This is a real review of the Galaxy S22+ Snapdragon which I’ve been using for a year. This highlights only my experiences with the phone and you guys may want to add on something, in which case please do so in the comments.
Display and Build Quality
This phone is built like a tank. I used it caseless for a very long time before getting an official Samsung leather case for it. No scratches, nothing even after many accidental drops. The phone looks extremely sleek and fits nicely in the hand.
The display is just beautiful, no other words for it. It’s the perfect size for my hand, and gets really bright or really dim as I need. 120Hz adds on to the magic as well. The colours pop out and it’s just a really good experience.
Performance
Okay, everyone does know the Snapdragon version of the phone absolutely demolishes the Exynos 2200 version. The Snapdragon S22+ has been quite fast, with only occasional stutters or frame drops here and there. However, the phone does get really hot in the top left corner of the screen quite quickly, which is a little concerning.
I’ve never had any apps closing in the background or anything. (I’ve turned off RAM plus as I saw many posts online that recommended that.) For my daily use, which is a typical moderate use, this phone has been excellent.
Cameras
Amazing. No more needs to be said.
I love taking moon shots using the 30x zoom on this and they are all so crystal clear with the most detail. Daytime shots are perfect as well, though the autofocus sometimes lags and acts up, or downright fails to work sometimes. I wish the shutter lag was lesser, though.
Battery
In contrast to the rest of the phone, the battery is HOT GARBAGE. Even with the brightness turned down to about 10%, I barely get 3 hours screen on time on a full charge. I do take care of the battery, keep it within 30-80% with some charges to 100%, and don’t have any performance mode turned on. I don’t know why is it this bad.
The charging is good, but didn’t meet my expectations. Here are my 0-100 charging results:
15W - 1 hr 40 min
25W - 1 hr 1 min
45W - 57 min
The results speak for themselves. You say a 10W increase shaves off 40 minutes of charging time, but 20W extra power barely does anything? The phone does get hot while charging though.
TLDR and Conclusion
This phone has mostly been a delight to use and I should have no problem keeping it for years to come. The battery is a cause for concern now and I do need to keep an eye on it. Apart from that, this is an excellent phone and I would definitely recommend it if it could be found at a good price.
Comparison with other phones I’ve used
Before this, I’ve used a Galaxy A20 and an iPhone 12. Both the phones have better battery life than this, and the iPhone did feel faster than the S22+. However, the cameras on this phone are much better. I would say the iPhone 12 is about 85% of the S22+ experience, and honestly, I did not have any issue with the A20, except for the very limited 32GB storage and mediocre cameras.
If you have any questions or want to say something, AMA in the comments!
Thanks for reading! Once again, these are my opinions based on my usage over the past year, so don’t come with your pitchforks at me
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The s23 series was what the s22 series should have been. I love the look of the s22 series but the SoC is just not good from a battery perspective.
I have the S22+ with Exynos as well, and I disagree with some parts of the review.
Display and build quality: I fully agree. The screen is excellent, and its quality is impressive. The only thing missing is that they should have used a 1440p screen instead of a 1080p one.
Performance: I absolutely disagree. The Exynos is a complete and utter failure in every department. That sad excuse for a chipset should, at best, be used in midrange devices, not flagship ones or discontinued altogether. It’s the worst chipset on the market, with nothing redeemable about it. After a recent update, the battery life plummeted from about 3 hours to 1.5 hours, performance mediocre, and it feels like using a chipset from two generations ago, but with worse battery life and somehow even worse performance. There are severe overheating issues, lag even in Samsung’s own apps—not to mention other third-party apps, laggy animations, and stuttering problems.
Camera: The camera is quite good, but I rarely use it.
Battery: The battery is an abysmal mess, with a screen-on time of only 1.5 hours after the One UI 6 update.
Conclusion: I’m done with Samsung’s scams, and I won’t buy another Samsung device if they ever use that utterly inferior chipset again. Exynos is like a lobotomized Snapdragon without any legs or arms. I will part ways with Samsung for good, and I might even switch to another brand. While I acknowledge that Apple devices have their fair share of anti-consumer practices, at least they do not actively lie to their consumers and deliver what they promise.
Well, I have a Snapdragon version (see title). I do agree with the fact that a 1440p screen should be used. Thanks for sharing your experience with the Exynos. They are indeed extremely terrible.
I’m sorry, I was thinking that you had exynos aswell, sorry for misunderstanding.
I have no idea if my S22+ is Snapdragon or Exynos, but I’ve had it for about a year and a half, and agree it’s a fantastic phone.
I don’t get this. You’re nerdy enough to post on reddit, but not smart enough to know what phone you bought?
I have a tabs8 with snapdragon and it’s fine for a tablet, but i couldn’t imagine this shit chip in a phone (s21 snap uses the same soc). And they say the exynos is worse?
How much SOT do you get?
…all I said is I like my phone. I’m not a tech guy I didn’t even know there were two versions until reading this post.
If you’re not living in the US or in China, then you most likely have an Exynos model
Snapdragon is only offered in US, UK, UAE, and one or two other regions
Nah.
What?
The only region that is really exynos is Europe, the rest of the world, Australia, Asia including China, Japan, Korea, South east Asia, middle east is Snapdragon
You could always install CPU Z to check
It’s probably the best phone I’ve used. Apart from the well known battery drain. Screen, camera, headphone audio (Bluetooth and wired), great speakers, speedy UI, solid build quality.
I’m laid in bed and have been using the phone for an hour, 50% screen brightness and I’ve used 8%. I don’t actually think that’s too bad.
The biggest drain is 5G. Just shocking. Even if I’m on WiFi. So I’ve switched it to 4G, still get 80mb downloads and 30mb up. The increase in battery life is worth the switch. I agree I shouldn’t have to but there you are.
Exynos, UK, Vodafone.
It IS an incredible phone, except for the battery drain. Mine loses about 3 or 4 percent every time I restart, which is just confusing. I’m on WiFi most of the time, and almost never use mobile data, so I don’t think switching data modes will have much of an effect on my battery life.
Kinda like cars, you know. Buy an SUV and you get more fuel consumption. Similarly, a more powerful phone does use more battery. But I’m happy to see that the battery issues have been fixed with the S23 series!
Do you have bad reception?
Well, reception believes on the cell service in the country as well. There’s a cell tower about half a kilometre away, and I get about 3 out of 4 bars on average, though there are random drops in reception.
3/4 bars is the maximum on my phone (depends on carrier). So that’s not the problem. My phone (Snapdragon) lasts me 48 hours with a charge to 100% easily. I’m still looking forward to checking the S24U out to have incredible battery life and a crazy snappy and efficient chip
Definitely!
The battery was the reason why I returned my s22+ exynos and waited for the s23 ultra with snapdragon the next year… Day and night difference… And no micro stutters either
Well I hope you are enjoying your new phone! I want to make my S22+ last as long as it can!
Good luck! But yeah - I don’t think many people got a good battery life out of it
Thanks! Let me see how it holds on. The only problem is the battery. The rest of the phone is perfection.
The charging speed is kept at 28W max, so a more powerful charger won’t make a big difference yes
Oh that’s sad