Polestar promised Apple CarPlay support for its EVs two years ago, and it's finally delivering. As The Vergeexplains, the car brand has released an over-the-air update for the Polestar 2 that makes CarPlay available on the Android Automotive-based sedan. If you'd rather use Apple Maps instead of Google Maps or prefer to talk to Siri in lieu of Google Assistant, you now have that choice as long as you connect your iPhone.
The most fun part about driving a Polestar is driving it, but there's more to it. Our latest over-the-air update for the Polestar 2 comes with Apple CarPlay, allowing Polestar owners with an iPhone to change music, use apps, and communicate through Siri or the infotainment system pic.twitter.com/mulkjIUR6D
In 2020, the automaker expected to deliver a CarPlay update in January 2021. It's not clear what prompted the delay (Polestar cited "various factors" last fall), but the wait isn't completely surprising. Android Automotive is built around Google's operating system, and often its services. iPhone support was always going to be a lower priority, particularly when you don't need an Android phone to use Polestar's built-in functionality.
You still can't find CarPlay on numerous other Android Automotive cars, including newer Volvo models as well as Rivian's R1T. You won't have to wait long in some cases, though. Volvo expects to add the interface within weeks, and it will eventually support iOS 16's next-gen CarPlay interface. In that sense, Polestar is just a vanguard for its sibling brand.
As part of the company's ongoing efforts to improve user security, at WWDC 2022 Apple announced new digital passkeys that add an extra layer of security to your passwords.
Available on both iOS and macOS, Apple's passkeys are designed to replace standard passwords by providing unique digital keys that are stashed locally on your device. Apple says that by not storing passkeys in the cloud, they are much less susceptible to being stolen in the case of a data breach or phishing attempt.
Passkeys will feature integration with biometric security including Touch ID and Face ID, and can be synced to other Apple devices via your iCloud Keychain. They will also work with apps and on the web, allowing users to sign into their accounts using their iPhone instead of their password.
The arrival of passkeys comes after Apple, alongside Google and Microsoft, announced a partnership with the FIDO Alliance and the WWDC earlier this spring. Apple's passkeys look to be the company's attempt to simplify and streamline the use of passwordless sign-on methods and will feature end-to-end encryption and compatibility with a wide range of Apple devices including the iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple TV when it arrives sometime later this year.
While Motorola might not have the same clout in the smartphone space as Apple and Samsung, the company holds an outsized influence on the US market. By the numbers, Motorola is the third most popular smartphone maker overall, the second largest maker of prepaid phones and the biggest seller of unlocked handsets.
The problem is that, as part of the company’s attempt to gobble up more of the market following the demise of LG Mobile, Motorola has been churning out too many phones too quickly while offering little in the way of long-term support. And even though the Moto G family of phones has earned a reputation for providing great value in recent years, that legacy is starting to deteriorate as things like camera quality and support for basic features like NFC have stagnated. In short, Motorola needs to slow down and shape up.
Just look at the dizzying number of Moto G handsets that have been released in the last two years. At CES 2021, Motorola launched four new phones including the second-gen Moto G Stylus, the revived Moto G Play, the Moto G Power and the Moto One 5G Ace – the latter of which is merely a rebranded version of the Moto G 5G from 2020. Then in the summer, Motorola released another Moto G Stylus (this time with 5G) followed by the Moto G Pure last fall.
At the pace Motorola has been releasing new G-series phones, it's become incredibly difficult to keep track of them all and the minor differences between them.
Chris Velazco/Engadget
More recently in February, Moto decided to update the G family with yet another version of Moto G Stylus, and just this week Motorola returned to announce two more additions in the Moto G Stylus 5G and the Moto G 5G. And this isn’t counting stuff like the Moto G Power 2022, which was actually released in November 2021. At this point, if you’re confused by the vomit of new Moto G phones, just rest assured you’re not the only one. It’s like some twisted smartphone version of Cap'n Crunch’s Oops! All Berries, except that instead of tasty fruit-flavored treats, it's an endless string of non-descript plastic handsets.
