Meet Samsung Galaxy A22 - Affordable camera powerhouse

We take a look at the new Samsung Galaxy A22 and share our experience with the device after two weeks of use.

Samsung Galaxy A22

Announced back in July 2021, the new Galaxy A22 has finally arrived in the Philippines. It is the most affordable Galaxy A-series smartphone with OIS for video in the country. 

It features a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate and 1600 x 720 resolution and 274 ppi. Inside is a 2.0 GHz 12nm MediaTek Helio G80 octa-core processor and Mali-G52 MC2 GPU. Alongside is the 6GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and 5,000mAh battery with 15W Adaptive Fast Charging.

In the Philippines, it is priced at only PHP 11,990.

How does it perform? Let's dive in.

Meet Samsung Galaxy A22!

OneUI 3.1

We received the Galaxy A22 smartphone by itself without the box and inclusions.

Rear panel

The phone is made up of a glass front panel, polycarbonate frame, and glasstic rear. There is no mention of Gorilla Glass protection. It measures 159.3 x 73.6 x 8.4 mm and 186 grams and is available in Violet, Mint, White, and Black. 

Neat design, as expected

The phone's back and the frame are curved which makes the phone much easier to hold. It is surprisingly solid but lightweight in the hand.

Top and bottom

On top is a microphone while at the bottom is a 3.5mm audio jack, microphone, USB-C port, and speaker grill.

Left and right

On the left is the SIM tray that houses up to two nano-SIMs and one microSD card while on the right side is the volume rocker and the power button that doubles as the fingerprint scanner.

SIM tray

The SIM tray can carry two Nano-SIM cards and one microSD card. The phone supports up to 1TB of storage.

Display panel

In front, it goes with the 6.4-inch 2.5D curved Super AMOLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate, 1600 x 720 resolution, and 274 ppi. 

Only HD reso, but it produces a bright and decently sharp image with vibrant color and good contrast.

The display is immersive with thin top and side bezels. Though the chin bezel is noticeably thicker than the top and side bezels.

Rear cameras

At the back is the rear quad-camera set-up that is made up of a 48MP main camera with PDAF and OIS, 8MP f/2.2 ultra-wide camera, 2MP f/2.4 macro, and 2MP f/2.4 depth sensor, and LED flash.

The stock camera app has the following features: Photo, Video, Portrait, Panorama, Pro, Food, Night, Macro, Slow Motion, and Hyperlapse. 

The Pro mode allows for control of ISO (100-800), White Balance (2300K-100,000K), and EV (+- 2) only.

Users can switch between the main and ultra-wide cameras via the zoom option. 

Rear Camera Samples

Main camera daylight

Ultra-wide camera daylight

In daylight, the main camera was able to produce surprisingly sharp and detailed images with vibrant and accurate colors. While the ultra-wide was able to produce sharp and detailed images with vibrant color but with warmer temperature tint.

Main camera indoors

Ultra-wide indoors

Indoors, the images turned out sharp and detailed with accurate colors. Our only concern is that ultra-wide camera tends to overexpose light sources.

Main camera Low light

Ultra-wide low light

In low light, the main camera was able to produce a very good image. Detail and sharpness are good and the noise is well controlled. The ultra-wide however is noticeably softer and the distortion at the corners are noticeably unpleasant.

Main camera Night Mode

Ultra-wide Night mode

The Night mode mostly improves the low light images. We recommend using the night mode in low light especially if the subject is not moving. Our only concern is the corner distortion. 

Aside from that, the rear cameras of the A22 is great for the price.

Selfie camera

In front is a 13MP f/2.2 front-facing camera. The stock camera app includes modes like Photo, Portrait, and Video.

Selfie Camera Samples

Daylight selfie

Indoor selfie

Selfie portrait

Low light selfie

Night mode selfie

The story is the same for the selfie cameras. In daylight and indoors, the images are surprisingly sharp and detail with accurate color reproduction. However, the camera tends to overexpose light sources.

In low light, the selfie camera produced images with increased grain with loss of sharpness and color accuracy. The Night mode selfie is able to remedy this. We recommend using the Night mode in low light when possible.

The Portrait mode has a decent artificial bokeh and was able to detect the edges well. It only struggled with individual hair strands. 

