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00:00Hey what's up, I'm KBHD here, and this is the brand new Galaxy S22 Ultra.
00:14I've been using it for about two weeks now, and I promise you, I'm not going to call
00:18this the Note 22 Ultra over and over again in this review, I swear I can make it through
00:23this video without making that joke.
00:25But really, the bottom line here, to understand this phone the best, really is like, if you
00:28took the name off of this phone, what Samsung is giving you for the money is a Galaxy Note.
00:35But the phone that I'm reviewing and using is called the S22 Ultra.
00:40Let's get into it.
00:41So the word Ultra in Samsung's lineup has basically come to just mean the highest ambitions,
00:45the biggest numbers, the best specs, and the most features overall.
00:49It's just that now the Ultra name has swallowed up the Note stuff too.
00:52So Note used to be that one special edition phone with the squared off design, the flat
00:58top and bottom, and the pen built in.
01:00Now that's just all wrapped up into Ultra.
01:03And the S22 Ultra does not miss a beat with all the Ultra stuff.
01:05They're packing in the highest end chip they can, that's the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 here in
01:09the US, with a massive new cooling solution alongside it.
01:13The RAM is technically down from last year, the base model has 8 gigs and all the rest
01:18have 12, and there's no more 16 gig version, but I honestly don't miss that, I can't imagine
01:23someone really needing 16 gigs of RAM in their phone right now.
01:26Which you absolutely can go up to one terabyte of non-expandable storage though.
01:30But this display, this display is also excellent.
01:34It's a huge 6.8 inch 1440p AMOLED at 120 hertz with a 240 hertz touch sample rate, and the
01:42big new number is a max brightness of 1750 nits.
01:47Now on the one hand, I don't want to overreact about 1750 nits, like it's a big number, but
01:52brightness works on a logarithmic scale.
01:54So this 1750 is not dramatically brighter than the 1500 max from last year's S21 Ultra.
02:01These phones are all very sunlight readable.
02:03But I do still want to give Samsung credit for continuing to improve an already best
02:09in class display and making it even better.
02:11It's still got the same great ultrasonic fingerprint reader as last year, right under the middle
02:14of the screen, and still has a hole punch camera in the top middle.
02:18And it's an LTPO2 panel now, which means in addition to being really responsive, it can
02:22drop that refresh rate as low as one hertz when there's nothing moving on the screen.
02:27Really my only dislike with this display is the curve over the edges.
02:31So if you look at this phone next to last year's S21 Ultra, obviously these phones are
02:36different shapes and the displays are actually slightly different resolutions.
02:41And this new shape definitely curves more over the sides, which I don't like as much.
02:45Other than that, this is an awesome ultra display.
02:48And we all know it's not an ultra without a massive battery.
02:52So yeah, 5,000 milliamp hours should do the trick.
02:55Now interestingly, there are some tests online showing that it doesn't last as long as last
03:00year's 5,000 milliamp hour battery.
03:02And you can see Arun, Mr. Who's the Boss, did a variety of things in his test and found
03:06the S21 Ultra did last a bit longer than this phone.
03:09And to me, when I see that, I'm like, okay, there's a variety of factors that can contribute
03:13to that.
03:14One, the slightly brighter display, two, a little bit more of a power hungry chip that
03:17runs hotter in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.
03:20So generally, my battery experience has been very, very good.
03:24I actually never killed it in a day, never really got anywhere close.
03:28Easily ending heavy days with 30, 40 plus percent battery left and could extrapolate
03:32about seven hours of screen on time out of a charge, which is great for me.
03:36I know screen on time is different for everyone, but it's been great.
03:39Plus on top of that, it does charge a bit faster than last year, up to 45 watt peak
03:44charging if you buy that $50 optional brick.
03:48So I'm glad they fit that big 5,000 mAh cell in here, despite also adding the S-Pen,
03:53which takes up a whole column along the inside of the phone.
03:57But speaking of that S-Pen, that's what's new, the note stuff.
04:01Now I'm personally not the biggest S-Pen user.
04:04I think I say this every time I review a note, like I think I signed one PDF last week with
04:09it, which was really convenient, but I did it once and I used a Samsung's handwriting
04:13recognition in the notes app.
04:15It's super cool that it works really well and you can search what you've written.
04:19And I also, I just enjoy that it still clicks a lot like that.
04:23So it is definitely impressive.
04:24I still think it's the best stylus in any phone.
04:27And it's literally got all the features the last notes had.
