In more ways than one, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is the ¡®ultimate¡¯ phone you can buy right now ¨C unless your definition of ultimate phones include foldable screen devices like Samsung¡¯s Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Flip 3, of course. The Galaxy S22 Ultra truly overflows with top-of-the-line hardware and features of pretty much everything you¡¯d imagine your dream smartphone to have and perform ¨C this is no exaggeration! It¡¯s not a phone for everyone, but I daresay it tries to be the best at pretty much everything it does.
Big, bold and beautiful, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is in many ways the spiritual successor to Samsung¡¯s Note series of devices, combining all the goodness of the S21 Ultra and infusing it with Samsung¡¯s S-Pen stylus note-taking system to present a handheld hybrid experience that tries to offer unsurpassed productivity to exceptional camera performance ¨C and everything in between ¨C on a single device unlike anything I¡¯ve witnessed before. And the Galaxy S22 Ultra is largely successful in doing everything it promises.
From the very first instant you see it, the Galaxy S22 Ultra¡¯s premium build and aesthetic appeal is hard to resist. Dressed in rich burgundy red, the S22 Ultra is captivating on the eye, oozing an air of sophistication about its silky matte rear panel, signature curved edges and rear camera lenses which all combine harmoniously to give its distinctive look. The phone¡¯s easy to spot in a crowd, its metallic gleam and camera pattern definitely make heads turn whenever you pull the S22 Ultra out of your pocket.
Although its frame is too large for single-handed use, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra doesn¡¯t pretend to be one anyway. One thing I realised very quickly after starting to use the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is that it has done a good job reducing the number of false edge-screen activations, where the screen accidentally detects a false touch while its edge touches your palm in the hand. According to Byung Duk (BD) Yang, Vice President and Head of Display R&D Group in MX Business at Samsung Electronics, this is thanks to the algorithm updates to prevent processing of any unintentional touches by analysing many different usage patterns of the S22 Ultra.
Its metal and glass body is made of an enhanced ¡®Armour Aluminium¡¯ frame with Corning¡¯s Gorilla Glass Victus splashed across the front and rear panels. Bare bones and without a case, the Galaxy S22 Ultra feels rock solid in the hand, offering a secure grip in the palm ¨C slightly better than the non-curved edges of the iPhone 13 series in comparison, I felt.
The S22 Ultra¡¯s bump proof and easily withstands minor falls, no scratches or cracks despite a couple of 3-feet tumbles in my living room. The phone¡¯s IP68 rated, which means it¡¯s capable of surviving at a depth of 1.5-metre underwater for 30 minutes. This is quite impressive if you think about the fact that it also houses a pretty long stylus cavity, which the S22 Ultra no doubt manages to seal for a watertight fit.
Samsung¡¯s attempt to infuse the DNA of its Note series into the S22 Ultra wouldn¡¯t be complete without the S-pen stylus experience, of course. Unlike the Note 20, the S22 Ultra¡¯s S-Pen comes with a matte-finish which affords better overall grip than previous Note series stylus¡¯. What¡¯s more, the response time is also greatly reduced on the latest S-Pen, allowing for better handwriting and doodling experience.?
At first it feels like a fad ¨C just like the trackpoint on a ThinkPad ¨C but the S-Pen unlocks a whole new way of interacting with your smartphone beyond your thumbs. I had a lot of fun scribbling quick notes, annotating screenshots with more finesse, and writing out email replies that were faster than typing them out. The S-Pen's very easy to use and intuitive, and before long you wonder how you can ever go back to phones with no stylus support. The S-Pen on the S22 Ultra is truly something you have to experience firsthand to appreciate its overall value, and it¡¯s the first step towards becoming a smartphone productivity ninja.
The S-Pen tweaks the S22 Ultra¡¯s behaviour as soon as it ejects out, much like the old Note 20. But because its performance has been improved so much, every task feels faster and more natural ¨C whether it¡¯s scribbling on a screenshot or taking quick notes even when the screen is locked. There¡¯s also a tiny button on the S-Pen that lets you wave it around like a magic wand, perform Air Commands and control Gallery and Music apps through gestures. This experience is unique to the Samsung S22 Ultra, aimed at uncompromising users who want to maximise their smartphone¡¯s productivity as much as possible.
When I asked BD Yang what¡¯s stopping Samsung from enhancing the S22 Ultra¡¯s S-Pen to the professional artist-grade levels seen on the Apple Pencil or Wacom tablets, his response makes logical sense. Yang says Samsung can keep enhancing and developing this S-Pen technology to lower the latency over and over again, but that also comes with certain trade-offs in other aspects of the device. There are screen and battery implications, no doubt, and the S22 Ultra isn¡¯t meant to be a full-fledged designer¡¯s tablet, even though it¡¯s slowly getting there, so it¡¯s a fine balance of ¡°how much is too much¡± to provide a meaningful improvement for returning Note users.
Samsung enjoys a lot of accolades for crafting some of the best smartphone displays in the world, and it continues its strong game with the Galaxy S22 Ultra. This phone easily has the best display I¡¯ve seen so far on a handheld device launched in 2022.
