When Samsung revealed the brand new Galaxy S22 vary, it was largely enterprise as standard – for the Galaxy S22 and S22+, anyway. The Galaxy S22 Extremely, then again, gives a way more radical change that brings it nearer than ever to the Galaxy Notice vary, with a redesigned chassis and a built-in S Pen.
The query is, does the religious successor to the Galaxy Notice 20 Extremely provide sufficient to tempt customers, particularly at such a excessive worth level? Whereas it’s not the right smartphone, there’s lots to like about Samsung’s top-end Galaxy S22 Extremely in 2022.
Design & Construct
Galaxy Notice design language
Slick, premium construct
Barely curved body is sweet within the hand
In comparison with Galaxy smartphones earlier than it, some may say the Galaxy S22 Extremely seems to be a bit simplistic – however I feel simplicity seems to be nice on a smartphone. We don’t all want in-your-face designs, refractive glass patterns, or large, vibrant flashy logos, particularly on such a premium little bit of package.
On the subject of the S22 Extremely, much less is definitely extra, with a slick mix of metallic and glass that does a lot of the speaking.
Probably the most notable distinction in comparison with the remainder of the S22 line is the shortage of a digital camera ‘island’ surrounding the rear-facing cameras. Whereas it does alienate the S22 Extremely among the many remainder of the vary, it ties in with the minimalist design, with small particulars like polished metallic housing across the cameras contributing to the high-end look.
The sharp, squared-off corners are harking back to the Galaxy Notice 20 Extremely design (I’m wondering why…) and assist make the S22 Extremely stand out from the ocean of rounded smartphones, however not like the flat-sided iPhone 13, it options ever-so-gently curved edges to assist it sit comfortably within the palm.
The curved edges of the 6.8in show aren’t anyplace close to as excessive as waterfall shows like that of the Motorola Edge just a few years in the past, with no actual downside with unintended display screen presses or textual content disappearing off the sting of the show. It’s simply sufficient to see a little bit of curvature on the sting, which additionally makes for a {smooth} side-swipe expertise.
That 6.8in show – bigger than the iPhone 13 Professional Max – does imply that the S22 Extremely is usually a bit unwieldy at instances, measuring in at 8.9mm thick and 229g. It’s not an issue for me with pretty massive fingers, however displaying the S22 Extremely to associates actually demonstrated the way it’s not likely designed for smaller mitts – particularly in relation to one-handed use.
In any other case, the Galaxy S22 Extremely seems to be and looks like a premium little bit of package with a stable really feel within the hand. It’s protected by Gorilla Glass Victus+ on the rear to assist shield it from harm, and there’s IP68 mud and water resistance.
I’ve seen plenty of different opinions get scratches on the again seemingly too simply, however probably from having a second cellphone of their pocket which is not typical utilization. My pattern did take a tumble throughout a tiled ground and survived the incident unscathed.
The Galaxy S22 Extremely is offered in a variety of colors together with Phantom Black, Phantom White, Inexperienced and Burgundy.
Show
Gorgeous 6.8in AMOLED show
Buttery-smooth 120Hz adaptive refresh price
Spectacular brightness
The 6.8in AMOLED show of the S22 Extremely is undoubtedly one of many highlights of the smartphone and a key cause to purchase it over different telephones. It gives a vibrant, vivid, detailed expertise with a {smooth} refresh price.
The show sports activities a 3088 x 1440 (WQHD+) decision that equates to a pixel density of round 500ppi – a stark distinction to Apple’s top-end iPhone and its 2316 x 1080 (FHD+) show.
Earlier than you get too excited, it’s value noting that the S22 Extremely comes working a decrease 2316 x 1080 (FHD+) decision out of the field and also you’ll should manually change the setting your self. That’s as a result of that top decision can actually drain the battery, particularly when gaming. The excellent news is that, even on the FHD+ decision, the show seems to be good and crisp.
One saving issue is the adaptive refresh price, which not solely makes apps and video games feel and look {smooth}, however the capacity to shift from 1- to 120Hz means it’ll draw much less battery energy than an ordinary 120Hz show with none actual noticeable distinction in efficiency.
The S22 Extremely is straightforward to make use of exterior, even in direct daylight, with one of many brightest smartphone shows in the marketplace proper now. Samsung claims at normal ranges it could attain as much as 1250nits, whereas a boosted brightness mode (ideally suited for out of doors use) cranks it as much as an excellent increased 1750 nits.
Even when it didn’t hit fairly such lofty heights in benchmarking, scoring 711 nits through a Spyder X, it’s comfortably brighter than most different flagships proper now. That’s thanks partially to Samsung’s Imaginative and prescient Booster tech that’ll mechanically regulate the brightness, colors and extra relying on ambient lighting situations for an optimum viewing expertise.
