Samsung Galaxy S22 vs S22 Plus vs S22 Ultra: What are the differences?
This is how the Samsung Galaxy S22 range compares to help you work out which is the right phone for you.
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Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S series for 2022 is the the Galaxy S22, Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Ultra. It was announced on 9 February and made available to buy on 25 February 2022.
Which of the three devices is the right one for you though? We’ve compared the specifications of the Galaxy S22, Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Ultra to help you work out what the differences are, and how they stack up against each other.
Samsung Galaxy S22
From Samsung’s 2022 flagship lineup, we think the S22 is the sweet spot for most people. Excellent cameras, great battery life and a big, beautiful screen.
Design
The Samsung Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus look the same, except for their physical size, while the S22 Ultra features a slight difference in design to its two siblings.
All three devices come with a centralised punch hole camera at the top of their displays, but while the S22 and S22 have triple rear camera housings colour-matched to the rear of the device, the S22 Ultra comes with a quad rear camera and the lenses sit within the rear of the device rather than within a housing.
The S22 Ultra also offers an S Pen built into its design, like the Galaxy Note series used to offer.
The S22 and S22 come in white, pink, phantom green and black colour options. The S22 Ultra comes in black, green, burgundy and white.
Waterproofing. IP68 to be precise. is on board all three models, and all three models offer a glass rear.
Display
The Samsung Galaxy S22 comes with a 6.1-inch display with a Full HD resolution, while the S22 has a 6.6-inch display, again with a Full HD resolution.
Their displays are flat, and they offer support for HDR10, as well as a variable refresh rate between 10Hz and 120Hz.
The S22 Ultra meanwhile, has a 6.81-inch display with a Quad HD resolution, making it the largest and sharpest of the three devices. It is also slightly curved at the edges rather than flat, but like the S22 and S22, it supports HDR10. It also offers a variable refresh rate, though this is between 1Hz and 120Hz.
All three devices offer under-display fingerprint sensors and they all come with a feature called Eye Comfort Shield with AI-based blue light control.
iPhone 14 Pro vs Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra
Samsung Galaxy S22
Hardware and specs
All three of the Samsung Galaxy S22 devices run on either the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, or the Exynos 2200 chipset, depending on the region. Qualcomm will be under the hood in the US and Exynos in the UK, which has been the case for a number of years now.
The S22 and S22 both come with 8GB of RAM and storage options of 128GB and 256GB. The S22 Ultra however, comes in 8GB and 12GB RAM options, with storage options of 128GB for the 8GB model, and 256GB, 512GB and 1TB for the 12GB model. None of the models offer microSD support.
СРАВНЕНИЕ Galaxy S22Ultra vs S22Plus [Честный Обзор]
In terms of battery capacity, the S22 has a 3700mAh battery and support for 25W fast charging, the S22 has a 4500mAh battery and support for 45W charging, and the S22 Ultra has a 5000mAh battery capacity and it too supports 45W fast charging. The charger is not included in any of the boxes though, with just the USB-C to USB-C cable offered.
In terms of battery life, the larger cells in the S22 and S22 Ultra mean they offer better life than the smaller S22. with the S22 Ultra then putting greater demands on the battery because of the larger display.
Camera
The Samsung Galaxy S22 and S22 have a triple rear camera, made up of a 50-megapixel main sensor with f/1.8 aperture and OIS, plus a 12-megapixel ultrawide sensor with an f/2.2 aperture and a 10-megapixel telephoto lens with f/2.4 aperture. The telephoto lens offers 3x optical zoom.
On the front of both the S22 and the S22, there is a 10-megapixel snapper with f/2.2 aperture.
Meanwhile, the Galaxy S22 Ultra features a quad rear camera setup, consisting of a 108-megapixel main sensor with an f/1.8 aperture, a 12MP ultra-wide sensor with f/2.2 aperture, and two 10MP telephoto lenses. one with an f/4.9 aperture and 10x zoom, the other with f/2.4 aperture and 3x zoom.
The front camera also steps it up a notch compared to the standard Samsung Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22, with a 40-megapixel lens offering an f/2.2 aperture.
The Galaxy S22 Ultra is a step up in offering over the other models, offering the better camera experience.
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra
Taking inspiration from the retired Note series, the latest Samsung flagship boats a typically brilliant design and camera performance.
