It should be the new gold standard for Android smartphones: With the Galaxy S22 Ultra, Samsung wants to leave nothing to be desired and show that the S-Class sets the tone in this generation as well – at least in the Android world. Will that succeed?
It’s pretty obvious what Samsung is doing with the S22 Ultra wanted to achieve: an Android smartphone that covers all the needs of frequent users, eliminates the weaknesses of the predecessor and clearly stands out within its own model series. And because the inner values of modern smartphones are often so similar, Samsung put a special focus on the camera and a pen. The test should show whether the overall package is convincing.
The screen diagonal is 6.8 inches and is therefore a little larger than the iPhone 13 Pro Max (6.7 inches). Because Samsung is bringing back the edge display with the S22 Ultra, i.e. the display edges drop off to the right and left, the picture looks huge. This does not necessarily have an advantage in operation, but the effect achieved is nice to look at and feels good on the side.
hard edge
But you have to like the feel. Unlike its predecessor, the Galaxy S22 Ultra is much more angular at the top and bottom. So while the sides with the rounded display feel particularly good in the hand, the angular underside in particular “pokes” noticeably in the hand. A nice example: If you run over a box with the lower right corner, it leaves a mark S22 Ultra clear traces in the cardboard. An iPhone 13 doesn’t do that.
The choice of materials is really successful, the device is very well made and makes a noble impression. The frame is made of aluminium, the front and back are made of shatterproof glass (Gorilla Glass Victus+). Samsung also wants to give itself a green coat of paint with the S22 series: It was proudly announced that individual plastic parts would also be made with recycled material from fishing nets. A nice thought, which in a mass production of highly complex smartphones for the environment should achieve as much for the environment as three collected cigarette filters on the Ballermann. Let’s say: the thought counts.
Impressive collection: The back of the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra actually only consists of cameras and sensors.
© star / Christian Hensen
The giant display adapts
The large display has a resolution of 3088 x 1440 pixels, and the pixel density is a smooth 500 pixels per inch. According to the manufacturer, the brightness is 1,750 candelas per square meter, which is significantly brighter on paper than an iPhone 13 Pro. But: The maximum brightness hardly plays a role in everyday use, and it also consumes too much energy when it is pushed to the limit. The automatic adjustment of the brightness is completely sufficient in every situation.
The color intensity can be adjusted in the software settings. “Vivid” is set by default, which sometimes results in an overly loud display. At the refresh rate it delivers Galaxy S22 Ultra to a maximum of 120 Hertz, but only uses this for correspondingly fast content, for example to display hectic action films or games without streaks. This worked very well in the test, and films, games or simply web content on the Ultra display are generally a pleasure.
Camera works – even at night
The heart and probably the most important component is without a doubt the camera. There is not much to say about the selfie camera. At the S22 Ultra A snap with 40 megapixels works on the front, which takes very good pictures and delivers a high level of detail. In portrait mode, tousled hair frays a little too much.
Samsung wants to impress with big numbers on the back: 108-megapixel main camera, super wide-angle camera with 12 megapixels, two telephoto lenses with 10 megapixels each and two optical zoom levels. At least on paper, the iPhone 13 Pro has “only” three cameras and 12 megapixels with empty pockets. But, is this really the truth?
First a test in daylight, in comparison with an iPhone 13 – without Pro. In normal lighting conditions, there is hardly any difference, and close-ups of our test dachshund can hardly be distinguished in terms of sharpness, although that S22 Ultra tends to brighten dark areas noticeably, the iPhone 13 takes photos with higher contrast.
Both smartphones set the automatic focus differently. The S22 Ultra always tries to find the golden mean, while the iPhone 13 tends to focus more on the front of the image. Of course, you can manually determine where the focus should be on both smartphones, but keep a dachshund still long enough for all manual camera settings.
Gigantic zoom, but play stuff
One more word on zoom before it’s night’s turn. Because as soon as it gets dark, the quality of the high zoom levels deteriorates so much that a fair assessment would not be possible. So: that S22 Ultra offers a 3x and 10x optical zoom. Digitally, it goes up to 100. It’s impossible to operate it by hand, since the smallest movement shifts the entire image section at a hundredfold zoom, but it works on a tripod.
Take a crane, for example: from a great distance, we approached the person in the cockpit in six steps. What is just a small dot in the wide angle becomes much more recognizable as you get closer. Everything remains clearly visible up to a tenfold zoom, after which it becomes blurred. This is, of course, due to the fact that Samsung has significantly improved the software here and the optical zoom is no longer sufficient. But: Even with a hundredfold magnification, it is still possible to recognize the outlines of people or writing. A nice gimmick.
Good pictures, good night
When communicating with the manufacturer, it was particularly important to Samsung to point out the strengths of night shots. They want to turn “night into day” with the S22 Ultra. Although that should only be the goal to a limited extent, because you usually want to capture the character of dark shots as realistically as possible.
In the test we have the iPhone 13, the iPhone 13 Pro and the S22 Ultra taken for a walk along the port of Hamburg. The iPhone 13 still delivered acceptable recordings, but could not hold a candle to the iPhone 13 Pro and S22 Ultra. The two top smartphones are almost on par. The iPhone 13 Pro tends to display night shots in truer colors, while the S22 Ultra actually turns “night into day” and brightens dark areas significantly. With the S22 Ultra, this provides more details in the image, but in our opinion it does a little damage to the mood of dark photos.
The S22 Ultra is very good at dealing with direct light sources at night, the iPhone 13 Pro scattered the light over large parts of the recording. Apple often does a little better when it comes to automatic focus: As with the close-ups of the test dachshund, the iPhone often focuses on the front of the image, while the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra usually opts for the middle.
Apart from a few differences, which largely depend on personal taste, we like both cameras very much in the test. This also continues with videos, here great recordings can be made with both devices, whereby the S22 Ultra with the professional mode offers more options without additional apps and with 8K recordings is slightly ahead of the iPhone. But basically it’s the old game: If you want great results quickly and easily, you’ll prefer the iPhone, if you like to have everything in your own hands, you might tend to Android. For the few people who need 8K smartphone recording, however, there is no choice.
Hard facts about hardware
When it comes to hardware, there is a clear winner, at least when you look at the results of the common benchmarks – namely Apple, and that even with the iPhone 13 without Pro. Samsung uses its own Exynos 2200 processor in Europe. It achieves 3,372 points in Geekbench 5, and 6,836 points in 3D Mark. The iPhone 13 with the A15 Bionic chip scores 4,607 points on Geekbench 5 and 9,210 points on 3D Mark. In both cases, we are talking about a performance that is around 30 percent higher for Apple, which will hardly be noticeable in everyday use due to the high level of both devices.
The battery of S22 Ultra measures 5000 milliamp hours. You can easily get through the day with it, but not as far as with an iPhone. Samsung offers numerous options for charging, including fast charging with 45 watts. Unfortunately, the luxury smartphone with an RRP of 1249 euros does not come with a charger, not even a slower one. On the contrary: Only a USB-C to USB-C cable is included in the scope of delivery, which is future-proof, but can cause problems in the present if a corresponding charger is still missing.
Fortunately, Samsung has not repeated the blatant mistake of the predecessor S21 Ultra: The included pen finally has a home – and with that all hopes that Samsung will build a Galaxy Note after all have vanished. The S22 Ultra is the new Note – that’s it. Handling the pen is great, there are numerous practical applications, even if it’s just for triggering the camera or drawing on photos. And if you don’t need the pen, it doesn’t bother you either – the recess on the underside of the S22 Ultra is perfectly integrated into the frame.
Very well solved: The S-Pen of the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra simply disappears into the housing when you don’t need it.
© star / Christian Hensen
Samsung Galaxy S22: The test conclusion
The S22 Ultra is a really good, well thought-out Android smartphone. The camera takes great pictures, the hardware is sufficiently fast for any application and the display is a stunner. The S Pen only stands out when you need it. And all positive. The S22 Ultra is definitely one of the best Android smartphones currently available, but it doesn’t stand out too much from other devices in its price range.
If you don’t mind the angular design and need a huge smartphone, the Galaxy S22 Ultra happy. Especially when a pen is a must. If the operation with the fingers is sufficient, the alternatives are the slightly worse Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus or the Google Pixel 6 Pro.
Samsung can claim the coveted title for the all-round best smartphone on the market with the S22 Ultra but not secure. The performance, stamina and mostly the camera of the iPhone 13 Pro are superior to the Android flagship.
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