Samsung S22 Ultra Design and Hardware Review

Phones in a flagship lineup have come to feel like variations on a theme. There’s the base model, the bigger base model, and then the biggest model with an extra camera and some other minor hardware upgrades. Features, screen size, and cost all increase in increments as you go up the chain, but you’re more or less getting the same phone in three different flavors.

That’s been true of Samsung phones for the past few years, but it’s not the case anymore the $1,199 Galaxy S22 Ultra sits at the top of this year’s lineup as an entirely different option. It’s the first S series phone to include a built-in stylus, a feature it’s inheriting from the evidently now-retired Galaxy Note series. On top of that, it still offers a very good 10x optical zoom, as well as some appealing updates to its photography features. It happens to be a great phone, too, but despite its place in Samsung’s mainstream S series, it still feels like the enthusiast device that the Note series represented. Samsung has, at least, made the job of deciding which of this trio of phones is for you very easy. If you miss the Note and you love the stylus life, get the S22 Ultra. There’s nothing else like it in Samsung’s lineup or anywhere else on the market, really. If you’re just slightly curious about the stylus, or the 10x zoom, or you just want a really nice big-screened phone without a lot of fuss, then you’re probably better off with the S22 Plus. It’s not for everyone, but for a few, the S22 Ultra is a truly great device. Different it may be, there’s still plenty of common ground between the Ultra and its S22 and S22 Plus siblings. All three models include (in the US) Qualcomm’s latest, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, as well as IP68 weather sealing, and Gorilla Glass Victus Plus on the front and back. The Ultra and S22 Plus have OLED screens with higher 1,750 nits peak brightness, but all three have a top refresh rate of 120Hz. Only the Ultra uses an LTPO display, which allows the screen to change its refresh rate more than the other models, which in theory helps save battery life. It’s a huge, 6.8-inch 1440 x 3088 panel, so every bit of power saving can make a big difference. Not surprisingly, the display itself is excellent. At its default “vivid” setting, it’s a little on the warm side, but I only noticed this looking at it side by side with the Pixel 6. Colors are, indeed, vivid but not to the point of oversaturation. There’s also a slightly cool color shift when viewed from extreme angles, but nothing that bothered me in day-to-day use. It was also plenty bright for me outside, but I live in Seattle, so I didn’t exactly push it to the limit here. The Ultra stands apart with a boxier design lifted straight from the Galaxy Note and, of course, that built-in S Pen silo. While the S22 and S22 Plus follow last year’s design cues with rounded corners and a camera bump that blends into the side rail of the phone, the S22 Ultra embraces chaos and skips the camera bump altogether. Four camera lenses (and a laser autofocus sensor) protrude from the back plate of the device housed in… nothing at all. More than one person on Twitter told me it looks like a spider. And it is weird at first, but I’ve grown to like it. Maybe more phone makers will follow Samsung’s lead. Who knows? I’m here for it.

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G Briefly Listed on Company Website Ahead of Launch

 Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G has been briefly spotted on the company's website in Germany. A support page for the smartphone that is now removed revealed the name and an image of the phone. The phone also surfaced on US telecom operator Verizon's website that has further shared the specifications of the phone. Same as Samsung Germany listing, the Verizon listing has also now disappeared, but can still be spotted via Google cache. The handset has already been spotted on the Samsung official site in Philippines.

The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G has been spotted on the South Korean company's German website. The page that is now removed was first spotted by WinFuture's Roland Quandt and accessed by by CNET. The webpage showed the smartphone from the front, and confirmed the name of the handset. The phone bears the model number SM-G7818/DS and features a hole-punch display with the cutout in the centre like we have already seen in various Samsung flagship smartphones.

The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G phone was also spotted on the Samsung Philippines site in Cloud Navy and Cloud Lavendar colour options 128GB of storage. It was later seen on TENAA as well as NBTC suggesting the phone features a 6.5-inch display, 4,500mAh battery with 15W wired charging support and a 4G variant.

As per the renders of the handset, the smartphone has a flat display and a triple camera setup at the back.

In another Samsung Galaxy S20 FE-related development, Quandt also spotted the phone on Verizon's website. The phone listing has now been removed but is still visible via cache.

