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Samsung Galaxy M22 Smartphone Review - 90-Hz screen to the rescue? - Notebookcheck.net

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Samsung's Galaxy M series is only available online. The Galaxy M22 is no exception. It is a low-priced smartphone without 5G which has relatively compact dimensions. The MSRP of 250 Euros (~$281) is considerably higher than that of the Galaxy M21. However, the Galaxy M22 comes with a macro camera and a 90-Hz display. That being said, the battery has been shrunk, the screen's resolution reduced and whether the SoC in the Galaxy M22 can keep up with the predecessor remains to be seen.

The Galaxy M22 has to compete against powerful rivals from other manufacturers. The competing devices include: the Motorola Moto G50 and the Xiaomi Redmi 10.

For 249 Euros (~$281), you get 128 GB of internal storage and 4 GB of RAM, which is above what other smartphones in this price range usually offer. Dual-SIM functionality and a dedicated slot for the microSD card are also part of the package.

An NFC chip is still included, meaning you can use mobile payment services. The 3.5-mm audio jack will certainly please fans of wired headphones.

We use our reference-grade SD card (Angelbird V60) to ascertain the SD card reader's performance. All in all, the SD card reader performs quite poorly.

Android 11 is used as the basis for the operating system, and Samsung's OneUI runs on top of it. OneUI has changed quite a bit and is designed so that the device can be operated as comfortably as possible with one hand.

When it comes to the security patches, Samsung's smartphone is in a poor state: At the time of our review, the security patches are 4 months out of date.

Samsung pre-installs some proprietary apps, which partly duplicate functions that Android's stock apps already offer: For example, the Samsung App Store or the news app. At least no third-party apps are preinstalled.

The Galaxy M22 has a DRM L1 certification, which means it can stream video in Full HD.

Wi-Fi 5 modules are common in this price range. The Galaxy M22 actually gets very good speeds out of its Wi-Fi module, which we tested with our reference-grade router Netgear Nighthawk AX12. It is also nice that the transfer rates remained very stable throughout our Wi-Fi test.

With the M22, you will have to make do without 5G. Devices such as the Nokia G50 are more future-proof. The Galaxy M22 supports a modest number of LTE bands. All in all, it can be used while traveling. However, you should check whether the Galaxy M22 works in the mobile networks of your destination beforehand, since the Galaxy M22 is, by no means, a global phone.

The Galaxy M22 managed to maintain a stable signal in our local 4G network.

Outdoors, the Galaxy M22 can be quickly located by enough satellites to acquire our position with a margin of error of 3 meters. Numerous satellite networks are used for this, as well as the SBAS assistance service.

Nevertheless, the Galaxy M22 slips up a few times in our practical navigation test. We drove a car this time around due to bad weather conditions.

Especially when turning, the smartphone often puts our location off the road and makes it look as though we are driving straight through houses. The accuracy is also quite poor in narrow old-town alleys and when driving on the bridge across the river. However, our comparison device, the Garmin Venu 2, also proves to be somewhat inaccurate here.

Overall, we can only recommend to use the Galaxy M22 for navigation to those who do not need complete accuracy.

Samsung's proprietary phone app has a slightly different structure than the standard Android phone app. However, it offers all essential features. Calling over LTE and Wi-Fi is possible with the Galaxy M22, as long as the mobile carrier supports these features.

The caller sounded a bit tinny but understandable in our ear-piece test call, and the sound quality in speaker mode was similar. The microphone picks up our voice quite well, even when we speak quietly. However, there are occasional interfering noises like squeaking or echoing.

The main camera of the Galaxy M22 has similar specs to that of the Galaxy M21. The 48-megapixel lens combines 4 pixels into a more light-sensitive pixel thus producing 12-megapixel images in default mode. However, one can also use the full resolution if need be.

What sticks out is that there are restrictions when it comes to video recording. The main camera in the Galaxy M21 was able to record 4K videos, the M22 is limited to Full HD and 30 FPS. This is probably due to the new, but in reality, older SoC, which cannot encode 4K video. Image quality is decent, autofocus is usually reasonably responsive, and exposure adjusts quickly. Switching between lenses is not possible when recording.

And the photo quality? Well, when photographing the plant, the background gets quite a nice bokeh effect and details remain visible, so the brightness and the dynamic range are decent. At the same time, the significantly lower sharpness is noticeable compared to higher-end smartphones. The panoramic shot is also decent, but it looks quite blurry.

As with most smartphone cameras, the wide-angle lens takes quite decent pictures at first glance, but the sharpness is not good since the resolution of the pictures is quite low. By the way, a hybrid zoom is not possible. You can only switch directly between the main camera and the wide-angle lens.

The macro lens can only be used in a special mode. The resolution is quite low and the subjects should be well lit, otherwise the sharpness will be very poor.

The front-facing camera is located in a waterdrop notch. It takes decent selfies, and details remain visible even when zooming in.

The main camera also shows slight blurring in the test lab. Some image content can still be guessed at an illumination of 1 lux.

The accessories include a charger, a USB cable and a SIM tool. Annoying: The Galaxy M22 supports 25-W charging, but the included power adapter has a rated power output of only 15 W. In our testing, the 25-W charging worked with chargers from many different manufacturers, meaning that the vast majority of fast chargers that there are available on the market should work.

