Samsung Galaxy S22+ review: The Plus-factor

Samsung's flagship lineup under the S-line is sought-after premium offering in India and markets across the globe. The Galaxy S22+ is one of the three flagships Samsung launched this year, giving consumers the freedom of choice. While the Galaxy S22 is compact, powerful offering, the Galaxy S22 Ultra is for those who want a no-compromise powerhouse. The Galaxy S22+, as you might have guessed, sits right in between the two S22 variants.

Samsung Galaxy S22+ strikes a chord with many, for many of its features like the display, performance and four-year OS updates. But it's not entirely devoid of flaws. We discuss in length about what makes or breaks this flagship and if you should consider the S22+ over its siblings and other premium offerings in the market.

Key features

1. Display: 6.6-inch 1080x2340px OLED display with 120Hz refresh rate
2. CPU: Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
3. RAM: 8GB
4. Storage: 128GB/256GB
5. Camera: 50MP f/1.8, 10MP f/2.4 telephoto (70mm), 12MP f/2.2 (120˚)
6. Front camera: 10MP f/2.2 (26mm)
7. Battery: 4,500mAh (45W fast charging, 15W wireless)
8. OS: Android 12 based OneUI 4.1

With these premium specifications, the Galaxy S22+ is priced at Rs 84,999 for the base model and Rs 88,999 for the 256GB storage. The latter is a no-brainer considering you get twice as much onboard storage for Rs 4,000.

Design

Samsung Galaxy S22+ is a stylish, premium-looking flagship, drawing inspiration from last year's S21 series complete with a contour-cut camera bump. Speaking of which, let's start with the camera bump at the back. We loved what Samsung did with the S22 Ultra's camera module, and in that comparison, the Galaxy S22+ looks bland.

The rear camera module, which is slightly elevated into a metal casing, has the same hue as the rest of the glass back. The metal frame, which has a shiny gunmetal finish, takes inspiration from the trending straight-edged design without actually departing from its curved design. Frankly, it looks classier and offers a solid grip than the previous-gen flagship.

The power and volume buttons are well within reach and have a good click response when pressed. At the bottom, there's a USB Type-C port alongside a speaker and a dual nano-SIM card slot. The microphone atop the display serves as the secondary speaker during multimedia use.

The S22+ is designed for durability, using materials such as Armour Aluminium, Gorilla Glass Victus+ on both sides and IP68 certification for dust and water resistance. Overall, the phone feels light in hand with the assurance of a solid build. Kudos!

Display

Samsung Galaxy S22+ has a 6.6-inch 120Hz Super AMOLED display and it's the best part of the phone. This is by far the brightest and most colour-accurate display, which is ideal for everything from browsing the internet to playing graphics-intense games and streaming multimedia content. Hitting a peak of 1,200 nits, the display renders accurate colours even under direct sunlight, courtesy of the Vision Booster feature in the phone.

The Galaxy S22+ has LTPO 2.0 display, which according to Samsung can go as low as 1Hz to as high as 120Hz depending on the use cases. But it doesn't go entirely as low as 1Hz, but there's no problem hitting the peak 120Hz. Besides the strain on the battery, you won't notice any issues with the refresh rate, it's that smooth.

The display also offers excellent haptics. From typing to playing games like Call of Duty, the haptics are precise without any latency. But we did notice the vibrating intensity wasn't powerful enough, which often led to missed alerts on the phone. We used the Vibration sound feature to overcome this issue and it helped greatly.

Part of the display is also the fingerprint sensor, which is top-notch. The Qualcomm-powered ultrasonic sensor embedded under the display left no room for error and gentle touch would instantly unlock the phone. We were impressed by the sheer speed of the sensor and the accuracy with which it worked time and again.

Overall, the S22+ display is the best there is in town.

Camera

Samsung Galaxy S22+ and the S22 share the same camera setup. As we noted in our S22 review, the S22 produced sharp, crisp, vibrant photos, incredible portraits, and impressive low-light shots. The experience has been the same with the S22+, but viewing the images on the larger screen adds to that experience.