Meanwhile, some of Motorola’s most interesting phones like the 2020 Razr have been languishing waiting for an update, only getting a half-hearted refresh that added a slightly faster chip and support for 5G. Quite often, it feels like Moto has been releasing budget phones without 5G, just so the company can push out a “new” model six months later. Even then, it’s typically just sub-6GHz 5G, which only serves to increase customer confusion regarding current cellular standards. And while Moto has been idling, Samsung has dominated the foldable phone market with devices like the Galaxy Z Flip 3, which is not only cheaper than the Razr, it has a better screen and cameras too.
When Motorola made its first flagship phone in years with the 2020 Edge+, our lasting impression was that it was merely OK.
Chris Velazco/Engadget
Another big issue with Motorola’s recent phones is paltry software support. Last year, Samsung announced that it would provide four years of security updates for a wide range of Galaxy devices, including older phones and tablets such as the S10 and Tab S6. Then, just a couple of months ago, Samsung bolstered its software support again by giving four generations of Android upgrades to all of its 2021 and 2022 flagship phones. And over in Pixel land, Google also stepped up its efforts by promising five years of security updates for the Pixel 6 (though you’ll still only get three years of OS upgrades). And all of this still pales in comparison to iPhones, with Apple providing at least five years of OS and security updates for its handsets.
Then we come to Motorola, which even on its most recent flagship – the 2022 Edge+ – is only offering two major OS updates and three years of bi-monthly security patches. And if you move down to its more affordable handsets, things get even worse. The newly announced Moto G Stylus 5G and Moto G 5G, for instance, will only get a single OS upgrade. This isn’t a one-off situation either, because during a briefing about those phones, a Motorola representative confirmed that the general policy for the entire G family typically only covers one major Android OS update.
Mewanwhile, this year's Edge+ fell far short of living up to its $1,000 price.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Even worse is that, during the same briefing, a Motorola exec seemed to be making an excuse for the poor update policy by recounting a conversation they had with a car service driver. The driver owned a Moto G device and lamented that their device seemed like it was constantly prompting them to install some sort of update. Now I can certainly empathize, sometimes it feels like everything you own constantly needs to be patched. But that’s not a good reason to drop support for a gadget after a year or two. If an owner doesn’t want to install an update for whatever reason, that’s their choice, but they should at least have the option.
Perhaps my biggest concern about Motorola’s direction is a general lack of innovation and support for basic features. Take for example the Moto G Stylus, which doesn’t have NFC. I mean come on, it’s 2022. Basically every place supports some sort of contactless payment nowadays, which requires NFC. But if you buy a budget Moto phone, too bad. And it’s not just the Moto G Stylus, because the Moto G 5G announced this week doesn’t have NFC either. The company also routinely fails to equip its handsets with substantial water resistance, often doing just enough to protect against splashes but falling far short of the IP67 or IP68 ratings you get on competing devices.
Additionally, when I reviewed the Moto Edge+ back in March, I was kind of appalled with its cameras. This is a $1,000 phone that produces low-light photos that look like they come from a $500 phone at best. I even noted in my review that it seems like Motorola is going backwards, delivering a device with a lower-resolution main camera than its predecessor, while lacking a dedicated telephoto lens.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Motorola tells me that it puts macro cams in its phones instead because of demand from customers who like taking close-ups. And that may be true. But I also know that it costs more to put telephoto cameras on phones, and I have a sneaking suspicion that may be the bigger driving force. While Apple, Google and Samsung are making large strides when it comes to low-light performance and computational photography, what I’ve seen from Moto’s latest pseudo-flagship is second-tier at best.
The sad thing is that it doesn’t have to be like this. There are a number of things I still appreciate about Moto devices. They have near stock builds of Android and Moto Action gestures like double chopping to turn on a phone’s flashlight are often quite handy. But those small perks are easily overshadowed by the concerning trend of too many rehashes while returning too little value.
However, it’s not too late to reverse all this. Sure, it will take some strong leadership and willpower for the company to forgo short-term sales in order to focus on long-term growth and development. Improving mobile photography isn’t easy. Just ask OnePlus’ Pete Lau, who has been very vocal about his desire to bring the photography on the company’s phones up to speed. But unless Motorola wants to become the next HTC, it needs to reduce the churn and concentrate on releasing a smaller number of higher-quality devices with the software support its customers deserve.
