Editor’s rating: 4/5 Samsung has launched its S22 Series in the Indian Market. Samsung Galaxy S22+ is the middle child of this S22 Series which tries to maintain a balance between premium specs and pricing. The S22+ comes with considerable upgrades over its predecessor S21+ and directly competes with Apple’s iPhone 13. On paper, S22+ promises the best in class display, camera setup, and performance but does it deliver what it promises? Or are there any kinks in its armor? Read my review to find out. Display Performance Battery Camera
Samsung Galaxy S22+ Review: Design
Samsung Galaxy S22+ is the middle child in the latest S22 flagship series by Samsung. The smartphone captures attention at first glance and looks beautiful from afar. The phone is available in white, black, green, pink, grey, cream, pale blue, and violet colors. The last 4 are available exclusively via the Samsung website.
UnboxingPrice and availabilityDesignDisplayPerformanceCameraBatteryShould you buy Galaxy S22+?
Samsung Galaxy S22+ Price In India
Samsung Galaxy S22+ is the mid variant in Samsung’s S22 Series. It comes in 2 storage models-
8GB RAM+128GB storage- Rs. 84,9998GB RAM+256GB storage- Rs. 88,999
The smartphone is up for grabs via Samsung.com, other online leading platforms, and Samsung retail stores across India. Samsung Galaxy S22+ is currently available in Phantom White, Phantom Black, and Green color options in India.
Samsung Galaxy S22+ Unboxing
Samsung Galaxy S22+ smartphone comes in a sleek black cardboard box. Since there is no charger inside the box, the box is lighter than usual. The box has S branding and the name of the device on the front and important information on the back and side. It contains-
Samsung Galaxy S22+ deviceSIM ejection pinUSB Type-C cableHelp manual
Realme GT Neo 3 review: Better than the OnePlus 10R? Realme Narzo 50 5G Review: A capable 5G phone for the masses Motorola Edge 30 Review: 5G ready phone for everyday needs The one I have is a Phantom black color variant and I loved it at first look. The smartphone has a contour cut camera bump at the back which makes the phone look unique. The S22+ has a strong build quality and feels good in hand though the size feels a bit too much for a single palm. The S22+ smartphone is gently curved around the edges and the sides are flatter and thicker. The sides are made of aluminum and there are very minute bezels at the front. It has a sleek rectangular camera module and Samsung branding, both in similar black color, at the back. The smartphone has a USB-C slot at the bottom but doesn’t feature a headphone jack. The bottom edge also has one loudspeaker, microphone, and a dual nano SIM card slot. There is a secondary microphone that sits at the top. The power button and volume rockers are on the right edge and thus very easily reachable using one hand. The smartphone is bigger and heavier than the S22 but smaller and lighter than the S22 Ultra model. It is 7.6mm thick which gives it a sleek look and weighs 195 grams. The weight is close to 200 grams does make it feel slightly bulky sometimes, but it is not too heavy. Unlike S21, S22+ uses glass for its body. The Samsung Galaxy S22+ features Corning Gorilla Glass Victus Plus which makes it scratchproof. The smartphone comes with IP68 protection against dust and water submersion, which is a must in a device priced at almost 90K. No such protection would mean the user being worried about the phone coming in contact with rain or dust. My Phantom Black device resisted scratches but did catch smudges a lot.
Samsung Galaxy S22+ Review: Display
The middle child of the S22 Series sports a 6.6-inch Dynamic AMOLED display panel. The display is bright, color accurate, and offers a good contrast ratio. It has a resolution of 1080×2340 which is common but the quality of visuals is top-notch. The brightness can go as high as 1750 nits for some parts of the screen and 1200 nits otherwise under peak sunlight and it shows as the screen is clearly visible even under direct sunlight. Colors look accurate even under sunlight due to Samsung’s Vision Booster feature. The smartphone has a high 120Hz refresh rate for its LTPO panel. It is adaptive as the refresh rate adjusts itself as per needs. I saw the refresh rate dropping to as low as 10Hz sometimes. Whenever one’s finger touches the screen, the refresh rate moves up to 120Hz for smoother scrolling and as soon as you remove your finger, it starts dropping to 60Hz, 30Hz, 24Hz, and then 10Hz as per the app running on the screen. The games can run at a 120Hz refresh rate provided they have support for it. The display features a small punch-hole cutout for selfie snapper and the bezels around are very thin making the display look bigger. The all-in-all display might not stand out in terms of specs, but in practicality, the quality of the display doesn’t disappoint.
Samsung Galaxy S22+ Review: Battery
Samsung Galaxy S22+ packs a 4500mAh battery. This seems less as even budget smartphones offer up to 6000mAh batteries these days. However, when you use it, you realize that the 4500mAh battery lasts an entire day even if the usage is moderate to heavy. Usage can include long hours of on-screen time due to watching content and playing games. Other activities include calling, messaging, social media browsing (2-3 hours), listening to music, etc, The smartphone has support for 45W wired and 15W wireless fast charging. It has 4.5W reverse wireless charging support as well. Though the charging speed has upgraded from 25W to 45W this time, there is no charger inside the box. This means you can use any Type-C fast charger that you have with you or if you don’t have one then you will need to buy a charger spending an additional amount. I used two chargers to charge S22+, one being a OnePlus 10 Pro charger, and the other was a 45W charger I borrowed from an acquaintance. While the OnePlus charger took almost 2 hours to charge S22+ from 0 to 100%, the 45W charger also took about 1.5 hours to charge it completely. Thus, I felt, the charging speed is closer to 20W which is disappointing. However, if you want to charge S22+ wirelessly, then the 15W charger will take a couple of hours to charge the device completely. Thanks to the device’s always on-display, even when the screen is not on, the charging percentage and time left are displayed at the bottom of the screen at all times.
Samsung Galaxy S22+ Review: Camera
The Samsung Galaxy S22+ has a triple camera setup on the rear end. It includes a main 50MP sensor with dual-pixel autofocus and OIS, a 12MP ultrawide camera, and a 10MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom and OIS. The front side features a 10MP selfie snapper with autofocus. The primary camera uses a 50MP sensor and captures much more detailed images than its predecessors. The images taken using a 50MP lens are clear, precise, sharp and full of details. The dynamic range is good and color tones are mostly accurate. In daylight, the images showed beautiful greens, greys, reds, blacks, and browns. In low-light indoor conditions as well, the primary sensor works fine. The images come out with low noise, a wide dynamic range, and accurate color tones. The night mode takes 3-4 seconds to click an image, but the quality of the image is decent. Human subjects are always well defined in images clicked with a 50MP lens and their color tones look close to natural as well. The 12MP ultrawide camera captured good images in daylight. They are vivid, sharp, and full of details. In low-light conditions, though quality decreases a bit it is still better than most of the other ultrawide sensors in smartphones. Talking about the last 10MP telephoto lens, it saves images in 12MP resolution and the clicks have a good dynamic range and look nice. The color accuracy and contrast are decent as well. Close-up shots are full of details and I especially used this lens for taking such close-up shots. This can be because its optical zoom works well. However, avoid using this lens in low-light or nighttime conditions. Coming to the 10MP selfie camera, it is definitely a pro at its job. This is one of the best selfie cameras I have encountered to date. Dynamic range is amazing and color reproduction is accurate to the T. This lens surely gave very good selfies without much daylight and kept the focus on human objects making background secondary. The rear cameras can record up to 4k 60fps videos and the primary camera can even record 8k 24fps videos. The videos have high details and smooth frame rates. The videos are well stabilized and totally ready to be posted on social media. Overall, the Samsung Galaxy S22+ cameras are excellent performers and clearly one of the best you will find in an Android smartphone.
Samsung Galaxy S22+ Review: Performance
Samsung’s Galaxy S22 Series is its topmost flagship series and its devices don’t lack behind in terms of processor. Galaxy S22+ is powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset which is the latest from Qualcomm. Paired with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage capacity (256GB is also available), the phone is fast while performing many tasks. Apps load and open in the blink of an eye and no matter how many apps you run in the background, the smartphone never hangs or slows down. The only department, where speed is a little slow is the opening of the camera which sometimes takes a few seconds to load properly. The gaming performance of the S22+ is second to none. The high refresh rate supports the high frame rates of all the games. Playing Call of Duty with high-refresh-rate was an immersive experience. Games like Alto’s Adventure also ran well. Samsung’s S22+ comes with Game Optimization Service. GOS limits the peak performance capability of the chipset slightly to stop it from throttling under the sustained workload. When turned off, stabilization while gaming sees a drastic change. For a few minutes, the phone gave a higher frame rate but then dropped hard and gaming performance became quite poor. It is better to play games while keeping GOS on. There are a plethora of connectivity options in the Samsung Galaxy S22+. These include 5G, LTE, dual-SIM, GPS, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC, USB Type-C port, and Wi-Fi 6E. 5G can’t be tested as it hasn’t rolled out in India as of now, but otherwise, its LTE performance is decent. Some benchmark tests when performed gave the following results- Coming to the software department, S22+ runs Android 12-based One UI 4.1 OS and this Android OS is the best so far. The design of the UI is colorful and fun and it can be funky and sophisticated at the same time, provided you set it up right. There are 100s of personalization and customization features in One UI 4.1. It is easy to understand and use, fluid, and offers good security. It comes with a host of Samsung apps and 3rd party apps pre-installed which can be annoying. Although these can be removed, but bloatware is something one would not like to see on their 80K smartphone. Thankfully adware is mostly missing, apart from Samsung’s Push service showing big Samsung announcements. Samsung has promised at least 4 years of software updates, which is up to Android 16 in 2026. The Galaxy S22+ isn’t the best in the business when it comes to thermal performance. The phone small software update or running a short benchmark test. I played a game of Ludo on it and it became difficult to hold the device in hand after 10-12 minutes. Also, the back of the phone heated up when exposed to sunlight for a short while. I doubt its body was tested for Indian summer conditions. Thermal performance definitely needs improvement. Dual Stereo speakers offer loud and rich sound during gaming and streaming sessions alike. The audio is clear and has a hint of bass in it. There is no headphone jack which can be an issue, as you will have to use wireless earphones or a USB Type-C dongle.
Samsung Galaxy S22+ Review Verdict: Should you buy it?
The Samsung Galaxy S22+ is a smartphone that seems to be both loaded with specs and high on performance. It has performed exceedingly well for me for the past four months. It has a good build quality, high refresh rate, powerful processor, and a dynamic camera setup. Even the battery life is great and UI is fun to play with. However, the charging speed is low, and the phone is a smudge magnet. If you want a high-end flagship device with good performance and are not interested in a 10x optical zoom camera or S-Pen stylus (which you will find in Galaxy S22 Ultra), then Samsung Galaxy S22+ might fit your needs.
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