Samsung recently sent us the new Galaxy S22 Ultra smartphone, and here is our comprehensive review!

Find out why the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra won our Editor’s Choice Award!

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Price + Availability

Samsung is offering the Galaxy S22 Ultra in four colour options – Burgundy, Green, Phantom Black and Phantom White.

I had the opportunity to attend an exclusive Samsung preview event, to check out all four colours for ourselves.

Note : Samsung only allowed us to use digital cameras, so the video is not stabilised as it would be with smartphones that I generally use.

Here in Malaysia, it is available starting 10 February 2022 in three variants, at these price points :

• 8 GB + 128 GB : RM 5,099 (about US$1,219 / £899 / A$1,699 / S$1,629)
• 12 GB + 256 GB : RM 5,499 (about US$1,314 / £969 / A$1,829 / S$1,759)
• 12 GB + 512 GB : RM 5,899 (about US$1,409 / £1,039 / A$1,959 / S$1,889)

Here are some online pre-order options :

• Malaysia : RM5,499 | RM5,499 | RM5,499 | RM5,499
• Singapore : S$1,858
• United States : US$1,199 | US$1,199
• United Kingdom : £1,149 | £1,149 | £1,249 | £1,249
• Australia : A$1,999

Unboxing Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : What’s Inside Its Box?

Samsung just combined their Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series into the Galaxy S22 Ultra – their latest flagship smartphone.

Not only does it adopt the blockier industrial design language of the Galaxy Note series, it also comes with the S Pen built-in!

Despite being the biggest model in the Galaxy S22 family, the S22 Ultra comes in a slim cardboard box. Here’s an interesting fact – the colour of the S on the box shows you the colour of the Galaxy S22 Ultra inside!

In this video, we take a quick look at the box, before showing you exactly what you will find inside!

Here is everything you will find inside the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra’s box :

• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra smartphone
• Set of Galaxy S22 series documents
• USB data and power cable (Type C to Type C)
• SIM card tray extraction pin

Sadly, the Galaxy S22 Ultra does not come with a 45 watt charger in-the-box. You can reuse your old 15 watt charger, but you would be losing out on a key S22 Ultra feature.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Key Features

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Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Key Features

Now, let us go through its key features, and show you why the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is worthy of our Editor’s Choice Award!

6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra comes with a massive 6.8-inch display, with a Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel.

Its wide colour gamut of 100% DCI-P3, a peak brightness of 1750 nits, and a contrast ratio of 3 million:1 will guarantee the best possible image quality, whether indoors or outdoors.

Gamers will love its high dynamic refresh rate of up to 120 Hz, with a touch sampling rate of up to 240 Hz.

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra offers two refresh rate options (Settings > Display > Motion smoothness) :

• Adaptive : Get smoother animation and scrolling by automatically adjusting your screen refresh rate up to 120 Hz
• Standard : Get longer battery life with a 60 Hz screen refresh rate

Last year’s Galaxy S21 Ultra also has an Adaptive mode, which dynamically refreshes between 10 Hz and 120 Hz

The new Galaxy S22 Ultra improves on that, with an Adaptive mode that dynamically refreshes between 1 Hz and 120 Hz.

By default, the Galaxy S22 Ultra uses the Adaptive mode, for smoother graphics, but you can choose to switch to the Standard mode for longer battery.

4nm Flagship Mobile Platform

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is built around the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile SoC, which is fabricated on the latest 4nm Samsung process technology.

Together with a powerful Adreno 730 GPU, it has eight processor cores in a triple-tier architecture :

• a Cortex-X2 prime core running at up to 3 GHz,
• three sustained-performance Cortex-A710 cores running at up to 2.5 GHz, and
• four energy-efficient Cortex-A510 cores running at 1.8 GHz.

Memory + Storage Options

Samsung will be offering four memory and storage options, but not all of them are available globally :

• 8 GB RAM + 128 GB storage
• 12 GB RAM + 256 GB storage
• 12 GB RAM + 512 GB storage
• 12 GB RAM + 1 TB storage

Cameras Galore!

As the premiere Samsung smartphone, the Galaxy S22 Ultra comes with a smorgasbord of cameras!

In the front, it has a 40 MP camera, with a wide f/2.2 aperture, and the ability to combine pixels for better low-light performance.

In the back, it has a quad-camera system that consists of :

• a 108 MP Dual Pixel camera, f/1.8 aperture
• a 12 MP ultra-wide angle camera, f/2.2 aperture
• a 10 MP telephoto camera with 3X optical zoom, f/2.4 aperture, and
• a 10 MP periscope camera with 10X optical zoom, f/4.9

Ultra-Low Latency S Pen

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is the only model in the Galaxy S22 family to come with the S Pen.

