Samsung Galaxy S22 review: The best in a small package

 Samsung's New Phone: Which One Should You Buy?

We've been watching mobile phones get bigger and bigger for a while. Over the past few years, it has felt like a new, larger display is a prerequisite for flagship consoles to "evolve". As you can see from the Google Pixel 6, it's about half an inch larger than the Pixel 5. Smaller displays still exist, but they are often only found on more affordable devices. Now we may be starting to see some size fatigue. Instead of getting bigger, Samsung's Galaxy S22 series shrinks in some key places. Let's find out if this decision paid off in our Samsung Galaxy S22 review.

Update, October 2022: We have added some new selections to information about the Galaxy S22 and recent software updates.

What You Need to Know About the Samsung Galaxy S22

Samsung's Galaxy S22 trio was announced as the latest in the Galaxy S series at the February 2022 event "Unpacked". The Galaxy S22 Ultra hits all the notebook trends, while the Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus are classic Galaxy S devices. The Galaxy S22 follows in the footsteps of the Plus, eschewing Ultra's S Pen support and retaining the Contour Cut camera housing first featured on the Galaxy S21 series.

Of course, the similarities don't stop there. Just as the Galaxy S22 Plus is battling Apple's iPhone 13 Pro and Google's Pixel 6 Pro, the Galaxy S22 is battling the vanilla iPhone 13 and Pixel 6. The specs have been scaled down to save weight, and it's comfortably below the $1,000 mark.

Samsung offers two configurations of the Galaxy S22, both with 8GB of RAM. Storage is available for $799 for 128GB and $50 for the 256GB model. The Galaxy S22 is available in a wide range of four colors: Phantom Black, Phantom White, Green, and Pink Gold. It can be ordered directly from Samsung itself for access to four additional shades: Cream, Sky Blue, Graphite, and Violet.

While pre-order benefits have faded for another year, Samsung still offers some of the best trade-in values ​​in the business. To sweeten the deal, at the time of writing, US buyers are You also received a free storage upgrade to 256GB for the price of the 128GB model. If you don't mind locking yourself into a deal, you can transfer your old phone to a US-based carrier You can also save stacks of cash when exchanging.

The Samsung Galaxy S22 sounds like a pretty sweet deal overall, but is it the one to choose? Let's see how it fares in everyday life.

Design: Refined, not reinvented

To the untrained eye, the Samsung Galaxy S22 looks identical to its predecessor, the Galaxy S21. The difference is still pretty stark, even with a trained eye, unless you have both models side by side. Rather than starting from scratch, Samsung chose to refine the details of an already great design. After using both handsets, I can say with confidence that nearly every Samsung style upgrade is for the better.

First, the Galaxy S22 is tougher than ever. It's been upgraded with Samsung's Armor aluminum frame for better strength, and the "glasstic" era seems to be behind us. The phone sports Gorilla Glass Victus Plus flat panels on both the front and back. It may not look all that different from last year, but when you handle it, the improvement in quality is immediately apparent.

Samsung has also tweaked the shape of the Galaxy S22 a bit. The four sides are slightly flattened, making it easier to hold. Some say it looks too much like an iPhone, but it still retains some subtle curves from Samsung's polished side rails.

One thing Samsung hasn't changed much from last year is the camera bump. The designer dipped back into the well contoured cut again, blending right into the corners of the phone. Unfortunately, the two-tone design is no more (unless you buy from Samsung), but the four basic finishes are just as appealing.

Speaking of colorful finishes, Samsung has plenty of them. We picked up the Phantom White version for this review (sadly, the Samsung-exclusive version would have taken a little too long to ship). Phantom Color is still harsh on the top, with a satin finish on the back that barely picks up any fingerprints. But Samsung's online-exclusive Cream, Sky Blue, Graphite, and Violet versions are worth the wait, if you've got the patience. They bring back the contrast two-tone finish with a purple version as close to the Galaxy S21 as you can get.