As per the cached information, the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE will sport a 6.5-inch full-HD+ Super AMOLED display and feature a 4,500mAh battery. It shows the phone with water and dust resistance certification. The listing also shows the presence of 32-megapixel front shooter, Snapdragon 865 SoC, and Android 10 in the phone.

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE is likely to launch on September 23

Past reports have suggested that the handset will come with an in-display fingerprint scanner and 6GB of RAM. It is also claimed that the phone will pack a triple camera setup with two 12-megapixel sensors and an 8-megapixel snapper.

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE is likely to launch on September 23 at a virtual event called “Galaxy Unpacked for Every Fan”.

Samsung Galaxy S30 release date, price, news and leaks

The Samsung Galaxy S20 is the company's most premium and impressive smartphone to date, but already we’re dreaming of what Samsung will cook up for the Galaxy S30 range.

Well, we're about to see - the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 is due to launch today, and this'll show us Samsung's vision of what a 'premium' phone is right now. Maybe the phone will clue is in to what the Galaxy S30 could be like.

If you want to watch the Galaxy Note 20 unveil happen, click here, but maybe you'll want to follow along with our Note 20 live blog, which can be found here.

The Samsung Galaxy S30 devices are sure to be some of the most exciting phones of 2021, so hype is already building, and we’re even hearing the first very early rumors.

You’ll find those below, and we’ll be adding to this article any time there’s new information, so make sure to check back regularly if you want to stay up to date.

You’ll also find our wish list for the Samsung Galaxy S30 further down – these are the things that we most want from Samsung’s next Galaxy S phone, in order to make it as good as possible.

Latest story: We've heard Samsung is considering not shipping chargers in the box of some of its 2021 smartphones. Could the Samsung Galaxy S30 be one of the devices to ship without a cable? Perhaps.

 

Samsung Galaxy S30 release date and price

Samsung always unveils its new Galaxy S models early in the year, and in recent years it has been announcing them in February, then selling them from March, so it’s very likely it will do the same with the Samsung Galaxy S30 range.

We can’t get much more specific than that, but recently the company has avoided MWC (a trade show which takes place at the end of February) and launched its phones earlier in the month, so that too is likely in 2021.

As for how much the Samsung Galaxy S30 range will cost, the phones will probably be at least as expensive as the Galaxy S20 range, likely meaning a starting price for the basic model of at least $999 / £899 / AU$1,499, with the Samsung Galaxy S30 Plus and Samsung Galaxy S30 Ultra likely costing even more.

Samsung Galaxy Note 10, Galaxy Note 10+ Start Receiving August 2020 Android Security Patch

Samsung Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy Note 10+ are reportedly receiving the August 2020 Android security patch. Samsung seems to be carrying out a stages roll-out for this update since only a handful of Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy Note 10+ users have reported getting the software update. Currently, the software update is rolling out in Germany but we can expect Samsung to roll it out to other countries soon.

Samsung recently reportedly rolled out a software update for its Galaxy S10 series that also received the August security patch. The Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy Note 10+ software rollout was reported by SamMobile. This new software update has the N975FXXS6CTGA/ N975FOXM6CTGA / N975FXXS6CTGA version numbers. The changelog for this software update does not mention any new features or bug fixes and it seems that it only has the updated security patch.

If you are a Samsung Galaxy Note 10 or a Galaxy Note 10+ user, you will get a notification for this over-the-air update that is about 169MB in size. You can also make the smartphone look for the software update manually by going to Settings > Software Update > Download and Install.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10 and the Galaxy Note 10+ are currently flagship smartphones in the Galaxy Note series and are expected to be replaced by the Galaxy Note 20 series soon - with the latter's launch expected on August 5 at the Galaxy Unpacked 2020 event. The Samsung Galaxy Note 10 series was launched in India in August last year. Both the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 and the Galaxy Note 10+ are powered by the Exynos 9825 SoC. These smartphones also have an Infinity-O Display with a hole-punch in the centre. The Samsung Galaxy Note 10 sports a 3,500mAh battery while the bigger Galaxy Note 10+ packs in a 4,300mAh battery.