We guessed it right. Samsung’s S22 series kept its date and the big announcement is that the top-of-the-line Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra gets an S Pen, bringing the functionality of the Note series to the flagship S series devices. We’re also excited about the new Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra with its massive 14.6-inch screen. Here’s a quick round-up of everything Samsung announced at the Galaxy Unpacked event held on February 9th, 2022:
The twain finally meet: The Galaxy S21 Ultra launched in 2021 became the first S series device to offer S Pen support. It was the strongest indication that Samsung might finally blend its Note line with the S series. When Samsung skipped a Note launch in 2021, the rumours began to intensify. The leaks were bang on. The S22 Ultra features the fastest, most responsive (70 percent lower latency than the Note 20 Ultra) S Pen on any Samsung smartphone. Note fans can now breathe a sigh of relief.
Nightography: A large part of the product launch presentation centred around the camera capabilities of the S22 trio. The Ultra’s pitch is built around ‘Nightography’; this cam features a 2.4um pixel sensor—Samsung’s largest pixel sensor ever, allowing the camera lenses to capture more light and data, optimising the lighting and detail of your video clips. Plus, the S22 Ultra’s advanced Super Clear Glass lens is said to let you record smoother and clearer night-time videos without flares.
Fully loaded cams: The Galaxy S22 Ultra offers more creative controls and a DSLR-like experience with Expert RAW that offers a comprehensive suite of in-camera editing tools. The Ultra combines dual zoom lenses for terrific zoom photography capabilities. The Galaxy S22 and S22+ feature a 50MP main camera, 10MP telelens, and 12MP ultra-wide lens. Both devices are powered by advanced VDIS technology that keeps vibrations to a minimum; so you get smooth, sharp footage even when you’re on the move.
Flagship class features: The Ultra’s boasts an immersive 6.8-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with a peak brightness of 1750 nits. The use of Vision Booster technology adjusts brightness and offers the best possible view of your content even in bright sunlight. The S22 comes with a 6.1-inch display, while the S22+ features a 6.6-inch display that also peaks at 1750 nits. While the S22 and S22+ feature the familiar contour-cut design that blends the camera seamlessly into the housing, the S22 Ultra adopts a new design direction. All three devices are powered by an advanced 4nm processor; the Indian market could get the Exynos 2200 processor. The S22 Ultra offers internal storage variants that go all the way to 1TB and comes with a formidable 5000mAh battery.
Is the Galaxy Tab S8 series the Android tab to beat?
Samsung unveiled three variants of its flagship Android tablet—the Galaxy Tab S8, S8+ and the S8 Ultra. It’s the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra that caught our attention with its expansive 14.6-inch Super AMOLED display and 120Hz refresh rate.
Samsung has expanded the screen:body ratio with the ultra-thin bezels (just 6.3mm), making it truly immersive. It’s backed by a 4nm chip, RAM that goes all the way to 16 GB and up to 512GB of storage. All three models offer expandable storage by up to 1 TB, with an optional microSD card.
An update for the Galaxy Watch 4
Samsung also rolled out a much-awaited software update for its Galaxy Watch 4 that was developed on the Wear OS platform by Samsung and Google. Samsung confirmed that you will be able to stream music from the YouTube App soon and Google Assistant will also be available on Galaxy Watch 4 series in the coming months.
Pricing and availability
Samsung announced that the Galaxy S22 smartphones and Galaxy Tab S8 series will go on sale from February 25th, 2022. The Samsung India website offers a pre-reserve option but the official India pricing has not been revealed yet.
The launch price for the S22 is $799 (Rs 59,800), the S22+ starts at $999 (Rs 74,800), while the Ultra starts at $1,199 (Rs 89,800). As for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 series, the Tab S8 starts at $699 (Rs 52,300), the S8+ at $899 (Rs 67,300) and the S8 Ultra at $1099 (Rs 82,300).
