Samsung Unpacked 2022: all the news and rumors about the Galaxy S22 and Tab S8

It’s that Samsung time of year again when an Unpacked event announces new Galaxy S flagship phones to be the latest iPhone-fighters. In fact, it’s another year of Samsung triplets: the new models are the Galaxy S22, Galaxy S22 Plus, and Galaxy S22 Ultra. This time, they introduce updated specs and even some Note-like functionality with the Ultra model — which comes with the S-Pen. But how do these stack up to last year’s S21 line? Is it a worthwhile upgrade? Should you sit this one out or hop on the S22 train and get that preorder in? Let’s break down the new Galaxy S22 lineup vs. its predecessor, the S21 line.

What a difference a year makes — or doesn’t. In fact, you could think of this as an incremental year. The Samsung Galaxy S22 lineup looks a whole lot like the S21 line — the designs have not been fully revised but refined.

The latest iteration of Samsung’s flagship Galaxy series is official. The company announced the Galaxy S22, S22 Plus, and S22 Ultra during its Unpacked event today, ending months of speculation, particularly regarding the S22 Ultra. The standard S22 starts at $799.99, while the S22 Plus and S22 Ultra are priced at $999.99 and $1,199.99, respectively. Each is available for preorder starting today and scheduled for release on February 25th.

The new S22 models look similar to the outgoing lineup, with a few iterative upgrades. They all offer screens with a max refresh rate of 120Hz, which allows for smooth scrolling, and feature an ambient light sensor that will automatically adjust color and saturation levels to match your environment. Samsung equipped each smartphone with IP68 waterproofing and Gorilla Glass Victus Plus on the front and back as well — a notable step up from the plastic panel that was featured on the back of last year’s base model.

At Samsung’s first Galaxy Unpacked event for 2022, the company introduced a new lineup of Galaxy S22 phones: the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus. Samsung also announced the Galaxy S22 Ultra with an included stylus. It is essentially a successor to the once-popular Galaxy Note line.

Samsung claims the S22 Ultra has a faster response time for the S-Pen. The other changes are a bit more minor, including a slight redesign and updated night capabilities in the camera. The Galaxy S22 and the S22 Plus are also a bit iterative, despite being Samsung’s mainline flagships. These phones are very similar to the previous year’s models but are more durable and have better portrait mode capability.

Samsung’s latest Unpacked event has introduced a new lineup of tablets, the Galaxy Tab S8 series — the Galaxy Tab S8, S8 Plus, and S8 Ultra. Samsung has gone with the good, better (bigger), and best (biggest) approach on these. As the top end of the line, the Ultra touts a massive screen size of 14.6 inches with 2960 x 1848 resolution and starting price of $1,099.99. The Tab S8 Plus is the next size down with a formidable 12.4-inch, 2800 x 1752 display for $899.99, and the smallest Tab S8 has an 11-inch, 2560 x 1600 panel for $699.99.

These new models create a little more choice if you’re in the market for an Android tablet — a fairly small field outside of Samsung. We will have to do a full review before we can say how good the Tab S8 series delivers in these three form factors, but in the meantime, these tablets are due out February 25th, and preorders are open now at retailers like Samsung, Best Buy, Amazon, B&H Photo, and Verizon. We’re here to guide you on preordering the one you want and even get some added value through a promo or deal.

The Samsung Unpacked event revealed a number of new devices, namely a new iteration of its flagship Galaxy series of phones, the Galaxy S22. These new phones are set to release on February 25th and become the bleeding edge of Samsung’s smartphone lineup. Naturally, we’re curious to know how these stack up against Apple’s iPhones, so we’ve collected some of the most relevant features to show you how they stack up against the iPhone 13 lineup on paper.

The standard iPhone 13 and its variants came out last September and started at $699.99 for the 13 Mini, reaching all the way up to $1,099.99 for the 13 Pro Max. The Galaxy S22 and its other variants are set to release later this month and have a price point starting at $799.99 for the standard S22 and $1,199 for the S22 Ultra, with its larger screen and more powerful camera. It should be noted that all the prices listed here are for the unlocked model.

