Worldlink Communication is Nepal’s biggest internet service provider based on the active subscriber count. The company has now launched a 1Gbps internet plan for resident users. Prior to this offer, WorldLink offered maximum bandwidth of up to 600Mbps. In this article, we will be discussing the Worldlink 1Gbps Photon NimsDai Special Edition internet plan in more detail.
Worldlink 1Gbps Internet Plan:
Worldlink is the second ISP, after Classic Tech, to offer a 1Gbps internet plan in Nepal. The company is calling it the 1Gbps Photon NimsDai Special Edition internet plan. This new plan is targeted at gamers, streamers, and content creators.
Package and Pricing
It is a 12-month package which will cost Rs. 39,999 for new customers. Users won’t have to pay for the smart installation, drop wire, and even the ONU device.
Worldlink 1Gbps Photon NimsDai Special Edition internet plan comes bundled with 12 months of free NetTV. One can also opt for a multi-TV connection by paying Rs. 2,000 for each added TV. Likewise, there is Rs. 500 deposit fee for each Set Top Box.
Worldlink 1Gbps Internet Plan (Photon NimsDai Special Edition)
One can even opt for Mesh System with the Worldlink 1Gbps NimsDai Special Edition internet plan, too. It will help eliminate cut dead zones and connection drop across a wider area. However, it is completely optional. In case you need a Mesh System, you will have to pay Rs. 8,000 for each Nokia Beacon 3.0 router.
Further, one also needs to pay Rs. 2,000 and Rs. 3,000 as deposit and smart installation for each Rs. 3,000.
Mesh Wii-Fi Count
Rental Charge
Deposit
Smart Installation
1st Beacon 3.0
Rs. 8,000
Rs. 2,000
Rs. 3,000
2nd Beacon 3.0
3rd Beacon 3.0
4th Beacon 3.0
Meanwhile, check out our review of the Worldlink 300Mbps Mesh Wi-Fi system.
So over the years, smartwatches have gotten good—like really good! From advanced health tracking features to enhanced usability and everything in between, companies like Apple, Samsung, Fitbit, Garmin, and Huawei are on the top of their game in this arena. Adding to that list is Huawei’s new Watch GT 3. The company has always been one of the popular names in the wearable segment, so is this one among the best too? I will answer that question in this review of the Huawei Watch GT 3, so let’s dig right in.
Huawei Watch GT 3 Specifications:
42mm
46mm
Dimensions
42.3 x 42.3 x 10.2 mm
45.9 x 45.9 x 11 mm
Weight
35 gm (without strap)
42.6 gm (without strap)
Strap
Black fluoroelastomer, Brown leather, Stainless steel
Black fluoroelastomer, White leather, Gold Milanese
Strap Size
20 mm (universal)
22 mm (universal)
Display
1.32” AMOLED
466 x 466 pixels
1.43” AMOLED
466 x 466 pixels
Battery
292mAh (Up to 7 days)
455mAh (Up to 14 days)
Charging
Wireless charging
Case Material
Stainless steel front, plastic rear
Processor
Arm Cortex-M
Memory
32MB RAM, 4GB internal storage
OS
Huawei HarmonyOS 2.0
Sensors
Accelerometer, Air Pressure, Gyroscope, Geomagnetic, Optical Heart Rate, Temperature
Health Tracking
24-hour heart rate, SpO2 monitoring, Sleep, Stress tracking, Women’s health
In terms of design, this is by far one of the best-looking smartwatches I’ve used so far. I have the 46 mm variant with leather straps, while you can also get the “steel” variant that gives off a more sophisticated look instead. For those with a thinner wrist, there’s a 42 mm variant available as well.
But regardless of the size or strap options, this metal body—complemented by stainless steel frames—oozes premiumness. And despite its chunky look, the GT 3 is not heavy at all and is quite comfortable to wear.