Just like the Galaxy Note series, it has a dedicated S Pen slot, so you will never have to worry about dropping the S Pen.

This is an improved S Pen, with ultra-low latency of just 2.8 ms – down from 9 ms in the previous generation. This gives it an instantaneous feel, just like writing an actual pen on paper.

Built To Last

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is protected in the back and front by the latest Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+.

On top of that, it is IP68-rated against dust and water ingress. That means it can withstand immersion in up to 1.5 metres of fresh water for up to 30 minutes.

Battery + Charging

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra comes with a large 5,000 mAh battery, which offers a very long battery life.

On top of that, it can support wired charging at up to 45 watts, with wireless charging supported at up to 15 watts.

It also supports Wireless PowerShare, allowing you to recharge other smartphones and wearables like the Galaxy Buds2.

The only downside – Samsung is not providing the 45 watt charger in-the-box.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Battery + Charging

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Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Battery Life Comparison!

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra comes with a larger 5,000 mAh battery, which is the same size as last year’s Galaxy S21 Ultra.

To test its battery life, we turned off Automatic Brightness, and set its display brightness to 50%.

Why 50%? That is actually slightly higher than the average indoor brightness level of 40% during the day, and is what we usually use in all our mobile battery life tests.

It is important to fix the brightness level, to make sure the screen brightness does not change as the ambient brightness changes.

We then ran the PCMark Work 3.0 battery life test until its battery capacity dropped to 20% several times, and this was the best result we obtained with 60 Hz and 120 Hz refresh rates :

Will you look at that!

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra has a battery life of 10.5 hours with Adaptive refresh rate enabled, and a whopping 14.25 hours with the Standard refresh rate!

But let’s compare its battery life at 60 Hz and 120 Hz, against the S21 Ultra and Z Flip 3 smartphones.

Standard Refresh Rate (60 Hz)

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra really shines with the refresh rate set to 60 Hz.

The S22 Ultra used 20% less power per minute, which delivered 25% longer battery life than the S21 Ultra.

Adaptive Refresh Rate (120 Hz)

While the Galaxy S22 Ultra certainly used less power than the S21 Ultra, that advantage was greatly diminished with the Adaptive refresh rate enabled.

The S22 Ultra used just 2% less power per minute, which delivered 2% (12 minutes) longer battery life than the S21 Ultra.

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Battery Recharging Speed!

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra supports up to 45 watts of wired fast charging, but unfortunately, does not come with the charger in-the-box.

So we relied on the standard 15 watt Samsung fast charger than shipped with their previous smartphones – something we believe most users will end up doing.

But we used the 25 watt charger for the S21 Ultra, because it came with that charger.

Interestingly, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra recharged as quickly with a standard 15 watt charger, as the S21 Ultra with its more powerful 25 watt charger!

In fact, the Galaxy S22 Ultra recharged itself twice as fast as the Galaxy Z Flip 3, even though they both used the same 15 watt charger!

This is really good news. It means that Galaxy S22 Ultra owners need not worry too much about its recharging speed with the older 15 watt chargers.

In fact, you don’t really need to splurge on a new 45 watt fast charger. The Galaxy S22 Ultra fully recharges from 20% to 100% in just over an hour with the standard 15 watt Samsung charger!

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Performance

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Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Work Performance

We first tested the Galaxy S22 Ultra using PCMark, which simulates work applications like web browsing, playing video, writing text and editing photos.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Get 1 was surprisingly slightly slower than the Snapdragon 888 used by the Galaxy Z Flip 3, but the difference is just 5%, which means you won’t actually notice the difference.

For certainly, it will easily handle anything you throw at it, whether it’s just posting your latest Instagram pictures or editing a 4K video.

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Gaming Performance

For gaming, we tested the Galaxy S22 Ultra using 3DMark, with these results :

Look at that! The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 was a head above the competition when it comes to gaming!

It was 20% to 130% faster than the Snapdragon 888, and 38% to 102% faster than the Exynos 990!

For certain, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 will crush any game you throw at it.

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Overall Performance

We then tested the Galaxy S22 Ultra using AnTuTu, yielding these results :

The AnTuTu benchmark confirme that the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is a veritable beast of a performer, beating even the very fast Galaxy Z Flip 3 by 28%, and the last-generation Galaxy S21 Ultra by 42!

Its GPU performance was, in particular, spectacular, delivering 66% better performance than the Galaxy Z Flip 3, and 55% better performance than the Galaxy S21 Ultra!

