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- What's up guys?
Saf here on SuperSaf TV,
and this is my Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra review
after two months.
Why do I have two S22 Ultra's here?
Well, one of these is the
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 version
and the other is the Exynos 2200.
I've used each of these for a month now,
so, hopefully I'll be able to give you more
of a unique perspective based on real-world usage.
So, if you've been following me on social media,
you'd have seen that I've been posting a lot
with the S22 Ultra.
And that is because it has been, so far,
my favorite smartphone of 2022.
And that's because it ticks off
pretty much all of the boxes for me,
like I think it will do for most people.
Let's initially start off with the design.
I do really like the design of the S22 Ultra,
and you'll notice that we do have more of a boxier design
compared to what we had on the S21 Ultra.
Now, if you haven't already noted,
the S22 Ultra has now been merged
with the Samsung Galaxy Note series.
So, there's no longer going to be a separate Note device.
This is what the Note has now become and evolved into
and that is the reason for this updated design.
Now, I'm going to be honest with you,
I personally do prefer the design
of the S21 Ultra last year.
I really like that Contour-Cut camera module,
as well as the curved edges,
which make it a little bit more comfortable to hold.
But the S22 Ultra still has a really good design.
We've got matte finishes across the board.
We've got more color options this year,
four by default,
as well as three exclusive colors from Samsung.com.
I'll leave a link to those in the description,
which will also give you $100 of instant Samsung Credit.
And it still is really premium.
We've got Gorilla Glass Victus+
as well as Armor Aluminum.
Now, this is supposed to be a little bit more durable
compared to the S21 Ultra last year.
I'm not somebody who does a drop test,
but by using both of these for a month,
they've been absolutely fine.
Now, we do have these individual camera rings,
which might look okay,
the only issue with these is that they do collect
a lot of dust around the edges,
unless you use a case.
Now, we still have IP68 water and dust resistance,
so if you do get some water over this
that's absolutely fine.
And this is quite impressive considering
we also do have the S Pen,
which we'll talk about a little bit later.
What I want to talk about next is one of my favorite things
about the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra,
and that is the display.
Now, I know I sound like a bit of a broken record
because I say this every year for Samsung flagship devices,
but the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra
has the best smartphone display on the market right now.
Now Samsung make AMOLED displays
for a lot of the competition,
including for iPhones,
and I have a feeling that they save their best displays
for their flagship devices,
and this really shows here on the S22 Ultra.
It's sharp, thanks to its Quad HD+ resolution.
The colors really pop with deep blacks,
thanks to the Dynamic AMOLED technology.
And animations are super smooth,
thanks to the 120Hz LTPO 2.0 technology.
Not only that, this is also the brightest display
on the market, with 1,750 nits,
and if you're somebody like me who wear sunglasses
and uses your smartphone a lot outdoors in sunlight,
you're really going to appreciate this.
Now, because we have LTPO technology,
it means it can go all the way down to around 1Hz,
which is ideal for the always-on display.
Always-on displays are something that I absolutely love,
and it's great to know that even
though we do have this high refresh rate,
it's not really going to have a significant impact
on the battery.
Now, there is still this punch out,
so we don't have under-display camera technology as yet,
and as we've seen on the Fold3,
yes that can be done, but it's still not perfect,
especially for a flagship device like this.
And personally speaking, I really don't mind this punch out.
I've kind of got used to it,
and it also allows for some wallpapers.
If you guys want the Spider Saf wallpaper,
I'll leave that link down in the description below.
One thing that we do have under the display
is the Ultrasonic in-display fingerprint scanner.
Now, this is the same as what we had last year.
So this is the 3D Sonic Gen 2, and it works flawlessly.
It's fast. It's accurate.
I always advise registering
the same fingerprint a couple of times,
just to make it that much better.
And yes, it would've been nice to have Qualcomm's
new 3D Sonic Max,
which will allow you to use two fingers at the same time,
which would make things a lot more secure,
especially when it comes to banking apps.
But nevertheless, the Ultrasonic fingerprint scanner
is absolutely great on the S22 Ultra.
Now, the display is curved on both sides
and this curve is more pronounced
compared to what we had on the S21 Ultra.
And although this does look good
from a design point of view,
when it comes to practicality,
I do prefer flatter displays
like what we've got on the S22 and the S22 Plus.