Both Samsung and other retailers have offered a few ways to save when picking up one of the latest Galaxy smartphones, including offering a discount on higher storage models during the pre-order window. But Amazon's back now with a new discount — $100 off the Samsung Galaxy S22, bringing the 128GB model down to $700. The same discount applies to the 256GB versions, which are on sale for $750.
While the Galaxy S22 isn't a huge departure from last year's flagship phones, Samsung made some useful changes and welcomed upgrades this year. The handset's design remains attractive and now has Corning's Gorilla Glass Victus+ for added protection against drops and scratches. The S22 sports a lovely 6.1-inch 2,340 x 1,080 resolution touchscreen with a 120Hz variable refresh rate and an ultrasonic in-screen fingerprint reader, too. The panel is impressive, reaching up to 1,300 nits of brightness, and the new Vision Booster feature automatically ups things like color saturation and contrast depending on your environment. Plus, the fingerprint reader is really fast, so you'll never have to wait long for the device to unlock.
The S22's triple rear camera array takes sharp photos and much-improved images in low-light conditions. Even though we think Samsung's new Adaptive Pixel feature, which uses multi-frame image capture to combine high-quality pics with lower-res pixel-binned shots to create a final composite image, is a bit overhyped, the S22 still has some of the best cameras you can get on a smartphone at this price.
General performance is stellar as well thanks to the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip inside the handset. You're also getting 5G support and a decent battery life. In our testing, the Galaxy S22 lasted just under 15 hours (if battery life is your biggest concern, you're better off going for the S22+, which lasted about 2.5 hours longer). Overall, if you're looking to upgrade to a new Android phone, the Galaxy S22 is one of the best out there right now — and it's even better at this sale price.
Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.
Almost a year after Samsung revealed the Galaxy A52 (and the rest of the 2021 Galaxy A family), the company is back with even more phones. While the foldables and the Galaxy S22 line might grab the headlines and raise the bar for specs, the Galaxy A phones have been a commercial success, combining decent specifications with large screens, complicated camera arrays and Samsung’s premium aesthetic.
The new Galaxy A53 and the A33 don’t diverge from this strategy – it is working, after all – but instead introduce 5G connectivity and Samsung’s more powerful 5nm Exynos chips. They also look remarkably similar to each other and the extended Samsung Galaxy phone family.
I’ll focus on the A53 5G, which is coming to the US on April 1st, priced at $450. It has a 6.5-inch AMOLED display that’s capable of 120Hz refresh rates, matching last year’s model. Samsung says it’s capable of adaptive refresh rates, but couldn’t specify the range as of this writing. Still, it’s rare to see any degree of adaptive refresh rates in phones at this price. Smooth scrolling is usually the hallmark of an expensive device, so I was pleasantly surprised in a recent demo session to find that interacting with the A53 felt similar to using more expensive phones like the S22. There are some signs that it’s not quite as premium as Samsung’s top phones, with a notable bezel around the display.
Samsung puts a lot of emphasis on its camera innovations, and the A series has benefited from that. In 2022, that means another quad-camera system – take that, iPhone SE. The main 64-megapixel sensor has optical image stabilization and an f/1.8 aperture, which works alongside a 12MP fixed-focus ultra-wide camera, and two 5MP sensors: one for depth detection and another for macro shooting.
Samsung’s briefing rooms aren’t the best place for an impromptu photoshoot, but with a high-res primary camera, I was pleasantly surprised at the detail I captured from some of the set dressing. When lighting was consistent, I was able to take some sharp shots of other attendees, with an array of filters to add while using the camera app. (These filters are also now available across the A53’s other cameras.)
Mat Smith/Engadget
The camera system benefits from the new 5nm Exynos 1280 Octa-core processor inside the phone, Samsung says the power of this new chip made its AI-augmented night mode shooting possible. The A53 can draw together 12 frames and create a more stable (hopefully more detailed) single image. The A53 can also adjust video capture frame rates to improve shot quality. You’ll also get some of the most recent Samsung photo editing features, like Object Eraser and Photo Remaster to help salvage more of your shots.
Samsung says improvements from the new processor should be felt elsewhere, too, claiming a 43 percent increase in GPU performance and a 31 percent boost in AI processes. (Like the aforementioned night mode.)
