Samsung Galaxy S22 may look puny compared to its siblings S22 Plus and S22 Ultra, but it houses the same powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset and even the camera hardware too, on paper, comes with a good upgrade over the predecessor.
I used the Galaxy S22 for more than a week and here are my thoughts on Samsung's compact flagship phone.
Design, build quality and display
As said in the first impression, I appreciate Samsung for retaining the S21's chiselled camera module design language for the S22 series. It is fused with the frame and the silver-hued strip blends beautifully with the ivory white shell. Also, the flat screen sitting flush with the frame too makes the phone visually appealing and also avoids accidental triggering of apps, which is a bane in phones with the curved display panel.
The rounded armoured aluminium of the Phantom White model not only exudes a premium hand feel but also offers stability to the device and is capable of protecting the device's internal component from getting displaced during accidental falls.
It should be noted that Samsung has incorporated Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+ shield on both the back and the front panel. It is the sturdiest cover for any Android phone on the market, and so far, the device has not suffered any scratches.
Also, the device comes with IP68 certification. It can sustain water pressure up to the depth of 1.5 meters (approx. five feet) for close to 30 minutes.
The matte finish and also snow-white colourway on the back make the device repel fingerprint smudges; it definitely saves time and lessens the burden on me to keep cleaning the phone all day.
The Galaxy S22 features a high-quality 6.1-inch full HD+(1080 x 2340p) Dynamic AMOLED 2X display. It supports a 120Hz refresh rate, and HDR10+ content and offers up to 1300 nits peak brightness. It is the best display on a phone in the industry and none of the premium phones launched this year so far come close to matching its quality.
For the first time, Samsung has introduced a proprietary Vision Booster feature for the display. It enables the phone to automatically detect the light condition of the surrounding area and appropriately adjust the colour, contrast, and brightness of the display. It fares really well both indoors and outdoors even with direct sunlight.
I did not face any issues in terms of viewing emails or squint eyes to read news feeds on the internet. Also, while watching videos too, the display was bright and vibrant.
The in-screen fingerprint sensor works like a charm. I did not face any pressing issues to complain about this biometric security feature.
Performance
Samsung's Galaxy S22 is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 silicon, which can clock up 3.0Ghz CPU speed. The phone works flawlessly for day-to-day chores such as browsing the web or opening/switching multiple apps, operating a camera or playing games. It does everything smoothly and though it gets a bit warmed up, but never overwhelming when playing graphics-intense games indoors.
However, with the unusual heatwave in India, even in Bengaluru in the last couple of weeks ago, the device did get a bit more heated up than normal outdoors. This is common for any of the premium phones with metal and glass panels. If you are under a shade or at home, there won't be any such issues.
With Ram Plus (up to 8GB) feature, users can bump up the physical memory from 8GB to 16GB and make the device even faster.
The Qualcomm chipset also comes with a 5G modem, making the Galaxy S22 future ready phone. It can support peak download speed up to 10Gbps on the cellular network and with Wi-Fi 6.0, it supports up to 3.6Gbps download speed on Wi-Fi routers.
Another notable aspect of the Samsung Galaxy S22 and other S series phones is that the company is promising four years of major Android OS updates, meaning the former, which currently runs Android 12-based One UI 4 OS, is eligible to get Android 13, 14, 15, and 16 up to 2026. Also, the device will get security software support up to 2027.
This is a welcome move, which not only builds strong loyalty among consumers with Samsung but it will bode well for the former's initiative to lessen the impact on the environment.
With long term software support, people will hold on to their phones longer and don't have to buy every alternate year, which has been norm for almost a decade, as most Android phones were promised just 18 months of software support.
Talking of the environment, Samsung's new phone does not come with a charging adapter. The company has also reduced the use of plastics in the packaging and some of the key components in the device are made of repurposed fishing nets and other recycled metals for buttons and motherboard.
Now, the retail box contains just the Type-C-to-Type-C cable and supports up to 25W charging. The device also supports wireless charging and reverse charging.
As far as the battery life is concerned, it is subjective as it depends on the user. I mainly use the phone for doom scrolling on social media apps and occasionally watch some soothing village cooking videos and Foodlovers TV on YouTube, while travelling from home to the office and vice versa; FYI, I spend close to three hours every day commuting on the bus. The rest of the time, I see emails and messages. With the aforementioned activities, the phone was able to easily last a whole day. But, if you are an extreme user and consume multimedia content through cellular data on a stretch, the battery drains faster and you would need a power bank.
Photography
Samsung Galaxy S22 houses a triple-camera module-- main 12MP Ultra-Wide Camera (f/2.2, FOV: Field-Of-View 120-degree) backed by 50MP Wide Camera (with dual pixel AF, OIS, F1.8, FOV 85-degree) and 10MP Telephoto Camera ( with 3x Optical Zoom, OIS, F2.4, FOV 36-degree) with LED flash on the back.
It takes fantastic photos in all lighting conditions. I particularly love the low-light and night mode snaps taken by the Galaxy S22.
Also, another great improvement I noticed with the S22 is that the camera is capable of processing the RGB (Red Green Blue) colours better with less saturation, compared to the predecessor. In the sample shots, you can see, how the crimson-hued Ostrich Plume (also known as red ginger) flower has come off with good details, petals finely separated, better edge detection and the colour too, isn't blown up and is near accurate to what we see through our eyes.
The ultra-wide-angle photos come great too. The phone was able to accommodate a vast area around the Nandi Hills in a single frame. Also, the lush green grapes farm in the foreground has been captured well.
Also, the optical 3X zoom works really well, and even up to 10X digital zoom, there is less noise in pictures, but beyond that, the photos become too much grainy.
The close-up shots of the flowers under the shade with low sunlight have also come fine with good details.
The night mode, as said before, is great. It brightens the dark sky but does not blow up to make it look like an evening, the sun setting at the horizon kind of environment. Just good enough to make out the fact that it is taken at the night and, as you can see from the sample, the colours of the coconut look natural and also the street lights at the back are captured pretty well.
It can record up to 8K high-resolution videos; they are really stable and of top-notch quality, better than any of the premium Android phones in the market.
On the front, it sports a 10MP front camera (with f/2.2 and FOV: 80-degree). It takes pretty good selfies and yes, it can accommodate four people in the frame with ease in close range.
Final thoughts
The new Galaxy S22 hits the sweet spot with a compact design. It is perfect for one-handed usage for a person like me with puny hands. Also, don't get mistaken with the small dimensions of the device, as Samsung has not made compromises in key aspects such as performance, build quality, display panel compared to any premium phone on the market, or with the S22 Ultra for that matter.
Also, there is marked improvement in terms of photography not just compared to the predecessor but also better than most of the rival brands. I am very impressed with the low-light pictures.
Yes, the smaller dimension means, less space for battery, but it can still last a whole day with normal usage.
The standard Galaxy S22 is available in two storages--128GB and 256GB-- for Rs 72,999 and Rs 76,999, respectively in India.
Get the latest news on new launches, gadget reviews, apps, cybersecurity, and more on personal technology only on DH Tech.