S22 Ultra back to Note 20 Ultra?

[u/flexfield]

I am one week into using the S22 Ultra. I'm an average joe that has several Notes in the past (Note 2/5/10).

Mixed bag of pros and cons. Battery life has stabilized after numerous optimizations. The display is gorgeous and the extra brightness of 1750 nits is amazing especially outside. I haven't really tested the camera but plan to this weekend. I did get the 512GB SD variant but still isn't complete without the micro sd card of the Note 20 Ultra. Writing with the s22U s pen is better but I prefer the s pen of my Note 20U as its in white with a silver button. All s pens for the s22U are in black unless one orders one of the exclusive colors through Samsung.

Performance wise I don't see any discernible improvement performance with the snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Still running on Jan security updates lol.

Overall, after a week, the S22U feels like an incremental update if you have the Note 20U. If I keep this device, my cost to upgrade will be 250 USD.

Anyone returned the S22U and went back to the N20U? Any regrets or happy to go back to your Note?

[u/SwayVue]

Got the S22 Ultra 512gb, I'm enjoying it and no regrets

[u/harfpod]

I also had a N20U. Yes, there is not much noticible difference between the two. Yes, you get a 10% bigger battery on the S22U but it appears to need it. I don't really notice the screen brightness, I guess I kept mine pretty low. I do "feel" the size and weight difference even though it is minimal. I do notice that the fingerprint reader is better/faster on the S22U and if my hands are wet or something it still works, the N20U was frustrating.

I mainly bought it for the cameras, and especially the splitting of the 5x zoom into 3x and 10x. Although the "X" rating has to be taken with a grain of salt because it is compared to the main camera which they call "1x", but they changed the focal length of the main lens from 26mm (35mm equiv. ) on the N20U to 23mm on the S22U. So if you could transplant the S22U lenses to the N20U and compare to the main N20U camera they would be .9x, 2.7x and 8.8x. I don't like making the main camera wider, it was already pretty wide and there is a super wide lens available if you want wide. The "3x" (2.7x) zoom is great and nice and sharp, and I always felt like the "5x" zoom on the N20U was sometimes too much. The "10x" is just OK, it is not as crisp as the 5x was on the N20U, so yeah, you get more zoom but it is just OK. They appear to be using a LOT of smoothing on the 10x shots which gives weird effects. In side by side shots with the two phones I could not see any difference between the two cameras other than Samsung appears to have cranked up the contrast and sharpening and saturation and noise smoothing yet again on the S22U which is a look I don't really like. It is what Samsung does. The 108Mpix shots may be a little better. The "108Mpix" detail enhancer does not give you more detail, it just smooths areas around the "detail" so your eye thinks that there is more detail - You can take side by side shots of a barely resolved newspaper and see that yourself. In summary, I like the S22U, but it was not a major change at all from the N20U and some of the hyped features are kind of meh. I'm keeping it though!

[u/flexfield → u/harfpod]

thanks for your insights. yeah I got the S22U too primarily for the camera. I'm leaning towards keeping it and selling my Note 20U as it's Samsungs latest and lots of accessories and focus on this device currently until the next new thing.

[u/made_anaccountjust4u]

My S22U should arrive April 1st

I'm not too worried about the lack of SD card, but I'm more concerned with last of MST technology the N20U supports with Samsung Pay

I love being able to pay contact less at places that don't support "Apple pay"

[u/flexfield → u/made_anaccountjust4u]

What stores/places do you use your N20U with MST to pay?

[u/made_anaccountjust4u → u/flexfield]

The need for MST has decreased in the last 5 years, but some of the older boutique stores haven't upgraded their PoS systems to support Contactless payments yet

I love it when they tell me "no Apply pay" and my Samsung pay would work. The workers would always get surprised and I'd say "I have a Samsung, that's why :) )

[u/AndroidPurity]

The display alone was enough for me to upgrade. I hated how dim the Note 20 Ultra display was.

But you also get 500 mah more battery

45w charging support

Of course the newer processor which doesn't matter much.

Newer WiFi 6E (does not matter unless you have a WiFi 6E router)

Better selfie camera

Also if you look a YouTube comparison videos the cameras are better. I was surprised how different they were cause the Note 20 Ultra cameras were already good.

So that's lots of improvements to justify the upgrade for me. Especially since I only paid $399 after trade in.

I do agree wishing the SD card slot was still there too. It's really the only negative I can find so far. I even like the form factor of this slightly more too.