Galaxy Unpacked highlights: Samsung Galaxy S22 and Tab S8 series officially announced

Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event was both live-streamed via the brand’s official YouTube channel as well as its virtual reality store called 837X. Coming to the newly unveiled products, you have the Galaxy S22, Galaxy S22+, and Galaxy S22 Ultra phones along with the Galaxy Tab S8, Galaxy Tab S8+, and Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra tablets. This is the first time that Samsung’s Tab line is getting an ultra model which entails a bigger 14.6-inch screen, dual 12MP cameras, larger 512GB storage, and a bigger 11200mAh battery. Among the Galaxy S22 family, the Ultra comes with a fresher design and better hardware. However, when compared to their predecessors, the regular S22 and S22 Plus have also received some notable changes in the camera and battery department. These are besides the obvious upgrades in their ​​processor and software to Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (or Exynos 2200 in case of the phones in some markets) and One UI 4.1 (based on Android 12) respectively.

We will be taking a deeper look into their specs and features here, but before we head down that road, here is how much it costs and where you can purchase them. 

Samsung Galaxy S22 and Tab S8 series: Price and Availability

Here are the price and availability details of all the products launched today at the Galaxy Unpacked 2022 event:

• Galaxy S22 starts at $799 (~₹59,797), while the Galaxy S22 Plus starts at $999 (~₹74,764) and Galaxy S22 Ultra starts at $1,199 (~₹89,700).  The Galaxy S22 series smartphones will be available from February 25. 
• Galaxy Tab S8 starts at $699.99 (~₹52,400), while the Galaxy Tab S8+ starts at $899.99 (~₹67,300) and the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra price starts at $1,099.99 (~₹82,300). The Galaxy Tab S8 series will be on pre-order starting February 9 at 10 PM, and the sale will start in the US, South Korea, and Europe from February 25.

Samsung Galaxy S22, Galaxy S22+, and Galaxy S22 Ultra: Specs and Features

Samsung Galaxy S22 and S22+ appear to share the design cues from their precursor. The Galaxy S22 Ultra, on the other hand, gets a facelift. It has got a flat design, an integrated S-pen, and a unique camera layout. The cameras don’t come in a separate panel or island. And there doesn’t seem to be much of a protrusion either. 

As for the actual camera components, the Galaxy S22 and S22+ come with a 50MP (Dual Pixel AF, OIS) main sensor, a 10MP (3x telephoto with OIS) secondary sensor, and a third 12MP (120° ultrawide) snapper. The Galaxy S22 Ultra, meanwhile, has the same sensor arrangement as the predecessor, i.e., a 108MP (Dual Pixel AF)+ 10MP (10x periscope telephoto)+ 10MP (3x optical telephoto)+ 12MP (120˚ ultrawide) quartet.  

The front cameras have borrowed the same sensors from the Galaxy S21 series, i.e., a 40MP on the Galaxy S22 Ultra and a 10MP on both Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus.  

Under the hood, all three phones ship with a 4nm octa-core processor (either Exynos 2200 or Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset depending on the market you purchase them from). The memory configuration starts from 8GB LPDDR5 RAM and 128GB UFS 3.1 storage on all. The battery size varies from 5000mAh on the Galaxy S22 Ultra to 4500mAh on the Galaxy S22 Plus, and 3700mAh battery on the vanilla Galaxy S22 variant. The battery capacities have dropped on both the lower-end models. As for charging, both the top-end models support 45W wired charging whilst the regular Galaxy S22 gets only a 25W charging option, by the wire that is.

Other notable differences include the support for UWB (Ultra Wide Band) only with the Galaxy S22 Ultra, WiFi 6E with the Galaxy S22+, and Galaxy S22 Ultra. All three phones ship with Android 12 based One UI 4.1 out of the box. Not only that, Samsung is promising up to 4 years of Android OS upgrades and 5 years of security patches to its select flagship devices including the ones announced today.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8, Tab S8+, and Tab S8 Ultra: Specs and Features

All three Samsung Galaxy Tabs S8 tablets run on a 4nm octa-core SoC (either Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset) with Android 12 based One UI 4.1 on top. The memory choices start from 8+128GB and go all the way up to 12+256GB on the Tab S8 and Tab S8+, while Tab S8 Ultra maxes out at 16+512GB. All three supports memory card expansion up to 1TB.

The battery size on the Galaxy Tab S8 is 8000mAh, Tab S8+ is 10,090mAh, and Tab S8 Ultra is 11,200mAh. All of them support 45W wired charging. 

Other common ingredients are 5G, LTE, WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, USB-C 3.2 port, Dolby Audio compatible Quad Stereo Speakers, and 13MP (AF) + 6MP ultrawide dual rear camera setup with 4K30FPS recording. 

The front camera, however, is a sole 12MP one on the lower-trim Tab S8 and Tab S8+, while the Tab S8 Ultra gets a 12 (main) +12MP (ultrawide) duo.

And finally, the biometric solution also differs between them — a side-mounted one on the standard Tab S8 while the other two sports an under-display fingerprint scanner.

That’s more or less what you ought to know about the new Galaxy S22 and Galaxy Tab devices.

For more news, reviews, buying guides, feature stories, and everything else tech-related, keep reading Digit.in.

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G. S. Vasan

Vasan is a word weaver and tech junkie who is currently geeking out as a news writer at Digit. View Full Profile