The Big Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Camera Shoot-Out

A sneak peek at how the Note replacement stacks up against the Pixel 6 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max.

PublishedFebruary 16, 2022

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a photo of the Galaxy s22 ultra — Image: Florence Ion / Gizmodo

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is the ultimate Samsung flagship. For $1,200, you get a gorgeous display, cutting-edge performance, a built-in stylus, and five cameras (four rear-facing and one selfie cam).

I’ve been putting the Galaxy S22 Ultra through its paces for the full Gizmodo review. But rather than keep you waiting for the whole rundown to see what Samsung’s new camera hardware is capable of, I wanted to compare the Ultra to a Google Pixel 6 Pro and Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max to give you a sneak peek at how Samsung’s latest flagship compares.

You’ll have to wait for the full review to hear my final assessment of the Ultra (and its cameras). But this is a glimpse at what Samsung’s Note replacement can do—and whether it might be worth $1,200.

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The Ultra’s Extremely Extra Lenses

Image for article titled The Big Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Camera Shoot-Out — Image: Florence Ion / Gizmodo

The Galaxy S22 Ultra has four rear-facing cameras: a 12-megapixel ultra-wide lens (f/2.2); a 108-MP wide-angle lens with dual-pixel AF, an 85-degree field-of-view, and an f/1.8 aperture; and two 10-MP telephoto lenses, one with 3x optical zoom, and the other with a 10x optical zoom.

There’s also a 40-MP front-facing lens, but I’m still deciding how I feel about it. You can be the judge after clicking through to the photo sample toward the end of this slideshow.

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Samsung’s Bloated Camera App

The Galaxy S22 Ultra’s camera app is the same as it is on Samsung’s other smartphones, which is to say: hectic. There are tons of features buried throughout, and they’re not intuitive to find. To shoot with the 108-MP camera, you have to select it from the aspect ratio option. The Ultra’s Night Mode also taps that lens to capture more light in dim conditions.

The zoom slider isn’t easy to use even when the Ultra is propped on a tripod. I had a tough time adjusting the zoom whenever I went further than the 10x optical zoom, even with the helpful preview window (seen in the last screenshot above). That feels like one of the downsides of having such an overly expansive digital zoom offering. At the very least, Samsung offers some helpful bookmarks of the more common zoom lengths at the bottom of the preview window.

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Testing the Ultra’s Zoom

First I wanted to test the Ultra’s zooms, which you can see above. The first photo is taken at 1x, which the camera defaults to in the main wide-angle lens. In the camera preview, you can switch to each of the two telephoto lenses, depending on how far in you want to zoom. I took the second photo at 3x zoom, and the third photo from the left is at 10x zoom.

The last shot is a 100x hybrid digital zoom. As you can see, as capable as it is—the roofs on the houses you see are about a mile away from my window—I can’t think of many reasons why anyone would need to zoom in this much. Thankfully, there’s nothing to see in the windows I managed to capture, and I’m sorry to everyone I inadvertently creep out as I test this camera.

I am impressed with how much detail the back cameras captured from so far away. Samsung’s telephoto lenses remain one of its main strengths, especially compared to Apple’s iPhones.

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Ultra vs. Pixel 6 Pro

I took the same shots with the Google Pixel 6 Pro, equipped with a 50-MP primary camera, a 12-MP ultra-wide camera, and a telephoto lens with 4x optical zoom that’s not on the smaller Pixel 6. The camera is capable of up to 20x zoom.

The first photo is the Pixel 6 Pro’s default, followed by the same scene at 2x. I preferred the crop on the Ultra at this same ratio.

The Pixel’s algorithmic magic does make for a clearer picture, especially from far away. At 4x (third photo from the left), I was surprised by how much detail the Pro maintained. And at 20x (last photo), there was still some clarity to the electric pole.

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Ultra vs. iPhone 13 Pro Max

Apple’s iPhone 13 Pro Max is pretty straightforward. The iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max both have a three-camera rear system featuring a telephoto lens, a wide-angle lens, and an ultra-wide-angle lens. The camera system can zoom in up to 6x optical range, while the digital zoom tops out at 15x.

The first shot in the sample photo is the view from the iPhone 13 Pro Max’s main lens, followed by the same scene at 3x. Both images appear sharper than Samsung’s final product, but you start to see some significant pixelation when you zoom in.

The last photo from the left features the iPhone 13 Pro Max’s maximum zoom of 15x. It’s acceptable, sort of, but parts of the scene are blown out and I probably wouldn’t show this photo to anyone. At least it’s not impressive enough to be creepy, I guess.

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Ultra vs. Pixel 6 Pro: Night Mode

On the left is the Galaxy S22 Ultra in Night mode, and on the right we have the Pixel 6 Pro with Night Sight.

Samsung’s rear cameras all offer different apertures. But the camera used for Night Mode is the 108-MP lens, which has the largest F-stop at f/1.8. Not only does it show the most detail with its high megapixel count, but it’s also capable of taking in plenty of light.

Despite that, the Ultra still struggled a bit to keep up with the Pixel 6 Pro, which blew the Galaxy S22 Ultra out of the water in this initial nighttime photo test. It’s because Samsung’s devices don’t keep the lens open for very long, whereas Google’s Pro will go up to several minutes if it thinks that’s what it needs to nail the shot.

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S22 Ultra: Portrait Mode

The Ultra’s Portrait mode performed well outdoors in the sunlight and remained consistent in its framing of each subsequent shot. I was pleased with the photographs my friend took, and this is a person who was inexperienced with the device when I handed it over.

I regret not adjusting the background blur for each photo through Samsung’s camera app. The Ultra’s blurring capabilities are slightly aggressive, as you can see in the sample photos above.

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S22 Ultra: Low-Light Portraits

My kind and willing partner posed for a portrait session with the Ultra in a dark room. I was impressed with its ability to pull ambient light from off to the side, even though the Ultra doesn’t promise low-light portrait abilities.

Take heed that your subject needs to hold still if you’re taking portraits with only a bit of ambient light. A mere blink or snarky comment uttered during the shot introduces a noticeable blur, as exhibited above.

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S22 Ultra: Front-Facing Camera

I keep complaining about the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s front-facing camera because it seems like too many megapixels for my current stage of Zoom dysmorphia. But I also recognize that with more people using front-facing cams to create content, their phones have to be good—not just good, great.

Here’s a sample photo I took with the Galaxy S22 Ultra’s front-facing 40-MP camera. It’s fine! The color palette is well-balanced, and I liked that there is little difference in how the water looked between the rear- and front-facing cameras.

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S22 Ultra: Main Lens

I’m pleased that Mother Nature gave me a beautiful morning to practice taking photos with the Galaxy S22 Ultra. Most of the pictures I snapped came out crisp and clear, and I was overall impressed with the capabilities of the new sensors, even if it did take me a while to figure them out. In some cases, it seemed like Samsung dialed down the post-processing and the color palettes appeared closer to the Pixel 6 Pro than the recently released Galaxy S21 FE.

There are a few more things I plan to test: photos of my kid, food, and the Samsung version of the Pixel 6’s Magic Eraser capabilities among them. Stay tuned for my full review this week to read my conclusion on the S22 Ultra—and its cameras.

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