And it's also so much easier to get a screen protector
for flatter displays.
Nevertheless, the S22 Ultra has an excellent display overall
and I don't think anybody's going to be disappointed with it.
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Let's now talk about the cameras.
So, the S22 Ultra has excellent cameras,
some of the best that you're going to find out there.
And although on paper they do seem pretty similar
to what we had last year,
that's not necessarily a bad thing
because the S21 Ultra still has great cameras,
which still do hold up.
So, we do have a total of four cameras,
as well as a laser autofocus sensor.
The ultra-wide camera is one of the best out there.
You've got excellent dynamic range, lots of detail.
And this also has the ability to refocus
so you can also get some macro shots,
which look excellent.
The primary camera has been improved.
We've got lots of detail. It's very sharp.
You've also gotten a Detail Enhancer mode,
which will let you take more detailed images
at 108MP if that's something you're into.
And we have the best zoom on any smartphone right now.
We've got two zoom cameras.
We've got a 3x optical zoom,
as well as a 10x optical zoom.
Now the 10x optical zoom camera has excellent results,
even up to around 30x.
You can go all the way up to 100x,
although I find that's a little bit creepy.
And yes, you can take pictures of the moon
if that's something that you like to do.
Now, one big improvement that we do have on the S22 Ultra,
is when it comes to portraits.
If you remember seeing my S21 Ultra review,
you'd have heard me complaining
about portraits on the S21 Ultra,
and that's because you had the option
of taking portraits at 1x and 2x.
The issue was, that the S21 Ultra did not have
a 2x optical zoom camera,
so it was actually digitally zooming for that 2x effect,
which was very, very soft.
Now I know for a fact that Samsung is watching my videos
and taking on that feedback,
because the S21 Ultra did get an update
later on in the year,
which allowed you to take portraits
with that native 3x zoom camera.
With the S22 Ultra,
Samsung has completely ditched the 2x zoom
for the portrait mode,
and we have 1x and 3x portraits,
which look really good,
some of the best that you're going to get out there.
So, Samsung is using a new AI Depth Mapping algorithm,
which can even isolate individual hairs.
And when this hits, oh, it really hits.
You can see this example here,
where it's actually picked up a single strand of hair
on my beard,
as well as the little fluffy hair on my ears,
which is a bit too much if you ask me.
But nevertheless, the edge detection, in my opinion,
is the best that you're going to find on any smartphone,
and Samsung has completely nailed this
when it comes to portrait mode.
We've also got a great selfie camera
with lots of detail and excellent dynamic range,
a really good portrait mode as well.
And like before,
we do have an option of having natural or bright selfies.
Samsung devices traditionally used to make selfies
very bright,
but now you have this option of just turning
on natural selfies,
and in my opinion, you get much better results.
For video, the S22 Ultra shoots excellent video.
I would say some of the best video
when it comes to Android.
I still think that the iPhone has more options.
It does shoot overall better video.
Now I have done a detailed SuperSaf-style camera comparison
between the iPhone 13 Pro Max
and the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra
if you want to see that.
I'll link that in the cards under the description.
We also have some new video modes on the S22 Ultra.
There is auto framing, which will track you.
This is something that I didn't really find myself using
over the last couple of months.
And we also have an improved portrait video mode,
which does actually a pretty good job overall
of isolating you from the background.
But again, this is something that's at 10 ATP,
and although it's okay
it's not something that I found myself using much.
Now there is 8K video,
but this hasn't really progressed
over the past couple of years.
It's pretty much the same as what we've had previously.
Yes, you can shoot at 8K,
but this is capped to just 24 frames a second,
and although that is the correct frame rate,
I'd like to have options.
Also, there's no consistency,
because you can shoot 24 frames a second with 8K,
but you can't shoot at 24 frames a second
at any other resolution.
8K still crops in quite significantly,
which means that you have to stand really far back.
And also there isn't much stabilization
so you can't really use it handheld,
you'd only be able to use it on a tripod.
So yeah, I really think Samsung needs to improve
8K video recording,
because it really hasn't changed.
Now, another thing that we do need to touch on
when it comes to the cameras,
are the differences between the Qualcomm version
and the Exynos version.
Now, you might be wondering,
why would there be any differences?
