Samsung Galaxy S22 Review – Best Compact Flagship You Can Buy Right Now

The Samsung Galaxy S22 has an attractive design, including a powerful processor and a good camera in a small package. The Galaxy S22 is equipped with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, better camera sensors, a gorgeous display, and a software update promise that is sure to impress many.

Since the body is smaller, so is the battery, and yes, I was a little worried about the battery performance. However, the Galaxy S22 is an excellent choice for light users who don’t really mind plugging in every night.

I have been using the Samsung Galaxy S22 as my daily driver for quite some days and here is my review on this compact flagship phone.

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The Samsung Galaxy S22 5G is available in two storage variants in India. The base variant with 8GB RAM and 128GB internal storage costs Rs. 72,999 whereas the other variant with 8GB of RAM and 256GB internal storage costs Rs. 76,999.

The phone comes in three different colour options: Green, Phantom White and Phantom Black. You can purchase the phone directly from Samsung’s official website or other platforms like Amazon, Croma and more.

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The Samsung Galaxy S22 comes with minimal items packed inside the box:

• Handset
• Sim Ejector Pin
• Data Cable
• Quick Start Guide

Before we talk in detail about the Samsung Galaxy S22, let’s see what the on-paper specs look like:

• Display: 6.1 inches AMOLED
• Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
• RAM & ROM: 8GB RAM 128GB Storage, 8GB RAM 256GB Storage
• Software: Android v12
• Rear camera: 50MP + 12MP + 10MP
• Selfie camera: 10 MP
• Battery: 3700 mAh
• Weight: 167 grams
• Dimensions: 146 x 70.6 x 7.6 mm

At first glance, the Samsung Galaxy S22 looks fantastic. Samsung has improved the design of the S22, giving it a more angular appearance. The glass front and back are both flat, and an almost equally flat aluminium frame holds them together.

The Phantom White review unit we have here is particularly beautiful, especially with its pearly white rear panel. The device is also available in a fantastic phantom black colour, in addition to green colour.

Frosted glass on the back makes the phone feel silky smooth to touch and prevents fingerprints. Surprisingly, despite the fact that the phone’s surface is very smooth, it’s comfortable to hold and doesn’t feel slippery at all. The phone never gave me the impression that it was going to fall out of my hand, which is something that has happened to me in the past with other phones.

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However, Samsung Galaxy S22 doesn’t only excel in the looks but also in the build quality. Samsung has used a Gorilla Glass Victus to protect both the front and back, much better than the plastic back seen on the Samsung Galaxy S21 5G. Additionally, the S22 comes with IP68 certification. It can survive being submerged in the water (up to 1.5 meters) for around 30 minutes.

The small size is a plus for me, and the lightweight feel of the 167g chassis is a nice bonus. The volume rocker and power button can be found on the right side of the device, and both are positioned well and have satisfying clicky feedback. The left-hand frame is empty.

The bottom side houses the Type-C port, the primary mic, SIM card slot and the bottom-firing speaker grille. The top side only has a secondary mic with an antenna line.

Samsung Galaxy S22 5G boasts a triple camera setup on the back that includes a 50MP primary camera, 12MP ultra-wide lens and 10MP telephoto lens. You will find a 10MP front camera which is also seen on the S21.

The images captured by the primary camera are strikingly vivid and sharp, with excellent colour reproduction, excellent contrast, and full of details. The photos it takes are top-notch in any lighting condition. The results from the primary camera are still crisp and detailed, despite the fact that Samsung continues to increase the colour saturation on its cameras to a greater extent when compared to some other smartphone brands.

You have the option to shoot at its maximum resolution of 50 megapixels. These require an extra second or two to capture. Compared to standard 12MP shots, you get a little more detail here and there without much noticeable difference.

I am particularly fond of the low-light photographs that can be taken with the Galaxy S22. When shooting in low-light conditions, Night Mode can help you capture a more detailed picture.

The telephoto lens is also above average, though its 3x optical zoom can’t hope to compete with the Galaxy S22 Ultra. When it comes to quality, the telephoto is top-notch. Images taken with it are crisp and detailed. The colours look fantastic and match up accurately with the primary camera.

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In addition to the 3x optical zoom, the S22 also has a 30x digital zoom. Even at 30x, images are impressively good. Not as good and detailed as normal shots but is still usable in certain scenarios.

The ultrawide 12MP camera keeps up with the main sensor, and the photos taken are quite good. They have a decent amount of sharpness and detail, despite the fact that some degree of softness is to be expected and can be seen pretty much everywhere within the frame. There are some extra camera modes for you to try out like Pro mode, Single Take, Night mode, Hyperlapse and many more.

Despite only having a 10MP camera, the Samsung Galaxy S22 captures respectable selfies. I particularly liked the Portrait selfies. The selfies taken with the front camera surprised me with their level of clarity and sharpness.

Coming to video recording, it can record up to 8K videos at 24fps. The stability and quality of videos are excellent, far exceeding those of even the best Android flagships. I had a good time experimenting with the super slow-motion recording mode, which gave me some very impressive footage in broad daylight.

Well, everything has been going well until now. I have to say that I’m not very much impressed with the battery department in Samsung Galaxy S22 5G. It packs a relatively smaller battery capacity at just 3,700 mAh. This is even less compared to the 4,000 mAh battery seen on the S21 5G.

