It's been a couple of months since the Galaxy S22 Ultra became the daily driver for a few members of the SamMobile team, and today, we're taking a look back at our time spent with Samsung's latest flagship. How is the Galaxy S22 Ultra, now that the honeymoon period is over? Does the new S Pen Galaxy flagship hold up to our positive first impressions? You can find out more in our Galaxy S22 Ultra 2-month review video below (or keep reading for a taste).
The one issue with the Galaxy S22 Ultra — and the rest of the S22 series — is that the Snapdragon vs. Exynos debate continues, and for good reasons. Your mileage may vary, but the Exynos-powered Galaxy S22 series has had some optimization issues, and although it's come a long way over the past few months, it's not perfect. Nevertheless, our Galaxy S22 Ultra performed admirably whenever the underlying firmware issues didn't crop up.
The display and cameras are brilliant, but the camera UI could use a bit of tweaking for a more cohesive experience. And it is somewhat annoying that you can't switch between all three rear cameras when recording 4K@60fps videos (like you can in 4K@30fps).
Beyond these couple of small issues, the Galaxy S22 Ultra camera system is otherwise excellent. As our YouTube host, Ben, explained in the latest video: “it's the equivalent of carrying a swiss army knife because it can handle just about any situation you throw at it.”
The Galaxy S22 Ultra still feels like a Galaxy Note
One UI 4.1 offered a great overall experience on the Galaxy S22 Ultra over the past couple of months. Although once again, we have to mention that it hasn't been perfect for everyone, and some nagging software issues led to a few occasional performance and stability hiccups. Thankfully, Samsung continues releasing new firmware updates every month, and things have improved.
But let's get back to the hardware itself, and more specifically, the design. Our opinions haven't changed much on this front, and the Galaxy S22 Ultra still feels like a proper Galaxy Note flagship rather than the top of the Galaxy S like. The S Pen's performance is excellent, and the S Pen software suite is as solid as ever.
Even though many of us prefer the flat display design of the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+, the S Pen remains a must-have feature for millions of Samsung customers who will look past (or won't care about) the curved display edges of the Ultra model. Ultimately, if you are searching for an updated Note-like experience, the Galaxy S22 Ultra still feels like the answer, two months after release. It's the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra sequel we didn't get last year.
We discuss other interesting aspects of the Galaxy S22 Ultra in our 2-month review video below, so make sure you don't miss out, and stay tuned for more Samsung device reviews.
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