allowing the camera to capture more light, according to Samsung. The bigger pixels combined with the company’s multi-frame exposure technology should allow the S22 Ultra to capture bright high-resolution images even in low-light. Alongside this technology, the company’s AI reportedly processes 4x more data to sharpen details and reduce noise in low-light images.

There’s also a new auto-framing feature for videography that can detect people within five meters and track up to ten people for better group shots. When you tap a specific person’s face the video automatically shifts and adjusts to keep the subject in the centre.

Samsung says it has upgraded its ‘Portrait mode’ by improving its AI Stereo Depth Map and making depth photos pop in a more natural way. There’s also better studio lighting that should improve selfies, and portrait photos now work at night.

Additionally, Samsung has improved its manual photo-taking mode, allowing users to export 16-bit raw images. Finally, the handset sports a 5,000mAh battery and 45W wired charging and 15W wireless charging.

If you want to know more about the Galaxy S22 Ultra you can check out my hands-on. 

Samsung Galaxy S22 /S22+

In a sense, Samsung’s Galaxy S22 and S22+ are in a different ballpark than the S22 Ultra. Both phones look similar to last year’s S21 and S21+ and lack the S22 Ultra’s S Pen stylus.

The S22 features a 6.1-inch FHD+ display, whereas the S22+ offers an S22+ FHD+ panel. Both devices sport a 120Hz refresh rate with a 240Hz touch sample rate when gaming.

Both phones only sport 8GB of RAM, up to 256GB of storage and a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor. Additionally, the devices offer Android 12 and One UI 4.1, 5G, LTRE and Wi-Fi 6E for the Galaxy S22+ and the Wi-Fi 6 for the Galaxy S22.

Additionally, the handset sports a 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera with an f/2.2 aperture and a 120-degree field of view. There’s also a 50-megapixel primary shooter with an f/1.8 aperture, a 10-megapixel telephoto shooter with 3x optical zoom and f/2.4 aperture, and lastly, a 10-megapixel selfie camera with an f/2.2 aperture.

The S22 sports a 3,700mAh battery, 25W wired charging and 15W wireless charging. On the other hand, the S22+ features a 4,500mAh power cell with 45W wired charging like the S22 Ultra and 15W wireless charging.