Samsung Galaxy S22 5G 128GB Prices & Plans

Samsung Galaxy S22 5G 128GB Review

The current circuit of Android smartphones has blurred the definitions and expectations of consumers when it comes to what they should expect from premium or flagship handsets, and the Galaxy S22 is something of a victim of this ambiguity.

Somewhere along the line, the highest of high-end smartphones became defined by the notion of bigness. I’m not just talking about physical size here, but how consumers think about the possibilities that a larger form factor allows for.

While more physical size isn’t always better, it does tilt the odds in your favour when it comes to building something that’s just a little bit better than last year’s best smartphone ever. Who needs innovation when you’ve got bigger numbers on your side? A bigger screen is just the opening offer.

A larger device can support larger batteries, extra camera lenses, and sometimes even more forgiving thermal efficiencies. And as larger handsets have become the norm, there’s a case to be made that the expectations around factors like battery life have shifted around them.

In the midst of this trend, it feels like Samsung has conceded that the smaller form-factor here makes the Galaxy S22 especially appealing to those who find the shift towards larger handsets off-putting. If you’re looking to choose this device over the Galaxy S22+ or Galaxy S22 Ultra, chances are the size is a part of the reason why. Unfortunately, Samsung seems to have taken this for granted, rather than use it as an opportunity.

It’s not enough for Samsung to have simply made a smaller Galaxy S22+. The company needs to have given it what it needs to thrive against competition like the Pixel 6 or the iPhone 13. Anything less, and we’re talking about a frame job.

The Samsung Galaxy S22 isn’t a poor device by any stretch of the imagination, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t set up to fail.

Size matters

More iterative than innovative, the Samsung Galaxy S22 is more or less a dead-ringer for last year’s Galaxy S21. Like that device, the design of the S22 is peppered through with the usual features you’d expect out of a flagship smartphone. There’s the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 8GB of RAM, up to 256GB of onboard storage, IP68 water resistance, Gorilla Glass Victus protection, Qi wireless charging, an in-display fingerprint sensor, 5G connectivity and 25W fast-charging.

These are all nice-to-have, but almost every single one can be just as easily found in last year’s Galaxy S21. Samsung has made a few touch-ups here that leave their latest handset looking a little sharper, such as a slighter smaller screen and a glass back. However, the most recognizable element detail of the company’s latest glass sandwich remains the camera module perched on the back of it.

This shoulder-mounted feature isn’t quite as fashionable as the iPhone’s square-shaped camera bump, nor as egregious as the dashboard found on the back of the Google Pixel 6, but does serve to distinguish the design of the Galaxy S22 from its various contemporaries. Cover it up, and there’s not a lot here that sets Samsung’s latest apart from the many other Android smartphones with thin bezels and a centred hole-punch selfie camera.

Well, except for the size. The 6.1-inch AMOLED display on the Galaxy S22 boasts a 120Hz dynamic refresh rate and a 1080p+ resolution. Arguably, this ends up being the device’s defining characteristic.

If you want an Android phone with a 6.1-inch screen, you don’t have many places to go. As a result, the Galaxy S22 ends up close to being the de facto flagbearer for high-end Android smartphones with smaller/small-ish screens.

In some ways, the most apt competition for this device isn’t the standard iPhone 13. It’s the iPhone 13 mini, because if you’re looking to compare the design of the Galaxy S22 against that of the iPhone 13, the former can’t help but come off feeling like the compromised version of the larger Galaxy S22+ and a significantly less-ambitious shadow of the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

A side-graded camera with new tricks

The camera on the Galaxy S22 is identical to the one on the Galaxy S22+, but it’s a clear step down on the Galaxy S22 Ultra and little more than a side-grade on last year’s Galaxy S21.

Both the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+ sport a 10-megapixel selfie camera backed up by a triple lens rear camera that features a 50MP primary lens, a 12MP ultra-wide lens and a 12MP telephoto lens.

For comparison, the Galaxy S22 Ultra adds a fourth 10MP into the mix and bumps up the megapixels on the primary lens to 108MP and the front-facing camera to a borderline-excessive 40MP.

While the overall lens setup here is slightly different from the one found in last year's lineup, Samsung has looked to bolster the Galaxy S22’s camera kit with new software features.

Unfortunately, the best of these improvements and new features, “Adaptive Pixel” AI image processing and better optical image stablisation, are only found in the more expensive Galaxy S22 Ultra.

