Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra
There are five cameras in total: four on the back, one in front. 108 Megapixels Seen in this way, Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Ultra is already an all-round successful device. In addition, the new design with the five individual round lenses in the back looks more elegant than the large camera block of the predecessor.
There are five cameras in total: four on the back, one in front. 108 Megapixels (MP) for the main camera, 10 MP for the 10x and 3x zoom camera, 12 MP for the wide-angle camera. The selfie camera has a resolution of 40 MP.
Quite a lot in it
Inside the Ultra is Samsung’s Exynos 2200 chipset with eight cores, up to one terabyte of memory and – depending on the model – eight or twelve gigabytes (GB) of RAM. There is also a 6.8-inch AMOLED display. It is slightly curved on the sides and very bright with 1750 nits of maximum brightness.
With the 5000 mAh battery, the Ultra is a real endurance runner. With occasional use without a lot of social media and games, it easily comes to two to three days of stand-by. Headphones and power supply are no longer in the package – for environmental reasons, Samsung says. New for this: The S-Pen control pen. It’s in the bottom left of the phone case.
And this is where the S22 Ultra begins to stand out from predecessors and the smaller models of the S22 series. The stylus gives it organizer capabilities that were previously reserved for the Galaxy Note.
Especially fine: if you write on the display, there is a kind of audio-haptic feedback. It really sounds – and feels – like writing on paper. In short: If you liked the Galaxy Notes so far, you will also like the S22 Ultra.
Powerful endurance runner
In everyday life, the Note is as it should be for a smartphone at the starting price of currently just under 1300 euros. Looks good, runs smoothly, runs for a long time. In terms of comfort, Samsung has taken a step forward. The fingerprint sensor is now finally positioned so that you can reach it comfortably with your thumb.
The camera is also really fun at first. Since the S20 Ultra, the combination of four cameras has been powerful and quite versatile. From still photos to high-resolution videos and special modes such as a combination of photos and videos from the different cameras (single take), everything works well. The director function is also great: this allows you to switch between the individual zoom levels and lenses when filming.
Shots by day are sharp, colorful and lively. In low light, the Ultra shows its strength. The combination of lenses, sensors and software ensures detailed images even in low lighting. The mechanical stabilization of the cameras prevents too large camera shake.
Where did all the details go?
Speaking of zoom, the Ultra can deliver up to 100x magnification with a combination of optical and digital zoom. In practice, however, it is better to stay below zoom factor 30, above that it becomes very crumbly. Little has changed since the S20 Ultra.
A little whining at a high level: Zooming in on the recordings, you can occasionally see quite strong interference from the camera software. It provides partially blurred details and image noise in unexpected places. Other Samsung models – namely the predecessor S21 Ultra or the recently introduced S21 5G FE – performed slightly better in this respect in a test by the trade magazine “Chip”.
The question Note or Galaxy no longer arises. The S22 Ultra combines the camera and organizer features of both models sensibly in one device. A new note is therefore superfluous.
The S22 Ultra with stylus, 128 GB of internal memory and 8 GB of RAM costs just under 1250 euros. But a hundred euros more are well spent here: for 1350 euros there is a rounder device with 256 and 12 GB.
