I’ve been a big fan of Samsung’s phablet smartphones for a while now, and the Note 20 Ultra has been my favorite mobile gaming device since its launch in the summer of 2020. The gigantic 6. 9-inch display makes it a lot of the demo room, especially in titles that require a lot of HUD data on the screen, and the speakers still have full and complete sound, damn the lack of a headphone jack. I’m having problems with the camera, but that’s not the point.
Lately, I’ve had the opportunity to see Samsung’s non-secular successor to the Note, the S22 Ultra, and it has a lot of bells and whistles that I love from its predecessor. The beloved S Pen returns with a reduced price. Lag, the camera is improved, the 4nm processor is very fast, and a slightly smaller (but still ridiculously large) 6. Hz dynamic 120Hz AMOLED display offers the internet for virtual entertainment.
Whether it’s watching 4K YouTube videos, doing deathmatch in Call of Duty: Mobile, or streaming Halo Infinite to Xbox’s xCloud servers, you can’t deny the 1,750 nit quality of this screen. It’s by far the most productive phone screen I’ve ever put My eyes are beating my beloved Note 20 Ultra in a way I find difficult to articulate. The colors seem to appear more and more and the graphic main points explode with a liveliness that embarrasses even my ASUS PC 4K gaming monitor.
You have to take into account the entire GOS (Game Optimization Service), a “feature” of limitation that generated some controversy at the beginning and that has since been manipulated to allow failover. When activated, the functionality of the game may supposedly be affected. When turned off, the phone can get very hot. Anyway, I didn’t realize the excessive difference.
Still, gaming is an absolute joy on the S22 Ultra, and come to think of it, it’s probably the most productive performance display in my house right now. The one-inch television exceeds the raw quality of the pixels. That said, this phone is far from perfect, and interestingly, Samsung has to remove one of my favorite features from the old phablet: expandable storage.
On my Note 20 Ultra 5G, I installed a 512GB microSD card, which adds a lot of extra area to the paltry 128GB internal. “Insignificant” is subjective based on your use case, I guess. But in my specific situation, I take a ton of photos and videos, largely because I’m a father, but also because I’m obsessed with nature. My phone is full of self-proclaimed artistic snapshots and meandering HDR clips of trees whispering in the wind, plants growing toward the sun, and birds finally doing everything birds do.
Yeah, I basically play for a living, but I do swoon a bit. I touch grass, so to speak. I can hear the drawing near panting as I type this.
So yes, a lot of family, animal, and plant images fill this writer’s storage, but that’s not to mention the plethora of gaming software I’m still installed on my device, all from more space-hungry titles like the aforementioned Call of Duty: Mobile and the emotions that Sky games have, to compact and more specialized reports such as Wordle. All of this is to say that, as someone who uses my camera phone every day, all day and is a gaming and generation blogger, I want expandable storage period.
The 128GB included in my test drive is at best sufficient. If I’m honest, I think casual users will find this acceptable, especially if they’re only left with a handful of downloaded games. In addition, Samsung offers 256 GB and 512 GB of garage capacity. In addition to this low-end model, the versions pay the difference, and that garage is integrated into the phone with no way to physically remove it or expand it.
A microSD card slot would be offering a lot more flexibility, and I don’t like it when phone brands prevent their consumers from making those possible choices independently.
What’s also disappointing is that the S22 Ultra’s 128GB styling only comes with 8GB of RAM, which is nothing compared to one of the high-end variants, or the Note 20 Ultra, which comes with 12GB rugged. To be fair, most games will work well with 8GB of RAM (we’re talking about mobile games here and not Cyberpunk 2077, after all), but if you want to use the phone for productivity and artistic tasks, such as video editing, 8GB may be enough. potentially turn out to be limited.
Also, the ultra-fast 45W charging is good, but after testing the 65W charger on the OnePlus 10 Pro, I would have liked Samsung to develop the features here. I know that charging at the speed of light can damage the batteries in the long run, however, the extra speed is useful, especially when playing a lot. In my experience, the battery life is decent on the S22 Ultra, it’s not an incredibly right or terrible thing.
In the end, I’m torn by frustration. The S22 Ultra, in my opinion, is one of the most productive features mobile gamers have when it comes to demonstrating raw prowess, and the notorious S Pen will hold a special place in my screen-loving heart. a sparse source of RAM in the low-end style overshadows a missed opportunity in an otherwise amazing smartphone experience.
However, if those drawbacks don’t worry you, there’s no better equipment with which to explore Genshin Impact or take pictures of squirrels. Many, many squirrels. Please submit help.
Disclosure: Samsung has a review product for policy purposes.