Conclusion
The Samsung Galaxy S22 and S22 share the same design and the same specifications, except for physical size, battery capacity and fast charging capabilities.
The S22 Ultra is the largest of the three devices and the most capable in terms of camera. It also offers a bump in display resolution and a lower refresh rate capability, and it has more RAM and storage options, as well as a larger battery capacity. Additionally, it offers the S Pen built into it, differentiating it further from the other two handsets and offering a range of additional options.
You pay the price for the S22 Ultra though, even though it is the clear winner in terms of specs, so consider what features are most important to you and weigh up whether they are worth the cash. You might find the standard Galaxy S22 models meet your needs and you can save yourself some money instead.
Samsung’s Galaxy S22 pumps up the pixels and optical zoom
Early Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy S22 is the most affordable of the new S22 series, and it’s clear where Samsung’s stripped back specs to hit the lower price – charging speed, battery capacity and max brightness. Nevertheless, with the same camera as the S22 Plus and chipset as the S22 Ultra, as well as a shared interface across the whole series, there’s still plenty to get excited about, especially when it’s all packaged in such a good looking body.
Pros
- Great design
- 3x telephoto camera
- Optical image stabilization
- 8K video
Cons
- – Smaller screen than 6.6in S22 Plus
- – Lacks 10x telephoto lens of Ultra
- – Lacks 108MP sensor of S22 Ultra
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The Samsung Galaxy S22 continues a line of vanilla Galaxy S phones that balance ability, performance and price, packing more bells and whistles than the Galaxy FE line, but fewer than the S22 Plus or S22 Ultra. You could think of it as the iPhone 13 of the Android world – clearly not the greatest, but definitely the reliable volume driver.
What’s also welcome is the fact that the S22 has a new camera system. While the Galaxy S21 had a rehashed S20 camera, we’ve finally got improved hardware this time around. The zoom range is now three times optical (versus pure digital zoom on the S20 and S21), and there’s also a new sensor combination.
Costing 799 / £769, the S22 is also the most affordable of the three new Galaxy phones, undercutting competition like the Pixel 6 Pro and OnePlus 9 Pro, while costing more than the vanilla Pixel 6.
Design and screen
The Galaxy S22’s screen is a modest 6.1 inches, which makes the whole phone very manageable in the hand. It feels premium, with an Armor Aluminum frame and Gorilla Glass Victus Plus glass. The S22 is also slender at 7.6mm, so fits comfortably in a. making for a good first impression for anyone after a more compact option.
Like the Galaxy S22 Plus, the S22 has a flat front and back with slightly rounded polished metal sides. It’s available in eight colors, with Green, Phantom Black, Phantom White and Pink Gold being widely available, and Cream, Graphite, Sky Blue and Violet available online from Samsung’s online store.
The Galaxy S22 is an IP68 dust and water resistant phone whichever color you go for. It’s also loaded up with biometric security, with both an ultrasonic under-display fingerprint scanner and face recognition.
As for the screen, it’s a 120Hz Dynamic AMOLED x2 panel with a peak brightness of 1300 nits. That means it doesn’t get quite as bright as the S22 Plus or Ultra, though 1300 nits is still plenty bright. What’s more, the S22 features Samsung’s new vision enhancer, so can isolate elements of the screen to brighten up for peak visibility even in bright outdoor conditions.
With a wide Full HD resolution of 1080 x 2340, the phone’s 425 PPI pixel density is matched with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. This means the phone is sharp, and sits somewhere between a cinematic widescreen movie and a Full HD series, so should be versatile enough to handle both types of content without too much letterboxing.
Samsung Galaxy S22: cameras
Spearheaded by a 50MP main camera with an f/1.8 lens the Galaxy S22’s main camera gets a serious boost with a higher pixel-count and larger sensor when compared to the S21. The phone’s ultra-wide 12MP camera looks like it uses the same module as the S21, while the telephoto camera has seen a complete overhaul. The new 10MP telephoto replaces the digital zooming 64MP sensor on the S21, making up for the lower pixel count by boosting the optical reach to 70mm.
