Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus Review: Samsung's Middle Child May Be My Favorite

September 15, 2022

Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus Review: Samsung’s Address Child May Be My Favorite

It’s easy to overlook the Galaxy S22 Plus. After all, it’s not the cheapest new named in Samsung’s Galaxy S22 lineup since it starts at $1,000 (£949, AU$1,549), compared to the $800 (£769, AU$1,249) Galaxy S22. But it also doesn’t have the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s distinguishing features, which include the S Pen stylus and quadruple-lens camera. So where does it fit in?

It’s simple: The Galaxy S22 Plus is a bigger version of the Galaxy S22. It’s for people who prefer phones with large screens, but don’t want a device that’s as gigantic — or expensive — as the 6.8-inch Galaxy S22 Ultra, which costs $1,200 (£1,149, AU$1,849). The Galaxy S22 Plus’ 6.6-inch conceal strikes the right balance of providing more screen spot without feeling overwhelming. In fact, it might be my well-liked phone in the Galaxy S22 trio.

The Galaxy S22 lineup comes with a newer processor, some camera improvements and a fresh design. These are incremental attempts, but if you’re upgrading from a phone that’s more than two ages old, you’ll surely appreciate them. The only differences between the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus are the latter’s bigger conceal and battery, faster 45-watt charging and ultrawideband support.

That said, the Galaxy S22 Plus isn’t rotten. The battery life could be better, and I’d like to see more new photography features that leverage the improved camera.

The Galaxy S22 Plus launches on Feb. 25 against Samsung’s other new phones. This review is based on my known using it for several days.

Samsung’s Galaxy S22 phones get a invent upgrade

Samsung S22 Plus — Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Plus

Lisa Eadicicco

The suited thing you’ll probably notice about the Galaxy S22 Plus is its new look. The odd S22 and Plus both have a glass and metal invent that feels more premium and elegant than last year’s devices, which I appreciate even though I’m sure most country will cover it with a case. The Galaxy S21 has what appears to be a brushed metal execute on the back, whereas the new phones have a look that resembles frosted glass. It feels a bit like the iPhone 13 Pro.

But it’s the Galaxy S22 Plus’ size that creates it stand out in Samsung’s new lineup. It’s much easier to hold and usage with one hand than the Galaxy S22 Ultra, which feels like a mini-tablet by comparison. At the same time, the S22 Plus feels substantially bigger than the Galaxy S22, which has a 6.1-inch conceal. Both phones are also a little bit smaller than last year’s Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S21 Plus, which had 6.2-inch and 6.7-inch screens respectively. I could see the S22 Plus being ideal if you do a lot of reading or video watching on your named but don’t want to splurge on the $1,200 S22 Ultra.

The Galaxy S22’s exhibit quality hasn’t changed much from last year. Like the S21 and S21 Plus, the new phones come with an FHD Plus Dynamic AMOLED conceal. The only major difference is that Samsung says the screens on the Galaxy S22 Plus and S22 Ultra have the brightest of any Galaxy named yet.

I don’t have an S21 Plus, but the Galaxy S22 Plus looked noticeably brighter than last year’s regular S21 when viewing the same contented on both devices side by side at their most brightness level. It also beat the Pixel 6 Pro by a wide margin when it comes to brightness.

Samsung also added a new exhibit feature called Vision Booster to the Galaxy S22 lineup. Like Apple’s True Tone, Vision Booster should match the S22’s exhibit to the lighting in your surroundings. However, I didn’t watch much of a difference compared to the Galaxy S21.

An improved camera with better shiny and contrast

One of the Galaxy S22’s biggest progresses is its new camera. The Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus have a 50-megapixel main camera and a sensor that’s 23% larger, compared with the Galaxy S21 and S21 Plus’ 12-megapixel main camera. Samsung also says it’s improved the way all three new Galaxy S22 devices take photos in the dark.