Goes with all your outfit
In my opinion, the best design trait of this watch is the fact that even though it’s a smartwatch/fitness tracker hybrid, it does not necessarily look like one. It seamlessly goes with your everyday outfits and looks premium enough to wear to a party as well.
In any case, the stainless steel frames also house the metal crown on the top right and a customizable button right below it. The crown serves as a home button, while it can also take you to the apps section or let you scroll through menu items.
The other button, as I said, is customizable, so you can set it to trigger whatever function you please. By default, it brings out the exercise menu and I have left it as is. But you can set it to open the weather or measure heart rate and such. Moving on, the Watch GT 3 is 5 ATM rated against water damage up to 50 meters as well.
Display
1.32/1.43-inches AMOLED panel
Circular dial, Always on Display (AoD)
No display protection
On to the display, things are equally impressive here. You’re getting a 1.43-inch AMOLED screen with 466/466-pixel density and minimal bezels on the larger 46mm model—while the 42 mm variant hosts a 1.32-inch display instead. Anyway, it’s a bright screen with rich contrast and amazingly fluid touch response.
Even outdoors, this screen is bright enough to view the time and your exercise records.
So if you are going for an outdoor run and want to check on how much distance you’ve traveled and stuff like that, visibility is not going to be a concern. There’s an auto-brightness feature too, but it’s not as seamless as I expected.
This is especially noticeable when the display doesn’t dim itself to match the ambient lighting when the screen is turned on. It can bump the brightness levels just fine but not the other way around unless you turn off the screen.
So many watch faces
On the other hand, the GT 3 also supports Always on Display—but I didn’t quite find the use for it since the raise-to-wake function works almost instantaneously. There are a good number of AOD options here in case you prefer it though. Like AOD, there’s a large selection of free and paid-for watch face options on the Huawei Health app as well.
And the good news is that you can store almost 100 of them on the watch itself. However, unlike many smartwatches out there, there’s no option to customize one on your own. Well, with the wide range of choices available, I am not particularly complaining—but it’s always good to have options!
Also, I am slightly disappointed by the fact that there isn’t any kind of glass protection for the display. Because of this, I already have one major and a few minor scratches on this thing!
Alright, on the usability side, there are things that have impressed me a lot—whereas I’m left wanting more on some other aspects. Let’s talk about the good stuff first. Compared to Huawei’s Watch 3 series that’s geared more towards luxury and premium looks, the Watch GT 3 prioritizes health and fitness tracking instead.
And for the most part, the company has definitely delivered in this regard. There are more than 100 goal-based exercise tracking options to choose from, including the standard ones like indoor/outdoor running and walking, yoga, pilates, and swimming—to several types of dances, kite flying, hiking, etc.
Now, I am mostly into outdoor running, hiking, walking, and yoga, where this watch was able to track all of these activities quite accurately. Plus, with its dual-band GNSS, it can deliver fairly precise positioning—especially when you are running outdoors or hiking. The watch also lets you set goals for individual exercises, set reminders if your heart rate goes above/below the set value, and more.
All-day SpO2 monitoring
Besides this, there are the usual health tracking features present here, like continuous heart rate and SpO2 monitoring—on top of sleep tracking and step, calorie counter. By the way, the continuous SpO2 monitoring is not turned on by default, leaving you with having to manually turn it on via the Huawei Health app.
But do note that the Watch GT 3 records your SpO2 levels once every 30 minutes only—just like the Huawei Band 6. I also checked its reading against an oximeter and the results from these two devices were—I would say—pretty neck-and-neck.
Likewise, there’s also a skin temperature sensor here. And I think it’s a very handy feature to have, especially during these COVID times. Also, I do have to mention that this is one of the few smartwatches that can track your sleep with incredible precision—all thanks to Huawei’s advanced TruSleep 2.0 algorithm.
