Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra camera design looks ugly – but here's the likely reason why

The Samsung Galaxy S22 range has just become a lot more interesting.

That's because we have now had multiple leaks that state that while the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus smartphones are going to be straight successors to last year's handsets, the S22 Ultra is not.

No instead the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is actually going to be a redesigned device, so it is claimed with full S Pen digital stylus functionality. The S22 Ultra, so the rumored information states, is going to be the true successor to the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, which never got a successor as Samsung put the Note range out to pasture before the Galaxy Note 21 saw the light of day.

So with this considered, when a well known insider then proceeds to release concept images showing what the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra's redesigned camera array could look like, and those camera arrays are ugly as sin, naturally the reason why such an aesthetic crime has been committed rears its head. As well as why Samsung just didn't keep the quite aesthetically pleasing camera array of last year.

Luckily, though, Samsung's leakster-in-chief Ice universe has immediately rushed to the rescue in terms of an explanation. According to Ice, the reason why the Galaxy S22's camera could be so ugly as a consequence of Samsung doing two key things.

Firstly, the camera array might look odd as a result of Samsung porting full S Pen digital stylus into it, which the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra did not have. Unlike the S21 Ultra (which supported digital stylus use but did not come with one and could not store it) the S22 Ultra looks is claimed to be coming with an S Pen and an S Pen cavity in its body for storage.

And, simply put, that requires more space within the phone. This effects battery and component placement and, in the terms of the S22 Ultra, camera array positioning and design as the S Pen cavity is on the same side of the phone.

The second reason why Ice believes the camera array could look ugly and a bit old fashioned is that, according to his own leaked information, the S22 Ultra is remaining the same weight as the S21 Ultra, despite carrying an S Pen digital stylus inside it. That weight saving has to come from somewhere, which is why the larger, more uniform and aesthetically pleasing camera arrays we've seen on the S21 Ultra might have had to be sacrificed.

From my point of view I couldn't care less if the camera array on the S21 Ultra is a bit ugly as, one, I'm getting digital stylus functionality as a trade-off, which I love, and two the vast majority of people will immediately put their handset in a case, thereby hiding the array entirely.

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