Samsung Galaxy F22 Review – Competitive Rivals in the Same Family

Samsung Galaxy F-series is among the cheapest and it already has a plethora of devices and here, the Galaxy F22 marks its latest entry in the budget-friendly mid-range devices. The Galaxy F22 shares almost all of its specifications with the Samsung Galaxy F22 except for a minor change in its battery size, colour options among others.

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Here’s a hands-on review of the Samsung Galaxy F22 that you must read to know about the device before you decide whether to buy it or not.

Get your hands on Samsung Galaxy F22 in two colour variants i.e. Denim Black and Denim Blue. It is available on the Samsung India website along with Flipkart at Rs 12,499/- for the 4/64GB variant while the higher 6GB/128GB variant is up for sale at Rs 14,499/-. To put things into perspective, Galaxy F22 is a lot cheaper than A22 with the trade-offs being no OIS on the main cam and different colour options. On the contrary, the device has a larger battery size and NFC.

One really good thing about the mid-range smartphones is that they still come with a charging adapter. Samsung Galaxy F22 box packaging is pretty standard and very familiar as we have seen with most of the other Samsung mid-range devices. Samsung Galaxy F22 box contents include:

• Galaxy F22 device
• 15W charging brick
• USB Type-C charging cable
• Sim Ejector Pin
• User manual

Before we talk in detail about the Samsung Galaxy F22 let’s see what the on-paper specs look like?

• Display: 16.26 cm (6.4 inch) HD+ sAMOLED 90Hz Display
• Processor: Mediatek Helio G80
• Storage: 4GB/64GB, 6GB/128GB
• Software: OneUI Core 3.1 (based on Android 11)
• Rear cameras: 48MP + 8MP + 2MP + 2MP
• Front camera: 13MP
• Battery: 6000 mAh, 15W charging
• Weight: 203g
• Dimensions: 159.90 x 74.00 x 9.30 mm‎

If you follow smartphone launches closely like me, you would know that Samsung just released Galaxy M32. Compare M32 and Galaxy F22 and you will not be able to tell them apart when it comes to their appearance. Both the phones have glossy but gradient back panels with parallel lines passing through the top and bottom of the panel. Although Galaxy F22 shares its specifications with Galaxy A22, its look is accredited to Galaxy M32.

The front is a glass (of course) with a plastic back panel and frame with an overall weight of 203 grams mostly due to the fact that Galaxy A22 packs in a 6,000 mAh battery. The phone is bulky, to be honest, and with 9.3m thickness, the phone still maintains usability thanks to the curved edges that go on both the front and back panel.

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There are not many bells and whistles that you will find on Galaxy A22. Its square-camera setup sits on the top-left corner and protrudes a bit above the back panel as usual.

The front, on the other hand, has a giant display with decently sized bezels, a dewdrop-shaped notch, and a thick chin on-board.

When it comes to I/O ports and buttons, there’s a power button cum side-mounted fingerprint scanner on the right along with a volume rocker on top of it. There’s a SIM card tray on the top-left corner. A 3.5mm headphone jack, a bottom-firing loudspeaker, a primary microphone, and a USB-C 2.0 port are at the bottom of the device.

Samsung Galaxy F22 packs in a giant 6.4-inch Super AMOLED 90hz panel with a 20:9 aspect ratio. Since the device arrived after A22, Galaxy F22’s display is identical to A22 and not the other way around. The display has a 720 by 1600 pixels resolution and it is rated to produce 600 nits of brightness in HDR mode.

It’s an HD+ display on a sub-15K smartphone and F22 shares its specifications similar to A22 including its display. Unlike Galaxy A22 which should have gone for an FHD+ panel, Galaxy F22 is cheaper and thus, getting an HD+ display makes sense.

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It’s a Super AMOLED panel which means you get the best of display tech on board. It is rich in colour and they do really punch out. Viewing angles are great so you won’t have any problem viewing the display from any angle unless you point the display horizontally to the eye level.

Samsung Galaxy F22 comes with Widevine L1 certification so that you can view HD content on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video among others. Talking about the appearance, the display has decently-sized bezels at its circumference including a thick chin which is something I would let go of at this price tag. The dewdrop notch is now outdated so I would have loved getting a punch-hole instead but it isn’t something I am complaining about so chill.

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The display gets a 90Hz refresh rate which is far better than 60Hz. However, there are some factors that prevent the 90Hz on Galaxy F22 from a refined performance and that is something I have explained in the “Performance” section.

Samsung Galaxy F22 is equipped with a MediaTek Helio G80 SoC manufactured on a 12nm node. The chipset comes with the same octa-core arrangement with two 2.0GHz Cortex-A75 cores and six 1.8Ghz Cortex-A55 cores. Its graphics processing unit is headed by Mali-G52 MC2. There are 64GB/128GB of storage and 4GB/6GB of RAM options.

Samsung Galaxy F22 gets an Helio G80 SoC. Now with G80 SoC, it makes the same standing as pricier A22 and pricier M32. However, at the end of the day, I would say G80 SoC on F22 seems more of a right fit although a slightly powerful G95 SoC would have made quite a lot of difference.

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In any case, normal day-to-day tasks such as browsing, calling, texting, watching movies, and so on will continue to stay unaffected. I even played a few lightweight and graphic-intensive games like PUBG Mobile and Alto’s Odyssey. You can play PUBG Mobile at Smooth graphics and Ultra FPS (or tweak it to go a bit further) with Galaxy F22 with ease.

