Speaker 1: The galaxy S 22 ultra is now Samsung's latest flagship smartphone, but how does it stack up to the note 20 ultra now that it has that built in Spen let's find out.
Speaker 1: Yes. The note 20 ultra is from 2020, but it's still an absolute piece of a smartphone. So whether you decide if the S 22 ultra is worth the upgrade, you're deciding between the two or just generally galaxy curious in this video, I'm gonna compare everything about these two phones [00:00:30] from their overall performance design display, Spen camera, performance, battery life, and lots more. You can jump straight ahead to specific sections with time codes in the description. Of course, your first decision might come down to the price. The note 20 ultra is of course, an older device. So it's generally gonna be found for cheaper than the S 22 ultra, especially once you take into account things like discounts and trade in value, I have provided latest pricing and availability with links in the description [00:01:00] below. Okay, let's go,
Speaker 1: Let's kick things off with the design and the display. Now I'm not gonna beat around the Bush here. Samsung has basically got the worst disguise ever with that S 22 ultra name. It's like it's walked into a party and be like, Hey everybody, I'm the S 22 ultra. And the note series turns around and it's like, no, absolutely the note 22 ultra. And you're not gonna convince me otherwise. Really. I can hardly tell the difference between these [00:01:30] two, especially now the Spen is integrated in the S 22 ultra look at them from the front. It's so hard to tell the difference. Really the key giveaway is that the note 20 ultra has that 6.9 inch display. Whereas the 22 ultra is slightly more squat with this 6.8 inch display, but really they look the same at the front, but flip things over and take a look at the back.
Speaker 1: Now, the S 22 ultra is one good looking phone, and I honestly never thought I would say that about the S series. I've always been a note [00:02:00] gal. I can totally admit that bias here. The note 20 ultra, that camera domino effect never really did it for me. So I'm really pleased to see that the S 22 ultra is more balanced in the hand. And obviously when you're placing it on a table without a case, and you're trying to write on the screen with the S 10, it's a little less Rocky on the S 22 ultra than it is on the note that being said, I am gonna err, on the side of caution, then always be putting a case on these two babies, just because eight they're [00:02:30] expensive phones and B I'm clumsy and the newer generation of gorilla glass Victus plus on the S 22 ultra versus just the regular Victus version on the note 20 ultra.
Speaker 1: While I still don't wanna test that out for my myself. Now, both of these screens look absolutely fantastic. And despite differences in the refresh rates and resolutions and the overall brightness, they're really very, very similar in terms of that dynamic Amela display and overall performance. The S 22 ultra does get [00:03:00] a little bit brighter at 1750 knits compared to 1500 on the note 20 ultra. And also when you are using them in broad daylight, I did notice it was a lot easier to see the S 22 ultra at maximum brightness, both the screen support and adapt 120 Hertz refresh rate. However, it's on only available at the maximum w Q H D plus resolution on the S 22 ultra while this phone does have WQ HD plus resolution. You're not able to use 120 [00:03:30] Hertz with it. However, there is kind of a workaround that I've been enjoying since I've been using the note 20 ultra using Bixby routines. So every time am I open the gallery app to look at photos, videos, or use YouTube, it will switch automatically to the WQ H D plus resolution at 60 Hertz. And for all other apps, I stick to 120 Hertz at the lower res. There is another kind of ADB workaround that is probably a little bit more effective to getting 120 Hertz on this device at all times. [00:04:00] However, it's probably be on the scope of most users, but it's on Google. If you're interested in trying it out.
Speaker 1: So starting things off with overall performance. Now the note 20 ultra is one of those special phones for me, and you know why I'm gonna go on my rant again here over everybody, because it's the last Samsung phone along with the S 20 Fe and the Zal two to support MST or magnetic secure transmission. This is that magic Samsung technology [00:04:30] that they bought a couple years ago that allows you to use your phone at any terminal that does not accept NFC or contactless payments. Most of the world is moving to NFC. I know, but I've, you'll love this phone, cuz it's the last one that has it Samsung pay on this phone does not support MST. It just has regular NFC for contactless payments. Maybe you care, maybe you don't, but that's a big reason why I still love the note 20 ultra and another reason because it's also one of the last phones that has microSD expandable [00:05:00] storage.
Speaker 1: You're like Lexi, just get out of the past. You're saying with your headphones, Jack, you got over that maybe you'll get over their microSD. Maybe I will, but not today. Now Samsung did try and soften the blow with the S 22 ultra by offering some discounts on this storage, but that's not going to be necessarily the case going forward. And considering that these phones AK video among all of the other things they can do, it just, I'm just bummed out still that there's no expandable storage. Then there's the [00:05:30] question of processor again, depending on where you live in the world, the S 22 ultra uses the Snapdragon eight gen one or XO 2200. Whereas the note 20 ultra uses the Snapdragon 65 plus or X and OS nine 90. If you've watched any of my previous videos, you'll know that I don't really like to talk about the benchmark numbers specifically as something on paper doesn't necessarily stack up to real world performance.