The primary 50MP sensor is larger, allowing more light in to produce brighter images. It captures better details than the predecessor, which is evidently clear. In low light, the sensor shows its true potential, producing images with low noise and a wide dynamic range and if you use the Night mode, the subjects are well defined and colours are retained to the maximum extent.

Portraits are truly impressive, offering a natural bokeh and a deep depth effect. In cases of a moving subject, finer details like hair strands are often missed, but in the larger sense, the portraits are like what you would expect from a digital camera.

The ultra-wide sensor in the S22+ also captures accurate colours with great details and dynamic range. But the result is not comparable in terms of quality to the main sensor, which is quite natural. The Night mode works even with the wide-angle mode, so expect a much better result.

The S22+ also has impressive zooming capabilities. For instance, the 3x zoom works flawlessly, but results are quite acceptable at 10x zoom. But when you go beyond 10x, the image quality suffers, and the noise is evident.

On the front, there's a humble 10MP camera, which produces stunning selfies. In our view, if you take a lot of selfies and a key requirement in your phone, you cannot go wrong with the S22+.

Check out a few camera samples below:

Performance and software

Samsung Galaxy S22+ is powered by the same chipset as the other two S22 phones, delivering a consistent performance. The phone is fast, responsive and free of lags. The gaming performance is at par with other flagships, without any frame drops even in high-graphics games. We found the Game Optimisation Service in the S22+ quite useful during gaming marathons as it delivered stable and consistent performance throughout. We did notice the phone gets warmer after at least 30 minutes of gameplay.

The OneUI 4.1 is definitely more refined, animations are smoother and there are some nifty additions you'll love. Unless you're looking for it, the overall user experience is not changed much in the S22+ from the S21 series.

The fact that you get four years of promised OS updates with the S22+, it's a phone that will not age as quickly in the coming years. Surely, there will come new features that will enhance the overall user experience for the better.

In the grand scheme of things, the S22+ is a powerful Android phone but doesn't make a fuss about it.

Battery

Samsung Galaxy S22+ has a 4,500mAh battery, which is considerably larger than the 3,700mAh size in the S22. We had our expectations, but alas. The battery will definitely get you through the day, but you'll keep a watchful eye on the battery bars.

On a daily average, the phone gave 5+ hours of screen-on time, which is decent for a phone its size. But power users will need to charge the phone towards the end of the day before it starts to die on you soon.

You can comfortably go about using the phone for social media browsing, personal messaging and calls, a bit of music and watching a few videos on the go and even throw in some GPS navigation - all on 4G - and make it through the day. Add some gaming marathons and catch up on your TV shows, be prepared to give the phone a top-up.

On the subject of battery, the most disappointing aspect was just how slow it charged (by today's standards). The phone says it supports 45W fast-charging, but it takes the usual hour to fully charge. In 30 minutes, the phone would get 65 percent or more, but then on it tends to slow down. We wish for Samsung to really up its game in the fast-charging front as competition is really growing in this space.

The 15W wireless charging support is a nice feature to have, but it's only useful if you're on your desk all day.

Verdict

Samsung Galaxy S22+ is no doubt a great phone.

Looking at the current lineup from Samsung, the S22+ has its own individuality. For instance, the S22 is more compact and the S22 Ultra is more of a Note. This way, the S22+ gets its own identity. 

The S22+ has the best-in-class display, great camera, and reliable performance - all packaged in a stylish, yet familiar, design. Our concerns are mainly towards the battery, which can be better and justify that "Plus" tag in the name. But if you can overcome that, the S22+ is an all-rounder and so close to perfection.

Another concern is the pricing, and that's mostly because the competition has gotten intense in this space with the likes of OnePlus, Oppo, Vivo and iQoo levelling up to offer premium phones at an affordable price point. But Samsung loyalists won't probably see that as a deal-breaker.