A month in the past, Samsung introduced three new Galaxy S22 sequence smartphones, together with the redesigned S22 Extremely. The trio of smartphones provide a big selection of options and specs. The highest-end S22 Extremely options a big 6.8-inch show and appears – and works – very similar to Samsung’s Observe sequence. Nonetheless, appears to be like will be deceiving. Is the S22 Extremely extra of the identical for Samsung, or are there attention-grabbing novelties beneath the hood? The restore gurus at iFixit have taken aside the brand new Galaxy S22 and the flagship S22 Extremely to see what’s actually occurring with Samsung’s newest smartphones.
Wanting first at an x-ray comparability between the S22 Extremely and the bottom S22 mannequin, the smartphones seem acquainted. Unsurprisingly, every cellphone consists of a big battery. The S22 Extremely’s battery is a 5,000mAh battery, whereas the vanilla S22 has a 3,700mAh battery. You can even see the digicam arrays, with the S22 Extremely’s bigger four-camera array strutting its stuff. The S22 Extremely, like final yr’s S21 Extremely, features a 108MP important digicam, a 12MP ultrawide digicam, a 10MP digicam with 3x zoom and a 10MP digicam with 10x optical zoom. The 10x zoom digicam is exclusive to the Galaxy S22 Extremely within the lineup. The Galaxy S22, however, has a triple digicam array with 50MP, 10MP telephoto (3x zoom) and 12MP ultrawide cameras.
Samsung Galaxy S22 Extremely (left) versus Galaxy S22 (proper). Picture credit score: iFixit and Artistic Electron |
With the x-ray imaging full, it is time to crack open the S22 sequence telephones and see what’s completely different this yr. Though it stays a time-consuming course of, the brand new telephones have been barely simpler to take aside than in prior years. After eradicating the rear panel and a few commonplace coil and covers, the staff discovered the Extremely’s new connector for the Samsung S Pen stylus. The S22 Extremely is the primary Galaxy S-series cellphone to incorporate a stylus.
The S22 Extremely’s digicam array is attention-grabbing, particularly the 10x optical zoom digicam. It makes use of a periscope lens design. It includes a stabilized prism that bends mild 90 levels and thru a stack of lenses to the picture sensor. It is a wildly completely different design than the opposite cameras and takes up appreciable area within the cellphone.
The place Samsung tries to save lots of area relative to the competitors is with its vibration motor. In comparison with Apple’s iPhone fashions, the haptic suggestions components within the Galaxy S22 sequence telephones are fairly small. Does that end in worse efficiency? Hopefully, some readers with the brand new Samsung smartphones will tell us within the feedback beneath.
The teardown additionally reveals off Samsung’s vapor chamber cooling system. The brand new design guarantees considerably improved warmth switch, serving to maintain the highly effective SOC within the smartphones cool throughout prolonged use. The telephones make the most of graphite sheeting and double-bonded chrome steel, too.
Whereas components of the brand new Galaxy telephones aren’t too unhealthy to take aside – the system does embody some commonplace screws, for instance – that does not imply it’s a extremely repairable system. The Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Extremely rating a mere 3 out of 10 on iFixit’s repairability scale. It is difficult to take away the battery within the S22 sequence telephones, which is a serious difficulty on condition that it is a consumable half should you intend to make use of your cellphone for a very long time. Display repairs can even show difficult.