Yes, the design is very similar to last year’s A52, but the introduction of 5G and a more powerful chip could ensure that this device is more future-proof than its predecessor. Samsung promises four years of software updates, and both new A-series phones will come with the latest version of its One UI – which is currently making its way to the rest of the Galaxy phone range.
Mat Smith/Engadget
Samsung’s approach to affordable mid-range phones stands in contrast to how Apple reintroduced the iPhone SE earlier this month. And yet, the phones will inevitably face comparisons. Samsung has gone to great lengths to ensure the A53 fits in alongside the S22 and the S22 Ultra both design-wise and when it comes to cameras. Meanwhile, Apple’s iPhone SE keeps a classic design but pairs it with a powerful cutting-edge chip found in its most-expensive devices. Preferences on iOS versus Android notwithstanding, it could come down to whether you want a new phone with a big screen, or one that easily fits into your pocket.
The Galaxy A53 5G will be available for preorder on April 1st across T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T, with the phone launching on April 8th. Besides carriers, you’ll get the choice of white and black color options, as well as new powder blue and peach hues, if you’re looking for something a little different.
While the iPhone 13 mini and iPhone 13's new hues look earthier and closer to a leafy green, the Pro flagships come with a sort of frosted finish that helps them better reject smudges. It also makes the color a little paler and adds a metallic sheen.
There's nothing else different about these new iPhones. They're last year's iPhone 13s, but green. Intrigued? Then take a look at these pictures I took of the new gadgets under different lighting conditions.
I have included photos of the two new iPhone 13s alongside other green phones like the sage Pixel 5 and the Pixel 5a. The latter's official color is called "Mostly Black," but it definitely feels more like "Off Green." My favorite is still the pastel green iPhone 12, which will reign in my heart as the best verdant gadget. At least, until someone comes up with a Matcha-colored (or flavored) phone. Or lime. Or pandan. You're welcome for the color inspiration, phone makers.
A lot of gadgets operate on a "tick-tock" development cycle, with the most well-known being past iPhones that sported fresh designs, only to be replaced 12 months later by more refined but similar-looking S variants. And after Samsung ticked the box with a fresh new design for last year's S21, now the company has returned with the more polished Galaxy S22 and S22+. While they might look a lot like last year's phones, there have been some notable upgrades, especially on the S22's display, performance and camera.
Design
Even though I'm still not sure how much I love Samsung's Contour Cut camera design, the Galaxy S22 very much looks and feels like a high-end device. The outside of the phone features Samsung's Armor Aluminum alloy that's been polished to a near-mirror finish, with the S22 also being one of the first phones equipped with Corning's Gorilla Glass Victus+ to protect the phone from drops and scratches — both in front and in back.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
To add a little spice to the mixture, the S22's backside sports a lovely matte texture – which does a surprisingly good job of resisting fingerprints. And for 2022, Samsung also spruced up the S22's color options with new shades of green, pink and white, along with good ole black.
Like previous Galaxy S phones, the S22 comes with an ultrasonic in-screen fingerprint reader, and after years of tweaking its algorithm and improving the tech, this time it feels seriously fast. In my experience, unlocking the phone was practically instant, and I never really ran into recognition issues unless my fingers were legit wet or greasy. (Keep your grubby hands away from my phone if you're eating pizza, k thnx.)
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
The one thing avid movie watchers should be aware of though is the color-matched frames on the pink and white models. If you're the kind of person that might be bothered by a glint or sparkle around the edge of the phone while watching videos, you may want to go with one of the darker color options.
And while it's not really a surprise at this point, the S22 doesn't feature a microSD card slot or a headphone jack. With the Galaxy S line now being three generations removed from the last device to include both of those features, it's pretty clear they're not coming back.
Display
Samsung has had a lock on the crown when it comes to making the best mobile displays in the business for a while now. But on the S22, the company has outdone itself once again with displays that can hit a peak brightness of 1,300 nits on the S22, or an astounding 1,750 nits on the S22+. Suffice to say any fears of the S22's screen being hard to read even in direct sunlight are unfounded.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Then, to make things look even better, Samsung created a new feature called Vision Booster designed to amp up things like contrast and color saturation in very bright or dim conditions. While there's no indicator or pop-up that lets you know it's working, I found the effect most pronounced when I used the phone outdoors, with more subtle changes in the dark when compared to phones like the Pixel 6 Pro. I found Vision Booster made dark scenes easier to parse, but even when viewed side-by-side, I basically had to press my face up against the phones to really see the differences.