But note that its temperature jumped by over 10°C! At peak performance, the Galaxy S22 Ultra can get quite toasty!

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Performance Summary

The Galaxy S22 Ultra was meant to be the ultimate Samsung smartphone for 2022, and it does not disappoint.

Built around the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 – the fastest mobile SoC that exists for Android devices – it offers a tremendous boost in GPU performance, which should make gamers and mobile content creators happy.

The benchmark results amply demonstrates, you can count on the Galaxy S22 Ultra to easily handle anything and everything you throw at it.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Video Performance

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Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Video Recording Performance

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra’s super-high resolution 108 MP main camera can take up to 8K videos, if you want to. But in reality – most people are not going to bother with 8K video recording, at least for now.

Very few televisions and devices support 8K video playback, and even the S22 Ultra will downsample the 8K video when playing back on its 3K display.

1080p and 4K videos are what the Galaxy S22 Ultra does best, thanks to its support for 60 fps recording and combination of optical image stabilisation and advanced electronic image stabilisation.

1080p Video Sample : Concubine Lane @ Ipoh

This video sample was taken at the famous Concubine Lane in Ipoh, which is crowded and really great to test the camera out.

In this video sample, you can see just how smooth and stable the video is at 60 fps, even with so much shaking and jostling.

4K Video Sample : Concubine Lane @ Ipoh

When we switched to 4K, the video was remarkably stable, even while we walk through the crowd, and pan around Concubine Lane.

You should also note the lack of wind noise, which is fantastic. You won’t need to use a third-party microphone with a dead cat with this phone!

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Video Zoom Capability

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra also supports multiple zoom levels – up to 20X zoom at 1080p, and up to 10X zoom at 4K.

Its ultra-wide camera lets you record with a wider 0.6X zoom, while its 3X zoom and 10X zoom cameras allow for extended optical zoom capabilities.

1080p Zoom Demonstration

At 1080p, you can record videos from 0.6X zoom up to 20X zoom – which offers much wider range than competing smartphones.

The best image quality was seen at up to 10X zoom, while image stabilisation was best at up to 4X zoom, and still pretty good at 10X zoom.

While 20X zoom has pretty decent image quality, it is not as sharp as at 10X or lower zoom. Colours also appear more washed out at 20X.

4K Zoom Demonstration

You can record 4K videos from 0.6X zoom up to 10X zoom. – which is narrower than recording 1080p video.

For best image quality, limit your zoom up to 3X while recording 4K video. While image stabilisation was pretty good at 10X zoom, the image isn’t sharp and colours appear washed out.

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Video Recording Performance Summary

If you ignore the 8K hype, you will realise that the Galaxy S22 Ultra offers truly excellent 4K and 1080p video recording capabilities.

You should buy the Galaxy S22 Ultra for its advanced optical and electronic image stabilisation for super-stable recording on-the-move.

You should also buy the Galaxy S22 Ultra for its wide zoom range of 0.6X to 10X when recording 1080p videos, or 0.6X to 3X when recording 4K videos.

These are the critical video recording features that will give you greater flexibility and super stable videos, without the need to use a gimbal.

While not showcased in our videos, the Galaxy S22 Ultra also supports Audio Zoom, focusing the audio recording as you zoom into a scene. That can be really helpful in isolating audio from the subject from background noise.

These features are not new – they have been part of the Samsung Galaxy S and Note series for a few years now. Samsung just keeps improving them, which is why we keep using Galaxy S smartphones as our primary video recording device.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Photography

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Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Photography Capability

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra boasts a super-high resolution 108 MP main camera, built around the same ISOCELL HM3 sensor used in the Galaxy S21 Ultra.

However, this camera features improved AI optimisations. Thanks to the improved performance of its GPU and NPU, it now runs approximately 60 new AI models through its Neural Processing Unit (NPU) to optimise the final output.

Here are six shots I took around Ipoh Old Town, using the 108 MP main camera, and the 12 MP ultra-wide angle camera.

They are 4000 x 3000 pixels in size, with a JPEG file size of between 4 MB and 15 MB – it all depends on the amount of detail in the picture. To save space, I definitely recommend that you enable HEIF – the High Efficiency Image Format.

By default, the 108 MP camera takes 12 MP photos, combining nine pixels into one super-large 2.4 µm pixel. Coupled with the new AI models, the final photo is not only much brighter, but has significantly lower noise.