Updated 3:50PM ET, February 9th: Samsung’s online store isn’t allowing some people who are trying to order an S22 phone to checkout. If you’re experiencing something similar, try again later, or order through a different retailer.

Samsung’s Galaxy S22, S22 Plus, and the S22 Ultra have been announced at the company’s Unpacked event. Each phone has a new design, with new components that put them ahead of 2021’s leading Android phones. As for the S22 Ultra, it absorbed the Galaxy Note’s coolest trick of having an S-Pen built-in. If you want to jump right into our hands-on coverage, you can check out our early impressions with the hardware right here or in the video below.

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra has shaped up to be everything that leaks, hints, and speculation indicated it would be: a Samsung Galaxy Note, minus the Note branding. It offers a 6.8-inch screen, a built-in S pen stylus, a boatload of cameras, a $1,199 price tag, and a boxy shape straight from the Galaxy Note series.

In addition to the stylus silo, the S22 Ultra gains some incremental camera upgrades for low light and portrait photography, faster wired charging (adapter sold separately, of course), and all the latest components you’d expect to find on a 2022 flagship. And it’s altogether a device that looks worthy of that flagship title — at least as far as Samsung’s non-folding phones are concerned.

Samsung announced today during its Galaxy Unpacked 2022 event that the new Galaxy S22 phones and other recent devices will get up to four generations of Android OS upgrades.

The company revealed the news in a press release today:

By most accounts, last year’s Galaxy S21 lineup didn’t measure up to Samsung’s sales expectations. Flanked by more Android competition than ever before, the S21 and S21 Plus struggled to stand out on their own merits. It didn’t help matters that Samsung gave the base model a “cheap” first impression by using plastic materials on the back instead of glass.

So with the new Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus announced today, the company is trying to right some of those wrongs and re-establish these as premium, dependable, flagship-grade smartphones — even if they lack the Note DNA of the S22 Ultra.

New live sharing features, including the ability to watch videos together and view the same online whiteboard, are coming to Google Duo on Samsung’s new Galaxy S22 devices and Tab S8 tablets. Google and Samsung announced the new features during the launch event for Samsung’s new flagship phones and tablets. As well as Galaxy smartphones, the feature is also coming to Pixel devices, according to Engadget.

Google says Duo’s live sharing feature works across many popular apps including Jamboard, the company’s collaborative whiteboard software that lets up to 50 people write and draw on the same surface. Other supported apps include YouTube for watching videos together, Google Maps, Samsung Notes, and Samsung Gallery. Non-Samsung and Google smartphones won’t be able to share their apps on a call, but they’ll still be able to watch along.

Samsung thinks your tablet is too small. So the company is announcing the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, a slim tablet with a massive 14.6-inch screen. The $1,099.99 Tab S8 Ultra sits at the top of the Tab S8 line, which includes the more pedestrian-sized Tab S8 and Tab S8 Plus, successors to the Tab S7 models from 2020.

The Tab S8 Ultra takes the same approach that Samsung has used with its smartphones bearing the Ultra name. It’s bigger and more feature-packed than the other models in the lineup. Its 14.6-inch screen is an OLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate and a 2,960 x 1,848 resolution. It has up to 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, two front-facing cameras, and Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon Gen 1 chip, the same processor that’s in the new S22 line of phones.

Samsung is holding a Galaxy Unpacked event this Wednesday, February 9th, at 10AM ET / 7AM PT, where it is expected to reveal the latest flagship Galaxy S22 devices, which may include a proper replacement for the Galaxy Note series that we missed in 2021.

The virtual event will not only go out to viewers as a livestreamed video but will also be broadcast as a metaverse experience using the Decentraland platform. The experience is called Samsung 837X and is based on the company’s real-world flagship exhibition center located on 837 Washington Street in New York City. Samsung is leaning into metaverse experiences, as it held its first Samsung 837X metaverse event last month for CES, in addition to separate interactive experiences using the Zepeto platform.

