Galaxy S22 Ultra: Samsung's new offering can drive you away from other brands

Furnishing the Galaxy S flagship with Note-inspired features and the wonderstruck design, Samsung has pushed the boundaries yet again, outshining not just the Androids but the Apple iPhone too.

With the S22 Ultra, Samsung has departed from the Galaxy design language and adopted the Note style. With the squared-off angles, it feels a bit broad yet looks stunning. And the four lenses are flushed in the rear, eliminating the camera bump for good. But what astonished me is this new Burgundy colour. Since manufacturers found the new black in metallic gold colour, there has been a huge gap in finding a colour to the liking of common senses. Companies attempted the hues of red, blue, and even dual shades. But Samsung has struck the gold with this new Burgundy. I wish all my devices were in this same, refreshing elegant looking Burgundy as on the S22 Ultra.  Been using this as my primary phone for over a week now, the Gorilla glass Victus+ at the front and the back did a good job at protecting it from accidental scratches. Plus, the IP68 rating will help it withstand accidental water encounters.

The display on Samsung’s flagship smartphones is always excellent. Samsung takes it a notch higher with the Ultra. The 6.8-inch panel with 1440 x 3088 p resolution is super bright and sharp. And has got great visibility under bright sunlight as well. The 120Hz variable refresh rate gets into action while playing heavy graphics games. And the refresh rate goes down to 1Hz when not in action, resulting in power saving.

Be it browsing the web, switching between apps or playing games, the screen did not stutter even once. The touch response as always is great. Samsung’s SPen (the built-in stylus) is now officially a part of this hardware, which works flawlessly while scribbling or sketching.

Just that its position has been swapped towards the left bottom instead of right, which took me a little while to get used to. What’s even more interesting is the AI features for the S Pen. S22 Ultra uses AI to predict hand movements. And I also got a reminder of the screen when I left the SPen bedsides on the phone, instead of inserting it in. And suggested allowing physical activity permission for more accurate loss detection.  The button on the SPen comes across as a nice camera accessory as well – single press for capturing image or recording video, double press for switching cameras, and gestures to switch cameras.

On the camera front, the setup at the rear is largely same as the last year but with slightly wider telephoto lenses, resulting in stunning photography. Switching between the cameras is just a swipe away.

I believe the spring season is the best for putting a flagship smartphone camera to test as the flowers on my terrace garden are in full bloom. And the S22 Ultra didn’t disappoint. From capturing the finest of details to accurate colours, there wasn’t anything to complain about. And for a change, the colours captured were not over saturated.

Unlike many smartphones with dedicated macro mode, the S22 Ultra has a focus enhancer where getting close to the subject automatically puts it in macro mode. And frankly, I was impressed. From capturing the grains in the wall to textures on flowers, it captured details that were not visible to the naked eye. A nice subject to put telephoto lenses to use is TV Tower, which is visible from my terrace. Using the 10x optical zoom, I got a slightly closer yet clear view. I was able to zoom in further using the 30x (and even 100x) digital zoom but it compromises the clarity.

There are some improvements in low-light photography as well but I wouldn’t call it the best. But those who know how to operate the manual camera settings (Pro mode on this phone), will be delighted.

In addition to the photo mode, are a host of settings including portrait, food, panorama, amongst others that can be accessed from the ‘more’ tab that includes the Director’s View as well. This shows a thumbnail preview of the video feeds coming from all of the cameras on the phones that a user can select. It also captures stunning videos in 8k videos at 24fps.

All the goodness of the display, SPen and camera is smoothly powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 system-on-chip onboard paired with 12GB RAM. Yes, finally, this time it isn’t the Exynos variant. This brings enough muscle to handle everything – from graphic-intensive games such as Call of Duty to editing videos – without heating or lagging issues.

Chrome browser is power-hungry and I had opened 50 tabs on the browser to test the performance but the S22 Ultra failed to stumble. Running Android 12-based OneUI 4.1, the UI feels familiar and easy to navigate. The app drawer with a search option at the top makes it convenient to launch apps. The addition of Google feed on the home screen (swiping right) was a handy add-on.

The 5000mAh battery onboard backs up the performance, easily lasting a day with heavy usage and still some juice left. This includes hours of gaming and camera testing, browsing the web, social media, constant email access and a couple of hours of video calling, all this at full brightness. Even then, the phone had about 15 per cent battery left at night. Samsung S22 Ultra supports 45W fast-charging but the adapter is not bundled in the box. And the charging time varies depending upon the adapter being used.

Verdict: An apt mix of value and competitive pricing, the Galaxy S22 Ultra can easily drive customers away from all other brands, including the Apple iPhone.