Well, the thing is,
these chips come with their own image signal processors,
which means that when the images are captured
they are processed slightly differently.
Now, generally speaking,
images are pretty much neck and neck
and the software does make them pretty similar.
However, I did notice a few differences
when it came to portraits.
I found that skin tones were a little bit more vibrant
on the Exynos version compared to the Qualcomm version.
And in certain cases,
I also found that the Exynos version
had slightly better dynamic range.
Check out this example.
My forehead is much better exposed
on the Exynos version compared to the Qualcomm version.
However, there was certain situations where the
Qualcomm version performed better
compared to the Exynos version.
Take a look at this example on this selfie.
The portrait mode has worked better on the Qualcomm version,
and it's given a much better cutout
compared to the Exynos version.
Now, I'm pleased to say, generally speaking overall,
the cameras are quite similar.
I am still not happy that they're not completely consistent
and we do have these differences,
but you're only going to notice these differences
if you are comparing them side by side,
like I have done.
How about performance and differences?
Well, you'll be pleased to know that generally speaking,
the S22 Ultra,
whether you get the Qualcomm version or the Exynos version,
performs really well in your day-to-day,
and I've really not had any issues whatsoever.
But, if you are somebody who games a lot
and if you don't want to go into the specific details,
then I would say that the Qualcomm version gets the edge.
Now, I'm not somebody who games too much,
but my friends, Thunder E, from Booredatwork
and Tom, The Tech Chap are,
and they've actually done detailed performance tests
including looking at things like heating and frame rates.
I'll leave their videos linked down in the description.
But overall, although CPU performance is pretty similar,
the Qualcomm Snapdragon version does get the slight edge
when it comes to GPU performance.
And more importantly,
it seems like the Qualcomm Snapdragon version
is more optimized for games,
compared to the Exynos version.
Now, this makes a lot of sense,
because the Qualcomm 8 Gen 1
is going to be on many more devices.
So as a game developer,
you're obviously going to optimize your games
for the version that's going to be used on many devices,
rather than one that's going to be used on a few devices.
So for example, on PUBG,
right now you can get up to 60 frames a second
on the Qualcomm version,
whereas you can only get 30 frames a second
on the Exynos version.
Now, if you're somebody who doesn't really game,
then this probably isn't going to make much
of a difference to you,
but just something to keep in mind.
Now, if you are somebody who really wants a Qualcomm version
and wants to import it in,
then do keep in mind that some 5G bands
may not be supported,
because there are different bands
in the US compared to the UK.
So, for example,
my Qualcomm version here in the UK on Vodafone,
does not get 5G.
If, despite that, you really, really want
the Qualcomm version,
then I will leave some links down in the description below.
On Amazon, it actually does calculate the imports
and duty fees and things,
so that might be quite useful.
Now, another thing that the differences
in chipsets usually affect,
is battery life.
However, I'm pleased to say that after extensive testing
and using these both for a month each,
battery life has has been very good in both
and also very similar.
I'm getting roughly between six to seven hours
of screen-on time,
which for me is really good because I am a heavy user.
Remember, screen on-time does vary from person to person
depending on your usage.
However, as you probably already know,
the S22 Ultra does not come with a charger included
out of the box.
This is something you're going to have to buy separately
if you do not already have one.
The S22 Ultra does support either 25 or 45W charging,
which is faster.
However, from all the tests that I've seen,
it's not significantly faster,
you're going to get a slight improvement.
So, personally speaking,
I would say if you are going to buy a charger,
just get the £20 or $20, 25W charger.
It's really not worth spending the £25 or $30 extra
on the 45W charger, in my opinion.
I would say instead,
use that money to buy a nice wireless charger,
which will cost you around that much.
I'll try to leave some links down in the description below.
And although the charging speed is at 15W
so it's not crazy fast,
it's still really convenient.
Personally speaking,
I just drop my S22 Ultra on my wireless charger
when I go to sleep,
and I wake up to it fully charged.
Reverse wireless charging is also supported,
like it has been on previous generations.
This is where you can use the S22 Ultra
to charge some things like earbuds on the back of them.
I really don't find myself using this.
I used to use it sometimes when I used to be traveling,
but now I'm not really traveling as much anymore
so I've only used this for this B-roll shot
that you can see on screen.
