For several years, Samsung has been offering smartphones ever closer to excellence. For his return, the Korean here offers us the Samsung Galaxy S22, a product that combines beauty and capacity. However, is this compact successful? We will see that in this full review.
Summary
Design: A 10/10?
In terms of hardware, as we have known for many years, Samsung is clearly one of the best manufacturers on the market. However, today, you should know that the S22 has reached a first maturity in terms of design and construction. In effect, the Samsung Galaxy S22 is a nugget in terms of design, with impressive quality ergonomics, beauty in the positive sense of the word, borders measuring the same size, but also an incomparable grip. In short, it must be said, but here, Samsung clearly has the right recipe for what is best today.
The back of the smartphone in terms of rendering is just perfect. The photo block is visible, of course, but perfectly integrated. Everything is perfectly aligned, with attention to detail. The color we have is obviously also very successful, with a pink tone that is very pleasing to the eye. In addition, fingerprints are only slightly visible, because, for having used the smartphone without a shell, here, Samsung offers something solid and not very dirty. A good mix between ergonomics, beauty, and practicality.
Let’s move on to the front of the phone. As said above, we have ultra-thin borders, the same size, with a superb bright OLED screen whatever the situation. The Galaxy S22 owes its compact size, or almost, to a 6.1-inch screen, smaller than that of the Galaxy S21. It retains the main of its characteristics, namely a Full HD+ definition (1080 x 2340 pixels) giving it a high resolution of 425 dpi, and AMOLED technology with a refresh rate varying from 48 Hz to 120 Hz. In reality, it is difficult to reproach this screen for anything, since here, the latter is clearly fair perfect.
In short, in terms of design, this Samsung Galaxy S22 deserves the score of 10/10 very clearly, with just perfection for a price of less than 1,000 euros.
Software: Samsung close to perfect
Now let’s move on to the software part of the Galaxy S22. Here, the smartphone runs Android 12, the lareview update from Google, with the One UI overlay, in version 4. We’ll be clear, the experience isn’t revolutionary compared to the previous version of One UI, but here Samsung is really approaching perfection with this software.
In terms of the graphic charter, it is clearly different and very personalized. Indeed, here, for years, Samsung really offers us a unique experience based on what Google offers, but with an identity made in Samsung. Clearly, this changes from what we can see from the competition, which sometimes takes up ideas from Apple. Samsung here really offers a unique experience.
One UI 4 is a very pleasant overlay, easy to handle. What’s more, Android 12 details seem perfectly integrated. However, we had some small graphic bugs, linked to the presence of the Exynos 2200 which heats up quickly and gives some small frustrations with this software.
Performances: First disappointment?
To answer the question, yes, the performance part of this phone is a first disappointment. The classic Samsung Galaxy S22 embeds like its big brothers the SoC Exynos 2200 engraved in 4 nm in Europe with its new Xclipse 920 GPU developed by AMD under RDNA 2 architecture.
Clearly here, as soon as performance is requested, the Galaxy S22 proves to be disappointing, with even graphic bugs and slowdowns during gaming sessions. In addition, here, the Samsung compact does not support keeping too many applications in the background… Really a shame for a smartphone at this price to have such disappointing performance in use. We let you imagine that for the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra.
Photo and video: The best on Android!
The Samsung Galaxy S22 relies here on a 50 megapixel main sensor with wide-angle optics (f/1.8, equivalent to 24 mm, OIS), on a 12 Mpx module with ultra wide-angle (f/2.2, 13 mm) and a 10 Mpx module with telephoto lens (f/2.4, 70mm equivalent) offering 3x magnification.
What does this actually mean? Clearly successful photos, even if obviously it’s not perfect. However, for a smartphone it is difficult to fault anything, because really here the shots are successful in most situations.
In more complex conditions, the Samsung S22 is a smartphone that performs admirably, even if ultimately we see the limits of a smartphone indirectly.
In terms of video, Samsung is clearly the best on Android. Indeed, whether in terms of stabilization, image quality, colorimetry, Samsung is clearly the competitor to Apple in terms of video.
If you want more information about the photo, we have published the Galaxy S22 Plus review.
Battery: The weakness of the smartphone
The Samsung Galaxy S22 incorporates a 3700 mAh battery. Or 300 mAh less than the Galaxy S21. This therefore corresponds to a reduction of 10%. So yes, the smartphone is lighter, but the battery is really not impressive, at least if we analyze this with the overall market. In the context of compact smartphones, autonomy remains passable.
With the Samsung Galaxy S22, let’s say that with classic uses, the smartphone will last a day of use. However, if you are looking for a minimum in performance, you will need to recharge your smartphone around 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. In addition, the 25W charge lacks a bit of speed in certain situations.
Clearly, here, for a compact smartphone, autonomy remains the main concession that the user must make, especially since in the medium term, we have some doubts. However, during our review period, we found the autonomy to be correct, excluding the first week of course.
Conclusion of the review
The Samsung Galaxy S22 is in our opinion one of the best compact smartphones today. Indirect competitor to the iPhone 13, it remains today really good for its price, with top photos and videos, a just perfect design and an excellent software part. Despite the fact that the battery life is average, we especially regret the Exynos 2200 which soils Samsung’s beautiful copy.
The notes
- Design: 10/10
- Software: 9/10
- Performance: 6/10
- Photo and video: 9/10
- Battery: 7/10
The note of the Galaxy S22:
