S21 Ultra Vs S22 Ultra: What’s the Difference?

With the launch of the new Samsung S22 Ultra, most of us may be wondering what has been upgraded, and for those with the S21 Ultra, the question of whether it’s worth the jump? Well, that’s what we will look at between the Samsung S21 Ultra the S22 Ultra and how they stack up overall.

The most obvious difference between both is the shape of the chassis. The S21 Ultra has a build with more rounded edges and corners, while the new Samsung S22 Ultra has a squarish shape with sharper defined edges and corners. However, the screen has a more rounded finish than the rest of the body due to the S22’s cascading display.

Build quality on both phones is nearly the same. Both devices have an aluminium frame with Gorilla glass protection on the front and the back. However, the S22 has upgraded to Gorilla Glass Victus+ on both sides, making it 12.5% stronger. Both devices have an IP68 rating making them resistant to water and dust to a large degree. The aluminium gives it quite a bit of rigidity, and a premium hand feel.

Coming to the front, both devices have a 6.8 inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X infinity display. But the resolutions are not the same as the S22 has a 1440 x 3088-pixel resolution, while the S21 has a resolution of 1440 x 3200 pixels. This is because the new S22 is slightly thinner. Although minute it makes a large difference in the overall hand feel of the device, making it a more snug fit in hand.

The S22 also has an impressive adaptive refresh rate that can go down all the way just to 1Hz when your phone is idle, while the S21 Ultra can go down only to 10Hz. Also, the peak brightness of the S22 Ultra surpasses the S21 Ultra. The S22 has 1720nits, and the S21 has 1500 nits which are brighter than some of the laptop screens out in the market.

Both devices come with an in-display ultrasonic fingerprint scanner, which happens to be a second-generation Qualcomm 3D Sonic Sensor. This sensor has a 77% larger fingerprint area than optical fingerprint scanners, making it 50% faster, considering capturing 1.7 times more biometric data.

Performance-wise the Samsung S22 Ultra can pack quite a punch and runs either the Latest Snapdragon 8th Gen chip or the Samsung Exynos 2200 based on your region. The S21 Ultra came with the Snapdragon 888 chipset or the Exynos 2100.

Performance, however, between these two phones is hard to judge because both have a Geekbench score with barely any difference. The S22 beats the S21 with a score of 1143 against the 21’s 1083 in the single-core test. The multicore test is pretty much the same case, with the S22 having a score of 3509 while the S21 has a score of 3408.

With such high-performance scores, there arises the question of heating.. There is no need to worry about that either, as both devices maintain temperatures that are quite low for the amount of trouble high-performance gaming puts them through.

The S22 Ultra’s camera module is one of the main highlights. The most visible difference is the disappearance of the slab-like camera bump that replaced rings around the module. This also makes things better in handling, as the Camera bump on the S21 Ultra made the phone difficult to balance and, hence, difficult to use over longer periods of time. Eradicating that makes the whole phone feel balanced.

Now when you look a the camera specs on paper, both look identical. They both boast a quad-camera setup on the rear with Lazer Auto Focus. It comprises a 12MP Ultra-wide camera, a 108MP Primary Camera, a 10MP Telephoto lens and a 10MP Periscope lens.

As far as the zoom is concerned, both devices have the same zoom level; however, the S22 Ultra outperforms the S21 Ultra with sharper lines and details. But make no mistake, the S21 is still nearly on par with it. Both have a 40MP selfie camera.

Portrait mode is another great feature that Samsung has advanced thanks to its AI depth mapping algorithm, and this system makes sure that edge detection is perfect. Here again, the S21 Ultra doesn’t lag far behind, although the 22 Ultra’s refinement does help it grab the top spot among the two.

The S21 Ultra does, however, outweigh the S22 Ultra in one department, and that is in RAM. The S22 comes with two RAM variants 8 and 12GB, while the S21 comes with 12 and 16GB options.

Now both the devices have S-Pen support, but S21 Ultra users need to get it separately as it is not part of the package. Also, the S21 does not come with a holder for it forcing users to put a case that can hold the stylus in place.

Samsung rectified that with their new S22 Ultra by carrying forward Samsung’s Note series design of storing the S-Pen within the device in a little cavity. The new S-Pen is also more responsive, with a lag time of just 2.8msec compared to the S21 Ultra, which had a lag time of 9.8msec.

High performance, Amazing Camera, Brilliant screen; both the S21 and S22 Ultra has got them all, but what about battery life? Both devices have the same 5000mAh Battery. But both devices have nearly the same amount of battery life with slight differences owing to aspects like the S22’s wider Adaptive Refresh rate range and optimised performance.

So is it worth the jump? Well, that is a matter of personal choice as each user requires something different. The S21 and S22 Ultra are formidable devices with just a few minor differences, with one being slightly more advanced than the other.

You can get the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra and the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra right here at Poorvika. 

Visit our official Poorvika website to get yours today. We also have plenty of other offers, discounts, easy EMIs, and 2-hour delivery service just for you.