Overall, this is the most pocketable Samsung Galaxy flagship of the year. That means Samsung could shrink the dimensions to match, packing a slightly smaller display and making it shorter, thinner and lighter than the Galaxy S21. You've got a phone that doesn't feel like a brick in your pocket. The Galaxy S22 isn't as compact as the Galaxy Z Flip 3, but you'll have no problem carrying it around all day. Although similar in size and shape, I wouldn't call the Galaxy S22 "iPhone-like." Samsung's slight curve makes this phone more comfortableIt's easier to hold than the iPhone 13's sharp edges.

As for the button layout, Samsung hasn't changed anything. You'll find the same setup as the Galaxy S21 and its predecessors. That means both the volume rocker and power button are still on the right side, leaving a smooth, clean rail on the left. Both buttons felt comfortably positioned for one-handed use, even though I had to stretch a little to get the volume up.

Flanking the USB-C port along the bottom edge is the SIM card tray and downward-firing speaker. The SIM card eject hole has almost the same shape as the microphone and is relatively close, so you need to be careful when placing the SIM card (although not as much as Ultra). While you can't add storage with a microSD slot or a secondary physical SIM card, the Galaxy S22 does support dual SIMs with eSIM compatibility.

Samsung's ultrasonic in-display fingerprint reader is still on board this year. It takes some trial and error to learn the position, but it's still fast and smooth. As long as you remember where to put your thumb, you will be able to perform fingerprint authentication with one hand.

The Galaxy S22 earbuds and speakers work together to deliver solid Dolby Atmos stereo sound. There's some distortion at max volume, but I was able to turn up the volume without much trouble. The bass isn't punchy, but the mids and highs are fine. If you want to listen to music in the shower, the Galaxy S22 is fine, but you'll need more powerful speakers or better headphones for sustained streaming.

A durable IP68 rating is no stranger among Samsung flagships. It's been regular for several years, and it guarantees that a 30-minute swim in up to 1.5 meters of water won't fry your phone.

Samsung may have hit the sweet spot with the Galaxy S22. It's certainly not too big, but it's also not too small. This is a flagship-tier phone that you can use with one hand without sacrificing build quality, camera, or raw performance. It feels like a better counterpunch than the Galaxy S21 thanks to premium upgrades to Apple's dominance among 6-inch flagships. Samsung's Galaxy S22 is an encouraging sign that the tiny Android flagship still has a chance, even if it doesn't change the smartphone game.

Display: small...

Usually, when something is scaled back, it's filled with a fair bit of grumbling. Take your favorite bag of chips, for example. Nobody wants less chips, do they? This time around, Samsung has done pretty well by making the Galaxy S22 just a tad smaller.

It has a diagonal dimension of 6.1 inches, which is 0.1 inch smaller than the Galaxy S21. The pixel count has also decreased from 1,080 x 2,400 to 2,340, but the pixel density has increased from 421 to 425 pixels per inch. Samsung also kept the 120Hz variable refresh rate, but it won't be as slow as originally rumored.

All the tech specs point to something that shouldn't come as much of a surprise: the Galaxy S22 has an impressive display. Other phones have displays like this, but you don't need anything more than Full HD+ on a 6.1-inch panel. The Samsung Galaxy S22's color profile looks pretty good out of the box. It doesn't feel too saturated and should suit most people. But if you're not satisfied, you can try one of several preset profiles or customize the look. Not everyone will have to or want to, but the options are there.

As for the refresh rate, Samsung's flagship offers a variable base setting of 120Hz. That means it adjusts based on the display's content to minimize power draw without sacrificing a smooth experience. That's good, but it can go as low as 48 Hz, which is far from the lowest we've seen from phones with LTPO displays. Lock the display at 60 Hz if you prefer a consistent experience can do. You'll lose fluidity when scrolling through the UI and compatible apps, but you should get better battery life.

If you want to try high-level mobile games, we recommend using Samsung's Game Launcher. It supports a touch sampling rate of 240Hz and a host of other features that we will discuss later. The 240Hz rate doesn't quite catch the beast dedicated to gaming, but it's pretty responsive for an everyday flagship.

Overall, this is a pretty attractive display. It's smaller than last year, but no less mighty. Samsung dropped some pixels, but you'll be hard-pressed to find them, and the vanilla Galaxy S22 easily keeps pace with its bigger siblings. It even offers slightly better pixel density than the Galaxy S22 Plus.

