Samsung Galaxy A22 5G review; Making the cheapest 5G phone has become one of the standards of the smartphone market this year. Launched in January, along with the Galaxy A52 5G and Galaxy A72 5G, the Galaxy A32 5G was Samsung’s flagship in this segment of the market. Now this title officially belongs to the Galaxy A22 5G. The phone is available in 5G and 4G versions, and unfortunately Samsung has been forced to remove some of its features to support 5G networks and raise prices.
Some of the features of the 4G version of the Galaxy A22 include a Super AMOLED display, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera, a 2-megapixel macro camera, a 13-megapixel selfie camera, and a more affordable price of € 209. On the other hand, the 5G version of this phone uses a 90 Hz LCD screen, and its camera combination also includes a 5-megapixel ultra-wide camera and an 8-megapixel selfie camera, which is weaker than the 4G version.
However, the Galaxy A22 5G 90Hz Full HD Plus display outperformed the Galaxy A32 5G 60Hz HD Plus display. The Galaxy A32 5G, on the other hand, is higher than the Galaxy A22 5G with its higher price tag.
Samsung Galaxy A22 5G review
Unboxing
Samsung has introduced the Galaxy A22 5G without a screen protector or case. This is understandable due to the low price of the product. The contents of the Galaxy A22 5G box include a 15-watt charger, a relatively short USB-A to USB-C cable, and a wired handsfree.
Designing
In designing the Galaxy A22 5G, Samsung has used a suitable material with the price of this phone, namely plastic. Of course, plastic is not a bad material at all and has many unique features, but the type of plastic used in this phone does not look very interesting. However, the middle frame of the phone has a high resistance and its sleek design has given it a special charm.
The back panel of this phone has a matte appearance that, despite being attractive, acts like a magnet against fingerprints. The surface of this panel is such that it has reduced the possibility of the phone slipping and falling suddenly, but its material makes the user feel uncomfortable. Also, by tapping on the back panel, you will easily notice the empty space under it, and it is not clear exactly why Samsung has chosen this type of design for the A22 5G. This problem is also seen in the A32.
The case design of the A22 5G cameras is also different from the A72 and A52 phones and is very similar to the Galaxy M and F series phones. The thick edges around the screen also indicate that the A22 5G is economical. Samsung has also used the Notch selfie camera in this product. One of the important points of this phone screen is not to use a protector on it. For comparison, the Galaxy A32 5G uses the Gorilla Glass 5 case, and the absence of this case in the A22 5G is one of its main weaknesses.
Ports and keys
The placement of the keys and ports on the Galaxy A22 5G is completely standard. The bottom of the phone is the busiest and the USB-C 2.0 port of the phone is located in this part. This port supports 15 watt fast charging. On either side of the port are speakers, a microphone, and a 3.5mm jack.
The A22 5G power button and volume rocker are located to the right of it, but the problem with this part is that the volume rocker is too high, which makes it a little difficult to access. Of course, this has made the power button completely different from the volume rocker, and the problem of unwanted use of them in general is eliminated. The phone’s fingerprint sensor is also built into the power button, and you can change its function depending on your needs. The performance of this sensor is acceptable and its speed and accuracy are very high.
The Galaxy A22 5G SIM card slot is located on the left side. The Galaxy A22 5G, like other new generation Galaxy phones, is available in two versions, single-SIM and dual-SIM. Fortunately, both versions of the phone support a microSD card slot. The top of the phone is perfectly smooth and has only a noise-canceling microphone. The Galaxy A22 5G does not use any LED charging lights, and this has become a standard issue in smartphones today.
screen
The Galaxy A22 5G LCD screen is weaker than the base version of the A22 base version, and this is one of the main weaknesses of the Galaxy A22 5G. The refresh rate for both screens is 90 Hz, but the base A22 version also supports HDR technology, which the 5G version did not use. However, the Galaxy A22 offers HD Plus resolution, while the 5G version supports full HD Plus resolution and 339ppi pixel density. In addition, the A22 5G outperformed its bigger brother, the A32 5G, in terms of display, thanks to its higher resolution and refresh rate.
