Expert review Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra

The box of the Samsung S22 Ultra is relatively small. That's because Samsung doesn't include a charger with this device. When I open the box, I notice right away that the design of the S22 Ultra is similar to older smartphones from the Samsung Note series. The device is very large and angular. In addition, there's an S Pen stylus in the smartphone. This pen was also characteristic of the Note series. There's no camera island, which I happen to like. This way, there's no huge block on the back of the smartphone.

I'm very impressed by the cameras of the Samsung S22 Ultra. I can even say that these are the best cameras I've seen on a smartphone so far. This is mostly because of the dual telephoto lens and night mode on each lens. The standard lens, wide-angle lens, and both telephoto lenses allow me to zoom in 10 times without my photos and videos losing sharpness. You can read more about the cameras in our camera review.

The Samsung S22 Ultra is the first Galaxy S smartphone that includes an S Pen stylus by default. I notice that I rarely use this pen at home. I do think the S Pen is useful to take quick notes at work. The note window opens right away when I take the S Pen out of the notch. I don't even have to unlock it. I can also use the button on the S Pen to take photos from a distance. That's useful if you place the S22 on a tripod, for example.

if I set the screen settings to the maximum setting, the battery life is disappointing. With the resolution set to Quad HD and the motion smoothness to 'Adjustable', I have to charge the S22 Ultra halfway through the day. If I set the resolution to Full HD and set the motion smoothness to 'Standard', the battery lasts about 1 day. This is a big difference. Samsung doesn't include a charger, so I use my own Samsung 25W charger. This allows me to fully charge the device in about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

On the razor-sharp screen of the S22 Ultra, I can see every detail when I watch a movie. In addition, the colors really pop on the screen. The S22 Ultra is a large device. This is very nice to watch a video or play a game, but it also makes the device difficult to control with 1 hand. The devices sticks out of mu pocket, and I briefly lost the smartphone because it fell out of my sweatpants on the way to the squash hall. So in terms of size, this device has advantages and disadvantages.

In terms of speed, the Samsung S22 Ultra performs exactly the way you expect a high-end smartphone to. During the week I tested the smartphone, not once was I bothered by it slowing down. I can smoothly switch between various apps. In addition, the device easily runs apps like Photoshop or 3D games.