Samsung has all but confirmed it will unveil its new foldable lineup for 2021 at the August Unpacked Event. But while the clamshell devices are currently the center of attention, leaks surrounding the Galaxy S22 Series, rumored to release in January, have been informative. With the S21 Series having been on the market for nearly six months, if you’re deciding between waiting for the next generation or buying the current device, this article lists everything we know so far about the Galaxy S22 Series to help you stay informed and possibly make a decision.
Design and Display
It’s hard to argue against the fact that the S21 Series features one of the best smartphone designs to come out of the OEM’s not-so-secret labs. So if you’re looking forward to seeing something new, you’ll have to wait a little longer. Unfortunately, while fan renders seem to be appearing, we have no confirmation about the tentative design from reliable leakers. But @MauriQHD on Twitter did share what he says are the screen sizes for the new lineup.
Galaxy S21 Ultra features a 6.8-inch display with a viewable area of 6.6-inches due to its curves.
He mentions that the S22 and S22 Plus will see a marginal reduction in size, coming down from 6.2 and 6.7-inches on the S21 and S21 Plus to 6.06 and 6.55-inches, respectively. The S22 Ultra, on the other hand, has a speculated 6.81-inch screen size, which is ever so slightly larger than the 6.8-inches of the S21 Ultra.
If these measurements account for screen curvature, the S22 is smaller than the current 6.1-inch Samsung claims for the S21, but both the S22 Plus and S22 Ultra are larger — the Plus by 0.05-inches and the Ultra by 0.21-inches. But since that’s unknown, we can keep these in mind as speculative numbers. He also claims the phones will be thinner, meaning battery life could take a hit.
As for screen resolution, the S21 and S21 Plus saw a bump down to an Adaptive 120Hz FHD+ AMOLED display last year; we see no reason for this to change since the phones will aim to maintain the same price and have a rumored smaller battery. You can expect a QHD+ 120Hz panel on the Ultra though. Samsung can’t take that away unless it wants to upset its customer base.
Camera
With every Samsung flagship, while there’s often focus on the design and display offered, those are aspects where Samsung hasn’t dropped the ball. So most eyes tend to hover over the performance you can expect and the camera hardware you’ll receive.
Galaxy S21 Ultra
According to information presented by @FrontTron, the standard Galaxy S22 and the larger S22+ will feature a triple camera setup that consists of one 50MP and two 12MP sensors. We presume the former would be the primary one, and the other two will be responsible for ultrawide and telephoto shots.
For the S22 Ultra, he mentions users will get access to a quad-camera array made up of the third generation 108MP sensor and three other 12MP sensors, likely to be one ultra-wide and two telephotos. IceUniverse also corroborates the rumored 200MP Olympus camera may not make an appearance on the S22 Ultra.
Taking the focus off the numbers, as reported by Sammobile, some leaks have indicated Samsung will introduce a sensor-shift stabilization system similar to the iPhone 12 Pro Max and possibly include a continuous zoom periscope camera. And to give you a little insight on the front camera, it was expected of Samsung to introduce an under-display unit with the S22 Series, but it seems the move will not materialize because they were unable to achieve satisfactory image quality.
Battery
As mentioned earlier in this piece, leaks suggest the S22 Series will feature slimmer phones which inadvertently means Samsung will be packing in smaller batteries. Considering advancements that next-generation processor technology will bring, it isn’t wrong to assume that users can expect battery life similar or slightly worse than what’s available with the S21 Series.
But while the smaller battery can be a bummer, a new leak by @FrontTron (via GSM Arena) suggests that Samsung will finally be stepping up its wired hardware to support 65W fast charging on the devices. While the OEM has shipped a 45W brick before (with S20 Ultra), it went back to 25W with the S21 Series, so it’s great to see that Samsung may finally be on par with the competition.
It will be wrong to assume that Samsung will include new charging hardware in the box, so be prepared to shell out extra for lower charge times.
Performance of Galaxy S22 Series
The Exynos 2100 was a marked improvement over its predecessor, and we hope Samsung can deliver with its next-generation product too.
Samsung bringing hardware made in collaboration with AMD to its devices is no hidden secret. The company has even confirmed (via SamMobile) that an upcoming flagship product would feature the custom GPU solution. So there’s a chance we may get to see the rumored Exynos with AMD GPU in the S22 Series. If this doesn’t happen, you can always expect to see Qualcomm’s next flagship Snapdragon chipset — rumored to be called Snapdragon 895 — used in Samsung’s flagship S-series phones for international markets.
Is there anything specific you would like to see Samsung do for the S22 Series? For us, the idea of Samsung focusing on using improved components rather than blindly chasing numbers is a welcome change in attitude. Let us know more about your thoughts in the comments below.
Aryan Suren
A 21-year-old whose interest is peaked when someone says the word ‘Ecosystem’. When not doing any writing related to technology, you may find Aryan filming videos, doodling or diving into RPGs.