Speaker 1: Instead, I like to do some side by side tests around some more resource intensive tasks, [00:06:00] say like cutting down an eight K video shot on both of these phones, same video, same length of time, cutting it down. Using the internal gallery tool. I could find that the eight K video was cut down slightly more quickly on the S 22 ultra by a second or so using a third party editing tool like splice the S 22 ultra actually cut down a 4k video significantly faster with the same edits, about five seconds faster than the note, 20 ultra
Speaker 1: [00:06:30] Spen time. Love that click. As I said, S 22 ultra first S series with the Spen integrated into it. Samsung was getting us ready with the S 21 ultra, but I didn't look anything like this phone. It's still for all intents and purposes. The note 22 ultra, because the functionality between spens on both of these devices is the same. They also look the same into terms of the pen itself, the position [00:07:00] in the body, what happens when you un-click the pen, you get that Spen menu. You can use the Spen as a remote shadow release, which is my personal favorite. There's also air actions. So you can use the Spen to say navigate webpages or interact with the phone without touching the screen. It also has translate to text and AR doodle and being able to write on the screen when the phone is locked and anecdotally the Spen does feel a little bit more responsive on the newer phone compared to the note 20 ultra. But that being [00:07:30] said, I've been using the note for a lot longer and it's kind of like an old pair of slippers comfortable. I don't know exactly what I'm getting. Maybe it's all on my, but the S 22 ultra that latency. Yeah, it's a little bit more like, um, fancy pair of heels, Luan, sleek, faster sexier.
Speaker 1: All right. Time to dive into camera performance. Let's take a look at some of the side by side images from both of the phones. As you probably know, both of [00:08:00] these phones have a 108 megapixel main re sensors using a technique called pixel Benning that helps to generate smaller 12 megapixel files. If you choose now in good lighting conditions, both of these are gonna produce great results at 12 megapixels. There's really no surprises there. The S 22 ultra picture defaults have been tweak a little bit. So with the JPEGs, it does look like they have a tiny bit more contrast and saturation than those same shots from the note, but at 108 megapixels, you [00:08:30] can definitely see the shot on the S 22 ultra is sharper around edges of foreground objects with less fall off than the note 20 ultra like on the sign. Now, the S 22 ultra uses an ultra wide, a main rear camera a three times and 10 times optical zoom camera going out to 100 times maximum.
Speaker 1: The note 20 ultra has an ultra wide, a main rear camera, a five times optical camera, and then goes out to 50 times maximum look, neither of these look great [00:09:00] at their maximum space zoom, but at least you can get a little closer on the S 22 ultra. I really do like having the flexibility of three and 10 times optical zoom on the newer phone compared to just one optical zoom at five times on the note with that being said, the digital zoom or hybrid zoom at 10 times on the note is pretty good. And I wouldn't be that upset if that's, as far as I wanted to go. The biggest differences I noticed on the cameras of these two phones came down to actually portraits and selfies. Surprisingly portrait mode is better [00:09:30] on the S 22 ultra there's more detail and the subject separation is a lot better.
Speaker 1: Now it also uses the three times camera compared to two times on the note, and this actually helps produce, I think, a cleaner looking image as well for selfies. The S 22 ultra has a 40 megapixel front facing camera. The note has a 10 megapixel camera, but, you know, resolution aside, it's really the photo processing that plays the difference. And the photo modes on both of these phones on the front facing [00:10:00] camera are slightly different. I did try and keep them as consistent as possible by using either the standard or natural effect on both. But I really do prefer the look of the S 22 ultra selfies. They do have a little bit better dynamic range, and they also have a little bit better shadow detail as well, especially on things like say the shadow from my hat, for example. And the note does tend to sort of over sharpen selfies a little bit.
Speaker 1: I'd prefer the S 22 ultra here night photos. Now this one was definitely not as dramatic as I was expecting, [00:10:30] or as dramatic as all of the marketing material would make you believe. The S 22 ultra and note 20 ultra are very similar when it comes to low light. That being said, the S 22 ultra I think does have a more natural night mode effect. It doesn't brighten the scene as much, or as uniformly as the note does. You might like the look of the note a little bit more. It's more of a true, I guess, night mode feel, but it does feel more natural on the newer phone. It's so a little bit more sharp at a hundred percent magnification [00:11:00] on the S 22 ultra, but then it kind of flips because when you're using the 108 megapixel sensor without night mode, I actually prefer the note shots like what's going on.