As for the front camera, it’s a 10MP sensor matched with a 26mm, f/2.2 lens. What’s excellent about Samsung’s premium selfie cameras is the fact they pack autofocus. This works well with the S22 series’ Portrait Mode, which also gets an enhanced studio lighting feature and automatic night portrait support video feature, while also featuring improved pet portrait mode, complete with pet studio lighting to boot.
When it comes to video, the Galaxy S22 captures up to 8K resolution from the back, and 4K resolution from the front, with both sides capping out at 60fps frame rates. While we anticipate the S22 will be a decent camera phone – Samsung seldom makes duds, given the superior spec of the S22 Ultra, it won’t be the best camera phone of 2022.
Additional specs
Equipped with a 4nm Exynos 2200 for global markets and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in the US and China, the Galaxy S22 features flagship power and up to 256GB storage and 8GB RAM.
The phone runs Android 12 with Samsung’s One UI 4.1, so has access to plenty of apps through both the Google Play Store and Samsung Galaxy Store. It also supports Link to Windows, a new feature that makes full phone integration with Windows PCs possible, and is only available on select Samsung devices.
Confusingly, the S22 has a slightly lower capacity battery than the S21 battery, clocking in at 3700mAh. It also misses out on the fast charging the S22 Plus and Ultra support, though does feature wireless charging at up to 15W and reverse wireless charging at 4.5W.
Available to pre-order right now, the Galaxy S22 looks like a great smartphone on first impression, but we’ll need to test out the new camera system and that battery to make sure it comfortably makes it through a full day before it gets the Digital Camera World seal of approval.
Samsung Galaxy S22: Early Verdict
The Galaxy S22 is the most affordable of the series, and it’s clear where Samsung’s stripped back specs to hit the lower price – charging speed, battery capacity and max brightness. Nevertheless, with the same camera as the S22 Plus and chipset as the S22 Ultra, as well as a shared interface across the whole series, there’s still plenty to get excited about, especially when it’s all packaged in such a good looking body.
Samsung Galaxy S22 review: a good phone playing it safe
The Galaxy S22 is Samsung’s big-screen premium phone for 2022, offering top specs and good quality hardware, but little in the way of novel or exciting features. It’s a safe, solid device.
With an RRP of £949 (999/A1,549) that doesn’t mean low cost, but it is £200 cheaper than the all-singing, all-dancing £1,149 S22 Ultra superphone with its Galaxy Note-like design. Shop around, though, and you should soon be able to find it for less.
The S22 is similar to last year’s S21 with a flat glass front and back and solid-feeling aluminium sides. It looks and feels refined rather than flashy, and while it has a big 6.6in screen it is fairly easy to hold with sharper edges to grip with your fingers and a relatively light 195g weight.
The 120Hz AMOLED display looks fantastic with vibrant colours, good viewing angles and an extremely high peak brightness of 1,750nits (a standard measure of screen brightness), which is enabled when in direct sunlight making it easier to see outdoors than its rivals.
Top chips and solid battery life
In the US the S22 has the standard top Android chip for 2022 from Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. But in the EU it has a Samsung Exynos 2200 with the first mobile graphics processor designed by AMD, the company behind the chips used in the Xbox Series X and PS5 games consoles.
Testing the EU version, general performance was excellent, although not perceptibly faster than the already snappy models of last year. Gaming performance of the AMD graphics was more variable than Qualcomm-using competitors, likely requiring optimisation for games.
The battery lasts for about 35 hours between charges, on 5G for two hours and Wi-Fi for the rest, using the screen for about five hours in various chat apps, the camera, Spotify, Chrome and a light spot of gaming. That’s enough for a good day of use, but slightly shorter than last year’s model and miles behind the market-leading 48-hour-plus Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max.
Sustainability
Samsung does not provide an expected lifespan for the battery. Those in similar devices typically maintain at least 80% of their original capacity for at least 500 full charge cycles.
The phone is generally repairable. Screen repairs cost £179, while the battery is replaceable by authorised service centres. But the phone only scores a three out of 10 on iFixit’s repairability ranking.
Several internal components are made from 20% recycled nylon or plastic. Samsung offers trade-in and recycling schemes for old devices. The company publishes annual sustainability reports but not impact assessments for individual products.
OneUI 4.1
The S22 ships with OneUI 4.1, which is based on the latest version of Android 12 and receives prompt updates unlike some competitors. It is a refined version of Android that offers plenty of customisation options and useful tools.