During our usage, the S22 manages to deliver somewhere around 4 hours of screen on time which is not impressive at all. Now, if you are a light user, you might be able to just survive through a day on a single charge. However, most of us would have to charge it in the evening or carry a power bank around.

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I expected better from Samsung for a flagship phone. Adding to the disappointment, the phone doesn’t bundle with a charger. The phone supports only 25W of fast wired charging which falls way behind the competition that offers up to 120W fast charging.

Anyways, you would need to buy the charger separately from Samsung. The 25W fast charger can fully charge the phone from 0 to 100 per cent in a little more than an hour. A half an hour of charging would juice the battery to somewhere around 60 per cent, still better than iPhone at least.

When it comes to mobile displays, Samsung is without a doubt the market leader. Samsung Galaxy S22 5G boasts a stunning 6.1-inch AMOLED display with FHD+ resolution. It has a refresh rate of 120Hz and a peak brightness of 1300 nits.

The adaptive refresh rate, which can range from 10 Hz to 120 Hz, makes scrolling, video playback, and gaming experience appear silky smooth. Locking the refresh rate at 60Hz can help conserve battery life, as higher rates can drain the battery much faster.

Although it is not QHD+, it still seems to have a good level of sharpness, most likely because of the small screen size. Even in “natural” mode, the colours are vibrant and rich, and the screen is sufficiently bright that I have no trouble reading it even in bright sunlight.

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The S22’s flat display is a welcome change because it eliminates the frequent distraction caused by accidental touches. Bezels are another thing that really impressed me about S22; they’re so thin and perfectly symmetrical that they’re barely noticeable.

It was a joy to view HDR content on the screen. However, keep in mind that Dolby Vision support is not included and only HDR10+ and HDR HLG support are available.

Although the hole-punch front-facing camera may detract from the experience, the nearly bezel-less display makes for an excellent content consumption experience. You will find an in-display fingerprint scanner on the front, which we will talk about later in the review.

Every model in the S22 lineup from Samsung is powered by the most recent Snapdragon chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Samsung has used its own Exynos 2200 chipset in some other parts of the world but multiple benchmarks on the internet show that the performance is quite similar.

I have not experienced any lags while navigating the user interface, and the Samsung Galaxy S22 appears to be able to deal with anything I throw at it despite having only 8GB of RAM. Ram Plus feature allows users to increase the RAM capacity from 8GB to a whopping 16GB, thereby increasing the performance.

The SoC performs as good as one would hope for from a top-tier chipset, but the Galaxy S22’s small size means that space is extremely limited under the hood, which has an adverse effect on thermal performance.

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I ran some of the most graphic intensive games like BGMI, COD: Mobile, and Genshin Impact. All of these games ran smoothly on their max settings with close to no lags.

After about an hour of playing Genshin Impact with the highest graphics settings, I started noticing some frame drops and shutters. Although the processor performs admirably; however, the heat that it generates eventually brings it to a halt.

Overall, the S22 performs really good but it gets hot pretty quick while playing games or recording 4/8K videos, particularly near the camera region.

Samsung Galaxy S22 runs on One UI 4.1 skin which is based on Android 12. If you are a fan of previous versions of Samsung’s One UI, you will find a lot to like in this version. In particular, you will appreciate the fact that Samsung has added features that allow for greater personalization and privacy.

One UI is one of my preferred interfaces for Android 12 because, for the most part, it does not interfere with a streamlined user experience. Together with Google, Samsung is introducing a new feature, “live sharing” to the Google Duo app for the Galaxy S22 series. This feature will allow you to view photos and take notes while you are on a video call with other people.

I really like how you can change the look of the interface to match your wallpaper and how you can change the colours of the menus and widgets. In addition, the Edge panel has been improved and now provides a number of useful options, such as the ability to select and save a specific part of the screen.

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But Samsung still hasn’t figured out how to escape the bloatware jungle. The phone has some Microsoft apps (OneDrive and Outlook), as well as Facebook, Netflix, and LinkedIn preloaded. Additionally, you get both the Samsung Apps and a slew of Google Apps, giving you a bit the double trouble. Many of these can be removed entirely, while others can only be disabled.

However, the real highlight here is the extended software support promise made by Samsung. The tech giant has promised to deliver software updates for four years and five years of security updates on the Samsung Galaxy S22.

With this new change, people will keep their phones for longer since they know they will receive software updates for the foreseeable future. Good move by Samsung.

The Samsung Galaxy S22 comes with a stereo speakers setup. It has a bottom firing speaker while the earpiece doubles as the secondary speaker. The bottom speaker produces more sound compared to the top one.

The audio quality is good and better than its predecessor. However, it’s not as good as compared to its competitors like iPhone and Pixel devices. Note that it lacks a 3.5mm jack also which is common among flagships these days.

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Talking about connectivity, the Galaxy S22 comes with 5G connectivity. It supports 17 5G bands which include: n1, n2, n3, n5, n7, n8, n12, n20, n25, n28, n38, n40, n41, n66, n75, n77, n78. Other than this, it features Bluetooth 5.2, Wi-Fi 6e, GPS and NFC.

Biometrics is handled by the in-display fingerprint scanner. It is quite fast and responsive and the accuracy was also on point. You can also use the standard face unlock feature though it’s not as secure as the fingerprint scanner.