Samsung's online store for accessories does not offer anything special for the Galaxy M22. However, you can buy a replacement charger (again, only 15-W one) for under 25 Euros (~$28).

The manufacturer offers 24 months of warranty.

The 90-Hz screen is the headline feature of the Samsung Galaxy M22. Navigating through the menus feels smooth and pleasant. The touchscreen is easy to use and very responsive.

The smartphone's physical buttons (power button, volume rocker) are located on the right side. The buttons are well-set and provide good tactile feedback.

The fingerprint sensor is integrated into the power button. It unlocks the smartphone quickly and reliably. Face recognition can also be used to unlock the device.

Frame rate up - resolution down. This is how you could describe the AMOLED screen of the Galaxy M22 if you were to compare it with that of the Galaxy M21. Now the screen refreshes at 90 Hz but the resolution drops to HD Plus. The predecessor model had a Full HD screen. Now, 720p is not completely unusual in this price range, but the Redmi 10 and also the Galaxy M21 show that more is possible here.

The brightness is slightly lower, but the Galaxy smartphone remains on a relatively high level.

We observed the PWM flickering with a low frequency, which can lead to headaches and similar issues. Sensitive users should definitely test the screen before fully committing to the purchase.

According to our measurements, the color reproduction is quite good, but you should select the "Natural" display mode to get the most accurate colors. On the other hand, those who like their colors more saturated and do not care about accurate color reproduction should select "Vivid". We use CalMAN software and a spectrophotometer for our screen testing.

Thanks to AMOLED technology, you do not have to worry about the viewing angles. You can look at the display from the side without color or brightness changes.

The Galaxy M22 does well outdoors on cloudy days thanks to the bright screen, but you will probably be better off in the shade in direct sunlight.

When surfing the web, on the other hand, the Samsung Galaxy M22 performs on par with its class and is even slightly faster than its predecessor in most benchmarks.

A step backwards in performance is also apparent in the storage benchmarks. This is because the Galaxy M22 offers 128 GB of slow eMMC flash memory. The predecessor used faster UFS memory.

When gaming, the Galaxy M22 does well, given its price. It manages about 57 FPS on average in Armajet. However, the phone is far from hitting the 90 FPS that the screen can display.

In the more demanding PUBG Mobile, the frame rate is around 40 FPS at low settings and below 30 FPS at higher settings. Frame rate drops are very rare. We capture frame rate data with the help of GameBench.

Controlling via the touchscreen works without any issues.

The Galaxy smartphone certainly gets warm when under sustained load: We measured temperatures of up to 42.9 °C (109 °F) on the back. That is not problematic per se, but it is noticeable. The smartphone will get hotter in environments with higher ambient temperatures, though.

The performance of the SoC does not drop, as the results of our 3DMark Wild Life stress test show.

The small mono speaker of the Galaxy M22 gets quite loud and still manages to deliver undistorted sound. The sound lacks bass, but the speaker is overall quite suitable for listening to music.

The smartphone can use aptX for audio transmission via Bluetooth, but not the higher-quality codecs such as aptX HD or aptX Adaptive. Those who prefer to connect their headphones via cable will find a 3.5-mm jack of the Galaxy M22 quite useful. Both wireless and wired sound transmission works well.

The Samsung Galaxy M22 is quite energy-efficient. It has a clear advantage over the predecessor in this respect.

Thanks to its energy-efficiency, the Galaxy M22 gets decent battery runtimes out of a noticeably smaller battery: The M22 only has a 5000-mAh battery, which is 1000-mAh smaller than the battery of the Galaxy M21. All in all, the new Galaxy phone is in good company: All comparison devices also have a 5000-mAh battery.

The phone lasted for 18h 46m in our Wi-Fi test, which means that it should be able to last 2 days with moderate use. In idle and load scenarios, on the other hand, the smartphone delivers rather mediocre results when compared to the competition. However, the battery runtimes are still on a good level and the differences are rarely huge.

Samsung's Galaxy M22 can charge at up to 25 W, but only a 15-W charger is included in the box. Thus, a charge sometimes takes considerably more than 2 hours. Charging is much faster with a more capable power adapter.

The Samsung Galaxy M22 is a strange new device in Samsung's mid-range series: A lot of internal memory, which is only eMMC, a 90-Hz display, but with a low resolution, a new SoC, which is slower than the predecessor in some areas. If you look at the Galaxy M21, you will see that the Galaxy M22 has a smaller battery. However, both smartphones weigh about the same.

The 90-Hz AMOLED screen is the headline feature of the Samsung Galaxy M22, but you will have to pay for it in other areas.

Basically every change leaves a poor taste in one's mouth. Looking at the competition, you should be aware that you can already get a 5G smartphone for the same amount of money. Here, we are talking about the Moto G50 and the Nokia G50. The two aforementioned smartphones offer a considerably higher level of performance as well.

The Galaxy M22 is an inexpensive and relatively compact phone with a 90-Hz AMOLED screen and good battery life. The cameras are decent, the Wi-Fi is fast and the SoC in the Galaxy M22 does not throttle. Those who can do without 5G and do not like IPS screens should definitely think about the Galaxy M22. The Galaxy M21 delivers more in some areas, but it is, unfortunately, very hard to come by these days.

The Samsung Galaxy M22 is currently out of stock on Amazon

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