Samsung’s first 2022 Galaxy Unpacked event hasn’t started yet, but we’ve already got a strong notion that the event spells the end of the Note series. We know this because Samsung has done everything except shout from the rooftops that the next S-series Ultra will absorb the Note and its built-in stylus. You can even go ahead and preorder it if you want because, truly, what is a phone launch these days? In any case, Samsung is making the right call for its business and its brand, even if it stings a little for the Note faithful.

The future of the Note looked dubious last year when rumors of its demise circulated, and Samsung said that the S21 series would offer S pen support. Early in 2021, a Samsung exec expressed doubts about shipping a new Note model, and indeed, the year came and went without a proper new Note. Then, early in 2022, leaks and hints from Samsung all but confirmed that the Note’s future lay within the S-series.

Another Samsung launch event is nearly upon us. The South Korean tech giant has announced that its next Unpacked event will take place on February 9th at 10AM ET / 7AM PT, during which we’re expecting to see the official announcement of the Galaxy S22, its latest flagship phone series. Samsung’s Galaxy S devices are typically its highest-specced non-folding phones, and they’re typically our first look at trends major smartphone manufacturers will be following for the year.

This being Samsung, however, it’s unlikely that phones will be the only thing announced on the 9th. Recent rumors suggest they’re likely to be joined by a new lineup of Galaxy Tab S8 tablets, which would both succeed the Tab S7 devices that debuted in 2020 as well as adding a new, larger “Ultra” branded tablet into the mix. There are even rumblings of a new smart speaker known as the Galaxy Home Mini 2, whose production is rumored to have recently started.

We’re less than two days out from Samsung’s next Unpacked event. Ahead of the big show, leaked renders, pictures, and even a press release have revealed just about everything regarding the unannounced Galaxy Tab S8 lineup, which is the first to include a high-end “Ultra” model. Not only that, that Tab S8 Ultra has already been photographed in the wild.

Let’s start first with that press release. Serial leaker Evan Blass shared images of what looks to be Samsung’s entire press release about the Tab S8 lineup from his Leakland Substack, and the release corroborates other rumors about Samsung’s expected three new tablet models: the Galaxy Tab S8, S8 Plus, and S8 Ultra. Just a few highlights from the release: the tablets will apparently support Wi-Fi 6E and 45-watt fast charging, and the S8 Plus and S8 Ultra will come with a “new and improved” S Pen stylus that “uses a prediction algorithm for ultra-low latency.”

The Galaxy S22 has leaked extensively, but there’s only so much you can tell from renders. For example, it turns out that Samsung has created a “new material” to use in the product — one made from the plastic in discarded fishing nets.

Samsung says it’ll soon “incorporate repurposed ocean-bound plastics” across its whole product lineup, and the first example will be the Galaxy devices introduced at the Unpacked event this Wednesday, February 9th. It’s not yet clear to what extent the material will be used or in which parts of the products; Samsung isn’t explicit about how it fits into any of the devices’ construction.

Samsung has confirmed a date and time for its next Galaxy Unpacked event: Wednesday, February 9th at 10AM ET / 7AM PT. The invitation features a large letter “S” with the words “The Epic Standard,” indicating that we can expect to see the Galaxy S22 series debut on the livestream, to nobody’s surprise. Samsung itself had already hinted that a new S-series Ultra device would be coming in February — one that will likely absorb the Note series.

As they tend to, the S22 leaks have been coming in strong over the past month. From the looks of it, the S22 Ultra will indeed have a silo for the S-Pen stylus, like the Note does (did?), and the S22 is rumored to have a slightly smaller 6.1-inch display compared to the S21’s 6.2-inch panel. The leaks so far don’t suggest any major feature or design shifts coming with the S22, just some upgrades to keep pace with the 2022 flagship class.

Potential European pricing information for the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S22 series has been released by reliable leaker Roland Quandt, as reported by Android Police. Samsung appears to have carried over its prices from the previous S21 lineup, with the only inconsistency being an equally-priced S22 Ultra model that supposedly comes with less RAM than its S21 predecessor.

