Diehard Note customers might imagine in any other case, however Samsung made name in changing the Galaxy Note with the Galaxy S22 Ultra, which is launching at the moment together with the S22+ and S22 smartphones. Ten years is greater than sufficient time to concede the inclusion of a stylus doesn’t necessitate a separate telephone model—and it’s additionally now debatable whether or not a stylus makes a contemporary telephone any extra helpful.
Don’t get me flawed, the Note was crucial in its day. When Samsung launched the unique Galaxy Note a bit greater than a decade in the past, the telephone was modern past its included S Pen. Indeed, that first Note launched with a then-mammoth 5.3-inch show—a pleasant piece of actual property on which to attract. Over the subsequent few years, the Note’s show expanded to 5.7 inches (the Note 7), after which to 6.3 inches (the Note 8), after which to 6.9 inches (the Note 20 Ultra). The “phablet” telephone period was not solely launched, but additionally embodied, by the Note. And at the moment all rivals observe go well with with large telephones.
But let’s contemplate what’s modified for the reason that Note launched in 2011. When the primary Note hit the market, customers have been nonetheless used to jotting down notes in journals and authorized pads. These people adopted the Note as an extension of their habits. But what all of us now understand, explicitly or subconsciously, is that we’ve advanced past inking notes with a pen—electronically or in any other case—and have adopted different strategies of archiving information. We’re adept at typing with our thumbs in cloud paperwork and electronic mail. We file our Zoom calls. We use voice recording and voice dictation. We all have our personal strategies of taking notes and protecting monitor of to-dos, and the wide range of choices has made inked notes much less related than ever earlier than.
Adam Patrick Murray / IDG
That’s to not say Samsung’s new Galaxy S22 Ultra doesn’t profit from its built-in S Pen, which now matches inside an built-in holster, identical to in earlier Notes. It’s a effective accent, although I consider the S22 Ultra’s S Pen shall be used extra as a controller than a note-taking or drawing device by most individuals. Beyond that, the S Pen offers Samsung an excuse to launch a barely taller S22 Ultra, with a barely bigger battery inside. The new Galaxy S22 and S22+ lack the built-in S Pen, they usually’re barely thinner and smaller than the Galaxy S21 and S21+ consequently.
By now, Note diehards must be chasing me with pitchforks. To them, I say use your S Pens on the new Galaxy Tab S8 tablet, additionally launched at the moment. Its inking expertise is excellent.
Galaxy S22 Ultra specs: Here’s what’s new
Samsung is releasing three new telephones inside the Galaxy S22 lineup: the 6.8-inch S22 Galaxy Ultra, the 6.6-inch Galaxy S22+, and the 6.1-inch Galaxy S22. Prices vary from $799.99 for the bottom S22, to $999.99 to the S22+, to $1,199.99 for the S22 Ultra. Memory choices on the Ultra vary from 8GB to 12GB, and storage from 128GB to 1 TB. On the S8 and S8+ tablets, the alternatives are a lot less complicated: 8GB of reminiscence, with 128GB or 256GB of storage. Samsung additionally informed us the Galaxy S22 sequence contains Qualcomm’s 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor inside.
The telephones are available quite a lot of colours, from Phantom Black, Phantom White, Green, and Burgundy, plus Pink Gold for the S22+ and S22 fashions.
If that every one sounds too costly, contemplate a lot of methods to avoid wasting: Through February 24, 2022, shoppers who pre-order a tool are eligible to improve to the subsequent storage tier when buying 128GB or 256GB fashions. This supply additionally contains eligibility to redeem an extra Samsung Credit of as much as $200 for Galaxy S22 Ultra, $150 for Galaxy S22+, or $100 for Galaxy S22. This credit score can go towards the acquisition of the brand new Samsung Freestyle projector or lately up to date Galaxy Watch 4. Those who pre-order a Galaxy S22 gadget beginning at the moment can even obtain as much as 25 % off any Galaxy Tab S8.
Adam Patrick Murray / IDG
Samsung’s S22 Ultra replaces the S21 Ultra 5G, basically including simply the built-in S Pen to the S22 era. (Note that the S21 Ultra was appropriate with the S Pen, however the pen shipped individually.) Both the S21 Ultra and S22 Ultra provides what Samsung calls a “Dynamic AMOLED 2X adaptive 120Hz display,” (3200×1400) with the identical 6.8-inch display dimension. The S22 nonetheless makes use of in-display fingerprint recognition.
