Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus Impressions: Nothing Major to Complain—Yet!

Samsung this year launched the Samsung Galaxy S22 series, its flagship non-foldable series. Like last year, the series includes three devices: the Galaxy S22, the Galaxy S22+, and the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus price in Nepal is Rs. 1,29,999 (8/256GB).

Although the S22 Ultra, the star of the series, has all the bells and whistles, the regular S22 and the S22+ are the ones that will reach the bulk of consumers. The reason for this is simple: the S22 and S22+ are less expensive while still offering all of the flagship features.

I have been using the Samsung Galaxy S22+ for the last few days and here are my impressions of the device.

Samsung Galaxy S22+ Impression

Design

• 157.4 x 75.8 x 7.6 mm
• 195 g
• IP68 dust/water resistant
• Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+

At first glance, the Samsung Galaxy S22+ appears to be the same as last year’s Samsung Galaxy S21+, with its signature Countour-Cut design that blends the metal island of the rear camera into the phone’s frame.

But it feels different when you’re holding the S22+ in your hands.

It’s very boxy and the frame is no longer curved; the sides are also flat, and you can feel the sharp edges when holding it.

It’s also slightly smaller in height than the S21+.

The other difference you’ll notice on the S22+ is on the back. Instead of plastic, the S22 series now has a glass back, namely Gorilla Glass Victus+, making it the first smartphone (along with the Galaxy S22 and the Galaxy S22 Ultra) to use that material.

Moving on, it still retains the IP68 rating against dust and water. Both the power and volume buttons are located on the right side, as before. However, they are placed a little lower than before.

On the front, the bezels are even smaller, notably the bottom one, making it more symmetrical.

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Display

• 6.6 inches Dynamic AMOLED 2X
• 120Hz
• 1080 x 2340 pixels
• 1750 nits (peak)
• HDR10+
• Gorilla Glass Victus+

The Samsung Galaxy S22+ has a 6.6-inch display, which is slightly smaller than its predecessor. It has an AMOLED display with an FHD+ resolution.

Samsung says the peak brightness of the Galaxy S22+ can reach 1750nits, up from 1300nits. It makes the already bright display even brighter on paper. Practically, I couldn’t tell the difference.

Like last year, the S22 Plus supports a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate. However, unlike the S22 Ultra, it’s not an LTPO (Low-Temperature Polycrystalline Oxide). The display is amazing, very smooth, and has excellent colour reproduction.

I also found the ultrasonic fingerprint sensor on the display to be incredibly fast and reliable. Moreover, for protection, same as the back, the front is also topped with Gorilla Glass Victus+.

Camera

• Rear Camera: 50 MP (main), f/1.8, OIS
  • 10MP (telephoto), f/2.4, OIS, 3x optical zoom
  • 12MP(ultrawide), f/2.2, 120˚

• Front Camera: 10MP, f/2.2

The number and placements of the camera of the Samsung Galaxy S22+ seem the same with a main, telephoto, and ultrawide camera. However, the sensors have seen some changes.

The main camera is 50MP, up from 12MP, while we get a 10MP telephoto camera, down from 64MP. The ultrawide and the selfie cameras are the same as last year.

The new camera setup isn’t necessarily better or worse; it’s just that instead of the telephoto, the main camera now has the highest megapixel count, which makes more sense.

MAIN + ULTRAWIDE + TELEPHOTO CAMERA

With a few sample pictures I took, the photos look amazing to me. The shutter speed is fast, focuses the subject fast and accurately, and the colours look stunning.

Samsung says the S22 series has a 23% larger sensor than the S21 and S21+, which results in better low-light photos. We have to test that in our full review.

The telephoto lens has 3x optical zoom and can go up to 30x digital zoom, whereas the ultrawide is labeled as 0.6x.

Photos shot with all three cameras are excellent, with good details and uniform colours across the board. It’s impressive how well all of the cameras capture images.

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FRONT CAMERA

The same 10MP selfie camera as last year can be seen on the front. It snapped excellent selfies with a natural skin tone. I enjoyed the photographs that the front camera takes.

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VIDEOS

All of the cameras can shoot video at 4K at 60 frames per second. The main camera can also shoot 8K video at 24fps.

The video quality looks good with good details. The footage is also stabilized well by all of the cameras.

Performance

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
• Octa-core (1×3.00 GHz Cortex-X2 & 3×2.50 GHz Cortex-A710 & 4×1.80 GHz Cortex-A510)
• Adreno 730
• 256GB 12GB RAM

This year, Samsung finally brought the Snapdragon variant to Nepal instead of the Exynos variant. As a result, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus comes equipped with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor.

The chipset is built on a 4nm process and is designed in a tri-cluster structure comprised of a single powerful Arm Cortex-X2 flagship-core, three performance and efficiency balanced Cortex-A710 big-cores, and four power-efficient Cortex-A510 little-cores. For the GPU, the chipset has an Adreno 730.

It’s Qualcomm’s flagship processor for 2022, and as expected, the device runs buttery smooth. Furthermore, it comes with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. The device handles all the given tasks with ease. However, the phone does get a bit warmer when used for a while.

Stay tuned for our full review of the Galaxy S22+ to find out how it handles heavy games and other tasks in day-to-day life.

Battery and OS

• Non-removable Li-Po 4500mAh battery
• 45W Fast Charging
• Android 12, One UI 4.1

I’m concerned about the battery life of the Samsung Galaxy S22+ since it has a smaller 4500mAh battery compared to the 4800mAh in its predecessor. However, this time around, the device supports up to 45W fast charging, which the regular S22 does not.

Unfortunately, the phone does not come with a charger. I’ll be keeping an eye on the battery life and will let you know in my full review. As for the software, it comes with One UI 4.1 based on Android 12.

Over One UI 4.0, One UI 4.1 brings a few small changes in the camera app, gallery app, and AR Zone, among others. The OS is very smooth and well optimized.

Follow Up

The Samsung Galaxy S22+ updates its predecessor’s design in subtle but notable ways. The first noticeable changes you will find when holding the phone are the flat frame and sharp edges. It’s also a bit smaller, which makes it slightly easier to hold.

I noticed the phone gets warm to the touch when used for a while. We will see in our full review if that raises any issues. I’ll also be testing its gaming performance along with camera performance and other noteworthy features in my review.

READ NEXT: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Impressions: Finally a New Note!

What do you think about the Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus? If you have any questions or aspects of the device you want me to test for the full review, please let me know in the comments!

Also, watch our impressions of the Samsung Galaxy S22+ in Nepali.