What you’re left with is a few new tricks, Courtesy of the Snapdragon Gen 1 processor inside the Galaxy S22. Powered by the larger and more powerful NPU found alongside Qualcomm’s latest batch of silicon for premium Android handsets, Samsung’s latest premium smartphone is able to offer portrait video, less noisy night photography and a new detail enhancer setting.

As someone who has spent a lot of time using the night mode on the Galaxy Z Flip 3, my time with the above two camera settings delivered cleaner and more usable results.

At the same time, I can’t say that I found myself staggered at the photography that the Galaxy S22 was capable of producing in the way that I was with Google’s Pixel hardware or the camera on the iPhone.

For the most part, what's here is a tinkering or enhancement on what the Galaxy S21 already offered rather than a more comprehensive rework or clear upgrade.

As usual, the biggest improvements are found on the margins. And if you’re the kind of consumer who isn’t already discounting the Galaxy S22 in favour of the more capable photography hardware found elsewhere, I’m not entirely convinced that you’ll even notice them.

Daylight shots looked good enough to share on social media (and even with the improvements to Night Mode), but the Galaxy S22’s camera just didn't deliver the same kind of consistency or crispness that I've previously gotten out of not just its direct competitors but also older devices like the Pixel 5 or the iPhone 12 Pro.

Samsung is hardly the first Android manufacturer to reserve the better camera for the larger handsets in the lineup, but this sucks as much now as it did back in 2016.

Even if Samsung is (narrowly) coming out ahead of the personal best set by the Galaxy S21, those who would prefer a good camera and a small form-factor are left in a situation where the two are mutually exclusive.

You can only do so much more with less

Screen size aside, the smaller battery inside the Galaxy S22 might be the most consequential detail on the spec sheet for the device.

Regardless of whether you’re looking to spend most of your time watching TikTok, playing mobile games like Genshin Impact, or making use of the enhanced smartphone photography capabilities of the device, the Galaxy S22’s 3700mAh battery is going to play a pretty significant role in that experience.

While the subtraction in overall battery size from the 4,000mAh found in the Galaxy S21 to the 3,700mAh found in the Galaxy S22 forced me to lower my expectations, I didn't really find myself running too short when it came to battery life during everyday usage.

I'd usually squeeze around four or so hours of screen-on time each day. That's not terrible, but neither is it an exceptional sum. As someone regularly working from home, the S22's humble battery proved itself adequate for my daily needs. However, I’m less confident about how it’ll hold up as I (hopefully) start to spend more time away from home in the months ahead.

In addition, there are a few big caveats here that are worth mentioning.

Firstly, the sample Galaxy S22 I tested as part of my review was a US version of the device and thus incompatible with Australia's 5G networks. It’s hard to say for sure how much this may or may not have mattered, but it’s difficult to imagine that this phantom 5G connectivity had zero impact on how long the battery inside Samsung’s latest small-sized flagship lasted.

In addition to this specific qualifier, there’s also another more general one that also should be noted.

As with previous Samsung Galaxy S devices, the Galaxy S22’s premium features sometimes feel at odds with the practical realities of using it. Sure, having a 120Hz refresh rate is nice but, as with the Galaxy S21, doing so will come with a cost to your battery life. In practice, I found that the Galaxy S22’s dynamic refresh rate setting sometimes shaved as much as a quarter off what I’d usually get when it came to daily screen-time per charge. I had to switch it off to hit the aforementioned four hours of screen time.

When you’re spending this much on a phone and you’re already losing out on new camera features or a higher-resolution screen, better battery life might have made for a decent consolation prize but it’s not to be found with the standard Galaxy S22. Samsung has succeeded in making the battery smaller without compromising the performance found in last year’s device, but it’s hard not to think about what the version of this device that opted to keep the battery size the same and reap the benefits looks like.

Samsung Galaxy S22 - Final Thoughts

For many consumers, the Samsung Galaxy S22 is going to be the obvious Android-based alternative to the iPhone 13. However, it feels like Samsung have set their smallest premium handset up to fail when it comes to a head-to-head comparison here.

As someone who would prefer to see the premium smartphone experience associated with Samsung’s Galaxy S range translated into a form factor that’s more pocket-friendly than the 6.6-inch screen on the Galaxy S22+, the Galaxy S22 should feel like the obvious choice. Instead, it feels hamstrung by the realities of having to do more with less.

The Galaxy S22’s shortcomings aren’t so severe that I couldn’t imagine surviving them, but as far as picking the portable computer I’m going to be using every single day goes, it’s hard not to wish Samsung had gotten a little ambitious and built something that I could imagine myself thriving alongside instead.

Samsung Galaxy S22 camera samples