First Look: Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2022

Samsung has six new gadgets for you,

three phones and three tablets.

These are the flagship devices replacing last year's models,

and I got to spend some very brief time with them.

Here's what's new.

[upbeat music]

Let's start with the phones.

Similar to last year,

there's the Galaxy S22 at $800,

the Galaxy S22 Plus at $1,000,

and the Galaxy S22 Ultra at 1,200.

They're powered by the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor

so you'll see the usual performance improvements,

et cetera, et cetera.

But wait a sec,

the S22 Ultra doesn't quite look like the others, does it?

If you thought it looks like

the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra from 2020,

well, there's a good reason.

This is the first Galaxy S smartphone

with an S Pen inside it

just like Samsung's Galaxy Note phones.

That might mean there won't be any more Note-branded phones.

But honestly, it doesn't really matter.

The name is just the only difference.

The S Pen can do many of the same tricks,

like act as a Bluetooth remote for the camera,

or you can use it for drawing and sketching.

Samsung says it's improved the stylus

to feel more responsive,

and you can just pop it back in when you don't need it.

There is no S Pen on the standard S22 or S22 Plus.

The big new feature on all these phones revolves

around the camera.

Samsung is using a new process called Adaptive Pixel

to produce brighter and sharper photos,

but it's not available by default.

Let me explain.

By default, when you take a photo

on the S22 Ultra's 108 megapixel camera

or the S22 and S22 Plus's 50 megapixel camera,

it'll take what's known as a pixel-binned image.

That means those pixels merge so there are fewer

but larger pixels allowing them to collect

more light at the cost of image resolution.

You end up with a 12 megapixel photo,

but they're often brighter than if you went

with the full 108 megapixel or 50 megapixel resolution.

Adaptive Pixel, however,

turns on whenever you enter the 108 megapixel mode

or the 50 megapixel mode depending on the phone.

It'll take that high resolution photo

and a pixel-binned image and merge the two,

supposedly that creates a brighter yet sharper night photo.

Though that also means you should expect

a very large file size.

We'll have to wait to really see how well it works.

You might actually see the biggest improvements

on the S22 and S22 Plus

because they have a 23% larger image sensor

over the S21 series,

whereas the S22 Ultra relies on the same sensor

as its predecessor.

A larger sensor means it can absorb more light,

and it's one of the easiest ways to improve image quality.

The other big camera feature

other than the fact that there's a new expert raw camera app

that lets you shoot 16-bit raw photos

and edit them into Lightroom is called Auto-Framing.

It's a video mode you can turn on,

and the camera will identify up to 10 people in a scene

and will adjust and focus the framing

to make sure everyone is there,

even zooming into a subject if it needs to.

It's kind of neat.

Other camera improvements across the board include

better video stabilization

when you use Samsung's Super Steady mode

and a portrait mode that will do a better job

of making sure your hair isn't blurred out

with the background.

Portrait mode works better with pets now also

and also works in night mode

so you can get that bokeh effect even when it is dark.

The S22 Ultra is still the only one of the lot

that has that 10 times optical zoom camera.

And it's still one of the only phones sold in the US

with that kind of zoom functionality.

I had a lot of fun with it last year,

so I'm excited to try it out here.

The main and 10 times zoom cameras are joined

by a 12 megapixel ultra wide

and a three times optical zoom camera,

both of which are present on the S22 and S22 Plus.

The S22 Ultra has a 6.8-inch screen,

so it's massive.

The S22 Plus is 6.6 inches.

And the S22 is 6.1 inches.

The AMOLED screens are all adaptive 120 hertz refresh rates

and have a new feature called Vision Booster

that makes the screen easier to see

when the sun is shining bright.

Those different screen sizes mean different battery sizes,

so you get 5,000 milliamp powered for the Ultra,

4,500 for the Plus,

and 3,700 for the S22 respectively.

There are just a few small differences between the S22

and the S22 Plus other than size.

For example, the S22 Plus can get a little bit brighter.

There's also Wi-Fi 6E support

on the S22 Plus and the S22 Ultra

but just Wi-Fi 6 on the S22.

That probably doesn't matter just yet

because 6E is a fairly new standard,

and you need new routers to make use of the technology.

Also, the bigger phones can charge at 45 watts,

whereas the S22 was restricted to 25 watts.

That just means that they'll charge faster.

But also that might not matter as much again

because you need to supply your own charging adapter,

of course, because there's none in the box, so, yeah.

Okay, let's talk tablets.

There's the Tab S8, Tab S8 Plus,

and Tab S8 Ultra, sounds familiar.

Just like the phones,

they grow in size,

going from 11 inches on the Tab S8 for $700,

12.4 inches on the Tab S8 Plus for 900,

and 14.6 inches on the Tab S8 Ultra for $1,100.

The S8 uses an LCD screen while the rest are AMOLED,

and all three come with S Pens that magnetically stick

to the back of the tablet.

You'll notice the camera's situated on the center

of the bezel in landscape mode,

which I'm really happy about.

You won't have to awkwardly look sideways

in your your Zoom calls.

The camera will also make sure you're in the scene

if you move around,

very similar to what iPads have.

And the microphones can also cut out background noise

a lot better so you should still sound fairly good

in busy environments.

You'll also be able to use the Tab S8 as a second monitor

with your Windows PC.

Though I didn't get to try that yet.

And as usual,

these tablets have better multi-window modes,

so you can use multiple apps side by side

in different configurations.

Basically, it should be easier to multitask with them.

The best part of all these devices Samsung just announced

is that they'll get four Android OS upgrades

and five years of security support,

which is currently the best software strategy ever

for any kind of Android device.

They're all officially available for preorder on February 9.

[upbeat music]