Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus: Detailed Review & Specs

Samsung Galaxy S22 and Samsung Galaxy S22+ are two of the most anticipated smartphones of 2022, products with the arduous task of being able to do, better than the excellent Galaxy S21 that dominated the mobile market last year. Thanks to their dualism they try to respond to different needs of the market compared to Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra oriented to those looking for something more compact but without qualitative sacrifices in terms of performance and functionality.

Samsung Galaxy S22 and S22+ are in fact the same phone and only differ exclusively in size and those components that depend on them: display and battery. In this review, we tested and took our notes for everything you need to know before buying this smartphone.

Galaxy S22 Plus: Pros and Cons

Pros

• Excellent build quality
• Excellent display
• Good cameras
• Complete and updated software,

Cons

• Only fair battery life
• Non-expandable memory
• High price
• Power supply included on Amazon only

Design

Samsung Galaxy S22 + aesthetically very reminiscent of the model of the previous year, with the photo module protruding flush with the corner. But in reality the refinement work has been remarkable.

The back (and also the front) is now completely flat with a satin glass back that is very pleasant to the touch and does not retain fingerprints at all. The shiny metal profile, on the other hand, has been made  slightly less rounded.

Holding this Galaxy S22 + in your hand brings to mind, like it or not, the feeling quality of holding an iPhone 13 Pro in your hand (which, however, is made of steel). The care that Samsung has put into this smartphone is currently unattained in our judgment in the rest of the Android landscape.

And it did so without changing the identity of the phone (as it did for the S22 Ultra). In addition, the smartphone remains waterproof according to the IP68 standard. The dimensions are generous but the spaces are exploited to the fullest: so much that they even managed to make the front part symmetrical.

Performance & Hardware

The hardware of this smartphone is truly top of the range. We have the Exynos 2200 octa core 2.8 GHz 4 nanometer processor and with Xclipse 920 graphics processor in collaboration with AMD. The RAM amounts to 8 GB and we have 128 or 256 GB of internal memory, albeit not expandable. The phones comes with Snapdragon processor in some countries. 

The performance of the smartphone is excellent and the whole smartphone runs lightning fast. This shows us once again the excellent work Samsung has done on both the CPU and software updates. Compared to the launch, in fact, now the problems with various apps and games seem to have largely disappeared.

The only slightly out of tune note is on long-term performance: the smartphone suffers a little from thermal throttling, lowering performance and heating the body a little. This also has repercussions on autonomy.

Excellent connectivity: 5G, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, video output via USB-C 3.2 port and also full support for eSIMs. Vibration is also excellent and ultrawideband support is also present and we find the ultrasonic fingerprint reader in the display: very precise and fast enough.

As always, the audio jack for headphones is missing. Very good stereo sound (guaranteed by the speaker and the earbuds), made in collaboration with AKG.

Camera

Samsung Galaxy S22 + does not offer particular novelties in the photographic field, inheriting the good things seen last year.

• We have an optically stabilized 50 megapixel ƒ / 1.8 main camera,
• a 12 megapixel ƒ / 2.2 wide-angle camera 
• a stabilized 10 megapixel ƒ / 2.4 3x optical zoom.

This is a great photo kit that outperforms many of the premium competitors in specs (and results too). The photos taken are sharp, with well-balanced colors, excellent light management and shooting is simple and easy thanks to the good software and excellent focus.

The front camera also does well even if it stops at only 10 megapixels (ƒ / 2.2). Even if there are therefore no significant changes, the results remain absolutely up to (high) expectations. Also good for night shots, even without having to resort to the specific mode.

The videos in 4K at 60fps are also good, even if you have to go down to 30fps to have the best stabilization and also to be able to take advantage of the possibility of changing cameras during recording. You can still record videos in 8K at 24fps, with a smaller crop than last year’s phones.

We will add the pictures taken by this phone here soon…

Display

Galaxy S22 Plus from Samsung is equipped with a 6.7-inch diagonal panel with FullHD + resolution (1080 x 2340 pixels) and made in Dynamic AMOLED technology.

It is not LTPO but it still has a variable refresh rate, even if “only” between 48 and 120 Hz. The screen supports HDR10 +, has a peak brightness of 1,750 nits and is protected by a Gorilla Glass Victus +.

Many will be happy to find that the screen is completely flat (it doesn’t even have the slight curvature at the edges of the 2.5D glass). A basically near-perfect screen.

Software

Inside the Plus variant of S22 we find Android 12 updated at the moment with the patches of July 2022 and with the One UI 4.1. This smartphone is the maximum expression of the commitment that Samsung has wanted to put into the updates of its software.

In fact, the phone is constantly updated, even quickly and will be for 5 years, with 4 new software versions (yes, so up to Android 16!). No one in the Android world has put such a commitment into their business plan, not even Google.

In addition, the company has also shown that it can work on its problems, although it is never nice to launch a “beta” software on a phone for sale.

Among the more advanced features we have the Samsung DeX desktop mode, Android 12 themes, the ability to force all apps into multiwindows (yes, even Instagram) and the Game Launcher.

There is no shortage of support for double accounts, the sidebar for shortcuts and also the optimization of social software to make the most of the camera, even if at the moment we started only from Snapchat.

Battery

Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus is equipped with a 4,500 mAh battery, large but not huge considering the size.

This battery guarantees about a day of autonomy with average use, but you will need another charge before dinner in case of a particularly stressful day. Fortunately, we find support for 45W charging and 15W wireless charging. Present once again the reverse wireless charging.

Box Contents

Once again, the S22 + package certainly does not surprise positively, containing only the USB-C / USB-C cable. However, if you buy S22 + on Amazon you will also have the power supply for free.

Galaxy S22 Plus: Price

• Samsung Galaxy S22 + is offered at an average price of €1000 in Europe.
• The average price of S22 Plus in USA is around $800 for now.
• The Average Price in UK is £830.

These are very important figures and which at the moment, given the low discount with which it is possible to find them online, are also difficult to justify.

With a few hundred euros discount they could certainly become much more attractive. Keep checking the Amazon boxes below for any discounts. On Amazon you will also receive the charger for free.

Current Best Price on Amazon: $899.99

View on Amazon

Price History on Amazon

Galaxy S22 Plus: Conclusion

Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus is not a huge upgrade compared to the S21 +. However, it has its own interpretation given that we very much appreciated the huge step forward in build quality, while keeping the design almost unchanged.

And the improvements are all excellent: camera, display and software. The new processor has also benefited from the latest updates. Beside that the phone has less autonomy, which may not be enough for some users.

Galaxy S22 Plus: Specs