In comparison to the flashy and feature-rich S22 Ultra and the tiny and reasonably priced S22, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus will find it difficult to gain any traction. Perhaps it doesn’t deserve to either because its high price isn’t really justified by helpful features like its potent processor, photography settings, and attractive aesthetic. Its layout doesn’t feel natural in the hand, and the software runs more slowly than on competing phones.
Review of the Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus: Design
Let’s start by stating the obvious. With the exception of the camera module being the same color as the body, the Galaxy S22 Plus resembles the Galaxy S21 Plus from a year ago in appearance. It has the same impact as what you saw with the Galaxy S21 FE. The camera contour area for the S21 Plus was a different color.
The Galaxy S22 Plus has a very recognizable front design once more. The flat display is surrounded by a body-colored frame with thin bezels on all sides. The only feature that deviates from the phone’s all-display appearance is a hole-punch cutout for the front-facing camera.
The metal rear of the Galaxy S22 Plus feels incredibly smooth to the touch without being overly slippery. One year after its debut, the contour cut design, in which the camera module blends in perfectly with the frame, still looks good. Samsung used an aluminum material that is reflective on the edges, yet it is surprisingly gripping.
In a nutshell, the Galaxy S22 Plus is monotonous—but in the nicest possible manner. Samsung made the decision to remain with the design it started last year and reserve the Galaxy S22 Ultra for its full visual potential.
Review of the Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus: Cost and Availability
Right now, you can purchase the Galaxy S22 Plus for $999. It is available in the hues black, white, green, pink gold, and there are also online-only alternatives in cream, sky blue, violet, and graphite.
The greatest Galaxy S22 offers, including discounts for the Galaxy S22 Plus, are being tracked by us.
The Galaxy S22 Plus is in the awkward position of immediately competing with the similarly priced iPhone 13 Pro at $999 and rising up to $1,049 in pricing. For more information on that, see our comparison of the iPhone 13 Pro vs. Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus.
Moreover, the S22 Plus costs $100 more than the very good Google Pixel 6 Pro, which retails for $899. Yet even if the Pixel 7 Pro costs the same as its predecessor, Samsung’s phone is still $100 more expensive.
You may purchase a Galaxy S22 Plus by walking into any electronics or carrier store because Samsung has practically the same retail footprint as Apple. For some Android smartphones, this is not entirely accurate. There are many alternatives available to you now that preorders have started, whether you want to take advantage of the Samsung.com pre-order bonuses, exclusive colors, or buy a device on a carrier payment plan.
Display
Samsung’s Galaxy S handsets once set the standard for gorgeous displays in the industry. We don’t think the S22 Plus warrants this moniker, even though the S22 Ultra gets to keep it. The display doesn’t seem horrible, but it doesn’t stand out from the competition.
A relatively small punch-hole cut-out for the front-facing camera divides the screen’s 6.6-inch width, which is 0.1 inches less than that of the S21 Plus. The display’s bezel is relatively thin.
The S22 Plus features a resolution of 1080 x 2340 (or FHD+), which is the same as most Android phones save for those that are either cheap or extremely expensive. Given its price, we would have assumed the Plus belongs to the latter group. We would have preferred to see a screen with a resolution similar to the 1440 x 3088 found on the Ultra.
Nonetheless, FHD+ is sufficient for the majority of work since only a few streaming services or games provide content with a higher resolution. Also, the refresh rate is 120Hz, so while you’re playing games or navigating menus, motion appears to be rather fluid.
The S22 Plus excels in other display categories, despite the resolution being quite mediocre. It has a maximum brightness of 1,750 nits, which is extremely bright, and an amazing contrast ratio due to the AMOLED screen.
Cameras
The Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus has the same four cameras as its non-Plus counterpart: a 50MP main camera with an aperture of f/1.8, a 12MP ultrawide camera with an aperture of f/2.2, a 10MP telephoto lens with an aperture of f/2.4 for 3x optical zoom, and a 10MP front-facing camera on the other side.
Just the ultra-wide and front-facing sensors are same in that camera setup, which is somewhat of a remix of the S21’s sensors. The big difference is the upgrade from a 12MP to a 50MP main camera.
This improvement is appreciated since the 50MP sensor’sees’ more light due to its size, producing brighter photographs and more brilliant colors. This is especially important for low-light photography because it allowed us to take some photos at night that looked unexpectedly bright, but it also enhances color contrast during the day.
The S22 Plus’s limited zoom range—its maximum digital zoom is only 30x here—means that it lacks some of the photography versatility of its Ultra sister. Yet, some of its best features are also present, most notably Samsung’s amazing Portrait mode, which is unmatched at isolating a subject, incorporating gorgeous “Bokeh” background blur, and allowing you to add a variety of effects to the picture.
The rear trio functions nicely as a unit; switching between ultra-wide, regular, and zoom modes in the camera app is easy, and shots taken have their original color profile. We had to specifically seek for this in order to notice that the ultra-wide images were somewhat but not significantly distorted.
Dimensions and performance
The Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus has two different identities when it comes to performance: throughout most of the world, it has Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, but in Europe, it has Samsung’s Exynos 2200. Performance-wise, they are approximately comparable, while Qualcomm’s chip typically outperforms Samsung’s by a small margin.
We utilized the Exynos-powered phone for our complete assessment, and it performed nicely. The smartphone scored 3,431 on the Geekbench 5 multi-core benchmark test that we ran on it. The Xiaomi Mi 11, Realme GT, OnePlus 9, and ZTE Axon 30 Ultra all outperformed that number, which is quite high and among the highest we’ve seen on a Samsung phone. All of those devices make use of the Snapdragon 888, which was the model before the 8 Gen 1, which suggests that the Exynos chip is marginally less powerful.
