The Samsung Galaxy S22 is lined up to be the first major phone launch of 2022, and rumors and leaks about the phone have been gathering pace recently as a result.
Now, though, famed Samsung leaker Ice universe has kicked the Samsung Galaxy S22 rumors into overdrive, publishing in rapid-fire a series of specs about the incoming Android handset from out of left field.
And, while some of these leaked specs will be no doubt pleasing to the ears of Android phone fans, not all of them will. Here's both the good and bad S22 news.
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The Samsung Galaxy S22 specs you'll love
1. Ok, first up is the information that the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is going to come rocking a Exynos 2200 processing chip, which consists of a Cortex-X2 CPU (1 x 2.9GHz + 3 × 2.8GHz + 4 × 2.2GHz) and AMD GPU that runs at 1250MHz in frequency. This information was confirmed by Ice and was an exclusive spec reveal.
So, it's good news then, right? Yes, it is. Despite falling short of Apple's A15 Bionic chipset, which smokes everything else on the market, the Exynos 2200 looks powerful and loaded with potential performance. The chip isn't going to set benchmark records, but it will almost certainly lead to very strong and fast performance in real world Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra usage in apps and games.
2. Ok, next up we have the information from Ice that, supposedly, the Samsung Galaxy S22 is going to come with the new and super advanced ISOCELL GN5 50MP sensor. This sensor comes with 1.0μm-sized pixels, boasts 2x2 pixel binning tech (great for low light photography) and also features Dual Pixel Pro autofocus technology, which allows for rapid all-direction autofocusing. The 50MP sensor offers a maximum resolution of 8,160 x 6,144 pixels and also supports 8K video recording at 30fps.
That sounds good, yeah? Yes, exactly. This is a powerhouse new camera sensor loaded with advanced technology. It's going to be one of if not the best camera sensors on the market in 2022 and, as Samsung is a photography master, we should expect excellent performance from the Galaxy S22's camera system.
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3. And finally in the good news area, we've got the leaked information that the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is going to come with 45W charging, which will be noticeably faster than the S21 Ultra's maximum charging speed of 25W.
This is obviously good news. The 45W charging means the Galaxy S22 Ultra will charge much faster than last year's phone, which itself wasn't exactly a slouch in this department.
And here's the two Galaxy S22 specs you won't like
1. The first S22 specs leak that I'm confident no Samsung phone user will want to hear is that the Galaxy S22 series, as a whole range, is still going to use both a pinhole selfie camera and the same camera area design as the S21 series.
So why is this bad news? Well, firstly, the fact that the S22 still has a pinhole camera reveals the fact that there will be no under panel selfie camera on it. Samsung fans had been holding out hope for the S22 to be the first phone to sport an under display camera, which would of meant Samsung could of avoided any interruption to the phone's screen at all (there'd be no need for a hole). But now that hope has seemingly been dashed.
And, secondly, as there's going to be no major refresh to the S22 camera area, we can deduce that it is going to be the same installation, with no major new additions.
2. And the other major S22 specs leak that will disappoint fans is that, S22 Ultra aside, all other phones in the range are going to get a downgrade in terms of battery capacity when compared to the S21 series.
This, again, is not the sort of news any phone fan want's to hear. Yes, maybe the phone is more efficient than the S21 and that means battery life won't get any worse, but that's not the ideal to strive for. Phone users want battery life to get better. The S21 battery life was good, but the fact that it looks like "good" was good enough for Samsung is disappointing news.
So a mixed bag
Overall, then, it looks like the Samsung Galaxy S22 is very much going to be a tick year upgrade rather than a tock. Early rumors about an under panel camera now seem well out, and while it looks like photography is going to remain a big strong point for the range and charging on the flagship model looks like it is going to be faster, everything else about the range seems like a small iterative update.
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Rob has been writing about computing, gaming, mobile, home entertainment technology, toys (specifically Lego and board games), smart home and more for over 15 years. As the editor of PC Gamer, and former Deputy Editor for T3.com, you can find Rob's work in magazines, bookazines and online, as well as on podcasts and videos, too. Outside of his work Rob is passionate about motorbikes, skiing/snowboarding and team sports, with football and cricket his two favourites.
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