The Samsung Galaxy S22+ is the best “safe” Android flagship you can buy—and that’s both its biggest strength and its most boring trait.
Samsung didn’t try to reinvent anything here. Instead, it doubled down on a formula that has worked for years: strong display, competent cameras, premium build, and long software support. If you want surprises, look elsewhere. If you want a phone that just quietly does almost everything right, this is it.
Design: Subtle Tweaks, Familiar Feel
Visually, the Galaxy S22+ looks a lot like the S21+ at a glance. You still get the corner-mounted triple camera bump and shiny metal frame, but Samsung has flattened and cleaned things up.
The back glass is now flat Gorilla Glass Victus+ instead of a curved panel. That makes the phone feel a touch sharper in the hand, but also more modern and surprisingly comfortable, especially with the frosted finish. The camera island no longer “wraps” into the frame like last year; it just ends where the aluminum frame begins. Less iconic, more understated.
The frame is Samsung’s “Armor Aluminum” alloy, with a slightly flatter profile than the S21 series but not iPhone-level flat. It’s still curved enough that in renders it looks flatter than it actually is. In practice, it’s slippery and a fingerprint magnet, especially around the Pink Gold frame, so a case is a good idea.
On the plus side, weight and size are finally dialed in. At around 195g with a 6.6-inch display, the S22+ lands in that sweet spot between compact and massive slabs like the S22 Ultra and Pixel 6 Pro. The uniform bezels and flat front glass help it feel smaller than it looks on paper, and IP68 water resistance is still here.
Display: Samsung Shows Everyone How It’s Done
If Samsung leads anywhere, it’s displays, and the S22+ is a flex. You’re getting a 6.6-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel at 1080p with a 120Hz refresh rate and some frankly ridiculous brightness claims.
In testing, the S22+ hits over 1,200 nits in auto-brightness under harsh light and can reach a claimed 1,750 nits peak in small HDR windows. Real-world translation: it’s readable in direct sun when other phones are squinting. An “Extra brightness” mode in manual settings lets you push up to around 780 nits without auto enabled.
Refresh rate handling is smart, even if it’s not LTPO like the S22 Ultra. The panel can operate at discrete modes (10/24/30/48/60/96/120Hz), and Samsung’s software aggressively ramps to 120Hz when you touch the screen, then drops to 24Hz or 60Hz when idle depending on content. Video playback is handled well: 24fps content runs at 24Hz, 30fps at 30Hz, 60fps at 60Hz. HDR streaming from services like Netflix plays at 1080p with HDR10/HDR10+ support and Widevine L1 DRM.
Color is classic Samsung: two modes, Vivid (DCI-P3) and Natural (sRGB). Natural is impressively accurate; Vivid is a bit cool out of the box but can be warmed via a slider to get close to reference DCI-P3. There’s no Dolby Vision, but most users won’t miss it given how good HDR10 and HDR10+ look on this panel.
The flat glass is a win. No accidental touches, fewer distracting reflections than curved panels like the S22 Ultra, and easier screen protector application. The ultrasonic in-display fingerprint reader is fast and consistent, and Samsung has dropped the pre-applied plastic protector this generation.
Performance and Software: Fast Now, Supported for Years
Under the hood, the S22+ runs either the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (in markets like the US and Indonesia) or Exynos 2200 (in Europe and some other regions), paired with 8GB of RAM and UFS 3.1 storage.
On Snapdragon, it behaves exactly how you expect: very fast, very responsive, and warm under sustained load. On Exynos, things are more complicated. CPU performance is comparable to last year’s Snapdragon 888 class in multi-core tests, while single-core gets a modest bump from the Cortex-X2 core. The AMD-based Xclipse 920 GPU can deliver strong numbers in 3DMark, but GFXBench runs show inconsistent results and some visible rendering artifacts, suggesting early driver issues rather than raw horsepower problems.
Thermal behavior is actually handled fairly gracefully. Under a heavy CPU torture test, the Exynos version drops to roughly 65% of peak performance over time, but without sudden cliffs that would cause obvious stutters. The phone gets warm, especially near the top by the cameras, but not burn-your-hand hot.
Samsung’s real long-term win isn’t the silicon; it’s software support. One UI 4.1 on top of Android 12 is familiar, customizable, and feature-packed—Material You-style color palettes, improved privacy dashboard, better widgets, Samsung DeX, Link to Windows, Edge Panels, Game Launcher, and a surprisingly non-annoying bundle of first-party and Microsoft apps.
The key line: Samsung promises four major Android version updates and five years of security patches for the S22 lineup. Outside of Apple, nobody is doing better officially. That alone helps justify the $999 price more than any “Nightography” tagline.
Cameras: Big Main Sensor, Smarter Zoom, Same Old Quirks
The S22+ is where Samsung finally upgraded the main camera hardware in its non-Ultra flagship after years of reusing a 12MP sensor.
On the back you get:
– 50MP main (ISOCELL GN5 class, 1/1.56″, f/1.8, Dual Pixel PDAF, OIS, binned to 12MP output)
– 10MP 3x telephoto (70mm-equivalent, f/2.4, OIS)
– 12MP ultrawide (120°, f/2.2, fixed focus)
The 10MP selfie camera sticks around, still with Dual Pixel autofocus and up to 4K60 video.
Daylight from the 50MP main is very good but not flawless. Detail is strong, dynamic range is wide, and colors have that typical Samsung punch without going full cartoon—though some scenes still lean into oversaturation. The real complaint is texture handling: darker areas can look soft and a bit noisy, and Samsung compensates with noticeable sharpening on fine details.
