One year with the Galaxy S22 Ultra: my long-term review before the S23 Ultra

The Galaxy S22 Ultra will soon get a successor: the Galaxy S23 Ultra will be unveiled at the Samsung Unpacked event on February 1, 2023. Thanks to the leaks online, we already know pretty well what to expect. The closer the date got, the more I asked myself whether the S22 Ultra is now an outdated smartphone or whether buying it makes sense right now. This is my look back at a year with the S22 Ultra, maybe also a little farewell letter.

The launch in February 2022

The Galaxy S22 series was unveiled on February 9, 2022. After the end of the Note series, the S22 Ultra is the first Galaxy smartphone to combine the Note and the S series: a device that looks like the Note 20 Ultra, with the specs of a Galaxy S flagship and a built-in S Pen. Like many of you, I preordered it.

I was disappointed at first. The S22 Ultra was almost unusable: it stuttered everywhere, froze, and video recording was out of the question. I made a separate video about that. The performance was so bad that I sent it in and got a new one two weeks later. That one was somewhat better, but far from a flagship. The cause was Samsung’s own Exynos processor. With what felt like 1,525 updates, that was fixed over the course of the year, and after a few months I finally had a real flagship in my hands, which is what I had paid for.

What I liked

Little by little, I got to enjoy its strengths:

• Display: razor-sharp and super bright.
• Camera: it is fun to take photos and especially videos with it.
• Feel in the hand: thanks to the curved display edges, it sits well in the hand despite its size. Curved displays are not for everyone, but I really like the feel.
• S Pen: among other things, I signed documents with it.

I worked with the S22 Ultra, watched videos, took and edited countless photos, used social media, wrote hundreds of WhatsApp messages, personalized the look of the device with themes, paired smartwatches and headphones, and found the best tips and tricks. We traveled together. I have really grown fond of it.

Looking ahead to the S23 Ultra

Now it is time to say goodbye, because the successor is on its way, and I will get it, not least because it finally comes in my favorite color, olive green. Above all, I am looking forward to the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 instead of the Exynos. I hope this thing takes off like a rocket.

The camera is supposed to get an upgrade too: the main camera is said to have 200 megapixels. For comparison, the iPhone 14 Pro, released in September, has a 48-megapixel camera. But the raw megapixel count says nothing about quality, because most of the magic is in the software and image processing. There are also rumors of 8K video at 30 fps.

Be careful with the price: a few days ago, the supposed European prices were published by a French leak, and I almost dropped the champagne into my breakfast egg. Supposedly, and to be taken with a grain of salt, the S23 Ultra is said to start at €1,419 for the smallest storage variant.

Verdict: is the S22 Ultra outdated?

I think absolutely not. It is still an absolute flagship that can keep up with the current iPhone 14 Pro. If you want to save a little money but don’t want to give up the latest tech, you are still in good hands with the S22 Ultra in 2023. If you are thinking about buying one, wait for the launch date of the S23 series, because after that the price of the S22 Ultra will drop again.