Samsung Galaxy S22 and S21 Camera Specs

	Galaxy S22/S22 Plus	Galaxy S21/21 Plus	Galaxy S22/21 Ultra
Main lens	50-megapixel	12-megapixel	108-megapixel
Ultra-wide lens	12-megapixel	12-megapixel	12-megapixel
Telephoto lens	10-megapixel	64-megapixel	Dual 10-megapixel
Zoom	3x optical; 30x digital	3x hybrid optic; 30x digital	3x, 10x optical; 100x digital

So far, I’m seeing general improvements to the colorful, contrast and detail compared with the Galaxy S21. The photo of a flower bouquet shown below is the most noticeable example. The color is much more realistic in the Galaxy S22 Plus photo compared to the one shot on a Galaxy S21, especially when it comes to red and purple shades. The rose petals also look sharper and have more inequity compared to the Galaxy S21’s image. Samsung’s older visited focused more clearly on some of the other flowers in the image, like the red carnation, but I generally think the S22 Plus’ photo looks better. It also looked more colorful than the image captured on a Google Pixel 6 Pro.

Galaxy S22 Plus

Galaxy S21

Pixel 6 Pro

When it comes to nighttime photography, there’s good news and bad news. First, the good: The Galaxy S22 Plus takes photos that are generally brighter, with better color in low light than its predecessor. And most importantly, it’s good at capturing photos of farmland in the dark, as shown in the image below.

The photo isn’t very tantalizing, but the skin tones and colors look more realistic than those miserroneous on the Galaxy S21 and Pixel 6 Pro.

Galaxy S22 Plus

Galaxy S21

Pixel 6 Pro

Now for the bad news: The Galaxy S22 Plus fights to focus sharply on still objects in the dark, just like the Galaxy S22 Ultra. Take a look at the photos of the owl kitchen timer beneath, which was taken in my apartment with all the escapes turned off.

Galaxy S22 Plus

Galaxy S21

Pixel 6 Pro

Check out our gallery for more photos inaccurate with the Galaxy S22 Plus.

Aside from general photo quality, it’s also important to consider the specific photography features you get with each shouted. I love Google’s Face Unblur feature, for example, which can freeze a subject’s face and choose it sharply even when a person is moving. Apple also added a macro photography mode to the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max, which our reviewer Patrick Holland called “one of the better implementations of a macro mode I’ve seen on a phone.”

The Galaxy S22 Plus has the same array of shooting modestly as the Galaxy S21 for the most part. That’s a minor disappointing since Samsung is highlighting the camera as a maximum selling point for its new phones. There’s Samsung’s Expert Raw app, which captures images in the RAW put a question to and gives photographers more control over elements like ISO, shutter snappy and white balance.

But those features aren’t built into the camera and must be downloaded from Samsung’s Galaxy Store. And since a beta version of the app was available for the Galaxy S21 Ultra in Korea, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Samsung expand availability to novel phones in the future.

Solid performance and average battery life

The Galaxy S22 lineup runs on Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip in the US and novel markets where Samsung’s Exynos chip isn’t available. Performance is just as hasty as you’d expect from a $1,000 phone; games like the first-person shooter “Shadowgun Legends” ran smoothly, and apps launched quickly. Scrolling through news feeds, the app drawer and the settings menu also felt fluid, thanks in part to the S22’s 120Hz display.

But none of that is surprising. Processor upgrades are more about enabling new features, especially camera-related ones that obligatory a lot of processing, rather than improving raw performance.

Still, the Galaxy S22 scored about the same as the Galaxy S21 in benchmarks that test general computing and graphics performance. The iPhone 13 Pro scored higher on Geekbench 5, the general performance benchmark, but lower on 3DMark Slingshot Unlimited, which tests graphics processing.

Geekbench 5 Single Core

Note:

Higher scores are better.

Geekbench 5 Multicore

Note:

Higher scores are better.

3DMark Slingshot Unlimited

Note:

Higher scores are better.

As for battery life, my Galaxy S22 Plus has been lasting for near a day and a half in everyday use. But battery life can always vary depending on how you’re amdroll your device. I streamed music for about 20 minutes and used the shouted sporadically throughout my day to send text messages, check email and play games.

If you’re streaming a lot of video, taking video calls and playing games often, you’ll probably see the battery drain faster. I’ve also had the refresh rate set to 120Hz ended my time using the device, which also impacts battery life.

