The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra: The Ultra Experience

We now officially see the return of the beloved ‘Note’ Series under a different name; the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Will the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra be recognized as the noteworthy successor to the now-discontinued Note Series of the past? Will it live t it’s ‘ultra’ moniker?

 

For every day usage, we can look to finding preliminary answers to these questions by looking at the following aspects that we care about the most when choosing which phone we own and rely to do its job (especially for its price).

Camera:

Packed with 5 cameras in total, expect the photos and videos to be top notch:

108 MP, f/1.8, 24mm (wide), 1/1.33″, 0.8µm, PDAF, Laser AF, OIS
10 MP, f/4.9, 230mm (periscope telephoto), 1/3.52″, 1.12µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS, 10x optical zoom
10 MP, f/2.4, 70mm (telephoto), 1/3.52″, 1.12µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS, 3x optical zoom
12 MP, f/2.2, 13mm, 120˚ (ultrawide), 1/2.55″, 1.4µm, dual pixel PDAF, Super Steady video

Selfie Camera: 40 MP, f/2.2, 26mm (wide), 1/2.82″, 0.7µm

Video quality: 8K@24fps, 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/240fps, 720p@960fps, HDR10+

In a nutshell, expect the best quality photos from any of the lenses, the best stabilized video as well as night photos (from both front and back cameras) for some of us who are frequently nocturnal.

Display:

6.8 inches of pure eye-candy bliss with the brightest display to date on any phone out there with its peak brightness capping out at 1750 nits. 

With its resolution at 1440 x 3088 pixels (~500 ppi density) and dynamic AMOLED 2X, 120Hz, HDR10+, expect to comfortably watch high resolution content out in sunlight with no visibility problems.

Software:

Expect the latest and greatest of Android with Samsung’s own One UI 4.1 skin on top once the phone comes out. 

A smooth and Intuitive experience is a must on flagship of this caliber; so are the feature-sets that will come bundled in. 

A new thing to boast for this device is an industry leading 4-year full software upgrades bundled with 5 years of security updates; a first (and the most of any android manufacturer).

Chipset:

For our African market, we will receive the top-of-the-range Exynos 2200 (4 nm) while some regions across the world will receive the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (4 nm). 

What does this mean for every day use? Snappy and efficient user experience on all apps you might throw at it, including photography, videography, social media, internet browsing as well as mobile gaming (thanks to the AMD’s RDNA 2 architecture on the Exynos, and the Qualcomm® Adreno™ GPU on the Snapdragon variant).

Storage:

The S22 Ultra will come with internal-only storage ranging between the following:

128GB 8GB RAM, 

256GB 12GB RAM, 

512GB 12GB RAM, 

1TB 12GB RAM.

For all your songs, movies, apps, games, photos and videos, the storage options to choose from are aplenty regardless of the absence of an expandable SD-card slot.

Battery Life:

Packed with a 5000 mAh battery, flanked with 45W fast charging, 15W fast wireless charging, and 4,5W reverse wireless charging (also known as Power Share), expect a top-of-the-range android experience in screen-on-time every day, on paper of course. 

The AMOLED, 120Hz variable refresh rate will also add to the battery life experience especially if one tunes on dark mode.

Lastly, the S-Pen:

Not be confused with its smaller siblings, the S22 Ultra does not flinch to flex its S-Pen features for the notetakers especially. 

From writing notes, to drawing, painting & navigation through the OS and apps, the S-Pen is something one easily gets used to using; and once you do, it’s quite difficult to go back to using finger-based navigation. For those who use the S-Pen can attest.

In conclusion:

With the official reveal of Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra that happened on the 9th of February 2022 behind us, the next question is, will this phone live up to the hype and satisfy our ‘Note’ lover itch? 

On paper, all signs read to a resounding yes, however, it won’t be long before we get them on our hands and play with them to find out for ourselves.

Written by Richard Kahangi || Follow Richard on Twitter: @kahangikitavi