Hidden beneath the show is an ultrasonic fingerprint reader, and whereas they’ve had a nasty rap prior to now, I discovered it to work near-perfectly on the S22 Extremely. It’s situated roughly a 3rd of the best way up from the underside edge, which is the place my thumb naturally lands, and the unlock course of is near-instantaneous.
You do even have facial unlock, but it surely’s not as safe as PIN or fingerprint – it’s no Face ID, in any case.
There’s additionally a small 40Mp holepunch digital camera, centrally positioned on the high of the show, however the massive dimensions of the show meant it was barely noticeable typically use.
S Pen
Unimaginable low-latency efficiency
Saved inside the smartphone when not in use
Strain and tilt delicate
Whereas final 12 months’s Galaxy S21 Extremely provided compatibility with the S Pen stylus, the S22 Extremely goes full-Notice by including help for an built-in S Pen, thus finishing its transition to Notice-but-not-Notice. In case you love the expertise on provide from the Notice 20, the Galaxy S22 Extremely is its successor in all however title.
The sunshine and versatile stylus is hidden inside the physique of the cellphone when not in use, accessible by pushing down on the pen to pop it out. It’s not more likely to fall out by accident both, with a grippy end on the pen requiring you to actively pull it out of its hidey-hole.
Whereas it’s personally slightly small for this reviewers’ fingers, the stylus is a pleasure to make use of – and that’s primarily right down to Samsung’s latency magic, lowered from 9ms to an unimaginable 2.8ms on the S22 Extremely.
That interprets to near-instant response when writing textual content, offering extra of a pure pen-to-paper feeling when jotting notes on the go and doodling utilizing PenUP – particularly when mixed with Samsung’s scribbling sound results.
It’s simply probably the greatest stylus experiences in the marketplace, even when in comparison with the Apple Pencil 2’s 9-20ms response time, and it comes at no additional cost both.
Other than being helpful for notetaking and drawing, the S Pen permits additional performance, together with the flexibility to make good alternatives of something on display screen, annotate screenshots, doodle in AR and the flexibility to translate handwritten textual content to plaintext.
The button on the facet of the stylus even doubles up as a distant set off, permitting you to set off images and movies with out being behind the digital camera.
Not everybody will make full use of the additional performance on provide from the built-in S-Pen, however the capacity to make use of a high-quality stylus everytime you like is one thing that’ll attraction to a whole lot of customers – particularly with an expertise as true-to-life because the S Pen. It’s simply my favorite function of the S22 Extremely, and the function I’ll miss most as soon as I transfer again to my common smartphone.
Cameras
The most effective rear digital camera setups round
Huge enhancements to the 100x house zoom
Nice low-light efficiency
Many regarded the Galaxy S21 Extremely’s digital camera setup as the very best out there in 2021, and it appears Samsung agreed – as a result of the sensors on the rear of the cellphone are virtually equivalent to its predecessor.
The S22 Extremely has the identical 108Mp principal extensive lens, 12Mp 120-degree ultrawide and twin telephoto lenses providing 3x and 10x optical zoom on the rear, with the latter able to extending to 100x, and a 40Mp selfie digital camera on the entrance.
This is a set of photographs taken on the S22 Extremely throughout testing:
One of many solely notable modifications to {hardware} is the pixel dimension of the primary 108Mp snapper, which has elevated to a powerful 2.4μm. Mixed with the f/1.Eight aperture, that interprets to much-improved low-light pictures with extra element, mild and extra balanced distinction.
It’s nonetheless not fairly as clear as daytime photographs, but it surely’s definitely spectacular to see how a lot it could choose up in darkish situations.
There’s additionally improved optical picture stabilisation (OIS) and a greater picture sign processor (ISP), however the outcomes of those modifications are tougher to note in day-to-day use. As an alternative, a lot of the digital camera enhancements appear to be software-based and that’s not a nasty factor contemplating the {hardware} remains to be top-of-the-line in most regards.
For one, the S22 Extremely has vastly improved the Tremendous Regular System used with the 100x house zoom, which helps preserve these excessive close-ups from wobbling as you are taking snaps.
It appears the picture processing of those extreme-zoom photos has been improved too. Whereas it’s nonetheless blurry at instances, there’s lastly the potential to get usable photos for sharing on social media. They nonetheless have the Picasso-esque watercolour impact, but it surely’s a lot much less noticeable this time round.
There are additionally enhancements to Samsung’s pixel-binning tech on the primary 108Mp lens, dubbed Adaptive Pixel by Samsung. The thought is easy; it takes a nona-binned picture (combining 9 pixels into 1 for higher picture mild, distinction and element) and combines that with a full 108Mp picture with nice outcomes.