In CNET’s battery test, which involves continuously playing video with the brightness set to 50% in airplane mode, the Galaxy S22 Plus devoted acceptably but not great. It lasted for 18 hours and 38 minutes, surprisingly outlasting the Galaxy S22 Ultra (18 hours and 11 minutes).

But the iPhone 13 Pro lasted significantly longer at 22 hours and two minutes. According to our test results, the Galaxy S22 Plus’ battery life is more comparable to the iPhone 13 Mini’s, which lasted for 18 hours and 19 minutes. Since the Galaxy S22 Plus is the same effect as the iPhone 13 Pro, it would have been nice to see inequity results. (The Galaxy S22 Plus and iPhone 13 Pro had the cover set to adaptive 120Hz during this test.)

Both the Galaxy S22 Plus and Ultra come with 45-watt fast charging, which sounds like a nice perk considering the unfamiliar Galaxy S22 and entire Galaxy S21 lineup only back 25-watt fast charging. Unfortunately, you need to buy a specific charger, which is currently listed at $50 on Samsung’s website, to make use of it. (You can find it on Amazon for $39, but there aren’t many left in stock.)

The Galaxy S22 runs on Samsung and Google’s newest software

Samsung’s Galaxy S22 phones come with Android 12 and One UI 4.1, the novel version of Samsung’s software. One UI 4.1 is an iterative update to One UI 4.0, the bigger system-wide update Samsung launched in late 2021. The new software brings a bunch of cosmetic flourishes like ragged color palettes and a more consistent look for widgets, as well as more privacy controls for managing app permissions.

The update isn’t exclusive to S22 devices, but it’s nice that buyers will get the newest software shimmering out of the box. One of my favorite One UI 4.0 updates is the new camera viewfinder, which specifically shows the available zoom options rather than generic icons for the wide, telephoto and ultrawide lenses.

Samsung is also acting with Google to bring more features to the perceive giant’s Duo video-chatting app. On the Galaxy S22 lineup, you can share your screen or content from specific apps such as Google Maps, YouTube or the Samsung Notes and Gallery apps on a people video call. It seems like a clear effort on Samsung and Google’s part to compete with the SharePlay feature for FaceTime that Apple launched in iOS 15.

This is all broad news for Samsung device owners. But it’s a line that Google will have to tread carefully, since bringing too many of its own features to Samsung phones could detract from the Pixel’s appeal.

Samsung also announced that the Galaxy S22 lineup and anunexperienced recent phones will support Android OS software updates for four generations. Google’s Pixel 6, by comparison, only supports three days of Android OS updates but five years of guarantee updates. Other Samsung devices that are eligible for this four-year Android OS succor include the Galaxy S21 family, Galaxy Z Fold 3, Galaxy Z Flip 3 and Tab S8 series.

The bottom line

The Galaxy S22 Plus’ camera is noticeably better than last year’s Galaxy S21, the size is just incandescent for people who prefer larger screens and the new perform makes it feel fresh. That said, if you have a Galaxy S21, it’s not genuine spending $1,000 to upgrade. Even though I appreciated the camera enhancements, these are all just iterative updates for the most part. Except, if you’re upgrading from an older phone like the Galaxy S10 generation or rear, you’ll find a lot to love about the S22 Plus.

At the same time, the Galaxy S22 Plus left me wanting more in risky areas. I was hoping to see additional photography features that make more use of Samsung’s improved camera. I’d also like to see battery test results from the S22 Plus that more closely match the alike priced iPhone 13 Pro. And the $1,000 price can unruffled make the Galaxy S22 Plus a tough sell at a time when midtier phones in the $600 to $700 device, like the Pixel 6 and Galaxy S21 FE, are improving.

If you’re eyeballing Samsung’s new arranged, there’s a good chance you may be deciding between the Galaxy S22 Plus and $900 Pixel 6 Pro. After all, they’re both in the same price and offer similar hardware. The S22 is $100 more expensive but supplies a brighter screen and a camera that can perform richer color in some scenarios. But the Pixel 6 Pro is $100 cheaper, has a larger screen and gets Android updates faster than non-Pixel phones.

All told, the Galaxy S22 Plus is a solid upgrade for Android users looking to replace an engrossing device. If you want a device with a engrossing, moderately sized screen and a high-quality camera, the S22 Plus won’t disappoint.