The S22 will receive at least five years of software updates from release, including four major Android version updates and monthly security patches, making it one of the longest-lasting Android devices available and just behind Apple’s six-year-plus support for its iPhones.
Camera
The S22 has a triple camera system on the back: a 50MP main, 12MP ultra-wide and a 10MP 3x telephoto camera.
The main camera is excellent, capturing really good images in a variety of lighting conditions. Its low-light performance is significantly improved over previous models, dramatically brightening scenes. It does, however, sometimes lose contrast in the process with a tendency to make people look like you’ve shone a flash in their face.
The telephoto camera has a 3x optical zoom and produces sharper images in good light than last year’s model, but it still struggles in low light settings producing bright but heavily processed images.
The ultra-wide camera produces slightly crisper images in good light and handles lower light levels better than before. The 10MP selfie camera did an excellent job of balancing detail and grain in fairly challenging light, producing pleasing, detailed shots the majority of the time.
Samsung’s video capture remains ahead of most of the Android pack shooting up to 8K at 24 frames a second and with plenty of features, including a new auto-framing system that tries to keep up to 10 people in FOCUS and in shot at any one time.
Overall the S22’s camera is very good, but falls slightly short of the very best on the market.
Price
The Samsung Galaxy S22 costs from £949 (999/A1,549) with 128GB of storage.
For comparison, the Galaxy S22 costs £769, the S22 Ultra costs £1,149, the Z Flip 3 costs £949, the Google Pixel 6 Pro costs £849 and the Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max costs £1,049.
Verdict
Everything about the Galaxy S22 feels premium but it lacks a certain wow factor, particularly next to Samsung’s other £949 folding flip phone.
The screen is great, the camera is good, performance is snappy and the battery life is reasonable. These are all big upgrades on old models, but no more than expected in a top phone in 2022.
The S22 feels nicer and is easier to hold than many rivals. In theory it is more durable, made from stronger aluminium and the hardest smartphone glass available.
It will receive at least five years of software updates from release, making it the longest-lasting Android phone available and only slightly behind Apple’s iPhone. It is the first Samsung phone to be partially made from recycled materials, too.
Buy it at lower than RRP, around the £750-£800 that previous models have been readily been available, and it offers a lot of phone for the money. Keep it for the five years you can safely use it thanks to security updates and it offers better value than many cheaper rivals.
Pros: 120Hz screen, good camera, One UI 4.1/Android 12, good performance, decent battery life, fast fingerprint scanner, five years of software support, contains recycled materials, premium feel.
Cons: big, expensive, no headphone socket, battery life and camera bettered by others, no flashy features.
Samsung Galaxy S22 Review
It may be a year old but the Samsung Galaxy S22 remains an excellent compact phone, with superb performance and an excellent camera being particular highlights. However, it’s let down by lacklustre battery life.
Key Features
Introduction
Samsung’s 2022 flagship smartphone range is led by the impressive Galaxy S22 Ultra phablet, but there are more strings to the Android manufacturer’s bow than just that one supersize, super-specced handset.
The range also includes the Samsung Galaxy S22, a more modestly sized and priced device that nonetheless packs a flagship chipset, an impressive screen, and a sophisticated triple-camera system.
Both have been superseded by the newer Samsung Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23 Ultra but the S22 series remains a tempting buy, especially with heavy discounts now that they’re technically ‘old’.
If you want great capabilities tucked into a neat, easily manageable package and don’t mind not having the very latest tech, the Samsung Galaxy S22 could be the phone for you.
Design and Screen
Part of Samsung’s trio of flagship models for 2022, in reality the Samsung Galaxy S22 is the most modest of the three, being the smallest in size and featuring triple rear camera sensors to the S22 Ultra’s quadruple offering.
Of course, that isn’t to say that it’s a cut-price or compromised handset in the slightest; its quality is immediately obvious upon picking it up for the first time. The S22 sports a beautifully understated design, thanks to the frosted-glass rear finish and its smooth and discreet camera module. The device in for review arrived in the lush green colour, which is particularly deep and alluring.