When you take shots at night, the Galaxy S22 Ultra combines images taken using both the 108 MP main camera, and the 12 MP ultra-wide camera. The 12 MP camera provides the rough details, while the fine details are provided by the 108 MP camera.

Here are four shots to show you the incredible amount of detail you can capture at just 12 MP. If you need greater detail, you can always increase the resolution to the full 108 MP, but frankly – these pictures should show you that you don’t really need to.

Its digital zoom has also been improved by the new AI models and the faster processor. For images taken above 30X digital zoom, the camera actually takes 10-20 shots at once, and processes them to improve the details in the final photo.

Finally, the Galaxy S22 Ultra features a new AI portrait model that uses two cameras to accurately differentiate the depth between the person and the background.

This is critical because the 108 MP camera has a very wide f/1.8 aperture, which makes for very narrow depth-of-field (DOF). If you do not accurately focus on the subject, you could end up with a blurry photo even though it looks sharp on the phone.

In these four shots, you can see just how narrow of depth of field you have to work with. This makes for better photos – you just need to make sure the subject is really in focus.

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Photography Summary

If you want the best cameras on a smartphone money can buy, you should definitely consider the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Ignore the 108 MP marketing hoohah. What you are really getting is an awesome 12 MP camera with super-large pixels for really great noise-free images, and better low-light photos.

You may be wary about Samsung reusing the ISOCELL HM3 sensor from last year, but it has better photographic capabilities, thanks mostly to software and AI improvements.

For one thing, I noticed that it is now much better at accurately focusing on the subject, resulting in far fewer wrongly-focused shots.

It also does a better job of correcting for disparate lighting conditions, although some of you may find the photos oversaturated.

But there is no doubt that the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra has some of the best smartphone cameras I’ve tried this year.

Next Page > Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Summary + Award

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Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Summary + Award

It is really quite hard for flagship smartphones to really differentiate themselves from last year’s flagships, but Samsung somehow pulled it off with the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Most of the improvements may not be readily apparent to the user though.

Thanks to Samsung’s decision to use the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile SoC, it has significantly better GPU and NPU performance.

Even its Dynamic AMOLED 2X display has been quietly improved. It is now 250 nits brighter and has a minimum refresh rate of just 1 Hz, allowing for better battery life.

If you don’t mind using the standard 60 Hz refresh rate, you will be pleasantly surprised by a 25% longer battery life than last year’s S21 Ultra!

Even its S Pen was upgraded. It may look like last year’s S Pen, but it has a much lower latency of just 2.8 ms – down from 9 ms in the previous generation.

Samsung reused the Galaxy S21 Ultra‘s excellent quad-camera system, but you may not know that it features improved AI optimisations. Powered by the much faster Snapdragon processor’s NPU, it now runs approximately 60 new AI models to optimise the final output.

This may not sound like much, but you will realise just how much has improved if you compare the videos and photos taken with the S22 Ultra against the S21 Ultra. Its AI optimisations have taken out most of the hard work of making sure that each picture comes out looking great, while its video stabilisation is truly best-in-class.

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is not cheap, but if you want the best possible Android smartphone that is powerful and takes excellent photos and videos, this is as good as it gets!

On top of that, it boasts the best-in-class Gorilla Glass Victus+ protection on both front and rear aspects, and is IP68 dust- and water-resistant.

For these reasons, we gladly award the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra our Editor’s Choice Award! Great work, Samsung!

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Specifications

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Price + Availability

Samsung is offering the Galaxy S22 Ultra in four colour options – Burgundy, Green, Phantom Black and Phantom White.

I had the opportunity to attend an exclusive Samsung preview event, to check out all four colours for ourselves.

Note : Samsung only allowed us to use digital cameras, so the video is not stabilised as it would be with smartphones that I generally use.

Here in Malaysia, it is available starting 10 February 2022 in three variants, at these price points :

• 8 GB + 128 GB : RM 5,099 (about US$1,219 / £899 / A$1,699 / S$1,629)
• 12 GB + 256 GB : RM 5,499 (about US$1,314 / £969 / A$1,829 / S$1,759)
• 12 GB + 512 GB : RM 5,899 (about US$1,409 / £1,039 / A$1,959 / S$1,889)

Here are some online pre-order options :

• Malaysia : RM5,499 | RM5,499 | RM5,499 | RM5,499
• Singapore : S$1,858
• United States : US$1,199 | US$1,199
• United Kingdom : £1,149 | £1,149 | £1,249 | £1,249
• Australia : A$1,999

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• Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra : Hands-On Experience!
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra Unboxing : What’s Inside?
• Samsung Galaxy A73 : Exclusive Hands-On Preview!

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