There’s loads of element, distinction and dynamic vary are nailed, and colors look vibrant, if not slightly too saturated at instances. Crucially, you may get pleasure from extremely detailed pictures with out having to retailer full-res 108Mp photos.
Frankly, that’s a recurring theme throughout all of the S22 Extremely’s cameras, that are capable of ship a number of the finest snaps I’ve seen on a smartphone. Are they the very best round? That’s seemingly down to private choice, however there’s definitely lots to get pleasure from with Samsung’s succesful digital camera tech.
Video seize is simply as spectacular at as much as [email protected] with spectacular optically-stabilised video seize, no noticeable artifacting and nice audio high quality too. It has tried to tackle Apple’s Cinematic Video mode with Portrait Video, but it surely’s not fairly as superior as what’s on provide from flagship iPhones, solely capable of apply the faux-bokeh to movies with faces clearly seen.
Nonetheless, with perks like the flexibility to modify between lenses on the fly and the flexibility to pause – not finish – a video recording are very helpful choices not out there on Apple’s flagship, so it’ll largely rely in your video makes use of.
Specs & Efficiency
Exynos 2200 lags behind Snapdragon Eight Gen 1 in benchmarks
Not noticeable in use, feels snappy within the hand
Occasional freeze/restart
Like its predecessors, the chipset discovered inside the Samsung Galaxy S22 Extremely depends upon the place you’re on the earth. In case you’re within the UK or Australia, you’ll discover Samsung’s personal 4nm Exynos 2200 chipset inside, whereas these within the US and most different territories are handled to Qualcomm’s 4nm Snapdragon Eight Gen 1.
That’s paired with both 8GB or 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 128GB/256GB/512GB/1TB of super-fast UFS 3.1 storage. For what it’s value, I used to be equipped with a 12/256GB variant for evaluate.
Whereas I’m unable to pit the Snapdragon and Exynos variants towards each other on the time of writing, the Exynos 2200 efficiency does appear comparable within the CPU division in benchmark assessments when in comparison with near-identical Eight Gen 1 telephones just like the Oppo Discover X5 Professional.
Nonetheless, Exynos 2200 graphics efficiency at WQHD+ trails barely behind Eight Gen 1 telephones, and it’s solely when the S22 Extremely drops right down to FHD+ that it beats the QHD+ efficiency of the likes of the Oppo Discover X5 Professional and Xiaomi 12 Professional in assessments – as you’d count on.
It can also’t fairly compete with Apple’s iPhone 13 Professional Max and its A15 Bionic within the CPU division, however Apple’s lead in that regard is unsurprising at this level.
In fact, benchmark numbers solely inform half the story, and it ought to come as no shock that efficiency is mostly fast, with the Galaxy S22 Extremely capable of deal with absolutely anything I may throw at it.
Apps are likely to load immediately, there’s little or no stutter (other than Twitter, which I assume is a bug within the app) and video games run properly, even in titles like Name of Obligation Cellular with high-end textures and VFX enabled. It feels conscious of the contact due to the adaptive refresh price, with buttery-smooth animations including to the general high-end efficiency on provide.
There are bugs that have to be ironed out, with the cellphone utterly freezing and restarting twice in my week-long take a look at, however I’m assured that Samsung will get on high of those points rapidly.
Efficiency apart, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Extremely comes with all of the bells and whistles you’d count on from a top-end flagship in 2022 together with help for the most recent 5G connectivity, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, UWB tech and NFC for digital funds.
Battery Life & Charging
All-day battery life
Might squeeze 1.5 and even 2 days with display screen changes
Quicker charging, however not as quick as rivals
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Extremely packs the identical 5000mAh battery as its predecessor, so it ought to come as no shock that battery life is comparable with final 12 months’s S21 Extremely in testing.
Total battery life depends upon elements together with refresh price and determination, with the S22 Extremely capable of final all day with the mix of an adaptive refresh price and WQHD+ decision with common use, but it surely received’t fairly span a full second day. That may be prolonged to round 1.5 days in the event you drop right down to FHD+ although – one thing that received’t be noticeable to most customers anyway.
In testing, the S22 Extremely managed to final 10 hours and 30 minutes in our benchmark take a look at at full WQHD+ decision, and dropping right down to FHD+ offered an additional two hours of battery life, coming in at 12hrs 30 minutes.
Charging is an space the place the S22 Extremely has improved, up from a quite pedestrian 25W to a sooner – however nonetheless not main – 45W when charged through USB-C. The catch is, like most different Samsung telephones, you don’t get a 45W charger within the field.