04:29Smart select is nice for screenshots and annotating things.
04:33Lock screen quick notes are still super convenient if you use Samsung notes, and it even still
04:37has that long distance Bluetooth connection that lets you use the button on the S-Pen
04:41to remote control, take photos without touching the phone.
04:44And the new display brings latency down from nine milliseconds, which is already pretty
04:48good all the way down to 2.8 milliseconds, which to me basically feels like real time.
04:54You know, I'm not an artist who's doing massive drawings or extremely precise sketch work
04:59with the pen.
05:00It's just casual writing.
05:01And so the fact that it uses AI to predict where the pen is going to go and starts drawing
05:06those pixels slightly ahead of where the panel's actually registering it is pretty next level.
05:11So to me, this, this is as close to one-to-one as it gets.
05:14But at the end of the day, if you see all of this and you're like, I still probably
05:17won't really use any of it, then you can just slot the pen right back into the phone and
05:22never use it.
05:23It's out of the way.
05:24And the phone didn't make any sacrifices to include it.
05:27So, okay, here's a bunch of other smaller things that I noticed from using this phone
05:30every day that you should too, if you're planning on getting one.
05:33So the speakers are excellent.
05:35They get very loud and sound crisp and clear like last year.
05:38Some of the best in any smartphone.
05:40So that's great for watching media.
05:42But then the display curving more over the edges than last year, makes it worse for
05:47watching videos.
05:48And then the vibration motor, this is the small thing, but I mentioned it also in the
05:51S22 review, they changed the type.
05:54So it went from a Z-axis vibration motor to an X-axis vibration motor.
05:59Doesn't sound like much, but it changes the way it feels.
06:01So it feels just as strong and precise and clean for typing or swiping or holding it
06:06in your hand, but it's way less strong when it's on a desk or in your pocket.
06:11So I literally miss phone calls with my phone sitting right in front of me, vibrating on
06:15my desk because I didn't hear it or feel it.
06:24Then the camera rings.
06:26So they're a bit of a controversial design, sure, but like most designs, you kind of get
06:29used to looking at it, but you never, ever fully get it clean of dust.
06:35So if you go caseless like me, not only does the phone sit kind of funny on a table, but
06:40there will also always be dust between the camera rings.
06:43So just get ready for that.
06:44I would actually recommend if you get a case, channel sponsor dbrand just dropped their
06:48atomic edition grip case, and it doesn't do a huge cutout all the way around the cameras
06:53like I thought we might see in my impressions video.
06:55It actually just matches the camera rings and it looks way cleaner and it's just deep
06:59enough to protect the cameras if you drop it.
07:02So this is definitely the way to go.
07:04You can check it out at the link below.
07:06And this phone, just like the other S22s, shoots 8K video at 24fps.
07:11You know, the wrong frame rate.
07:13Give us the option for 30 Samsung, just put it in the settings somewhere.
07:16But even worse than not having the 30fps toggle, it actually crops in way more than the regular
07:22S22s.
07:23So it turns out shooting 8K is 33 megapixels and it's actually cropping in to the middle
07:2933 megapixels of this huge 108 megapixel sensor.
07:33So when you switch to 8K, you zoom in to what feels like about 2x, which is pretty
07:38inconvenient for framing.
07:40No 8K video from the ultrawide or the telephoto lenses.
07:43This is a bit of a downside.
07:45And then there is absolutely still some shutter lag with this main camera, more than the
07:49regular S22s again.
07:50And this is understandable with all the processing happening, but it definitely felt like I was
07:54missing some shots or having trouble capturing moving objects because of the bit of a delay
07:59between the shutter press and the actual photo being taken.
08:02But speaking of cameras, let's just get the camera stuff out of the way.
08:06It's funny because this is probably what most people actually come to these review videos
08:10for if you think about it.
08:12If you watch a smartphone presentation these days, 75% of a new phone presentation today,
08:18especially a flagship, is camera stuff.
08:20So that's one of the biggest things that differentiates these phones.
08:23And on a $1,200 phone, it's one of the most important features.
08:27So how is it?
08:28Well, you can see they went with basically the same layout of the set of cameras as last
08:31year.
08:32So you've got the 12 megapixel primary camera, the ultra-wide, the 3x telephoto, and the
08:3610x telephoto, plus laser autofocus.
08:39And they're not the same exact hardware as last year, but they're pretty close and that's
08:42a good thing.
08:43And Samsung's not messing around with their cameras.