But regardless of where you are, the end result is a display that lives in technicolor, pumping out vivid shades and hues, along with the perfectly dark inky blacks that make OLED screens so enthralling. Plus, thanks to a 2,340 x 1,080 resolution and a variable 120Hz refresh rate, everything from photos to gifs look sharp and crisp.
Performance
The Galaxy S22 line is one of the first phones to feature Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, which when combined with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage (or 256GB if you opt for the upgrade) results in a phone that feels blisteringly fast. In my experience, there isn't really anything you can throw at the S22 that makes it even sweat, aside from stuff like hardcore multitasking when connected to an external monitor via Samsung Dex (which is still very much a thing).
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
And while some reports claim that Qualcomm's Snapdragon Gen 8 Gen 1 has a proclivity for running hot, S22's built-in vapor chamber cooling system seems effective at keeping throttling to a minimum. Compared to the S21 FE, which features an older Snapdragon 888 chip, our S22+ posted scores in Geekbench 5's Compute test around 25 percent higher (4,708 vs 5,999). And while the gap wasn't quite as large in Geekbench 5's CPU test, the S22+ still posted a significantly higher single-core score of 1,213 compared to 1,061 for the S21 FE.
As for wireless connectivity, all versions of the S22 and S22+ support all the important flavors of 5G, including Verizon and AT&T's new C-band spectrum.
Cameras
After recent advancements from competitors like the iPhone 13 and Pixel 6, Samsung is now playing catchup to Apple and Google in the camera department. And while Samsung is touting a bunch of new camera features for the S22 and S22+ like Adaptive Pixel and various "Nightography" improvements, the real upgrades are the S22's new sensors — particularly the one for its 50MP main cam.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Thanks to that significantly higher resolution (up from 12MP on the S21), photos from the S22's main wide-angle camera are just flat-out sharper than before. But more importantly, the S22's primary camera offers wider dynamic range and big improvements for low-light photos. In darker scenes, the S22 uses a four-to-one pixel binning technique that combines four adjacent pixels into one big pixel, which allows for improved light sensitivity. The result is brighter photos with richer colors, especially at night. And even though Google's Night Sight still has a slight advantage over Samsung's Night Mode, the S22 has seriously narrowed the gap.
Elsewhere, you also get a solid 12MP ultra-wide camera with a 120-degree field of view, and a 10MP telephoto camera with a 3x optical zoom, the latter of which is important because neither the standard iPhone 13 or Pixel 6 comes with a dedicated zoom lens. So once again, the base S22 is the most well-rounded camera phone for the money. And in front, the 10MP selfie camera captured crisp pictures of my face including my many pores and blemishes, though you can always play around with Samsung's beauty settings if you want to put on a smoother face for social media.
Where things get frustrating is that some of the S22's new camera features are often hard to use, or even tell when they're working — with the main offender being Samsung's Adaptive Pixel feature. Adaptive Pixel uses multi-frame image capture to shoot pics using the main sensor's full resolution along with lower-res pixel-binned shots, before merging them together to create a higher-quality composite final image. The issue is that Adaptive Pixel isn't turned on by default, and searching the phone's settings for it doesn't return any matches.
To even activate this, you need to first make sure Samsung's scene optimizer is on, then you have to turn on the camera app's full 50MP capture mode, make sure the Detail Enhancer setting is disabled, and then point the S22 at a dark scene and hope Adaptive Pixel kicks in. And I do mean hope, because there's no pop-up or notification that lets you know when the feature is activated. Even when you do get it to work, while the pictures are a bit sharper and feature a more neutral color profile (which is better for anyone who wants to edit their pics later), Adaptive Pixel doesn't really produce magically superior images like Samsung's marketing may have led you to believe.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
That's kind of a shame after all the attention Adaptive Pixel got during the S22's debut at Samsung's recent Unpacked event. Thankfully, other new camera features like Auto Framing work as advertised, allowing the phone to track up to 10 people's faces when capturing video, while Samsung's Advanced OIS ensures that your clips look smooth and shake-free. The company's AI Stereo Depth Map technique also makes the phone a bit better at differentiating between your subject's face and the background in portrait mode, though you may have to do some serious zooming in to really see the difference.