The 90Hz refresh rate on Galaxy F22 is more of a gimmick than a feature as the Helio G80 SoC isn’t fully optimized to handle it. Thus, you could end up getting jitters and lag here and there when using 90Hz mode.

Samsung Galaxy F22 comes pre-loaded with a lightweight OneUI Core 3.1 update based on Android 11. This is a lightweight version that offers enhanced performance optimized for budget phones offering better visual design, improved one-time permissions, and more.

Compare: Samsung Galaxy F22 vs Samsung Galaxy M32 vs Samsung Galaxy A32

For those who don’t know it yet, Samsung has promised three years of security patch updates and two years of major Android OS upgrades with Samsung Galaxy F22 which makes a lot of sense for the users who won’t have to look out for a new phone to upgrade after a year or so since they will have software coverage on-board.

Samsung Galaxy F22 uses a single front and a quad-camera setup at the rear. This includes a 13MP sensor in an Infinity-U notch. On the rear, you get a 48MP wide-angle camera with PDAF, f/1.8 aperture; 8MP ultrawide snapper with f/2.2 aperture with 123-degree FoV; 2MP macro sensor with f/2.4 and the same for the depth sensor. For those who might not have guessed it yet, the camera setup on Galaxy F22 is identical to Galaxy A22.

Since the camera setup is identical, the camera performance is the same as well. The 13MP selfie shooter is competent enough to give you a more than average picture quality in the daytime. No doubt Samsung has made a name for itself with its camera performance and F22 won’t let you down. It uses software to achieve a portrait effect and it is convincing enough. Plus, you can shoot videos at 1080p at 30fps which looks okay but it doesn’t have OIS like the rear cam.

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Talking about the primary camera on the rear camera assembly, the sensor grabs photos retaining most details. In fact, the text at a distance is readable which means the software processes most of the details without losing them. You can go up to 10x zoom where the shot would look messy with abundant noise and lack of details but hey, it at least lets you zoom that much. Most of the details upon zoom are retained at 2x and 3x. You can even go at 0.5x zoom capturing more of the area in the viewfinder than the usual 1x zoom.

Also Read: Samsung Galaxy A22 Full Review

Low light photography using the primary camera does a great job as well. Since Galaxy F22 has the same camera setup as that of Galaxy A22, the performance is identical as well. I was able to take usable shots at night and since the sensor has OIS, it makes a lot of difference in the end results.

Moving towards the ultra-wide-angle camera, it grabs wider photos at 123-degree FoV. It captures more area so all your groupies, photos of nature, and more will be wide enough to accommodate them all. It retains most details although it is capped at 8MP and thus, it has its limitations. Nighttime ultrawide shots are competitive as well.

You get a set of two 2MP sensors for depth and macro. Talking about the depth sensor first, it collects depth data along with the primary camera to capture bokeh or portrait shots. Its edge detection was on point and the camera was able to blur the background pretty accurately as well.

The macro sensor captures photos pointing the camera closer to the object. The results come out amusing although it is just 2MP which means it has limitations.

Samsung Galaxy F22 calls for a humongous 6,000 mAh battery. Technically, it is so huge that you would end up distancing from the charger for a while. I am a power user and it got me more than a day’s worth of battery life. A 6,000 mAh battery could give you more than 8 hours of SOT which is a lot better and I praise Samsung for integrating a huge battery pack here. When tested, a 6,000 mAh battery gave me 20 hours and 56 minutes of backup on the HD video loop test which is impressive.

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Unfortunately, even the flagship Samsung smartphones come with 25W of max charging tech. The Galaxy F22 gets a 15W charging brick in the retail box which takes a good 2 hours and 20 minutes to juice up the battery to its full extent. Although the charging time is huge, it is something all Samsung smartphones face which means if you are in a Samsung ecosystem, you won’t even feel a difference between 15W and 66W that other brands offer. For context, 66W would literally charge the battery in 30 minutes or so.

Samsung Galaxy F22 gets a single bottom-firing loudspeaker that produces loud sound although it is not as good as premium versions of smartphones. The speaker is loud and it is something gamers and binge-watchers will like and that’s it. The sound quality on the earpiece speaker for calling is good as well.

As per the specifications, the device houses a Bluetooth v5.0 with LE, A2Dp; dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac, GPS with Galileo, Glonass, BDS, and A-GPS. There’s NFC on-board Galaxy F22 as well along with FM radio. There’s a USB-C 2.0 port on the device along with a 3.5mm headphone jack.

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Talking about network reception, it is okay as I didn’t notice anything amusing in this department. You can put two 4G SIM cards with Galaxy F22 plus a microSD card for storage. I have been using both the Jio 4G and Vi 4G, where the former is pretty good. I won’t say Vi is any worse but it depends on the area you live in, the number of cell towers, and other factors.

It’s Samsung Galaxy F22 and you get multiple unlocking options onboard. There’s a Pattern and PIN mechanism that you can use. There’s a side-mounted fingerprint scanner just like the Galaxy A22 which works pretty well. I usually tap and it unlocks the phone and since it is side-mounted, reaching it is not a big deal.

Pros

• Promising 48MP quad rear camera
• Long-lasting 6000 mAh battery
• Android 11 out of the box
• Gorilla Glass protection
• Much needed 3.5mm headphone jack
• 13MP front camera

Cons

• No mention of IP rating
• Meagre underperforming chipset
• Low fast charging capacity