Quandt claims the S22 will start at 849€ (~$963), the S22 Plus will set you back 1,049€ (~$1,190), and the base S22 Ultra will cost 1,249€ (~$1,417). It looks like all the base models in the series come with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage — the standard S22 and S22 Plus have a higher-priced option for 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, while the S22 Ultra offers two additional tiers that have 12GB of RAM with either 256GB or 512GB of storage.

For the launch of Samsung’s next flagship smartphones — the Galaxy S22, S22 Plus, and S22 Ultra, we think — the Korean electronics giant will once again let you signal your intent to buy its phones before they’re even announced, much less go on sale.

So if you’re the kind of person who absolutely needs the new Samsung handset before anyone else (except influencers, journalists, and the like), you’ll want to check out this page at Samsung’s site to reserve a preorder for one of these unannounced phones.

Samsung will host an Unpacked event next month, the company has confirmed in a press release authored by president TM Roh, and the writing is on the wall for the Galaxy Note series. The release hints that more Note features will be coming to the Galaxy S series — specifically the next Ultra phone in the lineup, which looks poised to take on the Note’s built-in stylus and related productivity features. This all but seals the Note series’ fate, which Samsung left in ambiguous territory last year.

Things looked doubtful for a renewal of the Note series when 2021 came and went without a new Note device. Roh’s post acknowledges the disappointment from Note fans and that this feedback has been taken into account in designing “the most noteworthy S series device we’ve ever created.” To drive home the point, the post ends with a rallying cry to “help Samsung rewrite the future of smartphones once again” and an invitation to “[g]et ready for the ultimate Ultra experience.”

A Samsung support page for, of all things, Bixby, may have just given us our first official look at the company’s upcoming flagship tablet. The picture, which was spotted by 91Mobiles, shows a familiar looking Samsung smartphone alongside a very unfamiliar looking tablet, complete with a display notch that Samsung savagely mocked when first introduced on the iPhone X. Reports suggest this new tablet will be called the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, and it may be announced as early as next month. 

The design shown in the image on Samsung’s site corresponds with unofficial renders of the tablet released last October, leaked images from December, and leaked details from WinFuture from this month. If these unofficial details are to be believed, the Android tablet will have a 14.6-inch OLED display, with a 120Hz refresh rate and a resolution of 2960x1848. That notch is thought to be housing two 12-megapixel selfie cameras. It’s not exactly clear what the second sensor may be for, but other devices have added ultrawide cameras for group selfies.

Samsung has announced the Exynos 2200, its new in-house mobile processor for smartphones. It’s the first mobile system-on-a-chip to include a GPU with AMD’s RDNA 2 graphics architecture, enabling features like hardware-accelerated ray tracing. 

The collaboration with AMD has been long in the making. The two companies first announced a licensing deal in 2019, then AMD confirmed last year that Samsung’s “next flagship mobile SoC” would use RDNA 2. Samsung recently teased an announcement event for the Exynos 2200 that was supposed to take place on January 11th, but it was mysteriously delayed.

Samsung might be adding its first-ever “Ultra” model to its upcoming Galaxy Tab S8 lineup, which will also include a Tab S8 and S8 Plus, as rumored by WinFuture.

According to WinFuture, the flagship Ultra model could sport a 14.6-inch Super AMOLED display with a 2960 x 1848px resolution, a refresh rate of up to 120Hz, as well as a notch with two 12-megapixel (MP) cameras. It may also come with the option of up to 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, along with a 11200mAh battery.

A video from Unbox Therapy has shown off what appears to be three dummy units of Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S22 series of phones, giving an early look at the design of the handsets. Although the video has now been delisted, it’s been reuploaded on other channels, and a screenshot was taken by 9to5Google. The video emerged alongside other details of the upcoming phones, including camera specs, and images of a new fast charger.

This isn’t the first time footage of Galaxy S22 dummy units has leaked online. Twitter leaker OnLeaks posted similar footage in the middle of last month. Unbox Therapy’s video appears to corroborate these previous designs, and also shows the handsets more clearly.