In short, I like a lot of the changes Samsung has made to the S22's camera setup, raising its general photo prowess, even if some of the phone's new software don't quite live up to expectations.
Software
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
The Galaxy S22 line comes with Samsung's One UI 4.0, which is based on Android 12. That means because it has long supported features like scrolling screenshots, the main upgrades in Samsung's latest Android skin are the new Privacy Dashboard and customization options for your home screen, app icons and the phone's UI. Similar to what's available in Google's Pixel phones, the customizations allow you to set a consistent color palette across your phone's menu, while new mic and camera notifications make sure you know when apps are accessing critical hardware components.
Other software upgrades include Live Sharing in Google Duo, which is a Samsung-exclusive feature that lets you share your screen during video chats. It's simple and effective, even if it's not quite as full-featured as Apple's SharePlay in iOS 15. And for those looking to keep better track of digital documents like your ID, credit cards, and even digital car keys, Samsung also made a new Digital Wallet that can securely store all those things in one place.
Battery life
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Featuring 3,700 and 4,500 mAh batteries respectively, both the S22 and S22+ have respectable longevity. But if lasting a long time between charges is really important for you, the S22+ is definitely the better pick as it lasted 17 hours and 33 minutes on our local video rundown test, compared to just 14 hours and 47 minutes for the standard S22. And thanks to its 45W wired charging (up from 25W charging on the S22), the S22+ juices up way faster too. In both cases though, you'll need to make sure you have the proper power brick, as neither phone comes with a charging adapter in the box.
S22 vs S22+
Aside from the obvious differences in screen size (6.1 inches vs. 6.6 inches) and overall dimensions (5.8 x 2.8 x 0.3 inches and 5.9 ounces vs. 6.2 x 2.9 x 0.3 inches and 6.9 ounces), there are a few other features that separate the S22 and S22+. The S22 is limited to 25-watt wired charging while the S22+ gets 45-watt wired charging, with both phones also featuring 15W Qi wireless charging and 4.5W reverse wireless charging (aka wireless power share).
Other differences include slightly faster WiFi speeds on the S22+ thanks to support for WiFi 6E (compared to standard WiFi 6 for the S22). The S22+ also has built-in UWB connectivity, which isn't available on the S22. UWB is one of many protocols used to send files to other devices wirelessly via Nearby Share, though that's not really a big deal since Nearby Share still works, albeit less swiftly, over WiFi and Bluetooth. The other consideration is that for people looking to use digital car keys from automakers like BMW and others, those often work better and have longer ranges using UWB compared to NFC, which might make the S22+ a better choice for more tech-savvy new car buyers.
Wrap-up
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
The Galaxy S22 isn't a huge improvement or departure from last year's phone, but just like an "S-year" iPhone, Samsung has tweaked and elevated all the phone's most critical components. You're getting a more refined design, improved performance, a sharper main cam with better low-light photography and an even brighter screen. And that's saying something from the king of mobile displays.
Sure, some features like Vision Booster and Adaptive Pixel are more subtle or harder to use than I'd like, but putting all this in a chassis sporting excellent build quality and other premium features like IP68 dust and water resistance, reverse wireless charging and more is a formula that's hard not to like. And with a starting price of $800 for the standard S22, you're getting more phone for the money than anything you can buy from Apple or Google.
You’d be forgiven for thinking the newly announced Galaxy S22 looks a lot like last year’s phone. It does. But after being able to go hands-on with the S22 and S22+, it’s clear that, as with many things, it’s what’s inside that counts. And for 2022, Samsung has packed in some major upgrades for the S22’s display, performance and cameras that really separate it from last year’s device.
