Hands-on: Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus
Availability
- UKRRP: £949
Introduction
Samsung has just unleashed its latest clutch of smartphones, with the base model of the S22 at one end of the spectrum, and the S22 Ultra as the all-singing, all-dancing variant with the eye-watering price-tag to show for it. But does the Galaxy S22 Plus hit the sweet spot dead on, with its mix of excellent specs and a sub-£1000 starting price? We’ve had some hands-on experience with the device, and this is what we think of it so far.
Price and Availability
The Galaxy S22 Plus is not a cheap phone, but it’s not quite as pricey as the Ultra version. Prices start at £949 for the variant with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, and then you’ll have to fork out £999 to augment that storage space to 256GB.
By comparison, the S22 Ultra starts off at £999 and rises to £1399, and the standard S22 costs a minimum of £769 and a maximum of £819 at launch.
It’s a considerable price to pay for a flagship, but for many of us this device will hit the sweet spot of having a large screen and very respectable all-round abilities, without arguably going over the top in the way that the Ultra might be accused of.
We’ve reached out to Samsung for US and Euro pricing, but at the time of publishing hadn’t heard back.
Design and Screen
- Glass construction, not plastic
- Great screen
The Galaxy S22 Plus is an attractive phone, albeit one that bears a very strong resemblance to last year’s S21 Plus. The camera module looks smart and its shine certainly takes the eye, while this year the back panel is fashioned in glass rather than plastic, which gives it the premium feel that you’ve certainly paid enough for. It’s also reassuring to note that the phone has an IP68 water resistance rating, so it should stand up fairly well to any accidental splashing.
The AMOLED screen has a sharp Full HD Plus resolution (although this is eclipsed by some other flagships) and this is complemented by a smooth 120Hz refresh rate that’s adaptive. The latter is important as it means the screen can go as low as 10Hz when undertaking less demanding tasks in order to save battery but runs at the maximum when you want it to be as smooth as possible. Gaming should be very responsive too, seeing as the display supports a 240Hz touch sampling rate, while the AI-powered blue light control is supposed to make the screen less taxing on your eyes. I only had an opening go with the screen and didn’t have a chance to do any lab checks, but my naked eye impressions are positive. The screen’s bright, sharp and colors look nice and punchy, without being oversaturated. Viewing angles were also impressive.
Camera
- A versatile mix of camera sensors
- Similar to last year’s Galaxy S21
The cameras have has a little shake-up compared to last year’s line, but fortunately there seems to be both versatility and quality on show here on the S22 Plus.
The 50-megapixel wide angle camera is joined by a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera and a 10-megapixel telephoto camera for a promising package.
We haven’t yet had the chance to put the device through our full photography test, as we’ve just had limited hands-on time so far, but in our initial impressions it seemed that both the autofocus and the lowlight performance were promising aspects of the snappers. I’ll be curious to see how it competes with the Pixel 6 and iPhone 13 which both performed excellently when shooting photos in low light when we tested them last year.
Performance and Battery
- Top-of-the-line processor
- Battery capacity is smaller than the S21 Plus
The processor that runs on the S22 Plus will be different depending on which region you’re in; the European model is set to run on Samsung’s own Exynos 2200 chipset, while the US model is thought to rock the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. We expect excellent performance from both of these chipsets, albeit they’re unlikely to outgun the iPhone 13 any time soon.
The battery is actually slightly smaller than last year’s option, this one clocking in at 4,500mAh rather than the 4,800mAh of the S21 Plus. In our experience, last year’s device actually overperformed based on our expectations, comfortably delivering a day’s worth of battery life and then some even after heavy usage, so we hope that the new generation can live up to that example.
We’re especially looking forward to trying out the fast-charging capabilities on this phone, which supports 45W of power (in comparison to just 25W from the standard version), while 15W wireless charging is also an option if that’s what you prefer. However, be warned, as before, Samsung doesn’t include a plug in the box, so you’ll have to invest in one if you want to take advantage of the S22 Plus’ fast charging capabilities.
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Early Impressions
The Galaxy S22 Plus seems like a very promising flagship phone, given its attractive design, promising cameras, and the very latest silicon chips onboard. We’re going to need more time with the phone to give you our final verdict, but from what we’ve seen so far the device seems to have the ability to pick up from where the Galaxy S21 Plus started off.
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FAQs
That’s region-dependent, but the US model is due to run on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, whereas in the UK and Europe the S22 Plus is expected to have the Exynos 2200 chipset.
Full specs
Below you can see a break down of the phone’s full specs and how they compare to the S22 and S22 Ultra.
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