The one thing that is impressive about the battery
is the fact that it's still the same size as the S21 Ultra
that we had last year,
despite the fact that the S22 Ultra has an S Pen enclosed.
Now, traditionally,
Note devices would have a slightly smaller battery
because they'd need space for the S Pen,
but Samsung has managed to fit in the same size battery
without increasing the weight too much.
And that brings us on to the S Pen.
Now, I'm somebody who really appreciates the S Pen,
and I'm going to be honest, I don't use it every day,
I probably use it maybe once or twice a week.
But when I do use it, I'm so glad it's there,
whether that be to sign a quick document
or to just edit an image.
The precision that you get with the S Pen is unmatched,
and yes, you have lots of different features
like Air Command,
where you can use this
as a remote trigger for your camera.
Some things which you may or may not use,
but just that convenience of having such a precise S Pen
with 2.8 milliseconds of latency,
which feels so, so smooth,
the S Pen, for me, is a great addition.
And if you're somebody who doesn't really use it,
maybe use it once a month,
it's not really coming in the way
because it's tucked away inside the device,
and it's not really giving you any compromises either.
Now, when it comes to the speakers,
we have excellent stereo speakers on the S22 Ultra.
We've got one in the earpiece and one bottom firing.
They sound really, really good.
However, I do have a slight problem
with the positioning of the speaker.
So, the speaker position is now on the left-hand side
rather than being on the right-hand side,
like we had on the S21 Ultra.
Now, that might not seem like a big deal,
but it is on the opposite side of the cameras.
What that means is, when I'm gaming,
obviously I don't want my hands touching the cameras,
I usually game like this so the cameras are on this side.
But what that it means is that I end up covering the speaker
with my hand.
Now, when it was on the opposite side on the S21 Ultra,
that wasn't an issue because it would never be covered.
But now I do find myself covering it
and I know a lot of people are going to say
you just use headphones when you're gaming,
and that's absolutely fine.
I'm talking about personal experience,
especially when I'm at home alone.
Why do I want to put headphones on?
I just use the speakers and then I end up covering them.
So I would've liked to have had the position
on the opposite side.
That's just something that might be minor
for a lot of people,
but something that I do need to mention.
Now, for software we do have One UI,
which personally speaking is my favorite skin on Android.
It allows for great one-handed usage.
You've got lots of different customizations.
And Samsung has been great with updates.
I've already had multiple software updates on my S22 Ultras.
And Samsung will also be supporting software updates
longer than most other manufacturers,
which is a big, big plus.
Finally, storage and pricing.
So, this does start at the same price
that the S21 Ultra did last year,
although you will be paying more
for the larger storage versions.
Starts with a base of 128GB.
Personally speaking, I would go for the 256GB option,
because this cannot be expanded,
we do not have a microSD card slot.
We didn't have one on the S21 Ultra
so this really wasn't a surprise.
The S22 Ultra does go all the way up to 1TB however,
so if you are somebody who uses a lot of storage,
that option is there for you if you'd like.
Now, if you are interested in picking up the S22 Ultra,
you can get $100 off instant Samsung Credit
using my special affiliate link in the description,
and you can also get some pretty good trading deals.
And that is the Samson Galaxy S22 Ultra.
If you've made it this far on this video,
I just want to say thank you, I love you.
Virtual hug.
I really appreciate you sticking around.
To conclude, as mentioned at the start of this video,
this is my favorite smartphone of the year so far,
and I can easily recommend it.
I think it ticks a lot of boxes for a lot of people.
If you are somebody who's not really into
the Note vibe and the S Pen,
then you can go for the S22 Plus,
which is also an excellent smartphone.
Or you could even go for the S21 Ultra from last year,
which still holds up and is going to be available
for less compared to the S22 Ultra.
I have done a detailed hands-on comparison
of the S21 Ultra versus the S22 Ultra.
That's going to be linked here.
If you're interested to see what the cameras
are actually like,
compared to the iPhone 13 Pro Max,
I've also done a detailed SuperSaf-style camera comparison,
which I'll link over here.
What do you guys think of the S22 Ultra?
Are you going to be getting it?
Do drop me a comment below. Let me know your thoughts.
I hope you enjoyed this video and found it useful.
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Thanks for watching.
This is Saf on SuperSaf TV, and I'll see you next time.