The rear camera can capture up to 1080p at 30fps with stabilization while the selfie camera can capture up to 1080p at 30fps without stabilization.

We will update video samples soon.

Performance

AnTuTu and GeekBench

The internal 12nm MediaTek Helio G80 with Mali-G52 MC2 GPU, 6GB RAM, 128GB of storage managed to score 192,733 in AnTuTu. Temperatures were well kept to a minimum with a 0.4 degree Celsius increase and the phone only lost 2 percent of battery while running the test. The phone also scored 316 in GeekBench single-core tests and got a score of 1269 multi-core score.

3DMark and CPDT

While in 3DMark Wild Life, the Samsung Galaxy A22 got an average score of 427 and an average fps of 2.6.

In the CPDT disc benchmark, the internal storage managed to get 163.51 MB/s in sequential write speeds and got 224.82 MB/s in sequential read speeds.

Call of Duty: Mobile

Genshin Impact

In our short time with the Galaxy A22, the phone was able to push the graphics settings of Call of Duty Mobile up to Medium graphics and up to a high frame rate. In Genshin Impact, the phone was able to push the graphics up to the lowest graphics settings as the default. These are expected 

PCMark Battery Benchmark

The internal 5,000mAh battery was able to endure 10 hours and 47 minutes of the usual PCMark battery benchmark. In our time with the phone, the phone managed to last thru a 12 hour day with 25 percent of battery left. We used it as our daily driver, where we used it for calls, texts, instant messaging, web surfing, video and audio streaming, Waze, and social media.

The phone comes with Samsung's trusty 15W Adaptive Fast charger. It takes around 120 minutes to fully charge the phone from 0 to 100 percent.

Android 11 with OneUI 3.1 on top

Running the show is Android 11 with the OneUI 3.1 on top. Like in our review of Samsung's flagships, OneUI 3.1 is one of the best skin of Android today. It does have a ton of features that can be overwhelming at first. The internal search helps to navigate to the setting or feature that you need. What is surprising is that the Helio G80 was able to carry the OS without a hitch. Navigating thru the OS is a breeze while opening or switching between apps is near-instantaneous. 

We never experienced any problem with our connections with WiFi, LTE, NFC, and Bluetooth 5.0. Other features include OTG, fingerprint scanner and face unlock. In darker environments, the screen brightens up to make it easier to scan the face. The initial set-up of the fingerprint scanner and the Face Unlock is quick. Both works and scans quickly and work 9 out of 10 times.

Samsung Galaxy A22 Specs

Display: 6.4-inch 2.5D curved Super AMOLED screen w/ 90Hz refresh rate, HD+ 1600 x 720 resolution at 274 ppi

CPU: 2.0GHz 12nm MediaTek Helio G80 octa-core processor

GPU: Mali-G52 MC2 (950MHz)

RAM: 6GB

ROM: 128GB expandable via microSD card slot up to 1TB

Back Camera: 48MP w/ PDAF, OIS + 8MP f/2.2 + 2MP f/2.4 macro + 2MP f/2.4 depth + LED flash

Selfie Camera: 13MP f/2.2

Battery: 5,000mAh w/ 15W Fast Charging

OS: Android 11 w/ One UI Core 3.1

Connectivity: WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz/5GHz), 700MHz 4G LTE, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo, dual SIM

Sensors: Accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyroscope, sound, magnetic

Others: Side-mounted fingerprint sensor, Dolby Atmos, USB-C, Colors: Violet, Mint, White, Black

Dimensions: 159.3 x 73.6 x 8.4 mm

Weight: 186 g

Price: PHP 11,990

Quick thoughts

GIZGUIDEPH

In the Philippines, the Galaxy A22 is priced at only PHP 11,990. 

After using the phone for two weeks, we like the build, design, camera performance, and battery. 

We only have two concerns. The display is vibrant and contrasty but 720p could be lacking for some people. In terms of performance, the phone is okay but there are a lot of phones in its price range that has a lot more power.

So if you are looking for a smartphone with good looks, good cameras, and a good battery and can settle for a 720 resolution and decent power, then the Galaxy A22 could be for you.

What do you guys think?

Do you guys agree?