Galaxy S22 Ultra: Return of The Note
After being teased for months via leaked renders, camera specs and even dozens of accessories, the Galaxy S22 series is here. Samsung finally announced the Galaxy S22 series along with the Galaxy Tab S8 series at the Unpacked event on 9th February .
Before we begin, we’re not here to talk about those spec upgrades, S-Pen, and new colors. I’ll be covering some of the underlying features that most people are not aware of.
Better Low Signal Performance
The Galaxy S22 Ultra is one of the first smartphones to sport Qualcomm’s X65 modem-RF system (only the Snapdragon version supports that). It is an upgraded version of the antenna system found in the iPhone 13 series (iPhone 13 has the X60 version). The mobile chip manufacturer, Qualcomm claims that the X65 performs better in areas with low signals. The two major reasons behind the S22 Ultra’s ability to deliver better signals in bad reception areas include a new “envelope tracker” and an “AI-enhanced signal boost” feature. In fact, PCMag did an in-depth comparison and test to showcase the better signal performance in real life.
In short, the Galaxy S22 Ultra will perform significantly better than other devices if you’re in an area with bad cell reception.
Also read: Best Cases for Galaxy S22 Ultra
Swap Memory Support
Samsung has been pushing out a feature as part of OneUI 4.0, called RAM Plus. It basically allows users to use the system’s internal storage memory as a swap memory or virtual RAM. Android has become smart enough to manage applications & resources from both the physical and virtual RAM. All thanks to fast internal flash storage and software optimization, this works very well. Samsung has showcased this in mid-tier devices and it works way better that it used to years ago when we tried to use microSD cards as RAM.
What’s impressive is the fact that you can easily configure the size of the SWAP memory, it could be 2, 4, 6 or even 8GB of internal storage. In short, you’ll be able to virtually increase the RAM of your device to make the most out of it. This also makes the device future proof as well, of course to a certain extent only.
Ray Tracing Support
Samsung has again upped their game in the GPU department. This time around the Korean tech giant has partnered with another leading chip manufacturer, AMD. The collaboration has resulted in Xclipse GPU. What’s exciting is the fact that it is the first mobile GPU to support AMD’s RDNA 2 tech. This basically means we’re getting ray tracing support in mobile games.
PC gamers are very well aware of what ray tracing is and how it impacts both their gameplay and wallets (due to the chip shortage, of course). In simple terms, ray tracing basically simulates how light would behave in real life with the objects in the game. How lights bounce off different surfaces, how dynamic and realistic the shadows get when light hits them & more. All this stuff happens in real-time so it needs the right hardware to process it without cooking your phone. This is where AMD’s RDNA 2 tech has shown promising results with something called Variable Rate Shading. This allows the device to render some objects in high quality than other background or distant objects. Well, there’s a big But here and that is…There are no ray tracing supported games yet, at least at the time of writing this. But, this certainly means mobile gaming is going to the next level. *pun intended*
Sadly, this tech is only available on the Exynos version of the Galaxy S22 series. As of writing this, there’s no announcement or benchmark comparison between the Exynos and Snapdragon variants in terms of GPU. Therefore, we will have to find out how it stacks up against Snapdragons’s Adreno 730 GPU.
Better ISPs for faster processing
Both the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and Exynos 2200 have announced some really impressive specs for their new ISPs (image signal processors). ISPs basically make up the whole photo and video processing department of the smartphone.
Both variants promise to deliver some exceptional results ranging from better HDR to nightography camera & more.
LTPO 2.0 & Battery life
Battery life & display are one of the most precious features a flagship smartphone has to offer. Samsung being the leading display maker gets the upper hand in delivering the best mobile display experience. This time around Samsung has introduced LTPO 2.0 which claims that the display can go as low as 1Hz on the go in any selected display resolution. I mean, statistically speaking this is actually impressive. We will have to see how this works in real life though. AnandTech actually put Note 20 Ultra’s display to test. Let’s see whether this is some marketing gimmick or the display actually lowers its refresh rate to save battery.
As I mentioned earlier, this will not be an article talking about spec bumps, S-Pen etc. I just wanted to share my thoughts on the new underlying features that we will see once the S22 series start shipping. If you’re thinking about ordering the S22 Ultra, make sure to get yourself some of the nice accessories (definitely a screen protector) and a 45W fast charger.
You can pre-order the S22 series from Samsung, Amazon and other big online shops in your regions.
