I bought the S21U on launch day and I bought the S22U on launch day. S22 is a huge upgrade for my usage. Here are my thoughts so far:
1) The most noticeable thing is that the screen is wider, and I LOVE that. To me that is worth it right there, everything else is gravy. I have large hands and have zero issues with one-handed use. 2-hand typing is a dream, that extra bit of space allows me to type noticeably faster with my thumbs than the S21U. It's so much nicer for reading articles and generally consuming content, I didn't expect it to be as noticeable as it is. "Natural" mode saturation is slightly higher on the S22U, but that isn't an issue. The extra brightness is noticeable. I like the squared off edges, it seems to provide just that little bit extra useful space, and 99% of phones live in a case anyway so you can customize the in-hand feel however you wish.
2) I have never owned a Note device in the past, but the S-Pen is great. I don't use it a ton, but when I do want to use it I'm really glad to have it (remote shutter, screen captures, signing documents, etc.) It's included at no extra cost and remains hidden away so you forget it's even there until you need it. Perfect implementation with no downsides in my view.
3) Cameras have been improved quite dramatically, both on the processing side and sharpness/general image quality. Every image sensor is new despite the lens focal length and apertures remaining the same. I am a professional photographer so I am very picky regarding image quality and I found the improvements to be very noticeable. Portrait mode in particular is unbelievably good at picking out boarders, far better than any other phone out there including the iPhone 13 Pro. I have done a ton of tests and it literally doesn't miss even a single strand of hair, and you can adjust the effect after the fact - pretty much a perfect implementation IMHO. Portrait mode with the 3X looks best in most cases due to the scene compression from the longer focal length. Night mode got a big improvement (both the long-exposure mode as well as just snapping shots in low light), as did overall white balance. Video image stabilization is massively improved as well. Digital zoom (anything beyond 10X) is also dramatically improved, with 30X being genuinely usable and 100X useful for reading a sign, menu, license plate, etc. Everyone will have a different threshold for what is acceptable here but it's great to have so many options. Really pleased with the gains here across the board. The RAW files from the main camera sensor (by far the largest sensor physically) are easy to work with and have a surprising amount of leeway in post processing, for those who may be interested.
4) Speed/responsiveness - for general usage, there is no noticeable difference from the S21U which was literally instant-fast for most things. Nothing of note to report here, it is as good as it gets in terms of normal everyday use. Fingerprint reader 100% accurate as long as I don't miss it with my finger (exact same unit as the S21U, so no change there). Turn off the fingerprint animation and it is literally instant - you don't even need to wake the screen first once you get used to where the sensor is. If anything I will say the camera app is quicker to take photos, process photos, and switch between cameras but the S21U was already so fast that nobody should expect major gains here.
5) Battery life - Seems to be slightly better than the S21U, but both were astonishingly good with 2+ day batteries (normal use), so I really don't care at the end of the day which ends up being slightly better or worse as it will not affect me.
6) Price - absolute no-brainer of an upgrade. It cost me under $200 CAD to upgrade from my 256GB S21U to the S22U (I imagine that number is even less in the USA), so there is little reason not to upgrade unless there is a specific thing about the S21U you prefer. It was super easy to find various promos, order through the student portal, etc. to reduce the cost. I got the S22U for under $1,400 CAD and sold my S21U for $1200 CAD in one day. Because the upgrade is so cheap, if there is even one feature you want from the S22, it's easily worth it. Any cheaper and it would have been a free upgrade, so it's pretty hard to complain about the price.
tl;dr: Samsung is letting people (almost) upgrade for free, they are not charging you any extra for the S-pen "Note" experience, and there are significant improvements across the board. Easiest upgrade decision I have ever made in the Android world, and also the cheapest.
My sole complaint: Samsung stopped applying factory screen protectors with the S22 series.
1) The most noticeable thing is that the screen is wider, and I LOVE that. To me that is worth it right there, everything else is gravy. I have large hands and have zero issues with one-handed use. 2-hand typing is a dream, that extra bit of space allows me to type noticeably faster with my thumbs than the S21U. It's so much nicer for reading articles and generally consuming content, I didn't expect it to be as noticeable as it is. "Natural" mode saturation is slightly higher on the S22U, but that isn't an issue. The extra brightness is noticeable. I like the squared off edges, it seems to provide just that little bit extra useful space, and 99% of phones live in a case anyway so you can customize the in-hand feel however you wish.
2) I have never owned a Note device in the past, but the S-Pen is great. I don't use it a ton, but when I do want to use it I'm really glad to have it (remote shutter, screen captures, signing documents, etc.) It's included at no extra cost and remains hidden away so you forget it's even there until you need it. Perfect implementation with no downsides in my view.
3) Cameras have been improved quite dramatically, both on the processing side and sharpness/general image quality. Every image sensor is new despite the lens focal length and apertures remaining the same. I am a professional photographer so I am very picky regarding image quality and I found the improvements to be very noticeable. Portrait mode in particular is unbelievably good at picking out boarders, far better than any other phone out there including the iPhone 13 Pro. I have done a ton of tests and it literally doesn't miss even a single strand of hair, and you can adjust the effect after the fact - pretty much a perfect implementation IMHO. Portrait mode with the 3X looks best in most cases due to the scene compression from the longer focal length. Night mode got a big improvement (both the long-exposure mode as well as just snapping shots in low light), as did overall white balance. Video image stabilization is massively improved as well. Digital zoom (anything beyond 10X) is also dramatically improved, with 30X being genuinely usable and 100X useful for reading a sign, menu, license plate, etc. Everyone will have a different threshold for what is acceptable here but it's great to have so many options. Really pleased with the gains here across the board. The RAW files from the main camera sensor (by far the largest sensor physically) are easy to work with and have a surprising amount of leeway in post processing, for those who may be interested.
4) Speed/responsiveness - for general usage, there is no noticeable difference from the S21U which was literally instant-fast for most things. Nothing of note to report here, it is as good as it gets in terms of normal everyday use. Fingerprint reader 100% accurate as long as I don't miss it with my finger (exact same unit as the S21U, so no change there). Turn off the fingerprint animation and it is literally instant - you don't even need to wake the screen first once you get used to where the sensor is. If anything I will say the camera app is quicker to take photos, process photos, and switch between cameras but the S21U was already so fast that nobody should expect major gains here.
5) Battery life - Seems to be slightly better than the S21U, but both were astonishingly good with 2+ day batteries (normal use), so I really don't care at the end of the day which ends up being slightly better or worse as it will not affect me.
6) Price - absolute no-brainer of an upgrade. It cost me under $200 CAD to upgrade from my 256GB S21U to the S22U (I imagine that number is even less in the USA), so there is little reason not to upgrade unless there is a specific thing about the S21U you prefer. It was super easy to find various promos, order through the student portal, etc. to reduce the cost. I got the S22U for under $1,400 CAD and sold my S21U for $1200 CAD in one day. Because the upgrade is so cheap, if there is even one feature you want from the S22, it's easily worth it. Any cheaper and it would have been a free upgrade, so it's pretty hard to complain about the price.
tl;dr: Samsung is letting people (almost) upgrade for free, they are not charging you any extra for the S-pen "Note" experience, and there are significant improvements across the board. Easiest upgrade decision I have ever made in the Android world, and also the cheapest.
My sole complaint: Samsung stopped applying factory screen protectors with the S22 series.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram