Another day, another Samsung Galaxy S22 leak. This one’s got some new stuff to look at though, including two features that seem ideal if you’re a regular user of your smartphone for video streaming.
The leak in question, seemingly a set of graphics outlining the Galaxy S22 series’ top features to convince you to pre-order one of the three available models, comes from Evan Blass‘ Leakmail newsletter. Because he ran into trouble posting Samsung leaks on Twitter, he’s now resorted to emailing them out to avoid further copyright strikes, so you won’t find these on his Twitter page like normal.
The most unique-sounding feature mentioned in this newest leak is Live Sharing with Google Duo, a built-in watch party mode that allows you to check out YouTube videos. The small print says this only works on Galaxy S22 series phones with Android 12 though. Perhaps this update will come to Google Duo on all Android phones at some point in the future, but for now you’ll have to persuade the cat video fans in your life to upgrade with you if you want to make use of this feature.
Another new feature we spotted among these leaks was the “Vision Booster” display. This isn’t a mode or feature currently available for Samsung phones, but it’s hard to say just from this graphic what it actually does, given the description just says “Smooth. Bright. Epic.” We already saw 120Hz refresh rates introduced to the Galaxy S family with the Galaxy S20 a couple of years ago.So perhaps Vision Booster refers to how bright the displays will be, with the S22 Plus and S22 Ultra’s panels rumored to be some of the brightest screens ever on smartphones.
The leak also reveals the official color options and names for the Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus: Pink Gold, Green, Phantom White and Phantom Black.
As for the Galaxy S22 Ultra, it shows us once again that we’ll be getting an “embedded S Pen” that comes as standard and fits inside the phone’s body, like a Galaxy Note phone rather than last year’s Galaxy S21 Ultra, which could be used with an external stylus you had to buy separately.
The leaks cover several other stand-out features, albeit not in much detail. There’s mention of Night Mode for low-light photography and of the ability to record 8K video, but nothing about the cameras themselves. Fortunately, other leaks have told us the biggest updates on this front, with the S22 and S22 Plus getting new 50MP main cameras and 10MP 3x telephoto cameras and the S22 Ultra refining the camera array from last year with a new SuperClear Lens on the 108MP main sensor.
Another image brings attention to the S22’s speedy 4nm processor but doesn’t name it. That’s because, so the rumors say, you can get either the Exynos 2200 or the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in the S22, depending on where you buy it. Both are likely to offer leading performance for an Android flagship, but the Exynos chip is particularly interesting since it features AMD RDNA graphics, which could make for a notably better gaming experience.
The penultimate thing we’ll pick out from these graphics is the mention of “long lasting battery.” It’s again too vague to pass proper judgment on, but if anything we might be concerned about the opposite. Both the Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus are smaller than last year’s models, and the batteries have shrunk accordingly, so say the rumors. This could spell bad news for these phones’ Tom’s Guide battery test results. So let’s hope Samsung has some other trick up its sleeve for getting the most usage out of these smaller cells.
Finally, it’s good to see in the small print that all the S22 models are rated IP68. This is the gold standard for water/dust resistance for mobile devices right now, and should mean dropping your phone in the sink or in the dirt won’t impact the phone’s internal workings.
The Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event, where the S22 seems all but guaranteed to launch, is happening next week. It’s not clear what Samsung has left to reveal after so many comprehensive leaks for the S22 and the Galaxy Tab S8, the other big product expected to appear at the event. Still, it’ll be good to get all the details finally confirmed officially after months of swirling rumors.