08:45These are definitely flagship quality and I'm really happy with them.
08:48Matter of fact, I don't even have much to say about image quality because there really
08:51isn't much new here, but there are some new features within the camera modes that might
08:56sort of unlock some new things and be different about this phone.
08:58So I'm going to go over those with you one by one.
09:00So first, the more accurate portrait mode.
09:03Now, I think I tweeted a couple months ago, sort of ruffled some feathers, but I said
09:09something like, Samsung has the best portrait mode on smartphones right now, and understandably
09:17ruffled some feathers.
09:18But I should clarify, basically what I mean is their cutouts have been the most consistent
09:23and the most accurate of portrait modes among smartphones that I've seen.
09:28So that doesn't mean the blur is the most natural or the fall off is the most realistic.
09:32I just mean they make the least errors with like ears and hair and shirts and stuff.
09:36And so this year they're planning on, well, they've announced that they're doing it even
09:40better.
09:41They've got AI stereo depth mapping for portrait mode that they claim can cut out things as
09:45small as a single human hair, which would be cool.
09:49It's not exactly accurate, but they say it's better.
09:52So I still found it to be really good, but it's definitely not perfect.
09:56It still misses some stuff sometimes, but I stand by my statement.
10:00These cutouts and depth mapping they're doing is really, really good.
10:04The portrait mode shots especially look good with the 3X lens, with people, with pets even,
10:09and also with inanimate objects, it still does a good job cutting stuff out.
10:13Again, not perfect.
10:15You'll pretty much always find some error in every smartphone portrait mode shot, but
10:20Samsung does a really good job.
10:21I think the 1X portrait shots are good to have, but they don't look as natural.
10:25So I hope Samsung works on the naturalness and fall off of the background blur to overall
10:29make it the best portrait mode.
10:30Then there is night photography, which Samsung has called Nightography.
10:35Okay.
10:37So I compared the night mode shots to the iPhone 13 Pro, which also has an excellent
10:41camera.
10:42And my biggest takeaway is, yes, Samsung's night mode photos are definitely more detailed,
10:47a hundred percent, but they're also dramatically brighter.
10:51As advertised, they're letting in a lot of light and the photos in the dark look like
10:54you're taking them in a lot more light than you actually have, especially look at the
10:58sky back there.
10:59So it's impressive, but it's also a bit of a preference thing.
11:01Some people want their nighttime photos to look like they're at night.
11:05But then lastly, there is an expert raw app separate from the camera app that can take
11:10raw photos that includes multi-frame computational photography data, HDR, and everything.
11:15And the differences are subtle, but they absolutely do allow for more latitude when editing.
11:20So photographers should definitely grab this app from the ugliest app store I've seen
11:24in a while, the Samsung Galaxy Store.
11:27So I'm going to end it with this, you know, typically the big question with a review,
11:31at the end of the review, you're like, well, should I buy it?
11:34Is it worth it?
11:35And this is an expensive phone.
11:36It's 1200 bucks.
11:37So that's a big question.
11:38So basically I think their mission was accomplished.
11:41The fact that they combined the Note stuff with this phone makes it easier to separate
11:47from the regular S22s.
11:49It makes it a more obviously different phone in the lineup.
11:52So if you just want like a standard, really good flagship phone, big screen, nice battery,
11:57nice cameras, all that stuff, the S22 Plus is a great phone and it's $200 less at the
12:02starting price.
12:04But if you want some specific extra things like the super high resolution display or
12:09the S Pen or some of those camera tweaks, then that gives you a reason to upgrade.
12:14And it does deliver on those extra things.
12:16Now, that being said, I am sticking with the Galaxy S21 Ultra as my main daily driver
12:22phone.
12:23Obviously, people who have this phone don't need to upgrade, but it's just basically the
12:27same phone as far as software, battery, cameras are almost the same, performance is the same,
12:32but with a design that I prefer and a vibration motor that actually notifies me more often.
12:37But yeah, overall, this phone is good.
12:40It delivers.
12:41If you want a little bit of a more in-depth look at the One UI 4.1 software and the fact
12:46that this phone, at least this lineup with the S22, for Samsung, seems to be basically
12:52the default Android experience, more so than Google's Pixel ever could be, definitely watch
12:56my S22 review.
12:57I'll leave a little like button if you want to watch that real quick, but that's been
13:00basically it.
13:01Thanks for watching.
13:02Catch you guys later.
13:04Peace.