Performance: ...but mighty

Like its Galaxy S22 siblings, the vanilla model comes in two variants, powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor and Samsung's own Exynos 2200. The Snapdragon version is available in the US and select markets, while the Exynos model is available in select global markets, including Europe. Despite the new naming convention, it's not hard to track down the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 as the successor to the 2021 Snapdragon 888.

Samsung's Galaxy S22 series is, for better or worse, rock solid in terms of RAM and storage. Both versions offer 8GB of RAM, which is enough for most tasks. A 12GB option would make it even more future-proof, but only on the high-end Galaxy S22 Ultra. There's no option for more than 256GB of storage, which you might run out capturing 4K video all day and running around, but that should be enough for most. There's also no microSD slot, so it might have been nice to have a 512GB variant to match the iPhone 13's maximum capacity. Maybe next time Samsung - after all, it was an option back in the Galaxy S10 series.

After testing the Galaxy S22 with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 for a while, I found it to be more than adequate. I've driven it every day for about 10 days (it works on Verizon's network) and never had a problem. Most of my usage is social media and music/video streaming, but I keep coming back to this device. It did get a little hot at times, but only when streaming and gaming in quick succession. Despite allegations of app throttling, the Galaxy S22 still packs enough punch for almost any everyday use.

When it comes to benchmarks, we put the Galaxy S22 through the toughest conditions. This test performed our usual barrage with decent results. Granted, it's not the best-in-class result, but the single-core and multi-core GeekBench results are in the same range as the Galaxy S22 Plus. Overall, the Galaxy S22's Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 lags behind Apple's in-house Bionic A15 processor, but has CPU performance close to that of the Snapdragon 888 device. In terms of GPU, the Galaxy S22 was able to bounce back and go even further. Graphics-intensive applications and heavy 3D games are where this generation of GPU really shines. However, in our 20-run stress test, the 3DMark scores dropped considerably, so long play sessions won't necessarily keep pace when the heat starts to pick up.

Battery: Significant Shrink

Samsung's decision to go smaller has paid off so far. The Galaxy S22 is comfortable to hold, well made, and the display is as good as the Galaxy S22 Plus. But let's talk about one of the biggest concerns that comes with smaller form factors: smaller batteries.

The 2021 Galaxy S21 packs a 4,000mAh battery, which delivered pretty solid results in our testing. It wasn't the biggest battery for a 6.2-inch device, but it lasted well over a day. Now, expectations are higher for flagship-class phones, albeit relatively affordable phones. Apple's similarly priced iPhone 13 achieves great results with better power management. Meanwhile, Google finally went big with the Pixel 6 cell and banished its own battery fiends. As such, Samsung pivoting to drop below 4,000mAh on its latest flagship is all the more mind-boggling.

Unfortunately, this concern weighs on us once again. The 3,700 mAh cell is small even by the standards of small Android phones, and the impact on battery life is noticeable. I can use it without problems on weekdays, but the main reason is that I naturally use my smartphone less frequently on that day. I was able to finish the day with about 30% battery remaining once or twice with light use. I mostly used it for scrolling through social media, replying to messages, and playing Spotify in the background. This is already a surprisingly low number.

Samsung Galaxy S22

The Samsung Galaxy S22 is a series of Android-based smartphones designed, developed, manufactured, and marketed by Samsung Electronics as part of its Galaxy S series. Unveiled at Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event on 9 February 2022.

They collectively serve as the successor to the Samsung Galaxy S21 series. The first three smartphones were unveiled at Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event on 9 February 2022.

The S22 series consists of the base Galaxy S22 model, the plus Galaxy S22+ model, and the camera-note-focused Galaxy S22 Ultra model. The S22 Ultra serves as the official successor to the Samsung Galaxy Note20 series and Note lineup. There are numerous critical upgrades the phones possess over the previous models, in addition to improved specifications, an enhanced camera system supporting 8K video recording (7680×4320) at 24 frames per second, and a super-resolution zoom of 30–100x, for the ultra model.

The three phones were released in the United States and Europe on 25 February 2022. The Galaxy S22, S22+, and S22 Ultra launch prices started at $799.99, $999.99, and $1199.99, respectively