Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is probably the most anticipated flagship Android phone of 2022. The device starts at the same price as its predecessor, the S21 Ultra, but comes with some notable improvements.
While the new design is the most obvious change, there are a number of other upgrades that aren’t as obvious. Let’s take a look at the top ten features of the Galaxy S22 Ultra.
1. Built-in S Pen
The S22 Ultra is the first device in the S series to come with a built-in S Pen that mimics the Galaxy Note series. Seeing the growing similarity between the S series and the Note series, Samsung finally decided to merge the two.
The S Pen enables a smooth writing and sketching experience with a latency of just 2.8 milliseconds that feels basically indistinguishable from writing on paper. It comes with all kinds of small but nifty features to increase your productivity.
Along with the phone, the pen is also IP68 certified which is water and dust resistant.
2. Brightest Display Ever with LTPO 2
Galaxy S22 Ultra has the brightest display we have ever seen on a smartphone with a peak brightness of 1750 nits. This is more than enough shine for everyday use, even if you spend a lot of time outdoors. But under direct sunlight, simply maxing out the brightness can sometimes result in a loss of image quality, making deep blacks appear washed out and colors washed out.
To solve this, Vision Booster will map your entire display and enhance color and light in the right way to reduce that effect. Furthermore, the display comes with LTPO 2.0 technology to save battery life while you are looking somewhat stable, you can dial down the refresh rate from 120Hz to just 1Hz.
3. Four Years of Android Updates
One thing Android phones have always lacked in comparison to iPhones is lengthy software support. While the former provides three years of major OS updates, the latter extends further five to six years.
But with the Galaxy S22 series, Samsung is offering a total of four years of Android updates. This means that your Galaxy S22 device will be able to upgrade to Android 16, making it easier for you to hold on to your device for longer than you otherwise would.
4. New 4nm processor
Along with four years of software updates, you also get a new 4nm chipset. Depending on your location, it’s either the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 or Samsung’s in-house processor, the Exynos 2200. Both chips are incredibly powerful, can multitask like it’s a piece of cake, and are perfect for gamers and power users alike.
The Snapdragon chip uses the Adreno 730 GPU while the Exynos chip (built in collaboration with AMD) uses the new Xclipse 920 GPU based on the RDNA 2 architecture. For reference, this is the same graphics architecture found in the PlayStation 5.
While the chips show slightly different results on benchmarks, it’s unlikely you’ll see any huge difference in real-world performance.
5. 45W Fast Charging
While the S21 Ultra was capped at 25W fast charging, the S22 Ultra supports it up to 45W and Samsung says it can charge your phone from empty to 50% in about 30 minutes. While this might not be as impressive as we’ve already seen some Chinese phones push 100W or even faster charging, it’s still a step in the right direction.
6. Snapchat Optimization
You must have noticed that social media apps work better on iPhone than Android phones. This is because the iOS ecosystem is more standardized and easy to work with while the Android ecosystem is a mess.
But for the Galaxy S22 lineup, Samsung has partnered with Snapchat to optimize the social media platform to take full advantage of the series’ camera system and software upgrades. This means you can take sharper photos and video snaps with better low-light performance, and even use the different cameras on your S22 device for better portraits and ultrawide shots.
7. 1TB Internal Storage Option
The S22 Ultra comes with a maximum storage option of 1TB which is only available for purchase on the official Samsung website. The last time we saw a Samsung phone was in 2019 with the S10+. For most people, this is a bit overkill since you probably don’t need that much space.
However, for gamers, creators, and power users, it can be helpful as you can download more graphically intense games, click countless high-resolution photos and videos, and store tons of movies, TV shows, and more can do. There is no microSD slot in the phone.