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It is, without a doubt, one of the most ambitious terminals ever manufactured by Samsung. One that goes beyond what is usual in the company’s ‘S’ family and that also resurrects one of Samsung’s most exclusive bets: that of the Galaxy Note, which came equipped with a stylus that allows you to put a phone to new uses. The Note range is dead, it’s true, but the new S 22 Ultra recovers its spirit, and also many of its characteristics, starting with the design and ending with the S Pen integrated in the casing.
Unlike the Galaxy S22 y S 22+the rounded edges have disappeared on the Ultra model.
The angles and corners, as in the old Note, mark a design governed by straight lines. The terminal has a pleasant grip, it feels solid and well built to the touch, but its large size, 163.3 x 77.9 x 8.9 millimeters, and its weight, 227 grams, make it completely impossible to use it with a single hand.
Obviously, if we remove the pencil, we will need both hands to handle the phone. The point is that even with the S Pen well stowed away, our thumb doesn’t reach more than half of the screen, preventing us from executing most functions. It is imperative, therefore, to hold it with one hand and handle it with the other, something that will undoubtedly lead more than one user to think very well if this, and not another, is the terminal that they really need.
That said, if the review of the S 22 Ultra had to be summed up in one sentence, it would be this: a impressive hardware and software that can be improved.
An exception screen
The screen, for example, is worth noting both for its resolution and its features. It is a 6.8-inch AMOLED panel with LTPO (Low Temperature Polycrystalline Oxide) technology, capable of automatically managing the refresh rate, leaving it at just one Hz in still images and raising it later, as needed in images. with movement, up to 120Hz. A function that therefore regulates energy consumption without the user having to intervene. The resolution, QUAD HD +, is 3,080 x 1,440, the touch refresh rate is 240 Hz in game mode and the brightness, which reaches 1,750 nits, is the highest among all screens on the market. The phone screen is perfectly visible even in direct sunlight. We are, without a doubt, facing one of the best screens ever made for a mobile phone.
great photographic quality
As for the cameras, Samsung has chosen to repeat the configuration that we already saw in the previous Galaxy S 21. Thus, in the back we find a quad camera that, this time, is not integrated into a module, but directly into the phone case (another aesthetic touch reminiscent of the Note). The main sensor is 108 megapixels, the same as in the previous generation, although Samsung claims that it is brighter and faster, something that, of course, is not appreciated in normal use of the phone. It is accompanied by a 12 megapixel ultra wide angle and two 10 megapixel telephoto lenses.
The photographs, then, have the quality that we were already used to in the S 21I mean, really good. The two telephotos allow a 10x zoom, and it must be admitted that the image processing is exceptional at this magnification. We can go up to a 100x zoom, it is true, but there, even if we have enough pulse so that the phone does not move a millimeter, we will lose a lot of detail and we will obtain pasty images. At night, the results are also really good, although when zooming in, the photos lose quality and detail.
The 40-megapixel front camera provides a quality that can be compared to the main camera, even in HDR. So it’s no longer just an add-on, but just another camera with all the features you need to get high-quality images.
In video, we once again have the possibility of recording in 8K quality, although if we decide to do so we will lose stabilization, which does work perfectly in 4K videos. We can also record videos with the two telephoto lenses, and it should be noted that they perfectly withstand the x10 magnification.
Lights and shadows in the processor
As for the processor, Samsung has opted for its own Exynos 2200, capable of performing up to 2.8 GHz, and which on this occasion is accompanied by an AMD GPU that I have given a lot to talk about, since it is directly inspired by those used by the latest generations of video game consoles (the PS5 and the XBox S/X series). Manufactured jointly by Samsung and AMD, its main feature is ‘raytracing’, or ray tracing, a rendering system that allows realistic 2D images to be generated but that preserve the depth and characteristics of three-dimensional objects. It was, therefore, about bringing certain capabilities of video consoles to smartphone games for the first time. Unfortunately, and despite the enormous expectations, it must be said that the result, although good, is not perceived by the player as a great qualitative leap. What’s more, performance in the most demanding games is vastly outperformed by other competing chips, such as Apple’s A15 Bionic.
Another example that ‘something’ does not work well in the processor is the excessive time it takes to open certain applications. Which makes us wonder if we will not be facing a power limitation caused by the chip itself. As is known, Samsung has just been the protagonist of a new scandal when it was shown that it automatically limited the power of its processors in thousands of applications to reduce consumption and prevent overheating of the terminals. A practice known as ‘throttling’ and that, curiously, does not affect the apps with which the performance of the phones is measured, which could mislead consumers.
Faced with the avalanche of protests, Samsung has promised a software update that eliminates this automation and leaves control of performance in applications and games in the hands of each user. Something that, to this day, is yet to come.
An excellent battery
In the battery section, we find a 5,000 milliamp battery that, together with the improvements in screen consumption, is more than enough to spend a full day using the phone. However, despite the novelties it presents, in this section there are no improvements compared to the previous Galaxy S21. In the tests carried out by ABC, the intensive use of the screen (camera, videos and games) gave almost seven uninterrupted hours, even somewhat less than what was achieved with the terminals of the previous generation. Probably these numbers will increase with future updates.
The 45W fast charge allows you to fully replenish the phone’s energy in just over an hour. Not bad, but it should be noted that there are much faster fast charging systems, and it would not have hurt to incorporate any of them into a smartphone that is above 1,200 euros.
Light pen, the big bet
When using the S 22 Ultra, of course, the highlight is the stylus. Here Samsung has gone to great lengths, and its new S Pen is the fastest and most reliable yet. The use is simple and we can easily carry out numerous tasks, from creating handwritten notes to selecting specific areas of the screen to cut them out and use them elsewhere, writing directly on the screen, translating texts, making drawings and even animated messages. A whole series of possibilities that ‘hook’ the user and make it easy to get used to using the pencil. Once discovered, it is difficult to do without it.
In summary, we are facing a true ‘king’ of the high range, with an impeccable construction, a successful design, an outstanding screen and exclusive possibilities of use thanks to the S Pen. Autonomy and performance, being very good, could be a lot better on such an expensive phone. The photographic capabilities remain unchanged and the battery, as well as the general performance of the phone, can be improved.
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