Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra long-term review

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Introduction

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is an important phone. It's Samsung's flagship and its best smartphone in a conventional form factor. It arrives early each year and its sets the standard against which the entire Samsung device range, and most of the smartphone market, is judged.

Traditionally, this is the phone with Samsung's best display, best cameras, fastest chip, and the springboard for much of its software development. We say "traditionally", because with the Galaxy Z Fold now in its fourth generation, there has been some not-so-subtle shift in focus. The Galaxy Z Fold4 is Samsung's biggest flagship, screen-wise, and it's the platform where Samsung's software innovations are most seen.

But some things have stayed the same. If you want Samsung's best cameraphone, it's the Galaxy S22 Ultra. The same goes for premium construction and battery life.

On the surface, little has changed in the Galaxy S21 Ultra formula when producing the Galaxy S22 Ultra. The new phone has a built-in S Pen along with the Note's traditionally simple and, personally, boring design. The good thing is Samsung has kept what made the Galaxy S21 Ultra so great - the 5,000mAh battery didn't suffer a reduction in order to accommodate the pen, and the superb display and excellent cameras are all here. Those cameras are generally unchanged, software and slight sensor tweaks aside. And it seems that will be the plan in 2023 - if it ain't broke and all that.

This is the time to mention that this reviewer has used the Galaxy S21 Ultra for most of 2021 and early 2022 until he got his hands on the Exynos-powered Galaxy S22 Ultra. A Galaxy Ultra veteran of sorts, he's not someone to fall for the trap of sticking to what he knows best. He's been constantly tempted by the best smartphones on the market but has stuck with the Galaxy S22 Ultra throughout 2022. Well, mostly, we don't count cheat weeks, right?

We can confidently say that the Galaxy S22 Ultra is the best all-around smartphone on the planet (the foldables being a category of their own). It's a multimedia consumption powerhouse with the best screen on a phone and excellent speakers. It has the most versatile camera system with two zoom cameras, an autofocusing selfie and ultrawide camera, superb output, and a clever built-in remote shutter (the pen). It's built to the highest standard, has great battery life, and its software support is robust, what else is there?

You'll hardly find a smartphone that's better as an overall package, let alone another, with the specific set of skills the Galaxy S22 Ultra possesses.

Samsung has the jumbo-sized flagship segment locked down for at least another twelve months but it still innovates with every Ultra. The Galaxy S21 Ultra was a perfection of the stellar S20 Ultra formula, now the S22 Ultra is the epitome of it. Who could've guessed that merging the S with the Note would be a great move? Clearly, Samsung. And in a couple of months, the Galaxy S23 Ultra will be that little bit better here and there. Or a lot better everywhere? Here's hoping.

But that's still a few months away, so let's get back to the Galaxy S22 Ultra. How has it held up? Is it still worth it in late 2022? Yes, keep reading to find out.