Samsung claims the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s display can hit 1,750 nits of brightness, and in testing it actually pushed over 1,260 nits in typical high‑brightness mode – more than 200 nits ahead of the iPhone 13 Pro Max.
That stat sums up this phone nicely: technically impressive, aggressively overbuilt, and occasionally frustrating where it really shouldn’t be.
Design: A Note by Any Other Name
You’re not imagining it – this is a Note. The S22 Ultra lifts the squared-off silhouette almost directly from the Note20 Ultra, right down to the sharp corners and integrated S Pen silo. Samsung could have slapped “Note” on the box and no one would have complained.
The 6.8-inch OLED is curved more aggressively than the S21 Ultra’s, with Gorilla Glass Victus+ on both sides and an Armor Aluminum frame. Weight lands at 228g – heavier than the Note20 Ultra by about 20g, but still lighter than an iPhone 13 Pro Max (240g) and Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra (234g). In hand, it feels big, flat, and undeniably premium, but also slippery thanks to that low‑grip matte glass.
Samsung ditched last year’s big camera island for five exposed rings drilled into the back glass. It’s visually distinctive, but functionally annoying: the gaps are lint magnets and case makers now have to cut around multiple holes. Side by side, the S21 Ultra’s camera hump arguably looks cleaner and gathers less pocket junk.
There’s no microSD slot, which is bad enough on a so‑called Ultra device, but Samsung also starts this thing at 128GB. On a stylus‑toting flagship that’s supposed to be your everything device, that base config is stingy.
Display & Audio: Class-Leading Screen, Meh Speakers
On screen tech, Samsung flexes hard. The S22 Ultra’s 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X runs QHD+ (1440×3088), up to 120Hz adaptive refresh, and supports HDR10+. This panel is effectively Samsung’s best non‑foldable phone display.
Brightness is where it pulls ahead. In testing with adaptive brightness under strong light (75% APL), it reached 1,266 nits – about 200+ nits brighter than the iPhone 13 Pro Max and a clear jump over the S21 Ultra and Note20 Ultra, which hovered just over 1,000 nits. There’s also a manual “Extra brightness” mode that pushes around 829 nits without needing harsh ambient light.
Color handling is familiar Samsung. Vivid mode targets DCI‑P3 with punchy colors and decent accuracy (average dE2000 ~3.3), with optional white balance tweaks and RGB sliders. Natural mode sticks to sRGB and is far more accurate (dE2000 ~1.4), but visually flatter. Translation: you can have reference‑grade or YouTube‑demo-grade, pick your poison.
The adaptive refresh system is clever, even if Samsung’s marketing outpaces reality. The panel exposes steps at 10, 24, 30, 48, 60, 96 and 120Hz to Android, but the phone tends to sit between 24Hz and 120Hz in practice. It spikes to 120Hz when you touch the screen, drops to 24Hz when idle, uses 60Hz for static content in browsers, and syncs to video frame rate (24/30/etc.). GPU frame output can go down to 1fps, but the panel itself never visibly hits 1Hz.
Audio is less impressive. The stereo setup (bottom driver + earpiece) sounds merely okay and actually measures quieter than the S21 Ultra and S22+. Bass presence is weaker than the Mi 11 Ultra and iPhone 13 Pro Max, which both out‑punch it. For a big media phone, the speakers feel like an afterthought.
Performance, Battery & Charging: Fast, but Not Always Smart
Depending on region, the S22 Ultra runs either Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 or Exynos 2200. Both are 4nm, 1+3+4 CPU layouts (Cortex‑X2 + A710 + A510), with the Exynos using an AMD RDNA 2‑based Xclipse 920 GPU that supports hardware ray tracing and variable rate shading. The Snapdragon’s Adreno GPU also supports VRS but skips ray tracing.
Benchmarks put the Exynos 2200 only modestly ahead of the S21 Ultra’s Exynos in CPU, with a more noticeable uplift in GPU scores (around 30% in 3DMark Wild Life). It’s class-competitive, but not a huge generational leap. Real‑world, it’s exactly what you expect from a 2022 flagship: everything is fast, animations are smooth, and heavy apps don’t choke.
