Samsung Galaxy S22 range announced, Welcome back to the Note by another name

The master plan is now quite clear, the Samsung Galaxy Note has been absorbed into the Galaxy S series of phones as is evident today by the announcement of the new Samsung Galaxy S22 range.

Three new phones, with all the great expected features of a flagship “Galaxy S” device from Samsung, but at the top end, the largest screen device is not just S-Pen compatible, it now contains an S-Pen stylus.

Any owner of a Samsung Galaxy Note device will instantly fall in love with the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. It doesn’t look the same as the other S22 devices in almost any way, in fact, you could easily be mistaken for thinking Samsung announced two S22 devices and a Note 22 today, but no, the “note” name is gone, it’s now well and truely the Ultra model in the flagship range.

Of course, this is mainly to simplify the Samsung smartphone range, which now quite clearly consists of the Flagship S series, the entry level and more affordable A series and the foldable Z series devices.

Adding a Note series in there would be confusing at retail channels, the device would struggle to find clear air in the year for it’s place in the launch cycle so in reality this is the perfect approach from Samsung.

It’s been a while since the last Note, so this will be instantly appealing to owners of any Note series device, including the Note 20.

The huge 6.8 inch screen may seem daunting but its as manageable as any large smartphone today given the boundaries being pushed to get edgeless displays. But the screen does gently curve on the left and right side, which some people love and others not so much (I’m in the not so much category here).

Around the back is an utterly impressive array of cameras, with the wide, ultra-wide, 3x telephoto and 10x telephoto lenses sitting isolated on the back instead of on an “island” – another feature that is exclusive to the Ultra model.

That Ultra model’s 100 times “space zoom” which is impressive to see, but useless in regular use – is even more impressive. A quick hands on demonstrated it’s AI processing doing some pretty amazing work to clean up a photo that is utterly impossible on any other smartphone.

Importantly, Samsung’s camera focus hits right across the S22 range. The S22, the S22+ and the S22 Ultra all feature a larger sensor, allowing more light in which helps work alongside the improved processing power to offer some of the best night-time photography we’ve seen.

Samsung have coined the term “nightography” – sadly, I have to report, the term grows on you – but regardless, it’s almost a concession that the battleground for daylight photography has been neutralised. You can buy a $500 phone and get great photos. But at night, it’s still a really critical decision.

Every phone is aiming at it, the Pixel 6, iPhone 13, it’s all looking at how great their low light is, and Samsung probably now tops the bunch with their improved night mode. The bigger sensor, and better smarts, it’s drawing more detail out and making the photos pop – or so they say. The few we’ve seen seem to suggest that’s true – but I can’t be sure till we’ve had a proper test.

Camera camera camera, and Note Note Note – those are the headlines from the S22 range launch.

Now there is a lot more here for sure, the 4nm processor on all three provides the snappy performance, the screen refresh continues at 120Hz, battery levels are 3700, 4500 and 5,000mAh up through the range, but that screen will be worth a look, as Samsung say they’ve done some work to improve the clarity and colour in all light situations – will be interesting to see the difference.

The 6.1 inch Samsung Galaxy S22 starts at $1,249, the 6.6 inch S22+ starts at $1,549 and the S22 Ultra starts at $1,849.

We’ve got full pricing and telco deals listed here, and boy does this look like one of the best times to upgrade a phone with some great incentives on offer.

Pre-orders start today, but the phones don’t go on sale until March 4th – strange given the missed opportunity to launch the S22 on 22/2/22?