Everything we want Samsung to improve in 2022
The Samsung Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21 Plus and Galaxy S21 Ultra have only recently hit shop shelves, but we’re already starting to hear about the Samsung Galaxy S22 range, and have been considering what the company could improve for the phones.
Cut to the chase
- What is it? The 2022 flagship Samsung phone
- When is it out? Probably early 2022, maybe January
- What will it cost? Expect $799 / £769 / AU$1,249 and up
Samsung Galaxy S22 release date and price
Little is known about the Samsung Galaxy S22 release date, but we’d expect Samsung to follow a similar schedule to its 2021 plans where the company pulled forward its launch compared to previous years and revealed the phone in mid-January.
Does that mean we’ll see the Samsung Galaxy S22 series in January 2022? There’s no guarantee, and Samsung may decide to default back to its usual spot of releasing in February or March. That said, the company may even bring the launch forward and announce the handsets even earlier.
So while no-one knows yet what to expect from Samsung, our best guess for now is a January launch again, but we’ll be sure to provide more details when leaks start giving us a clearer expectation of the release date.
News and leaks
When it comes to the rear camera on the Galaxy S22, it sounds very much like it won't have a 3D time-of-flight (ToF) sensor on it. That's no real surprise – it wasn't on the Galaxy S21 either – but it might disappoint those who wanted it to make a return.
One of those sources also says to expect continuous optical zoom, meaning that all of the zoom levels up to its maximum optical (likely 10x) would be optical, where most phones have to fall back on digital or hybrid zoom for the middle zoom ranges.
What we want to see
While we wait to hear more about the Samsung Galaxy S22, we've put our heads together to think of some improvements we'd like to see the company make in its next flagship series.
1. Bring back microSD support
This is a simple one, and it's a clear step down from Samsung, as the company has almost always offered microSD support in its smartphones. For those unclear on the situation, the Samsung Galaxy S21 range doesn't feature a microSD card slot, meaning you won't be able to expand the storage.
Bought the 128GB Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra? You're stuck with that amount of storage no matter how long you use the phone. This is the case from other brands such as Apple, but we preferred it when Samsung offered the option to expand your storage.
2. Include better storage options
On the topic of storage, the Galaxy S22 range should offer further storage options for people to choose from. That's especially true if the company does decide it doesn't want to offer microSD card support again.
The Galaxy S21, for example, is just available in 128GB and 256GB storage sizes. If you want more space, you've got to opt for the larger Galaxy S21 Ultra.
3. Drop the price further
The Samsung Galaxy S21 range dropped in price compared to 2020's smartphones, and that's an admirable feat from the company, but we'd like to see the prices drop even further in 2022.
Of course, this is a big ask. The Galaxy S21 Ultra is full of top-end tech, and it's unlikely the company will be able to drop the price down any further than it did with 2021's phone.
That said, there were a lot of spec drops when comparing the Galaxy S21 to the Galaxy S20. If the company continues to offer slightly lower specs than we're used to, we'd like to see the price drop down further to reflect that.
4. Make the standard editions more exciting
The Samsung Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S21 Plus may not be the most exciting smartphones, but they're still a great choice. We gave each of them four stars on TechRadar, and we went up to four and a half stars for the slightly more innovative Galaxy S21 Ultra.
We don't know how, but we'd like to see some more features trickle down to those two cheaper handsets that are almost certain to launch in 2022. We'd like to see the company bring top-end features like S Pen stylus support or the 100x digital zoom telephoto camera.
The Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S21 Plus were a bit of a downgrade on their predecessors, so we'd like to see Samsung make the next models a touch more exciting when they arrive in 2022.
5. Avoid Glasstic
This isn't something that everyone cares about, but the Galaxy S21 moved away from a glass rear and switched to a Glasstic back. That's Samsung's own name for a plastic and glass hybrid, and it doesn't feel as premium.
Both the Galaxy S21 Plus and Galaxy S21 Ultra stuck with glass, and we'd like to see the company opt for that material on every Samsung Galaxy S22 model considering the price of these smartphones.