Thermals are handled by a layered system: a gel‑type TIM over the SoC, a Nano TIM above that, then a stainless steel vapor chamber and graphite sheet. Under extended CPU stress, performance gradually settles around 70% of peak after about 30 minutes – controlled, not catastrophic. GPU throttling is harsher, dropping toward a sustainable ~60% within a few minutes of a 20‑minute Wild Life stress run. Translation: long high‑end gaming sessions will see reduced fps, but not wild oscillations.
Battery is a 5,000mAh pack, same as S21 Ultra and larger than the 4,500mAh Note20 Ultra. In standardized testing at QHD+:
– Video playback (60Hz): ~18 hours
– Web browsing (Wi‑Fi, Adaptive): ~17 hours (about 19 hours at 60Hz)
– 3G voice calls: ~32 hours
The overall endurance rating lands at 108 hours, which is very solid for a modern flagship. Dropping to 1080p only nets minor gains (roughly +1h web, +0.5h video), so there’s little reason to give up QHD+.
Charging is where Samsung keeps tripping over its own marketing. The S22 Ultra once again advertises 45W wired charging, back from the grave after the Note10+ and S20 Ultra. In practice, using Samsung’s existing 45W brick (EP‑TA845), there’s basically no difference versus the 25W charger: roughly 60‑something percent in 30 minutes and about an hour for a full charge.
That’s acceptable in isolation and faster than an iPhone 13 Pro Max or Pixel 6 Pro, but it looks bad next to rivals that hit 100% in about half the time. Worse, Samsung is effectively selling you a 45W story that behaves like 25W. There’s a new 45W brick (EP‑T4510) coming with the same voltage/current specs, so don’t expect miracles.
Wireless charging goes up to 15W on Samsung’s own pads (though WPC certification only lists 4.4W Basic Power Profile), and Wireless PowerShare is here if you want to dump some of your battery into earbuds or another phone.
Software & S Pen: Full Note Brain, S Body
The S22 Ultra ships with Android 12 and One UI 4.1. Functionally, 4.1 is a minor step over 4.0, but it adds a few S22‑specific touches and the full Note‑class S Pen toolkit.
The S Pen itself is essentially identical to the Note20 Ultra’s hardware: same dimensions, active stylus with Bluetooth LE, gyro, accelerometer, and a lithium titanate battery. The big trick is latency: Samsung claims it’s down to as low as 2.8ms versus 9ms on the S21 Ultra and Note20 Ultra, using AI prediction to anticipate strokes. Side‑by‑side, writing does feel a bit closer to ink on glass.
Core Note features are all here:
– Screen‑off memo: pull the pen from standby and jot a note on the black screen.
– Air Command: customizable radial menu for S Pen tools and apps when the pen is removed.
– Smart Select: odd‑shaped screenshots, text extraction, pinned screen snippets, and quick GIF captures.
– Screen Write and Translate: annotate screenshots and hover‑translate single words.
– Air actions: gesture controls via the pen’s button in apps like Camera, Gallery, and browsers.
Newer additions include Quick Note (scrapbooking whole web pages into Samsung Notes, albeit only with Samsung Internet) and Collaboration View, which pairs with a Galaxy tablet so the phone can act as the tool palette while the tablet becomes a pure canvas.
One UI 4.1 also brings Android 12‑style color theming via Color Palettes, a Privacy Dashboard for permission tracking, and the usual Samsung ecosystem toys: DeX (wired or wireless desktop mode), Link to Windows, “Continue apps on other devices” between Galaxy products, Edge panels, Game Launcher, and a heavily featured Samsung Notes and Gallery.
Biometrics are handled by an in‑display ultrasonic fingerprint reader that’s fast, reliable, and doesn’t flash a torch-bright light at your thumb in the dark. Face unlock is available but still just basic camera‑based recognition.