Now, before we move onto the new tech, some of the S22’s design tweaks include an updated range of colors (black, white, green, and pink) and the use of a new material created from recycled fishnets–which Samsung employed to make the phone’s key bracket, with additional post-consumer recycled material also used in the S22’s speaker module and side buttons.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Elsewhere, both the S22 and S22+ feature flat–not rounded–displays made from Gorilla Glass Victus+, a chassis constructed out of Samsung’s Armor Aluminum alloy, a 40-megapixel center-mounted selfie shooter and three rear cameras: a 50MP wide, 12MP ultra-wide and a 10MP telephoto with a 3x zoom. So not a huge change, but it’s not like the S21 needed a complete revamp anyway. At the same time, it’s important to note that at 6.1 and 6.6 inches, respectively, both the S22 and S22+ have slightly smaller screens than their predecessors. And before you get your hopes up, none of the new S22s have a headphone jack or an SD card reader.
Instead, Samsung concentrated on improving a number of the S22’s most important components. So while the S22 and S22+’s FHD+ screens still top out at 120Hz, Samsung decreased the lower limit of their refresh rates to just 1Hz (down from 10Hz) to help save on power even more. Meanwhile, both phones got significant brightness upgrades, with the S22 capable of hitting 1,300 nits in direct sunlight, while the S22+ goes even higher, peaking at 1,750 nits. Frankly, Samsung has been making the best mobile displays on the market for years, and even though I only had a short time with the new S22s thus far, the S22’s brightness is quite impressive even compared to other premium handsets like the iPhone 13.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
That said, perhaps the biggest display innovation on the S22 is Samsung’s new Vision Booster feature. By using the ambient light sensors built into the phone, Vision Booster adjusts screen settings like contrast and color saturation to make content easier to see both outdoors and in low-light environments (like watching a movie on your phone before bed). But I should mention that because Samsung’s demo area didn’t have a lot of super bright or dark environments, Vision Booster is something that’s definitely going to require some more in-depth testing to properly evaluate.
On the inside, in addition to 8GB of RAM and either 128GB or 256GB of storage, the S22 also features Qualcomm’s 4nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip (or an Exynos 2200 for most folks outside of North America). That said, there are some important differences in specs between the S22 and S22+, as the S22 tops out with 25-watt wired charging, a 3,700 mAh battery and Wi-Fi 6, while the S22+ gets 45-watt wired charging, a 4,500 mAh battery, slightly faster Wi-Fi 6E, and UWB (ultra wideband) communications. Both phones feature 5G, 15-watt wireless charging, ultrasonic in-screen fingerprint readers, IP 68 dust and water resistance and the same resolution cameras in front and back.
But the phone’s cameras are clearly where Samsung invested much of its resources, which makes sense now that the Galaxy S line is facing increased competition from handsets like the iPhone 13 and Pixel 6. On the S22, the most important camera upgrade is the phone’s new 50 MP wide-angle camera, which Samsung claims features pixels that are 23 percent larger than before to draw in more light in dark environments. Then, to boost its “Nightography” features even further, the S22 uses a four-to-one pixel binning technique that combines four adjacent pixels into one big pixel for additional low-light sensitivity.
And for those who want extra help capturing crisp videos, Samsung also added a new Auto Framing feature that can track up to 10 subjects at the same time while adjusting the camera’s focus and framing, with a new Advanced OIS tossed in to help iron out any bumps or shaking. During my hands-on session, while I didn’t have multiple people to stick in front of the S22’s cameras, the phone still did an impressive job of locking onto my colleague Cherlynn’s face, even as she bobbed and weaved throughout the frame. And I didn’t even have to tap the phone’s screen to lock on to her face.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
Alternatively, if you love shooting portraits, the S22 also employs a new AI Stereo Depth Map process that can more easily distinguish the difference between your subject and the background for enhanced bokeh and studio lighting effects. And new on the S22, Samsung’s Portrait Mode works on pets too.
When it comes to software, the S22 comes pre-loaded with One UI 4.0, which is based on Android 12. This means you get all of Google’s recent security upgrades including notifications when apps use the phone’s mics or cameras and the new Privacy Dashboard, along with extra home screen customization options and more. And to make storing things like digital IDs, credit card info, and travel documents on your phone a bit easier, the S22 has a new secure storage feature called the Samsung Wallet. There’s even a new live sharing feature in Google Duo that lets S22 owners stream videos to other people on the call similar to Apple’s SharePlay feature in iOS 15. Unfortunately, neither the Samsung Wallet or live sharing in Google Duo were available for testing, so stay tuned for more updates on those.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
On top of that, for the entire S22 line (including the S22 Ultra), Samsung is stepping up the length of its software support to four generations of Android updates. So while Samsung’s software support still isn’t quite as extensive as what you’d get with an iPhone, it’s longer than basically anything else in the Android world.
