Two-minute review
The Galaxy S22 Plus appears to be the most forgotten of the three members of Samsung’s 2022 flagship range.
The Samsung Galaxy S22 is the easiest to recommend. It’s tiny enough to fit comfortably in your palm and has a cheap price that won’t turn off customers right away. Then there’s the S22 Ultra, which has a hefty price tag but a S Pen pen, luxury design, and a plethora of back cameras. That will appeal to those searching for a super-powerful device.
Between those two phones, it’s harder to get excited for the Galaxy S22 Plus. The awkward middle child in Samsung’s 2022 family. It mostly has the same specs as the S22, and a similar design, but with a bigger screen and battery. Oh, and its price is a significant step up, too.
The Galaxy S22 Plus, like Samsung’s other S22 mobiles. Remains one of the top phones in many different sectors. But its high price and lack of changes over the S21 Plus make it appear less enticing in light of most rivals’ aggressive moves. This is a challenging sell when compared to the Xiaomi 12 Pro, OnePlus 10 Pro, or Realme GT 2 Pro. Or even more inexpensive and competent options like the Moto G200, Realme GT, and OnePlus Nord 2.
There are obviously some advantages to it. The Galaxy S22 Plus is excellent for portrait photography. The camera app’s Portrait mode is excellent for both fake background blur and the variety of effects and filters available. The camera software is fantastic, and Single Take (which selects the best image from a burst) is still a major selling feature for the company’s phones.
We also have to praise Samsung for being one of the few phone companies that produces vibrantly coloured phones – we tried a pink S22 Plus, but other colours available include green, blue, and violet. How many firms these days are producing pink phones?
In many other ways, this is a strong phone, with a high-end CPU, good battery life, and an excellent primary camera.
But it’s not a flawless phone, and we have a few complaints as well. It’s not very pleasant to grip with a flat edge, and OneUI remains a sluggish-feeling OS that’s somewhat slower to operate than other Android forks. Its display quality, charging rates, and construction quality are all inadequate.
Furthermore, it is exorbitantly priced – we should not label a phone that costs this much ‘average,’ and the general usage experience of this mobile is more equivalent to mid-range rivals than similarly priced Android or iPhone rivals you may be considering instead.
With a few price cuts, this phone may be popular, but at its current price, it’s difficult to recommend.
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Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus price and availability
The Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus price starts at $999.99 / £949 / AU$1,549 – and if you winced at that, you’re not going to like the prices for its other variants, which you can find listed below.
Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus prices
In comparison, the basic Galaxy S22 starts at $799 / £769 / AU$1,249, while the S22 Ultra starts at $1,199.99 / £1,149 / AU$1,849. Last year’s S21 Plus cost the same as this year’s S22 Plus, so we’re not looking at a more costly phone, even if the size drop from last year had us hoping for a cheaper price to match.
In any case, that’s a hefty price tag for a smartphone – but then again, Samsung’s S-series handsets aren’t built for those on a tight budget.
The Galaxy S22 Plus went on sale on February 25 in the United States, March 3 in Australia, and March 11 in the United Kingdom.
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Design
We like and dislike the design of the Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus.
We adore the way it seems. The phone is available in white, black, green, pink, grey, cream, pastel blue, and violet (the last four are exclusively available on Samsung’s website). So you have a lot of colour options. The Contour Cut camera bump is rather unique and elegant. At least in terms of smartphone lens mounting, but it does make the phone stand out.
However, the dislike factor becomes clear as you pick up the phone, as it simply does not feel comfortable. This is due in part to its palm-stretching size, but also to its sharp edge. Because of the little slope, it isn’t quite as sharp as the iPhone 13’s completely flat edge. But it still digs into your hand when you’re using the device.
Aside from that, this is a typical Android phone. There is a USB-C port but no 3.5mm headphone connector, and the power and volume controls are on the right edge (and are fairly easily reachable even when using the device one-handed).
With dimensions of 157.4 x 75.8 x 7.6mm, the S22 Plus is a tad on the large side, but the ‘Plus’ in the name should come as no surprise. It just weights 195g, so it’s not too hefty.
The material differs from that of the S21 Plus in that, although that device was made of plastic, this one is made of glass, specifically Corning Gorilla Glass Victus Plus, which is a more durable form of the material. This implies that it is scratch-resistant and will not dissolve after a single drop. There’s also IP68 dust and water resistance, so the gadget can withstand a brief dip in the tub.
Display
Samsung’s Galaxy S handsets used to be industry leaders in terms of their stunning screens. While the S22 Ultra retains this moniker, we’re not certain the S22 Plus warrants it. That’s not to say the display isn’t visually appealing, but it doesn’t stick out.
The screen is 6.6 inches across, which is 0.1 inch smaller than the S21 Plus’, and is divided by a tiny punch-hole cut-out for the front-facing camera. The bezel around the display is rather thin.
The S22 Plus has the same resolution as most other Android phones, with a resolution of 1080 x 2340 (or FHD+), save for super-cheap or super-pricey phones, and according to its price, we would have assumed the Plus fell into the latter group. The screen on the Ultra has a resolution of 1440 x 3088, and we would have loved to see something comparable here.
FHD+ is sufficient for most jobs, as just a few streaming services or games offer content in higher resolutions. A refresh rate of 120Hz ensures that action is seamless whether swiping between menus or playing games.
While the resolution is pretty average, the S22 Plus wins some points in other display areas. Its max brightness is very high at 1,750 nits, and thanks to the AMOLED screen, contrast is impressive.
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Cameras
The Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus includes the same four cameras as the non-Plus model: a 50MP f/1.8 primary camera, a 12MP f/2.2 ultrawide camera, a 10MP f/2.4 telephoto for 3x optical zoom on the rear, and a 10MP f/2.2 front-facing camera.