You can shoot at full 50MP, but you mostly just get bigger files and more moiré on fine patterns. The interesting extra is “Detail Enhancer”, an AI-based stacking mode in 50MP that takes a few seconds to process and genuinely resolves more fine detail than both standard 12MP and basic 50MP, while keeping color and contrast consistent. It’s the only reason to bother with 50MP on this phone.
The new 10MP 3x telephoto is a real improvement over last year’s hybrid 3x. At native 3x, shots are sharp, detailed, and color-matched nicely with the main camera. Up to around 10x, images are very usable; even 30x can be passable for casual sharing, though by then you’re looking at heavy algorithmic reconstruction more than optical detail.
The 12MP ultrawide is carried over and behaves like it: decent detail, good dynamic range, and color matching that’s better than most competitors. It’s fixed focus and can’t do proper macro tricks like the S22 Ultra.
Portraits are a strong point. Both the main and telephoto cameras can shoot them, with solid subject separation even around hair and pet fur, and natural-looking background blur. Telephoto portraits look softer on faces, so the main camera is usually the better choice unless you need more working distance.
Low-light is where Samsung’s “Nightography” marketing buzzword actually hides some useful work. The main camera in auto mode already produces bright, detailed night shots with well-controlled noise. Manual Night mode pushes this further, balancing shadows and highlights while adding extra sharpening that some will like and some will hate.
The 3x telephoto in low light is surprisingly competent with Night mode on—noisy in raw captures but cleaned up into brighter, detailed zoom shots once the stacking kicks in. The ultrawide is predictably weaker at night, but Night mode can pull it from “barely usable” to “fine for social media.”
Selfies, day or night, are among the best on Android: sharp, accurate skin tones, good dynamic range, and reliable autofocus. The only annoyance is Samsung’s continued split between “wide” and “close” selfie framing at different resolutions, which makes zero sense in 2022.
Video is similarly flagship-grade. All rear cameras and the selfie camera can shoot up to 4K60, with 8K24 reserved for the main sensor. 8K looks basically like oversharpened 4K with bigger file sizes, so it’s more checkbox than killer feature. 4K from the main, telephoto, ultrawide, and selfie cams is detailed with wide dynamic range and effective stabilization. Basic EIS works even in 8K; the separate “Super Steady” 1080p ultrawide mode is only useful for extreme motion.
Samsung’s Auto FPS in low light can dynamically lower frame rate to brighten video, dropping from 60fps to 30, then 24fps as light falls. It works, but it’s invisible and not something the average buyer will consciously interact with.
Battery and Charging: Smaller Cell, Still All-Day—But 45W Is a Sham
Samsung shrank the battery this year: from 4,800mAh on the S21+ down to 4,500mAh on the S22+. On paper, that’s a red flag. In practice, it’s fine but unremarkable.
Typical users will see a full day without sweating. In one set of usage described by a reviewer—8 a.m. to nearly midnight, mostly on Wi‑Fi with some weekend cellular-heavy days—the phone rarely dropped below 20%, and only heavy gaming would force an evening top-up. Lab tests on the Exynos variant show around 97 hours of endurance in a mixed scenario, which is solid but short of the S21+.
Where Samsung stumbles is charging honesty. The S22+ supports up to 45W USB Power Delivery with PPS on paper, but multiple tests show the 25W and 45W Samsung chargers both fill the phone in roughly an hour. The new 45W brick just flips a “Super Fast Charging 2.0” label in software; it doesn’t meaningfully reduce charge time.
On the plus side, ~60% in 30 minutes and ~100% in about an hour is fast enough for most people and easier on battery longevity than the 65–120W craziness coming out of some Chinese OEMs. On the minus side, advertising 45W when it behaves like 25W is marketing fluff, and the fact that Samsung pulled the charger from the box but charges extra—around $50 in some markets—for the full-speed brick isn’t exactly consumer-friendly.
You do get useful charging controls: you can disable fast charging and cap battery charge at 85% to improve long-term health. A true smart overnight charging system would be better, but at least the basics are there.
Value: The Best Default Flagship, But Not the Best Deal
The Galaxy S22+ starts around $999 / €1,050 / £950. At that price, you’re in a playground of genuinely excellent phones, and the S22+ is, bluntly, not the most exciting one.
What you’re paying for is stability and predictability. You get a bright 120Hz AMOLED, solid main and telephoto cameras, great selfie video, good speakers, IP68, wireless charging, DeX, and four years of Android updates. There are no glaring deal-breakers. There’s also nothing particularly daring.
If you’re already in the Samsung ecosystem and want a biggish phone without the S Pen bulk of the S22 Ultra, this is logically the one to buy. But the company’s own lineup undercuts it. The Galaxy S21 FE delivers a still-flagship Snapdragon 888/Exynos 2100, similar camera philosophy, and Samsung’s extended software support at a much lower price. The older S21+ gives you a bigger battery and better endurance, again for less money.
That’s really the story of the S22+: it’s the flagship you buy when you don’t want to think too hard. Almost every box is ticked, scores are mostly in the B+ to A- range, and nothing is catastrophically wrong—aside from the charger situation and some Exynos GPU growing pains.
If you’re the kind of reader who compares every spec, hunts for value, and doesn’t mind a bit of risk, you can absolutely do better on price-to-performance with a Galaxy S21 FE, last-gen flagship, or an aggressively priced competitor. If you just want a high-end Android phone that will quietly get on with its job for the next four to five years, the Galaxy S22+ is the safest bet in Samsung’s 2022 lineup.
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