Small phones such as this (it measures 146 x 70.6 x 7.6mm) have both their supporters and detractors. Some prefer the ease with which they can be used, particularly one-handed, while others miss the big-screen experience offered by the more sizeable handsets. I took a little time to adjust to the S22’s smaller dimensions, having come from using big-screen smartphones; but it soon felt natural and manageable, and I only really missed the larger display when playing mobile games.
Not only does the S22 look good, it offers sturdy protection against the inevitable bumps and knocks that such a device will receive over its lifetime. Both the front and rear panels are cast in the very latest Gorilla Glass Victus, set between an aluminium frame, and the phone is IP68-rated against dust and water ingress. These credentials should mean that it stands up well against wear and tear.
On the other hand, if you’re looking to upgrade an older Samsung Galaxy phone following a few years of use, then you might be disappointed at the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack. Of course, that’s par for the course on modern high-end smartphones, with only a few notable exceptions such as the Sony Xperia 1 IV or the Asus ZenFone 9; but for some customers that’s still a stinging loss.
Hopefully, though, some of those concerns can be made up for with the impressive advances in screen technology. This panel is bursting at the seams with specifications vying for your attention and, once again, this Samsung speciality makes its presence known on the S22.
The AMOLED panel may measure only 6.1 inches, but it boasts a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate, for smooth scrolling with supported content. There’s HDR10, too, so that compatible TV shows display some extra-punchy colours. As mentioned previously, the diminutive size of the screen does take away from its impact while gaming, but it still holds up as a decent display.
The resolution is 1080p, which isn’t the highest but still seems adequate for sharpness; images and text are clear, but they’re not dazzling in their detail.
You aren’t missing out on much by not opting for the newer Galaxy S23 either, with the same general build, design and display tech as the S22.
Camera
On the rear of the handset you’ll find a triple-camera module, comprising a 50-megapixel wide-angle lens, a 12-megapixel ultrawide, and a 10-megapixel telephoto sensor that offers a 3x optical zoom. It’s a promising package that can potentially offer a good deal of flexibility when you’re shooting, but how did it perform in reality?
The following images were taken with all three sensors on default settings, standing from the same position:
As you can see, detail remains strong across all of the lenses and images look consistent, too.
The ultrawide lens, which offers a 120-degree field of view, does suffer some distortion that’s particularly noticeable around the edges; nevertheless, it remains a useful addition to your camera’s arsenal, for those needing to fit a lot more into the frame.
The main camera delivered particularly punchy, colourful and detailed shots:
The telephoto sensor adds 3x optical zoom into the mix, helping you get closer to your subject. The pair of dogs in the image below were snapped at this level of zoom, and the resulting image quality is strong and punchy:
You can even push the zoom digitally to greater heights, though it’s not equal to the S22 Ultra in this area of expertise. The photo of the artifice on the tower below was taken at 10x zoom. As you can see, the results are still remarkably clear even at this level, even though some detail is inevitably lost:
Even when you’re shooting at night, the camera manages to retain good levels of detail and avoids too many blown-out highlights:
Overall, I’ve been happy with the performance of the camera; it has produced punchy images, and the fact that it’s adaptable is a particular strong point. Whether I was taking pictures of skyscrapers in Chicago (which required an ultrawide to fit everything in the frame), or snapping photos of boats on the other side of the river (for which I required a strong zoom), I always had the tools I needed at my disposal.
While the S22 takes pictures that are sharp and punchy, you may find that colours veer towards being unnaturally vivid. While that’s arguably a strength if you’re uploading them to social media sites such as Instagram, you may find over the top for everything else, where you’d like a more accurate representation of what you actually saw.
Performance
The chipset onboard the Samsung Galaxy S22 is an Exynos 2200, which is Samsung’s effort at a flagship-level chipset; in markets outside of Europe, the S22 totes a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor instead. For reference, this is the last time Samsung has done this chipset split with the newer S23 sporting the custom Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy chipset worldwide.
Our benchmarking tests found that the Exynos 2200 is indeed a very strong processor, delivering high scores across the board for the CPU and GPU. This phone is just as powerful as other 2022 flagships including the S22 Ultra, and compares favourably to the year’s other smartphones, too, including the OnePlus 10 Pro, Oppo Find X5 Pro, and the Xiaomi 12 Pro, though it lags behind newer 2023 flagships.