I am someone who falls asleep the moment I fall on the bed and the GT 3 has been able to record the exact time I go to bed and wake up—on top of tracking my sleeping patterns. On a related note, all your fitness and exercise records are synced and can be viewed on a wider scale on the aforementioned Huawei Health app.
The app is available on the Google Play Store—but it hasn’t been updated in quite a long time, meaning it misses out on quite a few features. On the contrary, you’ll have to sideload it from the Huawei AppGallery to get the latest version.
Supports actionable notifications
I have been using this watch for more than a month now. And during this time, I have received almost 5 updates! One of the recent updates even enabled actionable notifications on messages, which was previously not possible.
But unlike WearOS-powered smartwatches, the Watch GT 3 only lets you reply with emojis and built-in short responses for now—although there is the option to customize the said responses.
Moreover, you can also make or receive calls via Bluetooth on this watch—with one little caveat. There’s no option to dial a number here—but you can add up to 10 favorite contacts on the Huawei Health app to make a call from the watch itself.
Or if someone has called you, it lets you redial the caller too.
Then again, there’s no standalone phone call support on the GT 3 because of the lack of cellular connectivity. How’s the call quality, you ask? Well, none of my frequent contacts have complained about it even when I am in a particularly noisy environment. On my end, the voices sound clear, so I have absolutely no complaint on this end.
The cons of a custom OS
Like I mentioned earlier, there are a few things that I wish were better though. The Huawei Watch GT 3 runs on HarmonyOS 2.0, which is basically a rebranded Lite OS with the ability to line up apps in a grid.
And because of the lack of Google Play Store support, you can’t use native Google apps like Maps or Messages here. Instead, Huawei’s AppGallery is where you’d find all the downloadable apps. But the option for third-party apps are pretty limited here—be it in terms of watch faces or fitness-related apps.
Also, this smartwatch is complemented by Huawei’s own voice assistant called “Celia”—although it only works with a Huawei phone. On the exercise tracking front, automatic workout detection didn’t work at all in my case, which is very inconvenient for me because most of the time, I forget to manually start recording the workout.
And if you own an iPhone, you won’t be able to sync the music files from your phone to the watch either. On Android phones, however, you can add songs and create a playlist. Surprisingly enough, the audio quality from the onboard speaker isn’t that bad. It gets fairly loud, and there’s a tinge of highs as well.
Battery
292/455mAh battery
Up to 7/14 days battery life
Wireless charging
Finally, something that is really commendable of the GT 3 compared to other premium smartwatches I have used like the Galaxy Watch 4, Apple Watch Series 6, and the Watch Series 7 is the battery life.
It lasted me for about 12 days straight even when keeping continuous heart rate monitoring on, using the GPS around 20-30 minutes a day during outdoor runs, and casually listening to music every once in a while. Then, I tested it with continuous SpO2 monitoring turned on as well—apart from everything I discussed above—and it still managed to give me around 8 days of backup.
Moving on, this watch charges wirelessly and my 46 mm variant with a 455mAh battery took about 3 hours to fully juice up. By the way, it also supports reverse wireless charging—but only with supported Huawei phones.
Huawei Watch GT 3 Review: Conclusion
After all this time with the Huawei Watch GT 3, I would say that it has grown on me. Before this, I had been using Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 4, which is a very capable smartwatch in itself. But ultimately, it was haunted by sub-par battery life. Yes, the GT 3 isn’t as powerful, and neither does it have support for cellular connection or Google Play Store. But that has enabled its battery to last much longer. And that’s something most users like me will certainly appreciate.
Plus, it does all the health and fitness tracking things right. As a result, this is a no-nonsense smartwatch that does practically everything a smartwatch should—while also looking incredibly stylish on the hands.
Xiaomi finally unveiled its 12 series of flagship phones for the global market a few weeks ago. And now, the top-of-the-line Xiaomi 12 Pro has made its way to Nepal as well. This new phone features multiple new innovations, including a brand new Sony camera sensor and an in-house Surge P1 chip. So, let’s walk through the specs, features, official price, pre-order offers, and availability of the Xiaomi 12 Pro in Nepal.
