Samsung Galaxy S22 Series: Everything You Need to Know

Galaxy S22 Series, Another Year of Upgrade or Downgrade?

The announcement of the new devices this year just made things a little more interesting and complicated for consumers. In this article, I’ll tell you the specs you need to know, the major advantages and disadvantages of the core configurations of each S22 smartphone, and the prices. We also have separate “in-focus” articles below, which you can readily read.

• Galaxy S22, In focus
• Galaxy S22+, In focus
• Galaxy S22 Ultra, In focus

Build

Let’s start with a full comparison of the build.

There is one thing that you need to know in terms of build. The S22 and S22+ look a lot like last year’s Galaxy S21 Ultra. The new S22 Ultra is the only one of the three phones that looks completely different.

The S22 Ultra’s design – while different in most ways, appears to hug the good design traits of the Galaxy S21 Ultra. I feel like there wasn’t anything wrong with last year’s design, but Samsung probably thought that they should improve it even further without deviating from S21 Ultra’s design DNA!

Speaking of DNA, the Galaxy S22 Ultra bears an extra DNA that is quite familiar to Samsung fans – that is the Note DNA. This seems to sort of confirm that Samsung is retiring the beloved-Galaxy Note. However, in an interesting turn of events, Samsung is paying homage to the Galaxy Note by infusing its DNA to S-series and very likely to the Fold series. We’ve seen Samsung sort of apply the Note DNA to Fold last year when they announced an extra accessory for the Galaxy Z Fold3 to make it work like a Galaxy Note.

In the case of the Galaxy S22 Ultra, the S Pen is not any more just an optional accessory, but an integral part of it. So, it’s safe to say that when you buy a Galaxy S22 Ultra, you’re basically getting two devices in one – an S-series flagship smartphone and a Galaxy Note.

Display

Let’s talk about display as it occupies a large amount of its build. Both the Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus are almost just as huge as the display size of their predecessors. The size of the S22 Ultra’s display, on the other hand, is the same but now with a slightly smaller resolution. All of the devices’ display is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus+, which is the latest display protection technology employed on flagship smartphones. This display protection greatly complements the armor aluminum body of all the smartphones.

Hardware

All these devices are powered by a Snapdragon chipset. For those who aren’t very much familiar with this huge news, allow me to take you back to the memory lane. For the past years, the Galaxy S series launched here in the Philippines are all powered by Exynos chipsets. While there is an assumed collective preference for Snapdragon than Exynos chipsets in the past – at least here in the country – this new direction by Samsung in the region will definitely put a smile on the faces of a lot of tech enthusiasts.

I cannot yet give you benchmark results because Samsung has not yet sent us a retail unit, but get peeled on our channel for more updates in the future. A sub, of course, would greatly be appreciated.

The Galaxy S22 series that they will be selling here in the Philippines is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. A day after it was release, Qualcomm [Snapdragon] clarified that there is no such thing as Snapdragon 895. This is in direct response to the overwhelming confusion from the first batch of press release that Samsung sent to all media correspondents here in the Philippines, which tells that the series is powered by the Snapdragon 895. Samsung Philippines clarified that they were sent the wrong information until the contents were out.

There is no denying the information about the Snapdragon 895 and 898 were circulating in August until the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 was made official.

PH units are powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 1

Now, there are two things that you need to be mindful of when you consider buying a Galaxy S22 smartphone: (1) this will not have an Exynos 2200 chipset, therefore you’re going to miss the mobile RDNA 2 architecture by AMD that will bring advanced features like ray tracing and variable rate shading to mobile devices; (2) according to Samsung, these phones will be equipped with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.

Cameras

Now, how about cameras? There isn’t much to talk about, honestly, because the improvements are not based more on the megapixel count but on software optimization like nightography, zoom, video stabilization and better video and photo portraits. We’ll know for sure and confirm once we’ve received their review units.

Battery

One of the changes is more on battery configuration. Except for the Galaxy S22 Ultra, the S22 and S22+ received downgrades in terms of capacity. However, this isn’t exactly a disappointment – at least for me – because optimization and chipset improvement play a vital role in battery consumption.

Prices

Let me now talk about the prices of these devices. I’ve got good news, actually. If you compare the prices of the new Galaxy S22 series, I believe they are fairly priced. The prices do not veer away too much from the Galaxy S21 prices last year. Of course, if you’re going to ask me, you get better features with the Galaxy S22 Ultra; but, I suggest that you get the one with the 12GB RAM instead.

The Samsung Galaxy S22 and S22+ come in Phantom Black, Phantom White, Green, and Pink Gold. Meanwhile, the S22 Ultra is available in Phantom Black, Phantom White, Green, and Burgundy colorways.

These are priced at:

Galaxy S22

• 8/128 GB – PHP 45,990
• 8/256 GB – PHP 49,990

Galaxy S22+

• 8/128 GB – PHP 56,990
• 8/256 GB – PHP 60,990

Galaxy S22 Ultra

• 8/128 GB – PHP 68,990
• 12/256 GB – PHP 72,990
• 12/512 GB – PHP 80,990

You can now pre-order the Galaxy S22 series starting tonight until March 3 via samsung.com. Meanwhile, starting February 10, you can pre-order via Samsung Experience Stores, Authorized Samsung Stores, Lazada, Shopee, Abenson.com, and MemoXpress Online

If you do pre-order, you get a Silicone Case with Strap worth PHP 1,999 and Lucky Box Strap worth PHP 1,299. The Galaxy S22 Ultra will also arrive with a Galaxy Buds Pro worth PHP 9,990, while the S22 and S22+ will come with Galaxy Buds2 worth PHP 6,990.

Catch our full review of the Galaxy S22 series on our website very soon.

Giancarlo Viterbo

Website

Giancarlo Viterbo is a Filipino Technology Journalist, blogger and Editor of gadgetpilipinas.net, He is also a Geek, Dad and a Husband. He knows a lot about washing the dishes, doing some errands and following instructions from his boss on his day job. Follow him on twitter: @gianviterbo and @gadgetpilipinas.