Most of the rumors we’ve seen so far point to a February 2022 launch for the Samsung Galaxy S22 series of phones – and we’ll probably hear a lot about it before then, as this weekend’s batch of leaks demonstrates.
Two variations of the Galaxy S22 Ultra have appeared on the benchmarking website Geekbench, MySmartPrice reports. In particular, they’re variations running the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 – the chipset that should power the phone in most of the regions it’s eventually launched in.
The phones post respectable single-core and multi-core scores across Geekbench 4 and Geekbench 5, but there’s no doubt plenty of software and hardware optimization still to be done. We’ve previously seen leaked benchmarks for the Exynos processor version of the Galaxy S22 Plus handset as well.
What’s in a name?
Our second Galaxy S22 Ultra tidbit of the day comes from well-known monger of rumors @FrontTron on Twitter, who says that the phone won’t be called the S22 Ultra at all – but will actually be named the Samsung Galaxy S22 Note.
If you’ve been following the rumors around this handset for a while, you’ll remember that we heard something similar a few months ago, so it’s looking more and more likely that the S22 Ultra will adopt the Note name as well as borrowing a few design ideas from the stylus-equipped flagship.
We didn’t get a Galaxy Note 21 this year, and it very much seems that the Note 22 and the S22 Ultra will be one and the same phone. We’ll know for sure once the handsets are officially unveiled by Samsung in a couple of months’ time.
Analysis: the Ultra is making moves
It looks like it’s all change for the Galaxy S22 Ultra this year, as it takes on the role of the Galaxy Note, name and all. There are now multiple reports that it will adopt the Note moniker, as well as taking on a design that’s very Note-esque, becoming Samsung’s leading non-foldable flagship for 2022.
From what we’ve heard so far, it sounds as though the Galaxy S22 series is going to be more powerful than the S21 phones from early 2021, with some camera upgrades in the pipeline as well as bumps to the internal components.
At the same time, Samsung is rumored to be keeping the prices of the Galaxy S22 phones at the same level as the Galaxy S21 phones – so they should be starting at around $799 / £769 / AU$1,249 when they go on sale (most likely sometime in February).
Those of you who are in the market for something a little extra, S Pen support and all, may well want to hold out for the S22 Ultra (or S22 Note) however. It would seem that it’s going to be the most interesting phone in the range, in terms of both design and specs – and it may be good enough to fill the gap left by the Galaxy Note.