In case you do get your fingers on one, count on to see round 66% in half an hour and a full cost in round an hour. That’s not on the identical stage because the Black Shark Four Professional’s 120W quick charging tech, but it surely’ll suffice for almost all of customers.
It’s an identical story with wi-fi charging, with the 15W lagging behind the super-fast wi-fi charging on provide from key rivals – however at the least the low energy necessities imply you’ll be capable of use most third-party Qi chargers.
Software program & Apps
Ships with the most recent Android 12 with Samsung OneUI 4.3
Superior options – particularly photo-editing instruments – baked in
Samsung dedicated to as much as 4 years of OS updates
The Samsung Galaxy S22 Extremely comes working the most recent Android 12 out of the field with Samsung’s OneUI 4.Three utilized on high.
It’s not probably the most dramatic change to the Android OS in comparison with skins like Xiaomi’s MIUI and Oppo’s ColorOS, however there are nuances to the design and performance that may take slightly little bit of getting used to – particularly as Samsung determined to ship its personal variations of the Messages app and Calendar app alongside pre-installed Google variants.
It is among the stronger Android skins although, particularly in relation to its photograph and video-editing capabilities. Utilizing the built-in enhancing instruments inside the Gallery app, you may carry out actions like object removing, reflection removing and extra, with typically spectacular outcomes.
There’s additionally the added perk of DeX help, which offers a desktop PC expertise when plugged right into a monitor.
Crucially, Samsung has dedicated to ‘as much as 4 generations’ of Android OS updates, not simply safety updates, which may probably see the Galaxy S22 Extremely supported all through Android 16 – one thing refreshingly totally different to most Android producers. Even Google solely commits to 3 years of OS updates for its Pixel vary!
Value & Availability
The Galaxy S22 Extremely is among the many most premium smartphones in the marketplace, beginning at £1,149/$1,199 for the 8GB/128GB variant, though that does symbolize a $100 drop in comparison with its predecessor.
You will get an upgraded 256GB of storage and 12GB of RAM for an extra $100/$100, with extra 512GB and 1TB fashions out there for people who want much more storage.
Right here’s how a lot the Samsung Galaxy S22 Extremely will set you again in all its configurations:
8GB + 128GB: $1,199/£1,149/€1,279
12GB + 256GB: $1,299/£1,249/€1,379/₹109,999
12GB + 512GB: $1,399/£1,329/€1,489/₹118,999
12GB + 1TB: $1,599/£1,499/€1,689
These desirous about shopping for the premium smartphone outright can accomplish that from the likes of Samsung and Amazon within the UK and US, whereas these desirous about a contract can head to carriers together with EE and O2 within the UK and Verizon within the US.
To see the way it stacks up towards the competitors, check out our number of the very best telephones.
Verdict
There’s lots to like in regards to the Samsung Galaxy S22 Extremely; it seems to be premium, the WQHD+ AMOLED show is top-notch, the cameras are among the many finest round proper now and, for the primary time, the Extremely mannequin has a built-in S Pen – similar to the Notice line.
This, coupled with the truth that the design mirrors the Notice 20 Extremely greater than the remainder of the S22 vary, implies that the Galaxy S22 Extremely is a Galaxy Notice in all however branding – and that’s no unhealthy factor. The S Pen efficiency is unimaginable, providing decrease latency than the Apple Pencil for an unmatched writing and drawing expertise.
Regardless of Samsung’s work with AMD on the GPU of its new Exynos 2200 chipset, it lags behind near-identical Snapdragon Eight Gen 1 smartphones in benchmarks. That stated, it’s not that noticeable in on a regular basis use, providing a largely buttery-smooth expertise when Instagramming and gaming.
It’s not the right smartphone – the charging speeds are a lot slower than rivals, the big dimensions will put some off and it’s very costly – however the Galaxy S22 Extremely will tick a whole lot of containers for lots of people.
Specs
Samsung Galaxy S22 Extremely: Specs
6.8in, 120Hz, WQHD+, AMOLED show
Snapdragon Eight Gen 1 or Exynos 2200
8/12GB RAM
128/256/512GB/1TB storage
5000mAh battery
45W wired charging
15W wi-fi charging
Rear digital camera: 108Mp, f/1.8, OIS principal digital camera, 12MP, f/2.2 ultra-wide digital camera, 10Mp, f/2.4, OIS 3x zoom telephoto digital camera, 10Mp, f/4.9, OIS 10x zoom telephoto digital camera
40Mp, f/2.2 entrance digital camera
5G
Wi-Fi 6E
Bluetooth 5.2
UWB
IP68
Gorilla Glass Victus+
77.9 x 163.Three x 8.9mm
229g
Android 12 with One UI 4.1
