Samsung’s most expensive, unbreakable phone line learns from the company’s past. The Galaxy S22 Ultra, announced Wednesday alongside the Galaxy S22, S22 Plus and Galaxy Tab S8 replaces the Galaxy Note on Samsung’s list. The Galaxy S22 Ultra starts at $ 1,200 (£ 1,149, AU $ 1,849) and launched in Feb. 25, with pre-order live now.
The Galaxy S22 Ultra is Samsung’s first phone since the Galaxy Note 20 not only incorporating S Pen support, like the Galaxy S21 Ultra and Z Fold 3, but also includes a visual slot on the phone stylus. S Pen fans who bought last year’s Galaxy S21 Ultra had to buy a stylus separately and choose a specific phone case that they could keep. Some phone improvements are more repetitive, including steps for advanced processor, camera and screen.
Samsung declined to comment on upcoming products when asked if they will release new Galaxy Note phones in the future. But he said the company now thinks of the Galaxy Note as an “experience” beyond the product line, and plans to target Note fans in the Galaxy S22 Ultra in the future.
The Galaxy Note, which first appeared more than a decade ago, was disrupting the industry. It is famous for larger screens, and Samsung also divides the line with special features that were not available on other Galaxy phones.
But Nothi’s place is still unclear. By 2020, Samsung will press the Note line between the Galaxy S20 and S20 Ultra. The Note Line skipped 2021 completely. Now, the Galaxy S22 Ultra represents what appears to be a much-needed combination of Notes and Ultra.
Feeling like a note on the Galaxy S22 Ultra
In addition to the full S Pen support and location within the phone to keep it, Samsung is also making some improvements to the way its stylus works. The delay is minimal, and it can record handwritten notes in 88 languages. In a short time I had to try the Galaxy S22 Ultra, the S Pen felt wet and responsive, though it is hard to tell if it was any different than before.
The Galaxy S22 Ultra also inherited a more sophisticated Note design, with sharper edges and angular appearance compared to the regular Galaxy S phones. The standard Galaxy S22 and the Galaxy S22 Plus, which Samsung also announced on Wednesday, have a more rounded beauty in comparison.
This makes the S22 Ultra sound invisible on the Galaxy Note, and is a beautiful design that works well on such a large phone. It also helps Ultra stand out from the S22 and standard S22 Plus, as the price gap should be considered. The S22 Ultra will be available in black, white, green and burgundy.
Samsung Galaxy Note and Galaxy S Ultra phones are known for their large screens, and that is no different. The Galaxy S22 Ultra display measures 6.8 inches diagonally, like the Galaxy S21 Ultra, and has QHD Plus modifications. All three new Galaxy phones can upgrade their screens to 120Hz for easy scrolling.
Samsung also added a feature called Vision Booster, which adjusts color and brightness based on your location. This should make it easier to watch black scenes in movies and TV shows. It is available on all three models of the Galaxy S22, but the company claims that the Ultra and Plus have the brightest screens for Samsung at the moment.
Same camera with better night photos
The Galaxy S22 Ultra camera is similar to the one in the Galaxy S21 Ultra, at least on paper. There is a quadruple rear camera with a 108-megapixel main sensor, a wide-angle 12-megapixel camera and two 10-megapixel telephoto lenses. The wide-angle view and telephoto field is a bit wider on the Galaxy S22 Ultra compared to its predecessor.
But Samsung says there are other improvements that should make the device better at night shooting and install more lessons. The Galaxy S22 Ultra can detect up to 10 lessons and adjust the frame accordingly, even when new people enter the scene. That is an increase compared to the previous generation, according to Samsung.
Samsung also emphasizes the phone’s ability to take better photos and videos in the dark. All new Samsung Galaxy S22 phones use a process called pixel binning, which combines multiple pixels into one large pixel to improve brightness. This process alone is not new to Samsung phones. But the difference is the way the S22 system combines pixel binning with a resolution from the sensor of the main camera of the phone to improve both brightness and clarity, Samsung said.
Although this process works on all cameras, the Galaxy S22 Ultra should have more access to this door than the S22 and S22 Plus as it has a 108-megapixel large sensor. The other two S22 phones each have a 50-megapixel main camera in comparison.
Portrait Mode also works at night thanks to the improved S22 processor, and Samsung says the camera processing algorithms should improve the data as well. The S22 Ultra camera can also capture four-dimensional data, which should bring normal image quality enhancement across the board.
When capturing video, all three phones can combine multiple exposures into a single frame to improve brightness and automatically select the appropriate frame rate for optimal illumination.
But depending on what makes Ultra different from the standard Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus, not much has changed since last year. Samsung’s many improved image quality enhancements seem to apply to all new Galaxy models. The 108-megapixel lens, the extra telephoto lens and the 10x optical zoom still look very different, which would disappoint anyone who hoped to see the big jump as Samsung’s new 200-megapixel image sensor on the S22 Ultra.
Processor and other details
The Galaxy S22 lineup will run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip in the US and other markets where Samsung’s Exynos chip isn’t available. There’s a 5,000-mAh battery in the Galaxy S22 Ultra, just like the Galaxy S21 Ultra, and it supports up to 45-watt fast charging when plugged in. The starting configuration will come with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage, while the high-end model includes 12GB of RAM with 1TB of storage.
Many of these upgrades, such as faster processors and better cameras, are expected from next-generation devices. But the Ultra’s new Note-like features are what distinguishes it from the rest of the S22 lineup and the broader premium phone market.