Speaker 1: I don't understand how is the older phone producing a nicer looking 108 megapixel shot in low light beats me and finally video now? Yes, both the phones shoot eight K 24 frames a second, but most people are probably just sticking to shooting 4k 60 side by side. The video image looks fairly [00:11:30] similar. I would say the S 22 ultra the image does look a little bit cleaner overall, and it does look like stabilization is slow for say walking shots, but don't forget if you wanna use super steady stabilization. That's only available at 10 80 P resolution on both of these phones. I did try and stick to 4k just so we could see it, you know, in all its glory here on the video. So there you have it. The differences were really not as significant as I was expecting between these two phones, especially considering this is almost [00:12:00] a year and a half newer than the note. Good job. Old note, you did me proud
Speaker 1: Time to dive into battery life charging and all the other bells that you get on these two phones. Okay. Let's throw ourselves a party because servicing has, has done some good stuff here because it's brought back 45. What charging on the S 22 ultra like, thank you so much. The last time we saw this, you know, I thought it would've gone the way of the Dodo [00:12:30] with the S 20 ultra note, 10 love those phones, but it's back it's back, baby. Cuz this phone has it 25 WATS on the note 20 alter look. Most people probably don't care. And in reality it doesn't make that huge of a difference really. But of course I had to do a side by side to show you from flat to fully charged 45 Watts, 25 Watts to see what the do difference really was. As you know, battery life is affected by a number of variables, like the processor in the phone, as well [00:13:00] as your usage patterns, how bright the display is, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1: I don't wanna bore you by talking about battery life variables, but under the same parameters, the note 20 ultra and S 22 ultra were not as dramatic of a difference in battery life. As I was expecting, even though this has a 5,000 milli, a here hour battery, and this has a 4,500 in terms of my usage patterns and my battery testing, I do have the always on display active when the phone is locked. I have [00:13:30] it set generally to the highest resolution on both 120 Hertz refresh on this and my fancy Bisby routines trick on the note 20 ultra and about two to three hours of screen. On time a day, I find the S 22 ultra leaves me with about 20% battery remaining at the end of the day. Whereas the note 20 ultra is more like 15%, but if I do turn off the always on display on that lock screen, I can and push it a little bit further and sometimes I can get to overnight and then [00:14:00] maybe an hour or two before I do need to charge both of these, but overall not as dramatic again, as I was expecting, these phones also support Samsung decks and the functionality is very much the same on both of course being phones.
Speaker 1: We do need to talk about call quality speaker quality because some of you probably like to take calls on this, I guess. I mean, I definitely do consistently the note series of phones, cuz this one's actually a note. I don't care what anyone says. It's the note 22 ultra has been [00:14:30] consistently one of the best performing phones in terms of phone calls, speaker and microphone call that I've tested. I find them very, very similar callers, always remark that my voice sounds clear and crisp. I've also had zero issues with connectivity in San Francisco on both of these phones. Of course that's gonna vary depending on your carrier and so on. But performance has been really, really good when out and about the speaker quality itself. Yes. Most of you probably don't listen to music blasting loud from your phone, but I do like to [00:15:00] test it out to test if there is any significant difference, S 22 altered maybe sounds a tiny bit clearer when playing a really high fidelity song back from say title, but it again, marginal marginal differences. And of course let's talk Android updates. This one is where the biggest difference is probably gonna be for a lot of you because the note 20 ultra being an older device is not gonna get as many updates necessarily as this phone because Samsung has promised that this [00:15:30] will get up to you four generations of four years of Android updates, which is good news. The note 20 ultra might as well, but there's no guarantees. And considering this is an older device, I would assume that the support would drop off earlier. And the S 22 ultra.
Speaker 1: Now it comes down to the time where I need to decide which one of these phones is the better buy for me and for you, hopefully it will help you make your decision too. This one [00:16:00] is always a tough one, but you know what? I'm a note girl. I can a hundred percent admit that bias. And the S 22 ultra has completely won me over because it's a note 22 ultra. Again, I don't care what anyone says. This phone is a beautiful device to use, especially if you are looking for a more balanced feel in the hand, the screen is fantastic. I love being able to have 120 Hertz refresh rate without any fancy bells and whistles and tricks behind the scenes. The cameras are [00:16:30] great, even though, as you saw the note 20 ultra really kind of did hold its own, except for when it comes to those zoom variants and overall the battery life and performance is excellent. So I'm sorry. Note 20 ultra, like we've had a good run, but I've going S 22 ultra as always. Thank you so much for watching. I hope I answered all your questions for you. If you can always leave your comment down below, find me on your favorite social media app. And you can also check out the latest pricing and availability [00:17:00] of these phones in the description below. Thanks for watching. I'm gonna go and take my note 22 ultra for a spin. See ya.
