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Take a look at the compact Samsung Galaxy S22

By Joshua Swingle

Updated: Sep 25, 2021, 5:21 AM

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Take a look at the compact Samsung Galaxy S22

Following the recent Galaxy S22+ and Galaxy S22 Ultra leaks, next year’s Galaxy S22 lineup is complete with the latest renders of the base Galaxy S22 model that arrive courtesy of Steve Hemmerstoffer.

Uniform bezels will also be available on the vanilla Galaxy S22

The vanilla Galaxy S22 looks a lot like a refined Galaxy S21 and that’s far from a bad thing. Making an appearance for the second consecutive year is Samsung’s latest camera bump design.

It used to be an extension of the metal frame, yet now Samsung is going with a slightly different solution that maintains the visual look but separates the two. That should make things easier (and cheaper) during the manufacturing stage.

Sitting inside is a triple-camera setup that’s rumored to include three 12-megapixel sensors acting as the wide, ultra-wide, and telephoto zoom cameras. There’s also an LED flash, although it’s positioned next to the bump instead of inside.

The rest of the Galaxy S22 is exactly as you’d expect nowadays. It’s adorned by a punch-hole display measuring in at around 6-inches and, for the first time ever on a Samsung, the beneficiary of completely uniform bezels.

The latter is no mean feat. The only smartphone manufacturers to have produced devices with uniform bezels are Apple and Google, and their implementations were a little thicker, making Samsung’s implementation all that more impressive.

The Galaxy S22 will be Samsung's smallest flagship in years

Those bezels and the small screen mean that Samsung's Galaxy S22 will be one of the most compact flagships in recent years. In fact, it's only a few millimeters taller than the Galaxy S10e that launched in 2019.

Here's how the Galaxy S22 dimensions compare to recent Samsung flagships:

Galaxy S21 — 151.7 x 71.2 x 7.9mm
Galaxy S20 — 151.7 x 69.1 x 7.9mm
Galaxy S10 — 149.9 x 70.4 x 7.8mm
Galaxy S22 — 146 x 70.5 x 7.6mm
Galaxy S10e — 142.2 x 69.9 x 7.9mm

The move towards an even more compact smartphone could be interpreted as a risky one, however. Apple tried to conquer the smartphone world with its compact iPhone 12 mini last year but failed miserably. Granted, the iPhone 12 mini is a much smaller phone (131.5 x 64.2 x 7.4 mm), but the overall consensus is that compact smartphones no longer sell.

The size difference between the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S21 isn't that drastic though, so maybe Samsung will be the one to find that sweet spot for small devices.

Unlike the Galaxy S22 Ultra, the vanilla Galaxy S22 doesn't offer S Pen

To avoid any confusion, it's worth noting that the base Galaxy S22 variant doesn't include a built-in S Pen. It's also unlikely to support the stylus in any capacity, meaning the power users out there will have no choice but to purchase the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

That's not very surprising since the two devices arguably target different audiences — Samsung will position the Galaxy S22 Ultra as a top-of-the-range device for customers who want the best of the best, whereas the compact Galaxy S22 will be a more mainstream product for customers who probably aren't as bothered about what's inside and simply want a high-end device.

Speaking of what's inside, rumor has it that Qualcomm's Snapdragon 898 will be on offer for the United States. International markets, on the other hand, should have access to the upcoming Exynos 2200 — the first Exynos chipset with an AMD GPU.

Expect the Galaxy S22 to be announced in early January alongside the more expensive Galaxy S22+ and Galaxy S22 Ultra. There's no word on pricing, but the Galaxy S21 retailed at $799 in the US and the Galaxy S22 should cost about the same.