In tests, the screen brightness of the A22 5G reached 385 nits, which is not a large number. The phone also does not support automatic brightness adjustment, and its images look a bit dark outdoors. However, due to the true black color, the contrast of the images in this phone has worked great.
Unfortunately, the colors on the screen of the Galaxy A22 5G are relatively low. It seems that Samsung has targeted the sRGB color space, but has failed in this goal. The combination of green and blue colors is not done properly and the overall color view of the phone is very cold and lifeless. Also, the possibility of adjusting the color is not provided in this phone. The Galaxy A22 5G also does not support HDR technology, and this has been confirmed by the Netflix app. The good thing about this phone is that it gets the highest L1 certification, allowing you to use high-resolution streaming on services like Netflix.
Refresh rate
The Galaxy A22 5G supports 60Hz and 90Hz refresh rates. Samsung’s proprietary browser and Google Chrome browser also take full advantage of the 90Hz A22 5G refresh rate. The main disadvantage of the high refresh rate is that it consumes more battery power, so it is better to use 60 frames for things like watching video.
Samsung has not used the ability to automatically change the refresh rate on this phone. Improper use of this feature can cause problems with high refresh rates, and fortunately these problems have not been seen on the Galaxy A22 5G. In addition, running games with a refresh rate above 60 Hz on the A22 5G is easy, and the phone has no particular problem in this regard.
The only part of the Galaxy A22 5G that automatically switches to 60 Hz is the camera app. Of course, this is quite understandable, because the viewfinder of this phone, like many other Android phones, needs a 60Hz refresh rate to provide proper performance. However, the Galaxy A22 5G runs the Google Maps application at 90 Hz, while many other phones do not.
Battery
The Galaxy A22 5G uses a powerful 5000 mAh battery. The size of this 9 mm battery is slightly larger than the 8.4 mm battery of the base A22 version. In tests, the battery lasted 118 hours. This number is slightly lower than the battery life of phones such as the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G and Poco M3 Pro 5G, which use the same combination of processor and battery.
In these tests, the refresh rate for Internet browsing was set at 90 Hz and when watching video at 60 Hz. In the next test, the refresh rate when searching the Internet was set at 60 frames, resulting in an increased battery life of 119 hours. The charging speed of the Galaxy A22 5G is very slow compared to all phones, and the reason for this is the use of a 15-watt charger. It takes 2 hours and 29 minutes to fully charge the battery, and after 30 minutes, only 23% of the battery is charged.
Speaker
The Samsung Galaxy A22 5G, like all of Samsung’s other non-flagship phones, uses only one speaker at the bottom, and the function of this speaker is quite normal. However, the speaker is louder and of better quality than the A32 5G. The A22 5G also does not use any internal equalizer for this speaker, and its Dolby Atmos sound can only be used with headphones. Note that many mobile phones, such as the Redmi Note 10 Pro and Poco X3, use stereo speakers.
Interface
Undoubtedly, the user interface of Samsung phones is one of their main strengths, and even many users believe that the main value of Samsung phones in the user interface and ecosystem of this company. Fortunately, the Galaxy A22 5G also offers many important features of the One UI. The A22 5G uses the One UI 3.1 user interface and the Android 11 operating system.
With the release of the A72, A52 and A32 handsets, Samsung has promised to release two major Android updates for these handsets and provide security support for up to 4 years. This approach is supposed to be considered for other high-end phones and some mid-range phones of this company. However, it seems that the A22 5G does not include this category of Samsung phones and only has access to two major Android updates. This is one of the main reasons why users buy the A32 5G.
Lock screen shortcuts are monochromatic in Samsung’s new user interface, while in the past these shortcuts matched the color of apps. A new widget has also been added to the lock screen that lets you know how much you use the phone without having to log in. One of the relatively important features that has been removed from the A22 5G is the ability to always have the screen on.
Elimination of this feature is due to its high charge consumption. Most users use the fingerprint sensor to unlock the phone, however you can also use the phone’s face recognition feature to do this. Of course, this feature uses the phone’s selfie camera, and as a result, in most cases, it does not work well.
Android 11 operating system has received a new “Notification History” feature, and this feature has also been used in the Galaxy A22 5G. Access to this feature is possible through the settings section, with the help of which the received notifications can be checked again.