The S22 Ultra’s quad digicam specs haven’t modified so far as the variety of lenses and their decision. Its “space zoom” remains to be 100X (10X optical, 10X digital zoom). Samsung deserves credit score for barely shrinking the S22 Ultra from 165 mm to 163.5mm, whereas solely widening the telephone from 75.6mm to 77.9mm. The different notable enchancment is within the battery capability, because it’s elevated from 4855mAh to 5,000mAh. The S22 Ultra and S22+ now has built-in WiFi 6E, up from WiFi 6 (802.11ax) within the S21 era.
Specs however, the digicam’s AI has improved, as it may well now monitor and concentrate on 10 completely different folks, and even acknowledge the penumbra of pet hair for correct portrait mode. Samsung says it makes use of depth maps to concentrate on even a single strand of hair. It additionally reportedly adjusts the zoom angle, although we’d have to check that to see the total impression.
The S22 boasts improved optical picture stabilization (OIS), which Samsung calls Super Steady. And in low mild, Samsung’s Adaptive Pixel know-how will mix 9 pixels into one shot with the telephone’s a number of cameras, compositing them right into a single pixel with an improved picture. (The pixel sensor stays 2.4um, the identical as within the S21 Ultra.) The Ultra cameras ship with Samsung’s Expert RAW app, providing controls like ISO, shutter velocity, histogram management and extra.
The concept is that you simply’ll be capable to seize a 108-megapixel element picture plus a separate picture optimized for lighting, then mix the 2. Samsung says that these new cameras course of 4 occasions extra information than the earlier era due to the digicam utilizing uncompressed information internally. Night portrait mode is obtainable on each the entrance and rear digicam.
Adam Patrick Murray / IDG
Galaxy S22+ and S22 specs: Here’s what’s new
The S22 and S22+ bodily supply solely slight variations from the S21 era: At 6.1-inches and 6.7-inches, each the S22 and S22+ are simply 0.1 inches smaller. The S22+ is each barely shorter and thinner as nicely, whereas the s22 is shorter, thinner, and narrower than the S21. Battery life has barely decreased consequently. The show density stays unchanged, Samsung stated. In phrases of display brightness, the S8 provides 1,300 nits, whereas the S8+ can put out 1,750 nits of brightness. (The S22 Ultra does as nicely.)
The cameras, although, differ extra considerably. While the user-facing selfie cameras stay the identical, the S21 and S21+ supplied a 12Mpixel ultrawide digicam, a 12MP wide-angle digicam, and a 64MP telephoto. Both the S22 and S22+ supply a 12Mpixel ultrawide (F2.2), an 50Mpixel (F1.8) broad digicam, and a 10Mpixel (F 2.4, 3X optical zoom) telephoto.
Adam Patrick Murray / IDG
Samsung’s new telephones embody a brand new Digital Wallet app, which is able to retailer digital IDs, fee, and even digital keys for automobiles, dwelling and workplace. They’re saved inside the Knox digital lockbox.
If you’d prefer to dive deeply into the total checklist of specs, they’re listed beneath. You can open the picture in a brand new tab to zoom in.
Samsung
During a product briefing, I spent lower than 60 minutes with the S22 line-up, and didn’t discover any apparent weak factors. Note, although, how the S22’s type issue doesn’t will let you scroll quite a lot of notes inside the area allowed by the display. Instead, it feels much more helpful to make use of the S Pen as a method of navigating to utilities, or different controls.
We’ll have to check how the improved digicam AI options play out in actual life: Can we really monitor 10 folks throughout the waning (?) days of a pandemic? Will the processor show to be sooner and extra responsive over every day use? And how lengthy will the battery maintain up? Samsung has promised efficiency leaps for its cameras, although they sound vaguely just like the earlier era. All of those are questions the brand new S22 telephones should reply throughout the course of a evaluate. Stay tuned for protection on PCWorld or sister website, Tech Advisor.
As PCWorld’s senior editor, Mark focuses on Microsoft information and chip know-how, amongst different beats. He has previously written for PCMag, BYTE, Slashdot, eWEEK, and ReadWrite.