So the Galaxy Unpacked event is all done, where they have announced the Galaxy S22 series and also the super cool Galaxy Tab 8 Series, but in this video, I am going to specifically talk to you about my hands-on and first impressions of the top of the line S22 Ultra 5G, so let’s check it out!

Design & Build Quality

First, let’s talk about the phone’s design. What’s interesting is that this new unique design differs from the traditional squared bump around the lens, which a lot of smartphones tend to do, where all it is just the lens which is raised instead, that makes the body integrate very well with the lenses.

In terms of how it feels in the hands, to my surprise I was really impressed with how well it gripped into my hands since it is an all-glass build, both for the front and also at the back, and it wasn’t slippery at all. If you are used to a large-sized smartphone like the previous Note series or even the S21 Ultra, you will be at home with this S22 Ultra.

Then when it comes to the build quality and durability, it is made out of armor aluminum, and the glass back and front mentioned earlier has the new Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+ which is even tougher than the previous Victus glass protection, making it amazing when it comes to durability, especially with the usual IP68 Dust and Water Resistance rating.

And also worth mentioning is that Samsung has also developed a very unique way of recovering fish nets and repurposing them into the components of the S22 products, which is indeed such an amazing way of being more environmentally conscious.

When it comes to the color options, the one which I had my hands on is the Phantom White, and it’s available in Phantom Black, Green, and the new Burgundy.

As for the phone’s ports and buttons, looking below, other than the USB-C port, there is the SIM ejector slot, one of the stereo speakers and of course the S Pen, that is stored right inside of the phone, yeap, very Note-series-like which I love and I will talk to you about the S Pen a little more later.

Then on the right, there is the volume rocker and the power button.

Display

Next, as for the phone’s display, it has a massive 6.8-inch screen with a slight curve at the sides, which was very reminiscent of the Note Series once again with the camera holepunch in the middle.

Now this Dynamic AMOLED 2x Display, is still the BEST that I have seen when it comes to smartphone displays with the Adaptive 120Hz refresh rate.

And what’s extra sweet is that Samsung has upgraded the screen brightness up to a crazy 1750 nits of peak brightness. And based on my first impressions, the automatic adjustments especially for the brightness was definitely the best that I have seen compared to any smartphone as of now, as the automatic levels were really seamless indeed.

Then there is a feature called Vision Booster which dynamically maps the ideal tone of an image by maximizing the color contrast based on the surrounding environment and the content of the image, for whether or not you are outside in a bright daylight environment or in a low light area, as it will intelligently adjust accordingly to ensure the best visibility for our human eye.

And these are some of the several reasons why I still feel that the screen on a Samsung phone, especially on a flagship is surely second to none, whether or not it’s just using the phone to browse accordingly or watching videos as well.

Cameras

As for the phone’s cameras, it comes with:

• a huge 108-megapixel F 1.8 aperture lens,
• a 12-megapixel F 2.2 aperture ultrawide lens,
• a 10-megapixel F 2.4 telephoto camera with up to 3x Optical Zoom,
• and another 10-megapixel lens but a periscope telephoto lens that can go up to 10x Optical Zoom and 100x Digital Zoom with the AI Super Resolution Technology with an aperture value of F 4.9

Then the front camera is a 40-megapixel F 2.2 aperture lens.

During my first impressions, other than the amazing flagship-level quality for the images, I did notice that the shutter response of the camera was significantly quick since it now has two times faster NPU, and other than the Pro Mode, there is also the Expert RAW Mode to save 16-bit RAW files in the camera app as well, to give you more flexibility both during taking a photo and in post after taking a shot.

Then there are also additional video collaboration features with Snapchat where you can use all the special features of the camera app, like Night Mode while in the App.

Then there is the Auto FPS or Auto Frames Per Second rate that automatically adjusts the best frame rate for video, according to the light conditions which was also really nice to know, and auto frame mode which automatically tracks up to 10 people to adjust the frame of your shot accordingly.

And there are better enhancements for night photography, Portrait Mode with the AI Stereo Depth Map that works for Pets as well, which of course I am looking further to test out the camera’s performance during my full video review of the phone.

Specs

Then the other additional specs of the phone that you need to know is that the phone has the 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Chipset here in Malaysia and most countries as well with up to Wi-Fi 6E support, no exact news on the exact RAM and the storage variant that is coming to Malaysia yet, but Samsung has options from 8 or 12 gigabytes of RAM and from 128, 256, and also up to 512 gigabytes of storage.

As for the phone’s battery, it has a 5000 mAh, that can support fast charging up to 45 watts where you will need to purchase the 45-watt charger separately, it also has 15-watts fast wireless charging and reverse wireless charging up to 4.5 watts.

Next, as for the phone’s software, it comes shipped with Android 12, with One UI Version 4.1, which I have gone through what I love about it in my S21 FE review video, but I will surely revisit all the amazing features of my current favorite Android Skin, hands down!

S Pen

Then going deeper into the S Pen, as shown earlier, the S Pen can now be stored into the S22 Ultra series and unlike the S21 Ultra, very similar to the Note series once again, which is the start of a whole new era for the S Series.

The S Pen has reduced from a 9.0 millisecond response time to a whopping 2.8 milliseconds, and based on my test, writing on the S Pen is even smoother than before and it really feels way more natural than before and this is because there is an enhanced AI-based coordinate prediction technology which is an upgrade from of the Wacom’s handwriting component.

In layman’s terms, it means that the S Pen can anticipate the direction that you are drawing, thus giving you a faster and efficient response time since it also improves the circuits per second from 360 to 480.

Then the handwriting to text features has also improved as it now works in up to 88 languages which is 12 more than the usual. And this clearly means that if you are like me who has really messy handwriting, it can transform the writing into nice, easy-to-read notes.

So yes I am looking forward to testing this new S Pen even further during my full video review, especially features like the “Collaboration View” that syncs between the S22 Ultra and the new Tab S8 Series, so stay tuned for that here in this channel.

So guys, with this do let me know what you would like to know specifically about the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G in the comments section below and I will be answering them when I do a full video review of the phone!