Samsung wants us to call this phone the Galaxy S22 Ultra, but it’s actually the Galaxy Note. Everything about this device’s DNA can be traced back to that exciting and confusing phablet era, from the wide screen to the built-in S Pen next to the charging port. It’s Samsung’s most successful flagship to date, but does anyone really need such a big phone?
I was surprised to get to know the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. It can do so much, and everything from the rear camera with four-lens, long battery life to incredible screen, tries to justify the entry price. From working to watching videos to handling group chats, Ultra handles everything with ease in a single computer, tablet and smartphone. That’s at least what it promises for the $ 1,200 price tag.
Award: from $ 1,200
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There is no headphone jack on the bottom of the Galaxy S22 Ultra, but there is a USB-C port next to the retractable S Pen.
Speaking of which, S Pen is back, and to me it looks like it never disappeared – which is why I can not stop calling this thing Note. But sometimes I can barely remember it being there, and if you think you might be in the same camp, definitely consider taking this phone at all. We will cover the purpose of the S Pen and some of the new things you can do with it in a bit.
Galaxy S22 Ultra comes in four colors including Phantom White, Burgundy and Chic Green.
Screen
The Galaxy S22 Ultra’s 6.8-inch dynamic AMOLED screen is what makes this phone worth carrying.
120 Hz frequency and 1440 x 3088 resolution make images and text look smooth and sharp
On such an Ultra screen, you can seriously edit photos and comfortably snooze with an e-book. But most of all, I enjoyed using this screen while snuggling on a warm blanket and watching videos, both vintage movies in 720p and premiere dramas in 1080p.
Mobile gaming is also easy on Ultra, making popular titles like Pokémon Go extra fun. The large Ultra screen is a great platform to launch Poké Balls, and the maximum brightness of 1750 nits helps you capture Pokémon in bright light. You also do not have to worry about high brightness eating up the battery without your consent, as it is only available when you are in direct sunlight. By default, Ultra automatically adjusts the screen based on your surroundings.
Why so many cameras?
Not one, not two or even three cameras. There are four cameras and a depth sensor to make your photos more vivid!
With Ultra, I have often wondered why anyone would want four lenses on the back of a smartphone. I can understand an array of three cameras: ultra-wide angle, wide-angle and macro or zoom lenses. But why would anyone need two telephoto lenses?
Ultra has four rear cameras, including a 108 MP main camera with the largest aperture of the four, a 12 MP ultra-wide camera with a 120-degree field of view and two telephoto lenses – one with 3x optical zoom and one with 10x. The second telephoto lens allows you to use the 100x Ultra digital space zoom feature Photo of the zoom features of the Galaxy s22 Ultra
A photo of the zoom features of the Galaxy s22 Ultra Who needs binoculars when the zoom is built into the smartphone?
And it can enlarge outer space. Ultra was able to capture this planet flying through the sky outside my window, and I even took this epic full moon picture without leaning on a tripod. The end product looks like I photographed it with an amateur telescope, not a phone. I did not even have to get up from my seat to take these pictures, and it is probably in situations like this that you need such a powerful zoom on your phone.
Night photography was improved on Ultra, from portraits to landscapes, partly helped by binding and larger sensors. However, the Pixel 6 Pro is still the best at illuminating darker photos, and it will keep the shutter open when needed.
It took me over a week to find out how to use Samsung’s camera system. I thought the switch between cameras would be as intuitive as on the Pixel 6 Pro. Four rear cameras – that’s a lot for the phone, and I felt I should take advantage of each and every one of them every time you launch the camera application. I could not move away from a scene without taking at least four pictures of the same motif, to get different perspectives. Perhaps most people will stick to the standard wide-angle lens and choose one of the telephoto lenses as the primary one. In any case, the choice is large (maybe even too large).
I did not even mention the front 40 MP camera, which has an extra full resolution mode that can be activated in the aspect ratio menu. I took some selfies and filmed myself unpacking wooden trains as a tribute to the TikTok unboxing pioneers, and they were all worth it.
Where Samsung usually lags behind Google and Apple is in photo editing software. Apple’s images look more realistic, while Google phones have advanced AI photography tricks. Not to be outdone, Samsung has added two new tools to the Galaxy S22 series: the Google Pixel-like Object Eraser and the Photo Remaster feature, which lets you scan physical photos to digital. I tried Object Eraser, and although it does a good job of removing stains here and there, it is not as good at filling in the whole as the Magic Eraser on Pixel 6 Pro. You can use Google’s version of Magic Eraser by simply logging in to Google Photos, so nothing is lost in that regard.
Expensive power
The Galaxy S22 line is powered by the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor. The biggest difference between all three models is whether you get 8 GB or 12 GB of RAM. The Ultra model is available with up to 1 TB of storage space.
I can confirm that Ultra is lightning fast, just like all other new smartphones right out of the box. In our benchmarks, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 proved to be the most powerful mobile processor available to Android users, and it performed exceptionally well against the Pixel 6 Pro (which runs on Google’s custom Tensor chip). The latest Apple A15 Bionic chip installed in the iPhone 13 line continues to be the most powerful processor for smartphones. In each of our benchmarks, they surpassed 13 Ultra.
Of course, the presence of so many features does not have the best effect on battery life. For this reason, Samsung has included a 5,000 mAh battery in the Ultra. It’s enough for at least a moderate day’s use, provided you do not spend much time in front of the screen. In our full battery test, Ultra lasted just over 16 hours. With a maximum wired charging speed of 45W, it charges quickly, and I was able to get the battery to full capacity within two hours on a 30W charger. By the way, there is no charger in the box, so you need to look for it before you buy.
Samsung’s always-on-screen is a delightful solution if you like it.
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra runs the latest Android 12 straight out of the box with Samsung’s proprietary One UI 4.1 interface on top, so it looks different than what you’ll see on a Pixel device. This new version of Samsung’s interface includes the Android Material You color customization feature, which picks up shades based on your wallpaper. However, I was disappointed with the lack of settings in the dark.
Return listing
Who needs a pen for their smartphone at this time? It is you?
It’s time to talk about the S Pen, the built – in pen that made Note famous during its decade of existence, and now it’s back as Ultra’s main feature.
The S Pen is really useful for a screen of this size. I have subscribed to several publications in Romanian and receive them digitally in PDF format. Since I can not read the language, I rely on the “choose and translate” trick to get the right grammar. This is much easier to do with the S Pen than to drag across the screen with your finger – especially with long nails or thick fingers.
The pen makes photo editing and cropping text blocks a little easier if you do not need to get to the curved edges of the Ultra.
When not in use, the S Pen stays in its little nest, just as it did when the phone was called the Note. The S Pen has all its signature features, including air commands and the ability to “type” on the lock screen.
The handwriting conversion feature has also been improved in Ultra. Although I was impressed with how he analyzed my messy handwriting, he takes the formatting too literally, making short messages more complicated than it’s worth. Despite all the benefits of S Pen, I still prefer to dictate my notes rather than write by hand and convert them.
The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is a smartphone worth considering if you can live with the starting price of $ 1,200.
As Samsung partially shifted its focus towards making collapsible devices more mainstream, Ultra will be the release that will satisfy both advanced users and protesters. This is the most complete phone you can buy from the company if the two smaller offers are not powerful enough for you. For the extra money, you get every camera you can put in a smartphone, a large screen for watching TV programs and a pen as powerful as if it came with a tablet. But it is not a phone designed for everyone. For most people, this is probably too big a phone. But that was the note too, and I’m glad it’s back.