The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra carries on the legacy of the much-loved Galaxy Note series. For Galaxy Note 20 Ultra owners, this is a sensible upgrade. They’ll find everything they loved about their phone, including a familiar form-factor (and more!

Beautiful design with integrated S-Pen, Excellent camera performance, World-class display, Excellent performance, Very good battery life, Beautiful design with integrated S-Pen, Excellent camera performance, World-class display, Excellent performance, Very good battery life

Less RAM than the S21 Ultra, Shorter battery life than iPhone 13 Pro Max, Less RAM than the S21 Ultra, Shorter battery life than iPhone 13 Pro Max

The new Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is the perfect hybrid between the mainstream S series and more niche Note with its built-in stylus.

Chic design, Outstanding cameras, Real performer

Too big for some hands, Unexceptional battery life

With an integrated S Pen. With the Galaxy S22 Ultra, Samsung combines the top models of the S and the Note series. The smartphone uses high-end components in all areas and splurges in superlatives. Find out in our test, whether this combination succeeds and where there might be some problem areas.

very bright and accurate display, 5G, Wi-Fi 6E and eSIM, will get updates for a long time, S Pen included, IP68 certification, great voice quality

storage not expandable, lack of audio codecs for Bluetooth, adaptive display only between 24 - 120 Hz at this point, weak gaming performance, 5 GHz WLAN not particularly fast

Samsung's primary strength is its scale in marketing and distribution, so the major advantage of the S22 is that it's everywhere. Most people reading this are probably 10 minutes from a store that will sell you an S22 right now.

Samsung's four years of OS updates and five years of security updates best even Google, although the big updates will take months to arrive, The camera is great and stacks up well against Google's best—the 100x zoom is a nice feature, The screen is nice

Tons of crapware, ads, and notification spam, Slow 25 W charging, despite Samsung's claims that the phone can do 45 W, The camera design makes the phone wobble back and forth on a table every time you touch it, The S-pen takes up a lot of battery space for people who don't want to write, The Pixel 6...

If you can deal with the average battery life, this is the new flagship Android phone to rule them all – and that’s before taking into account the new S Pen Beautifully engaging display Stunning zoom photography Meaty sound Beatable battery life Main Sony rival sounds better

The S22 Ultra should really be called a Galaxy Note. It’s a giant phone for power users, offering unrivalled features, from the fantastic camera with more optical zoom than any other to the long battery life, stunning display and powerful built-in S Pen stylus.

Pros: huge 120Hz screen, fantastic and flexible camera with 3x and 10x optical zoom, One UI, S Pen stylus, good performance, long battery, five years of software support, contains recycled materials.

Cons: huge, heavy, very expensive, S Pen may be superfluous feature for many, gaming performance variable for EU model.

Ultimately this feels like a year of consolidation, and while the final product is of a high standard, we hope that the Galaxy S23 Ultra brings some refinement and direction to this new Ultra–Note amalgam.

Excellent Super AMOLED display, Brilliant camera with outstanding zoom potential, Integrated S Pen unique among flagship phones

Disappointing battery life, Note-like design feels somewhat regressive, Software a little laggy

So should you buy the Galaxy S22 Ultra? That's a bit of a tough one. The S22 Ultra does not feel like an S series phone, it feels like a Note. So for Note users and those who appreciate the S Pen, well, it's the newest and pretty much only option in town. And a super powerful one at that!

S Pen in a flagship, great for creatives, Industry-leading screen quality, Faster charging than before, 10X zoom camera is improved significantly, Video recording gets smoother stabilization, 4 years of major software updates!

Battery life has gone down from the S21 Ultra, You get less RAM than last year, No microSD card slot, no headphone jack, Loudspeaker quality could be better, Jittery swiping, microstutter with gesture nav in One UI

There are few phones in the market with the reverence accorded to Samsung’s Galaxy Note series. Loved for its massive displays, powerful performance and innovative S Pen stylus, the Galaxy Note series have remained the mainstay of power users since their inception in 2011 with new models arriving...

Overall, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra looks and feels awesome and in terms of features and performance will beat any Android phone out there in nearly every category. We would have liked it more if it actually looked like an S22 series smartphone but then, perhaps this is Samsung’s way of answering...