Cameras: Incremental, Versatile, and Occasionally Noisy
On paper, the S22 Ultra’s camera hardware mirrors the S21 Ultra closely:
– 108MP main (1/1.33″, 0.8µm pixels, f/1.8, OIS, nona‑binning to ~12MP)
– 12MP ultrawide (1/2.55″, 1.4µm, f/2.2, 120°, Dual Pixel AF)
– 10MP 3x telephoto (1/3.52″, 1.12µm, f/2.4, OIS)
– 10MP 10x periscope telephoto (1/3.52″, 1.12µm, f/4.9, OIS)
– 40MP selfie (1/2.8″, 0.7µm, f/2.2, Tetrapixel binning)
The short and long teles swap to slightly smaller sensors than the S21 Ultra (1/3.52″ vs 1/3.24″), keeping the same optical lengths and apertures. The ultrawide remains one of the few autofocus‑equipped ultrawides in Samsung’s lineup, still inexplicably reserved for Ultra models.
In good light, the main camera produces detailed images with accurate exposure and vivid but not cartoonish colors. The issue is noise: even at base ISO in daylight, there’s more grain than you’d expect from a 2022 flagship, and fine detail often looks a bit over‑processed. Dynamic range is solid, but highlight rolloff to clipped whites and crushed shadows is more abrupt than the best in class. Compared against a mature S21 Ultra firmware build, the older phone actually looks a bit cleaner and more refined.
The ultrawide delivers sharp, detailed shots with slightly increased sharpening and noise compared to the S21 Ultra. It’s very good, but phones like the Mi 11 Ultra can pull ahead on ultrawide quality. Dynamic range improves a bit over last year but still isn’t class-leading.
The 3x telephoto is where the S22 Ultra quietly wins: daytime shots are clean, detailed, and better than the S21 Ultra’s equivalent, with well‑matched color to the main camera. At 10x, the periscope provides legitimately usable detail and contrast; noise creeps back in at pixel level, but the perspective and reach remain unmatched outside a handful of Ultra‑class rivals. Beyond that, 30x and especially 100x are still mostly party tricks.
Low light is where Samsung’s “Nightography” branding shows up. Under the hood, it’s multi‑frame stacking and AI selection of cleaner frames – stuff Samsung has been doing for years, now with a new name. In auto Photo mode, the phone already kicks in these Night Solution tricks on the main, ultrawide, and 3x telephoto.
The main camera at night is strong: very good detail, well‑controlled highlights, and saturated colors that avoid going nuclear. Some noise remains, but of the finer, film‑like variety. Switching to full Night mode adds heavier sharpening, warms up street lighting (not always flattering), and slightly boosts shadows; it’s a mild upgrade rather than a necessity.
The ultrawide benefits more from manual Night mode: auto shots are decent, but Night mode cleans up noise and drags a lot more detail out of the dark corners. At 3x in low light, auto mode is inconsistent and often soft; Night mode tightens up detail and encourages the phone to actually use the tele lens instead of cropping the main.
At 10x in the dark, results in auto are borderline, with softness and chroma noise. Night mode is almost mandatory here, dramatically improving sharpness, reducing blotchy noise, and rescuing shadows. At this level, having usable 10x optical at night is still rare.
Portrait mode works at 1x and 3x. Subject separation is excellent, and the simulated bokeh looks natural. The 1x portraits are technically higher quality but give you the usual wide‑angle facial distortion; the 3x shots look more natural for faces and are the better choice in good light.
The 40MP selfie camera is a highlight. Binned 10MP selfies have wide dynamic range, realistic skin tones, and plenty of detail, with some fine‑grained noise if you zoom in. Portrait mode again does a very solid job on separation. In low light, the 40MP mode becomes pointless noise, but the standard binned mode with or without Night mode keeps selfies usable; forcing Night mode mainly adds sharpening and cleans up grain.
Video: 4K Everywhere, 8K Still Feels Like a Checkbox
The S22 Ultra can shoot 4K60 on all five cameras and 8K24 on the main. Stabilization works across modes, with optional Super Steady at 1080p using the ultrawide (and disabling AF).
8K remains a specSheet tick. Clips are soft, heavily artifacted, and locked at 24fps with HEVC encoding around 80Mbps. There’s not enough real‑world benefit to justify the storage hit.
4K is where the phone actually delivers. Main‑camera 4K30 (about 48Mbps) is detailed and sharp with excellent dynamic range and accurate colors. 4K60 (~70Mbps) holds most of that detail with only a minor hit. The ultrawide is also strong, though it leans a bit warmer with cyan‑ish skies compared to the main sensor.
The 3x tele in 4K produces sharp, detailed, and well‑exposed footage with only slightly visible noise. The 10x periscope is softer under scrutiny but still respectable, and frankly, everyone else is either cropping or not even trying at true 4K 10x.
In low light, the main camera keeps detail reasonably high, though dynamic range can’t fully avoid clipped lights and deep shadows in very tough scenes. The ultrawide and both teles struggle much more, with the ultrawide especially turning mushy and underexposed unless lighting is generous.
Stabilization is generally very good, smoothing out walking and hand shake. One odd quirk: when panning, the phone sometimes overshoots and then nudges back a few degrees, which looks like an over‑aggressive EIS algorithm trying to be clever. It’s exactly the kind of thing a firmware update should fix, but as of now, it’s there.
Selfie video looks clean and sharp, and stabilization works, but enabling it crops the field of view down so much that you either need long arms or a selfie stick to keep your head framed comfortably.
S21 Ultra, Note20 Ultra & the Competition: Who Should Upgrade?
Internally, Samsung’s biggest competition for the S22 Ultra is Samsung.
Compared to the Note20 Ultra, this is a no‑brainer upgrade: newer SoC, better camera hardware across the board, brighter screen, bigger battery, stronger low‑light imaging, and crucially, the same integrated S Pen experience. A 2020 Note with an older chip and dated camera stack doesn’t make sense to buy new in 2022.
Against the S21 Ultra, it’s murkier. Camera hardware is mostly the same or, in the case of the teles, slightly worse on paper. In real‑world stills, the S22 Ultra is sometimes noisier but also sharper, and its 3x tele is cleaner while low‑light main camera video is improved. You also get the in‑body S Pen instead of having to carry a separate stylus.
On the flip side, if you don’t care about S Pen storage, the S21 Ultra is still a great camera phone and feels less compromised once you factor in that annoying 128GB base on the S22 Ultra. You may be better off grabbing a discounted S21 Ultra unless you’re a stylus diehard.
Outside Samsung’s world, obvious like‑for‑like alternatives barely exist. There’s no Google, Apple, or Xiaomi flagship that gives you an in‑body stylus, high‑end camera hardware, and a conventional slab form factor. The closest Samsung rival is actually the Galaxy Z Fold3 with its larger productivity canvas and optional S Pen, but it can’t match the S22 Ultra’s camera versatility.
Verdict: The Ultimate Galaxy, With Familiar Samsung Annoyances
The Galaxy S22 Ultra is the Note resurrection a lot of people wanted, just under a different label. You get:
– One of the brightest, best‑tuned OLED displays on any phone.
– A truly integrated S Pen with near‑instant handwriting, Air actions, and deep software hooks.
– A flexible quad‑camera system with genuine 10x optical reach and excellent low‑light capability.
– Strong overall performance and stable thermals.
– Solid battery life, wireless charging, and all the expected Samsung ecosystem extras.
And you also get the usual Samsung contradictions:
– A hyped 45W charging spec that behaves like 25W.
– 128GB base storage on a premium productivity device with no microSD.
– Camera tuning that still leans noisy and over‑processed in some scenarios, especially versus its own older firmware on S21 Ultra.
– Speakers that don’t match the rest of the hardware’s ambitions.
If you want a modern Note with zero real competition, the S22 Ultra is exactly that and it’s easy to recommend. If you don’t care about the S Pen, you should be doing the math on whether a cheaper S21 Ultra (or other rivals) makes more sense than paying full price for Samsung’s everything‑phone with a few too many asterisks.
Stay tuned to IntoDroid for more Android updates.