Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Review | Three Months Later...

Samsung's Galaxy S22 Ultra is one of the biggest smartphones of 2022 so far in terms of the sheer amount of exposure it's received, as well as—well, I mean, just look at it—it's an absolute bloody heifer. It's also one of the best smartphone selections around if you want to get rid of all of that pesky cash stuff clogging up your wallet, as it costs a whopping £1,200. In return you'll get one seriously stacked camera setup plus a hot bit of S Pen action (that's S Pen, most definitely not pen-S—I've made that mistake a few times before).

I've had the S22 Ultra for a while now, but I finally managed to slap my SIM in there full-time for the last fortnight while I was away buggering about in Disney World of all places, just to really get to grips with it. So here's my in-depth Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra review.

Design & Build

After all this time I'm still not in love with how the S22 Ultra actually looks. Samsung's design is kind of plain and boring compared with some rivals like the Oppo Find X5 Pro, not to mention very similar to last year's effort. Trying to use the S22 Ultra one-handed is about as easy as convincing a pissed-off grizzly bear to wear a tutu—it's flipping enormous and it's really slippery bugger as well. The only reason I haven't dropped this thing multiple times already is because every time I use it I clutch it in this kind of killer death grip like it's some sort of live hand grenade.

This thing has got a proper heft to it as well, so I certainly get a bit of arm fatigue when I'm reclining in bed holding it up above my head. Still, even when I'm clutching this phone real tight I've had absolutely no issues at all with palm intrusion despite the fact that screen curves around the edges. The S22 Ultra is proven to be a proper hard bastard as well: you've got Gorilla Glass Victus front and back and a toughened metallic edge sandwiched between them, and after months of use it's still in basically perfect nick. You've got full IP68 water and dust resistance as well, so I've had this thing with me in a swimming pool—absolutely no issues whatsoever.

Software & S Pen

The S22 Ultra sports a similar One UI experience to the rest of Samsung's 2022 smartphones, complete with top-notch security and the added peace of mind that comes from regular guaranteed updates. One UI has generally been pretty well behaved here on the Ultra, although I have noticed a couple of weird little quirks creeping in every now and then—one of the most unusual of these is a rogue secondary shutter button which seems to enjoy meandering its way lazily around the camera app for no good reason.

The major difference with the Ultra versus the rest of the Galaxy S22 family is the inclusion of that S Pen, formerly reserved for Samsung's Note series. This is squirreled away in a handy little housing down below—dead easy to yank out; give it a little push and it will pop out of that bottom orifice. I find that it's really comfortable to use despite the dinky dimensions, and sketching on that screen is just as responsive as if you were sketching on paper with a pen.

Display & Audio

The display itself is a Dynamic AMOLED panel that's not far off seven whole inches, and frankly it is a bit of a stunner. I've happily watched entire feature-length movies on this thing while traveling and constantly been impressed by the smooth, sharp visuals. The stereo speaker setup is absolutely fine if you just want to kick back with some Netflix; if you do want to enjoy some music you'd want to get some headphones involved—there's no headphone jack, but the Bluetooth streaming support is absolutely flawless.

Performance & Gaming

Here in Blighty the S22 Ultra is powered by Samsung's very own Exynos 2200 chipset. The everyday running has been almost flawless here on the Ultra over the last few months—do you see the occasional little issue, such as a YouTube video where the picture might freeze while the audio continues in the background for a second or so, but generally everything runs just as you would expect. The Ultra can deal with Genshin Impact and other hyper-demanding Android games even when you boost the graphics up to the very top levels, and when I was playing for an hour or two the smartphone did not get particularly hot either.

Battery Life

Samsung has found space for a 5,000 mAh battery—one of the biggest among flagship smartphones. While the standard-size Galaxy S22 suffered from frankly waffle battery life, no such issues here on the S22 Ultra: I managed to get around five to six hours of screen-on time reliably every single day, only a couple of times having to top it up before I finally stumbled unconscious into bed. When it comes to actually recharging, it ain't exactly super nippy compared with a lot of the Chinese competition, but you do get the extra flexibility of wireless charging support.

Cameras

If you want a reliable point-and-shoot setup, well, this is one of the best around right now, churning out gorgeous photos nine times out of ten with little real effort. Indoor shots can certainly still look a little soft and warm unless the lighting is particularly good, and any flapping can really flummox this phone. At night the Ultra really excels compared with many rivals—only the very best phones like the Oppo Find X5 Pro and the Pixel 6 can replicate a scene so vividly with so little light to work with.

Zoom & Special Modes

The real reason to get the Ultra over other Samsung smartphones is the ridiculous Space Zoom: up to around the 30× zoom mark you'll still get sharp, detailed shots, which is an absolute godsend when you're trying to snap wildlife or kids without intruding on the action. Samsung has piled a ton of bonus camera modes into the Ultra, including a Food mode, Portrait mode, and my personal favorite—Single Take mode, which spits out a whole bunch of quirky photos and video clips captured over a short time frame.

Video & Selfies

I also highly rate the Samsung S22 Ultra when it comes to home movies: that stabilization is fantastic even at 4K resolution. Shooting video at night isn't much of a problem either—things can get a bit grainy but no worse than with many other handsets, and audio pickup is just as good. The selfie shooter does a decent job too; this can handle strong lighting without having a breakdown, while the view can be expanded if you want to fit in more mates or more background action. You can shoot video using that front-facing camera up to 4K resolution at 30 or 60 frames per second.

Verdict

That right there is what I think of the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra after using it full-time as my smartphone for two weeks and having used it on and off for the past three months. The major drawback for me is definitely just how bloody big and cumbersome it can be—that's just a personal thing; I prefer more compact, more easy-to-manage handsets. But if you want a whopper and money is no object, well, the S22 Ultra packs some pretty bloody good specs and features. Personally I think I'd rather go with a Pixel 6 or an Oppo Find X5 Pro, but what about you guys—have you been using the S22 Ultra full-time as your handset?