This feature is normally disabled and you must enable it first to use it. The Android 11 operating system also uses a new feature called “bubbles” to control notifications for messaging apps, and the One UI 3.1 user interface supports this feature. This feature is a plug-in for the new call feature.
Samsung has not used the “Music Share” feature on the A22 5G either. This feature allows you to play music through Bluetooth devices connected to other people’s Samsung phones. This feature was one of the things that Samsung focused on in advertising the A72 and A52.
The settings of the phone have also changed and now the tabs are spaced further apart. Your recent searches will also be displayed in a bubble instead of a list. The One UI dialing application has also received several personalization features. You can use the background image for this application or choose one of the two default views.
Features like Bixby Voice Assistant and Samsung DeX are also not used in this phone. Of course, these features are not generally supported in the A-Series handsets, and only Samsung’s flagship handsets have used them. Overall, the Samsung Galaxy A22 5G offers many of the key features of One UI 3.1 and does not support only some of the peripherals of this interface.
Camera
The Galaxy A22 5G camera segment is where Samsung has made a lot of changes. Unlike the base version, the phone does not use a macro camera as well as optical image stabilization in its main camera, and its ultra-wide camera resolution has been reduced to 5 megapixels. The camera composition of this phone is also weaker compared to the Galaxy A32 5G.
Samsung has not released the exact specifications of the Galaxy A22 5G cameras, but it seems that the main camera of this phone has used the S5KGM2 sensor. This 1.2-inch sensor with a pixel size of 0.8 micrometers uses 4: 1 pixel combination technology to produce 12-megapixel images. The sensor is also capable of capturing 48-megapixel images.
The phone’s ultra-wide camera uses a 1.5-inch sensor with an f / 2.2 aperture, and its field of view is a staggering 115 degrees. Unfortunately, this camera does not work well, and the same goes for the phone’s 2-megapixel depth sensor. The A22 5G 8-megapixel selfie camera also uses a lighter f / 2.0 lens compared to the A32 5G 13-megapixel camera and the 20-megapixel A32 base version.
The images captured by the A22 5G main camera are of good quality and are perfectly clear. The colors are also displayed in the images of this camera very vividly and accurately. However, the 48-megapixel A22 5G images show much higher detail and excellent quality. Of course, these images take up a lot of space in the phone’s memory, and the size of each of them reaches up to 20 MB.
Unfortunately, there is no dedicated telephoto camera on the A22 5G, and the phone uses the main camera to capture these images. You can capture images with 4x, 2x and 10x zoom. The quality of the 2x zoom images is very similar to the normal images of the main camera, and these images have acceptable details. However, the 10x image quality of the main camera is lower than expected.
The phone’s ultra-wide camera is the weakest of its kind. The images of this camera are without details and the noise problem is clearly visible in it. The selfie camera also lags behind the A32 5G selfie camera and does not offer any special features to the user. On the other hand, the portrait images of this phone are of very high quality and have exceeded expectations.
Conclusion
The Samsung Galaxy A22 5G is not as powerful as the A72 and A52, but it does perform well. The 90Hz LCD screen of this phone may not seem very interesting at first glance, but it is definitely much higher quality than other cheap 5G phones from Samsung. The combination of a 700 dM processor and a 5000 mAh battery ensures its outstanding performance. The Galaxy A22 5G also performs well at 90Hz in many light games.
Samsung has provided a great user experience with the One UI 3.1 user interface on this phone. This interface is one of the most important reasons why many users prefer to use Samsung phones instead of buying phones from companies like Xiaomi and Realme. If you are also looking for a 5G smartphone and you do not want to pay more than $ 250, the Samsung Galaxy A22 5G could be a good option for you.
The Review
Galaxy A22 5G
PROS
- Full HD Plus screen and 90Hz refresh rate
- Long battery life
- One UI 3.1 user interface and Android 11 operating system
- Dimensity 700 Procesor
- Main camera performance
CONS
- Do not use a screen protector
- Low charging speed
- Poor speaker
- Poor ultra-wide camera performance
- Lack of support for 4K video recording