But what might be the best part about all of this, is that despite all the software and hardware upgrades, starting at $800 and $1000, the S22 and S22+ will cost the same as last year’s Galaxy S phones.
Sam Rutherford/Engadget
In a lot of ways, the S22 feels like the “tock” to the S21’s “tick.” Last year, Samsung rolled out a fresh new design, and now Samsung is following that up with a bunch of upgraded tech. Sure, the outside of the phone may have not changed a ton, but the updated colors look good, and coming from someone with a Phantom Green Z Fold3 that actually looks gray 99 percent of the time, the new green on the S22 is much richer and way more satisfying. And while we’ll need time to put the S22 through its paces, Samsung investing so much time and effort in the phone’s new cameras really shores up the biggest weakness of last year’s device. So even though it’s too early to hand anyone the crown for the best phone of 2022, the S22 feels like a thoughtful sequel to an already strong base.
Pre-orders for the Galaxy S22 and S22+ start today with official sales beginning on February 25th. And for those who do pre-order, Samsung is including a free upgrade to the next storage tier and $100 worth of Samsung credit (or $150 for the S22+).
Catch up on all of the news from Samsung’s February Unpacked event right here!
Apple's "Noise Cancellation" accessibility feature has been a staple on past iPhones, but may have been permanently removed from the iPhone 13 series, 9to5Mac has reported. The feature is designed to "reduce ambient noise on phone calls when you are holding the receiver to your ear," a feature that can help make calls easier to hear.
"Phone Noise Cancellation is not available on iPhone 13 models, which is why you do not see this option in [the Accessibility] settings," Apple support told one of 9to5Mac's readers. When the reader asked for clarification, the support team confirmed that the feature is "not supported."
Questions about noise cancellation came up on Reddit and Apple support pages shortly after the phone went on sale, with readers noticing that it was no longer available on the Accessibility page. The feature is still available with iOS 15 on past iPhone models, but is nowhere to be found on the iPhone 13.
"Noise Cancellation" normally uses an iPhone's camera microphone to detect and remove ambient noise around you, so you can more easily hear the other person on a phone or FaceTime call — something that can be valuable for the hard of hearing. The issue only applies if you use the handset by itself without, say, Apple's AirPods noise-cancelling earphones. (It does not affect what others hear; for that, Apple introduced the Voice Isolation feature with iOS 15.)
Apple has yet to officially confirm that the feature has been permanently removed on iPhone 13 devices; so far, the only word about it has come indirectly from Apple Support. As such, Engadget has reached out to Apple for further clarification.
Samsung may unveil its much anticipated (and leaked) Galaxy S22 at an Unpacked event on February 8th, according to South Korea's Digital Daily. "We have confirmed that the event will be held on February 8 and we are discussing the timing of invitations to be sent out at the end of January," a Samsung Electronics official told the site. Pre-orders are reportedly set to go live the next day, on February 9th, with shipping starting on February 24th.
Samsung will likely debut three phones, the Galaxy S22, S22 Plus and S22 Ultra models. According to some of the many rumors out there, all three devices will have very bright displays. Meanwhile, the Galaxy S22 Ultra's camera will offer what Samsung calls a "Super Clear Lens."
The primary chip could be Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, reportedly manufactured by Samsung. Devices outside the US may come with Samsung's Exynos 2200 chip that uses a GPU based on AMD's RDNA 2 architecture and could support ray tracing. Numerous images of the device have already surfaced, including a shot of the Galaxy S22 Ultra posted by Evan Blass (above).
The event schedule and release date have yet to be confirmed, but Samsung typically schedules its flagship smartphone events around the same time each year. It'll supposedly be shown at MWC 2022 in Barcelona, by which time it should already be in buyers' hands, if the leak proves accurate. Engadget has reached out to Samsung for confirmation.
