With the Galaxy S22 launch right around the corner, leakers have been hard at work sourcing the last tidbits of information about Samsung's upcoming smartphones. As is the case with every major Samsung release, we know most of what there is to know about the Galaxy S22, Galaxy S22+ and Galaxy S22 Ultra. A leak from earlier today talked about how much the three phones will cost in Europe.
Is the Galaxy S22 series worth your hard-earned money or is it an overpriced hunk of semiconductors? Let's weigh both sides of the argument.
The Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 are a tad expensive, but that's ok
With a marginal €50 price increase over the Galaxy S21, the Galaxy S22 is a good phone for someone who wants the quintessential Samsung flagship experience without spending a lot of money.
Not only does it offer better cameras than the Galaxy S21, but also an upgraded chassis and an AMD Radeon GPU in certain markets. On the other hand, its puny 3,700mAh battery could leave a lot of users scrambling for their power banks/chargers halfway through the day with its 120Hz screen and 5G modem.
For €200 extra, you get a slightly better battery and a large screen in the form of the Galaxy S22+. The display and camera specs on both phones are rumoured to be identical, although the Plus variant could offer a few extra goodies cut down from the base model. This is the sweet spot for most regular users now that €1,000 smartphones have become the norm.
The Galaxy S22 Ultra's price tag is ultra-annoying
As mentioned earlier, the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+ offer meaningful upgrades over their previous-generation counterparts. The Galaxy S22 Ultra, on the other hand, literally recycles the Galaxy S21 Ultra's hardware and slaps a €1,249 price sticker on it. The base Galaxy S22 Ultra will ship with only 8GB of RAM. but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.
To begin with, 8GB is a perfectly acceptable amount of system memory for any smartphone launched in 2022. Realistically speaking one does not need more than that for most daily apps and even demanding games. Ideally, the Galaxy S22 series should let users add ‘virtual' RAM via One UI 4.1, but the use cases which require more than 8GB of RAM on a smartphone are minimal. We also have to remember that there's a global component shortage going on, which may have forced Samsung to cut down the amount of RAM it can offer on the Galaxy S22 Ultra.
The lack of hardware upgrades on the Galaxy S22 Ultra makes it unattractive for Galaxy S21 Ultra owners, who would be much better off waiting for the One UI 4.1 update to get most of its new software features. That's pretty much all the Galaxy S22 Ultra has to offer, other than a newer chipset and a slightly better screen.
We're yet to see any mentions of the 1TB Galaxy S22 Ultra variant anywhere after we exclusively reported on it. That, combined with 16GB of RAM, could come with a stupidly expensive price tag, but the extra storage could come in handy for photo/video enthusiasts who want to take advantage of the phone's 108MP camera and 8K recording capabilities.
Besides, Apple sells iPhones with 1TB storage so there's every reason for Samsung to follow suit.
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