Tested: Galaxy S22 Ultra | The best of both galaxies

With great photographic capabilities, record battery life and a new integrated stylus, Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra looks like a Galaxy Note. For the best… but at what cost!

Karim Benessaieh
The Press

WE love

Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra is such a fanfare of technologies that it’s hard to tell which one to mention right away. unrivaled 1750 nits.

This 6.8-inch “phablet” has a 5000 mAh battery that gives it at least a good day of battery life in intense use, two in more normal mode. One of the secrets is that the device manages its refresh rate according to use, going from 1 to 120 Hz.

Under the hood, there is a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor designed with a 4nm architecture. The model we tested runs with 12 GB of RAM. With these capabilities, we are not surprised not to have been able to slow it down with editing or demanding video games. Everything is extremely smooth and apps open almost instantly.

In Geekbench benchmarking tests, the Galaxy S22 Ultra nearly tops Android phones for multi-core processor speed, on par with the OnePlus 9 Pro, but surpasses it for graphics capability. It is, however, largely beaten by Apple’s last two Pro models, the iPhone 12 and 13, which are still on another planet.

For the photo, on the other hand, the Galaxy S22 Ultra does not have to have complexes. We compared it to an iPhone 13 Pro Max, which it outperformed in our opinion for the ability to handle contrast and focus. It even, supreme insult since it is usually Apple’s specialty, gave more faithful colors. The only criticism we can make of it is that we sometimes feel too much the intervention of artificial intelligence which reworks the photos in the background.

See for yourself.

It should be noted that we did not skimp at Samsung to equip the S22 Ultra with impressive photographic paraphernalia. The front camera, the selfie camera, can capture up to 40 MP. At the rear, the main lens goes up to 108 MP, and we added two 10 MP telephoto lenses that can get x3 and x10 optical zooms. We also have an ultra-wide-angle of 120 degrees and 12 MP.

The built-in S Pen stylus in the phone’s shell itself, a feature reserved for the Galaxy Note, makes its first appearance in the S range. small drawings to send and manage apps as if you had a mouse. When you connect the phone to a larger screen with the DeX function, the stylus becomes a remote control to scroll, for example, the slides of a PowerPoint.

Finally, this phone has an IP68 water and dust resistance rating, is obviously 5G compatible, and has a fingerprint reader under the front screen and facial recognition for unlocking. It accepts fast charging at 45 watts and can itself charge other devices by providing 4.5 watts.

We love less

We had a few hiccups during the initial setup, with an operating system that seemed unstable. In particular, we did not have access to the “Do not disturb” function, which is essential for Samsung phones that are always very enthusiastic about launching notifications for nothing. A reinstall fixed the problem.

Some love having a stylus with their phone. We still don’t see the need for this accessory.

At $1699 for the base price, with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, this phone is very expensive.

One buys ?

Obviously, Samsung has combined the best of its two ranges, the Note and the S, for this latest model. It will please those who want everything from a state-of-the-art display to a capable camera to a stylus, and are willing to pay the price.

For those who just want a good phone, probably the Galaxy S22 Ultra will far exceed their needs. These will rather find their happiness with the Pixel 6 Pro, the OnePlus 9 or, to stay with Samsung, the Galaxy S21 FE.