[ad_1]
The Samsung Galaxy S22+ appears to be the same as last year’s model, but looks can be deceiving – more has changed on the Plus model than you might notice at first glance. Here are the first things we noticed after handling the phone (a full review is coming soon).
This new model is supposed to be smaller than the 2021 edition with a 6.6” display instead of a 6.7” one. Indeed, it is shorter by about 4 mm and a hair thinner (0.2 mm), but the all-important width has gone up a hair too (75.8 mm, up from 75.6 mm).
Size comparison: Samsung Galaxy S22, Galaxy S22+ and S22 Ultra
Another thing we noticed is that the edges of the phone are now a lot less rounded, which also affects how the phone feels in the hand. Also, the camera bump design is broadly the same, though now there is a noticeable seam between the bump and the rest of the frame. The S22+ sides don’t flow as smoothly as those of the S21+.
But the whole phone should be more rugged, however, with the new Gorilla Glass Victus+ on the front and back. And between the two sheets of glass is Armor Aluminum, the same toughened formulation of aluminum that Samsung used in the third Galaxy Z series.
Armor Aluminum on the side, Gorilla Glass Victus+ on the front and back
One consequence of making the phone slightly smaller is that the battery capacity dropped as well, from 4,800 mAh to 4,500 mAh. Last year’s model got a respectable Endurance rating of 114 hours.
The Galaxy S22+ now supports 45W charging. You will have to supply your own, of course, as you only get a cable in the box. Besides the bigger screen and battery, this is one of the reasons to consider the plus model over the vanilla one (which is stuck at 25W). However, Samsung’s previous attempts at 45W weren’t as fast as we had hoped, so that’s one thing to look out for in the review.
The phone supports a 45W charger, but you’ll have to get your own
Anyway, the battery has a brand new chipset (more on that in a bit) as well as a brighter display – the Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel now peaks at 1,750 nits (up from 1,300 nits), which improves legibility even in full sun. While we’re talking about the display, it is flat as before, but this year Samsung managed to make its bezels perfectly symmetrical.
No, this is not an LTPO panel, that remains exclusive to the Ultra. This means that the refresh rate is limited to a narrower band – from 48 Hz to 120 Hz (same as last year). Actually, the explanation of how refresh rates work on the S22 series is going into a separate article as there is a lot to cover. Moving on, when you toggle on the gaming mode, the touch sampling rate goes up to 240 Hz.
Galaxy S22+ with 6.6″ Dynamic AMOLED 2X display: 1080p+, HDR10+, 120 Hz LTPS
Speaking of gaming, our particular unit is powered by the Exynos 2200. We’re excited to see what AMD’s return to smartphone GPUs brings after a long absence. One of its headlining features is hardware support for ray tracing, but we don’t know of any game that can make use of it yet. You may be more interested in the chip’s performance, especially sustained performance, and how it stacks up against the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.
We mentioned that the camera bump looks a bit different, but the hardware inside is very different. Samsung picked a larger 50 MP sensor for the main camera, which can top the old 12 MP sensor in terms of pixel size with binning enabled – 2.0 µm vs. 1.8 µm.
Next up is the first proper telephoto camera on this model in a couple of years. The lens has 3x optical zoom (and OIS), the sensor behind it has 10 MP resolution. The 12 MP ultra wide and 10 MP selfie cameras remain untouched.
Brand new 50 MP (1/1.56″) sensor for the main cam, plus proper 3x tele lens with 10 MP sensor
There are a couple of improvements focused on low-light performance too, including the Super Clear Glass over the rear cameras (which reduces lens flares in the dark by up to 98%) and what Samsung calls “Nightography”, referring to the new AI-powered image fusion system for stills (including portraits) and videos.
That’s it for now, expect the full review soon!
[ad_2]