That camera setup is a bit of a mash-up of the S21’s sensors, with only the ultra-wide and front-facing cameras remaining the same, with the most noticeable alteration being the jump from a 12MP to a 50MP primary camera.
This improvement is beneficial since the 50MP sensor is huge, allowing it to’see’ more light, resulting in brighter photographs and more brilliant colours. This is especially notable for low-light photography, as we were able to take some shockingly bright-looking shots at night, but it also helps to make colours pop out more during the day.
The S22 Plus lacks the photographic flexibility of its Ultra sister. Most notably with a much lower zoom distance – maximum digital zoom is only 30x here. Still, some of its best features are present, most notably Samsung’s superb Portrait mode. Which excels at isolating a subject, adding great-looking ‘Bokeh’ background blur. And allowing you to apply a variety of effects to the snap.
The back trio complements each other nicely; switching between ultra-wide, regular, and zoom images in the camera app is easy, and photographs produced preserve the same colour profile. The ultra-wide images were slightly warped, but not significantly so; we had to seek for it particularly to detect it.
There are several handy features here, such as Samsung’s Single Take. Which allows you to shoot a video of a topic and the camera app will select the best still photo from it and edit it for you. This is a terrific method to let AI do all of the heavy lifting when you’re capturing a photo.
Performance and specs
When it comes to performance, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus has two personalities: throughout most of the globe, it is equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor. But in Europe, it is equipped with Samsung’s Exynos 2200. In terms of performance, both are essentially comparable, albeit Qualcomm’s CPU has a little advantage over Samsung’s.
We utilised the Exynos-powered phone for our comprehensive evaluation, and it performed admirably. We ran the gadget through a multi-core benchmark test with Geekbench 5, and it scored 3,431. That’s a really good score, and one of the best we’ve seen on a Samsung phone. Although a few 2021 devices outperform it.
Including the Xiaomi Mi 11, Realme GT, OnePlus 9, and ZTE Axon 30 Ultra. Those devices all use the Snapdragon 888, the predecessor to the 8 Gen 1, which points towards the Exynos chip being a tiny bit weaker.
However, we’re only talking about a few hundred points on the test. And most individuals won’t notice that much of a difference in practise. The phone is ideal for gaming because it loads titles swiftly. Does not jitter during sessions, and allows you to load up the highest graphical settings for games.
There’s 8GB of RAM here, which is about as much as any smartphone need, and it’ll be beneficial for folks who want to switch between apps all the time. Storage options are 128GB or 256GB. But there is no extendable storage. So you’ll have to be content with whichever choice you choose (or just use cloud storage).
Because both chipsets are linked with 5G modems. These phones can connect to next-generation networks, which is great for streaming and gaming on the road.
When we turned up the volume on the phone, we noticed that the audio quality was a little tinny, but it was enough for things like gaming or video conversations.
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Software
The Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus runs Android 12 with Samsung’s One UI on top. At the unveiling of the S22. Samsung promised that its new phones will receive at least four years of software upgrades. Bringing you up to Android 16 in 2026.
Material You, which enables you recolor sections of the user interface to match your wallpaper, is a key feature in Android 12. It’s here to some extent, though it doesn’t alter too many aspects of the home screen and menus.
One UI feels slower than several alternative user interfaces, including Xiaomi’s MIUI, OnePlus’ OxygenOS, and even vanilla Android. Swiping between menus, starting applications, and unlocking the phone all take a little longer than we’d like. And when combined, these problems make navigating the phone feel sluggish.
Don’t get us wrong: using the S22 Plus isn’t like using a low-cost phone. However, it does not feel like a flagship in terms of navigation. This is something we’ve noticed with past Samsung phones, and it’s true here as well.
Battery
Many Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus reviews panned the device’s battery life, but we can’t go that far. During our testing, the 4,500mAh battery easily powered the phone through a day of use. Sure, the phone didn’t survive much more than a day, but neither do most luxury phones.
Obviously, intense activity like gaming, streaming a lot of media, or capturing high-resolution film would rapidly drain the battery. But we found that even with all three, the phone lasted a day just fine. It definitely had longer battery life than the S22 Ultra, which we tested independently.
If there’s one thing that makes us squint in disbelief, it’s the charging speed. Because the phone does not come with an in-box charger. Samsung claims that it charges at 45W, which is difficult for normal consumers to evaluate. However, even when we placed an 80W charger on the phone, it took more than two hours to charge from empty to full.
There’s also reverse wireless powering at 15W and reverse power-sharing at 4.5W. Which lets you power up other devices using the Plus as a wireless charging pad.
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Should I buy the Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus?
Buy it if…
You’re going to get a case for that.
We didn’t like how the Galaxy S22 Plus felt in our hands, but that won’t be an issue if you buy a case.
You enjoy shooting portrait photographs.
Samsung phones are often wonderful for Portrait photographs, so if you frequently shoot this type of photo, you’ll like the phone.
The Galaxy S22 is barely sized.
The Samsung Galaxy S22 is significantly smaller than the Plus, so if you like a large screen for social networking, photography, or entertainment, this may be the ideal option for you.
Don’t buy it if…
You’re on a tight budget.
The S22 Plus isn’t for everyone due to its exorbitant price. While the normal S22 offers much of the same capabilities at a reduced cost.
You require rapid charging.
Whether or not the Galaxy S22 Plus supports 45W charging. It’s still not a fast enough charging speed for a premium phone, and competitors like Motorola or OnePlus will cost less and charge faster.
You’re interested in the S22 Ultra.
The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is the greatest gadget in the family. And it isn’t much more expensive than the Plus, making it a better option if your budget allows.
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