Hands on: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra review | TechRadar

Hands on: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra review

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra doesn’t look or feel much like a member of the Galaxy S series, and that’s because the company has incorporated much of what made its Galaxy Note series so popular into the design of this new phone.

This is the love child of everything that made the Galaxy S series and the Galaxy Note series great, but its looks are inherited entirely from the latter product family. While the brand-new Samsung Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus are incremental upgrades over their predecessors, the company has pivoted for its Ultra line.

In 2021, Samsung skipped its Galaxy Note series, and while the company hasn’t confirmed that the product line is gone for good, the S22 Ultra is arguably the  final nail in the Note's coffin. Company execs tell us that, from this point forward, Note is more of an “experience” than a product.

The S Pen stylus and the square design of the Galaxy Note series are here in the Galaxy S22 Ultra, and if you’re looking for a top-end smartphone with a stylus in 2022, this is likely to be one of the best you’ll find.

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra release date and price 

(Image credit: Future)

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is set to be an expensive smartphone, although no more so than last year’s model. It costs the same as the S21 Ultra did at launch, with the cheapest version with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage costing $1,199 / £1,149 / AU$1,849.

There are also variants with 12GB of RAM and more storage, which will cost you a lot more. You can see full prices below.

You can pre-order the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra now, and it’ll be on sale on Friday, February 25 in the US and UK. You'll have to wait longer in Australia, where it hits store shelves March 3.

• The best Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra deals for pre-order

Design and display

The design of the Galaxy S22 Ultra is much more like a Note phone than it is like a member of the traditional Galaxy S family. That means there are flat edges at the top and bottom of the device, and the screen curves into the body at the sides. The design overall is more blocky than the Galaxy S22 or Galaxy S22 Plus.

The contour cut camera has also been dropped here, with Samsung instead introducing individual camera elements that pop out of the rear of the phone. The back of the phone is made of glass, with a brushed finish ensuring it feels premium to the touch.

You’ve got four color options, which are Phantom Black, Phantom White, Burgundy or Green. That green option is a dark shade, and it’s a subtle new addition to the company’s range.

The key thing to note here is that the Galaxy S22 Ultra is a gargantuan phone. If you’ve got smaller hands, we’d recommend handling one of these before you invest.

Its dimensions are 77.9 x 163.3 x 8.9mm, which means it’s a touch thicker than past Galaxy Note handsets, and it has some weight to it at 229g. We found it easy to use with both hands, but it can sometimes feel a bit weighty when you’re trying to use the S Pen stylus with your other hand.

That S Pen stylus slots into the bottom edge of the phone, which is a first for the Galaxy S series. 2021’s Galaxy S21 Ultra was compatible with an S Pen, but the stylus didn’t slide into the device itself.

The screen on the S22 Ultra is notably large at 6.8 inches with a Quad HD Plus resolution. It uses AMOLED technology and it features a variable refresh rate of up to 120Hz – this means you’ll get a smoother image when gaming and scrolling through social media feeds, with the refresh rate dialled back when you doing this like reading text in order to save battery

We’ve yet to use the phone long enough to give a full verdict on the display, but in our testing time we’ve found it to be clear, vibrant and bright enough for everyday tasks  – and the size of the display is sure to satisfy anyone who wants a lot of space for multitasking or for watching lots of video.

There’s a fingerprint scanner embedded under the display, but we’ve yet to be able to test this out, and it’s something else we’ll come back to soon in our full review.

Camera

(Image credit: Future)

On paper, the camera set-up on the S22 Ultra is remarkably similar to that of the S21 Ultra. It features a 108MP f/2.2 main camera with 85-degree wide-angle field of view and a 12MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera with a 120-degree field of view.

There are also two telephoto cameras that are both 10MP. It means the Space Zoom feature has returned on this handset, which allows for a digital zoom up to 100x. In our testing, 100x zoom is still usable, but it’s tough to get a sharp shot when you’re holding the phone in a hand, and the results aren’t particularly usable.

It does mean the other zoom features of the camera are useful though, especially as it means you can zoom in with ease to any level up to 100x. We found the photos were still easily usable at a 10x zoom, for example. Anything after that is using digital zoom, rather than the phone's optical zoom features.

We’ve yet to fully test the cameras, but we’ll have a better idea of their capabilities when we return with our full review.

There are also new night mode features, which the company is calling Advanced Nightography. It uses the company's new 2.4um pixel sensor, which captures more light than previous cameras from the company. We've yet to fully test this feature, so head back for our full review to learn more.

On the front of the S22 Ultra you’ll find a 40MP front-facing camera, which seemed to provide strong results in our initial tests.

• We took the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra's zoom capabilities for a test drive. The results, especially from the 10x (optical) and 30x (Space Zoom), were incredible.

Performance and battery life 

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra camera array compared to S22 Plus (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

Which variant of the Galaxy S22 Ultra you’re able to buy depends on where you are in the world; if you live in the US you’ll get a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset inside this phone, while those in the UK or Australia will get Samsung’s own Exynos 2200 chipset.

We’ve yet to test either of these chipsets properly – they’re both brand-new to the market – but we’d expect some top-end speeds and performance. Benchmarking leaks have suggested that both chips will offer only minor improvements over what we saw in the Galaxy S21 series, but even if that’s the case these are going to be two extremely powerful smartphones that can load any apps, games and much more in an instant.

If you’re opting for the cheapest variant of the S22 Ultra, it’ll come with 8GB of RAM, while the more expensive variants come with 12GB; notably, Samsung has dropped the 16GB of RAM option it offered with the S21 Ultra.

We think it’s unlikely that you’ll notice a huge difference between these models, but if you’re looking for the absolute-best performance you may want to invest in one of the 12GB models.

The 8GB model comes with 128GB of storage, while the 12GB models have a choice of 256GB, 512GB or 1TB – note that there’s no microSD support on these handsets, so you’ll want to choose your storage capacity wisely.

(Image credit: Future)

We’ve yet to use the Galaxy S22 Ultra for long enough to pass judgment on its battery life, but we can tell you that it’s powered by a 5,000mAh battery, which is the same as we saw in the S21 Ultra.

That phone had solid battery life, but it wasn’t the absolute best on the market. If that’s an indication of what we can expect here, we’d anticipate that this phone will see you comfortably through a full day, but is unlikely to last for two days from a full charge.

Samsung has improved its fast-charging here, and the S22 is compatible with up to 45W chargers. We’ve yet to hear any estimates on how long it’ll take to charge this phone, but expect it to be far faster than the 25W charging on the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus.

You won’t get a charger in the box with this phone, so you’ll have to buy a 45W charger separately or use one you already have. There’s also wireless charging compatibility up to 15W.

Early verdict

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra in two colors (Image credit: Future)

For anyone who absolutely needs an S Pen stylus, and has been pining for the return of the iconic Galaxy Note look, the Galaxy S22 Ultra should be the answer to their prayers. It offers everything Samsung’s Note phones did, it just has a new name.

If you currently own a Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra or a Galaxy S21 Ultra, there’s little reason to upgrade here. But if you’re in the market for a top-end smartphone that offers a stylus experience alongside a lot of other great specs, it’s unlikely that you’ll find a better option this year.