Galaxy S22 first impression: Samsung’s new phone is stuck in the middle

    $800 at Samsung
    
    
    

    The new Galaxy S22 series brings a number of refinements and new features to the S22 and S22 Plus, but it isn’t a drastic change from the S21 series. In terms of design and brand legacy, the Galaxy S22 Ultra underwent the most changes and adopted the design and functionality of the Galaxy Note line, which had its last phone launch in 2020.
    Read more: Galaxy S22 Ultra: Samsung’s $1,200 luxury phone fully replaces the Note
    Galaxy S lineup prices compared
    

Phone	Storage/RAM	US price	UK price	AU price
Galaxy S21 FE	128GB/6GB	$700	￡699	AU$1,000
Galaxy S22	128GB/8GB	$800	￡769	AU$1,249
Galaxy S22 Plus	128GB/8GB	$1,000	￡949	AU$1,549
Galaxy S22 Ultra	128GB/8GB	$1,200	￡1,149	AU$1,849

    
Essentially Samsung’s current S series puts the Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus in a strange middle-child situation. At $800, the regular Galaxy S22 is $100 more than the $700 Galaxy S21 FE, which, again, is just a month old. That makes choosing between the two a tough decision.
    In terms of what’s new, the S22 and S22 Plus both get Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip in the US and other markets where Samsung’s Exynos chip isn’t available. The battery on both phones shrinks somewhat, but since both phones are running OneUI 4.1 on top of Android 12, the smaller batteries might not mean a dip in battery life.
    The Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus retain a similar design to the S21 series with a camera bump that melts into the side. The S21’s two-tone color scheme (which I rather liked) is less flashy on the S22. On the whole the body is millimeters smaller which gives the phones a slightly boxy feel. The back of the phone is glass instead of plastic.
    The displays still have a 120Hz high-refresh rate, but at 6.1 inches for the S22 and 6.6 inches for the S22 Plus, they’re a smidge smaller than their 2021 Galaxy predecessors. Both phones support 5G?and have an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance. The S22 Plus also has ultrawideband support for things like Samsung’s Galaxy Tag Plus tracker.
    In terms of cameras, the ultrawide, telephoto and selfie cameras are largely the same ones the S21 series had. The main camera now has a new 50-megapixel sensor instead of the 12-megapixel one found in the S21 and S21 Plus. The sensor not only has more pixels but is 23% bigger than the one in the S21. In terms of image quality we’ll have to wait and see how it performs.
    Galaxy S22 photos: Get a closer look at Samsung’s new phones
    
    
    
    
    Samsung is touting improved low-light performance for both photos and videos and this is mainly due to processing. For photos, the entire S22 series uses a hybrid of pixel binning (combing multiple smaller pixels into a larger one) and high-resolution images to create photos with less image noise and better detail.
    For video, Samsung is adopting something Apple does with the iPhone. In low-light situations it will automatically choose the ideal frame rate for the scene and can even change it while recording. The phones can also blend multiple exposures into a single video frame, which can help improve videos recorded in dimmer situations even more.