The first thing you notice about the S22 Ultra¡¯s 6.8-inch AMOLED screen is its brightness levels. At peak brightness of 1750 nits, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is much brighter than the iPhone 13 Pro or last year¡¯s S21 Ultra. Watching videos or playing games under bright sunlight conditions is no longer a problem on the S22 Ultra, something you can easily notice while using the device. Samsung also claims to have deployed ¡®Vision Booster¡¯ technology to dynamically boost colour and contrast levels of the screen depending on extremely bright or pitch black ambient conditions.?
Its 120Hz refresh rate is dynamically adjusted to the task you¡¯re performing at any given time ¨C every time you touch the display the refresh rate shoots up to 120Hz, dropping down to 24Hz when the phone¡¯s idle. This is thanks to the Advanced Panel Self Refresh (APSR) technology built into the S22 Ultra, according to Byung Duk (BD) Yang. The biggest benefit of APSR is that it optimises the refresh rate according to the motion of the content on your screen, and BD Yang says that users will be able to feel the biggest benefit of APSR when the S22 Ultra¡¯s screen is actually static, where the refresh rate is reduced in order to save power. For example, when you¡¯re reading something on the internet browser, you may think that you¡¯re constantly scrolling up and down but actually there are little pauses in between where you stop and you¡¯re digesting or reading what¡¯s on the screen and in that very brief moment the refresh rate changes and is reduced in order to save the power. Tiny screen enhancements that aren¡¯t readily apparent help save the S22 Ultra¡¯s battery in the long run.
There¡¯s no other way to say this but the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra houses the best smartphone screen right now ¨C it offers a uniquely rich user experience, with vibrant colours and deep blacks in a variety of usage scenarios. The screen also responds to the S-Pen with remarkable precision, enriching the stylus-to-screen input experience even more.
Whether it¡¯s watching a movie, playing a game or reading text articles, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra¡¯s screen excels at everything you can think of and more ¨C pictures and videos you shoot from its camera system, too.
On paper, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra has a fantastic camera system that includes a 108MP primary sensor with f/1.8 aperture, two 10MP telephoto sensors with 10x and 3x optical zoom, 100x space zoom for long-range shots and a 12MP ultra-wide camera. I had a lot of fun playing around with the S22 Ultra¡¯s 100x zoom function, which does an amazing job of shooting craters on the moon not visible to the naked eye to far away details of objects and items that you simply don¡¯t even perceive. It reminds me of the Huawei P30 Pro¡¯s zoom function, but doing a better job with the functionality in normal daylight and low-light conditions.?
The camera app on the S22 Ultra offers a smorgasbord of features, everything from manual mode photography to super slow-mo video capture. Focus lock is lightning quick, face detection or object mapping is remarkably well done while shooting pictures or videos on the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. Samsung¡¯s traditionally known for oversaturating colours and details to heighten their appeal on the eye, but I feel that approach has been toned down a bit to make the S22 Ultra shots to appear more natural and true-to-source than ever before.
For pro-photography users, the S22 Ultra supports Samsung¡¯s Expert RAW which the company argues is better than standard RAW format pictures. According to Dr. Sungdae Joshua Cho, Head of Visual SW R&D Group at Mobile Division of Samsung, pro mode uses a single image to produce the RAW file. However, with Expert RAW you are using around 15 images to produce your RAW image. This allows for generating computational RAW images with 16-bit depth with significantly less noise even in low light conditions. Night photography and bokeh in portrait mode all look very good through the Samsung S22 Ultra¡¯s lenses.
Whether you¡¯re a novice shutterbug or pro photography enthusiast, you¡¯ll find the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra¡¯s camera system appealing to both use cases, simply because it¡¯s packed with so many features and has so much to offer to its intended user. In all my time of clicking photos with the S22 Ultra¡¯s rear cameras and front selfie lens, I was constantly amazed at the phone¡¯s ability to capture picture perfect moments better than ever. Despite obvious improvements in the S22 Ultra¡¯s video capture system, I still feel videos shot on the iPhone 13 Pro were marginally better than the Samsung S22 Ultra ¨C however, the margin is very fine, as both are exceptionally good camera phones.
For a smartphone priced over ?1 lakh, the Samsung S22 Ultra is overflowing with top-end features that enable it to offer top-notch everyday performance. Yes, there are some omissions, like the lack of a microSD expansion slot and headphone jack, but they¡¯re hardly a deal-breaker for the intended audience of this phone.
From its under-the-screen fingerprint scanner to launching apps and everything in between, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra responds to every task and command with incredible sense of speed without breaking into a sweat. Its 5000-mAh battery easily lasts beyond a day, sometimes even closer to a day and half depending on conservative usage, and the fast charging juices it back up in record time as usual ¨C no complaints whatsoever. Whether you¡¯re watching Netflix movies or listening to Spotify or simply reading long Twitter threads, the Samsung S22 Ultra¡¯s screen and sound enhances whatever activity you¡¯re engaged in. It¡¯s a top notch smartphone aimed at uncompromising users who demand nothing but the best. If you want a superphone great at everything it does, with an unmatched stylus experience for increased productivity, buy the S22 Ultra with your eyes closed. For the rest of the premium phones launching in 2022, this is the phone to beat!
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