Xiaomi 12 Pro Price in Nepal and Availability
The price of Xiaomi 12 Pro in Nepal is NPR 114,999 for the 12/256GB variant, while the 8/256GB variant costs Rs. 104,999. You can get it in either Blue or Purple colour option.
Xiaomi 12 Pro
Price in Nepal
8/256GB
NPR 104,999
12/256GB
NPR 114,999
Xiaomi 12 Pro Pre-booking Offers in Nepal:
As for the pre-booking offers, the company is offering a flat NPR 5,000 off which means the effective price of the Xiaomi 12 Pro in Nepal will be NPR 109,999 during this period. Apart from this, you can also choose between one of the following two gifts for free:
Starting with the display, this phone features a 6.73-inch E5 AMOLED panel with WQHD+ resolution. Interestingly, the screen here has a 10-bit color depth which is inferior to the standard Xiaomi 12’s 12-bit colors.
Regardless, this screen is slightly curved at the sides. It uses second-generation LTPO technology that allows the display’s refresh rate to drop down to up to 1Hz from the native 120Hz.
Moving on, the touch sampling rate here is listed at 480Hz. In addition, the phone supports HDR10+ and Dolby Vision—while getting as bright as 1500 nits when viewing compatible content.
Performance and Memory
Inside, the Xiaomi 12 Pro packs Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset. It is paired with up to 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 512GB of UFS 3.1 storage. The phone will ship with MIUI 13 based on Android 12 out-of-the-box. Xiaomi has also included a vapor chamber cooling setup to keep the core temperature in check.
The re-designed camera module at the back houses three 50MP sensors. First is the Sony IMX707, which is the latest flagship offering from the company with a 1/1.28″ sensor and 2.44μm pixel size (after pixel binning).
As per Xiaomi, this new sensor can capture 49% more light than its predecessor. Accompanying it are a 50MP ultrawide and a 50MP telephoto sensor.
Xiaomi 12 Pro also introduces a new feature called “Cyber Focus”, which it inherits from the CyberDog. This will allow the phone to identify different subjects and track their movements.
Over on the front, there is a 32MP selfie camera with support for an advanced beauty portrait mode—just like the regular Xiaomi 12.
Rest of the specs
Moving on, the 12 Pro is the first Xiaomi phone to come with the in-house Surge P1 chip. It allows the phone to support 120W wired, 50W wireless, and 10W reverse wireless charging in a single-cell 4,500mAh battery. In terms of audio, there’s a stereo speaker setup tuned by Harman Kardon.
Xiaomi has released its first electric toothbrush in Nepal, the Mi Electric Toothbrush T100. In addition, the firm has launched Xiaomi Bag Pack here. So, let’s get into the overview and official price of Mi Electric Toothbrush T100 and Xiaomi Bag Pack in Nepal.
Mi Electric Toothbrush T100 Overview:
Body
To begin, the Toothbrush T100 has ultra-thin bristles (93% thinner than a standard nylon brush) that effectively clean two teeth areas at once. Xiaomi says that these bristles can remove plaque and grime from even the most difficult-to-reach areas of the teeth and gums.
Furthermore, the toothbrush has a high-density, anti-corrosion, metal-free brush head and is water-resistant to IPX7 standards. Similarly, it features a low noise profile (60dB) and is only available in white color.
Coming to the features, it has Dual-Pro brush modes with a standard and gentle mode for normal and sensitive teeth, respectively. Similarly, it provides 360-degree multi-dimensional cleaning with the help of a GMSoft Sonic High-Frequency motor that revolves at 18,000 rpm for effective cleaning of the bacteria.
You also get an EquiClean Auto Timer function, which activates every 2 minutes and pauses every 30 seconds to allow users to switch sides.
In terms of battery life, the brush contains a rechargeable 350mAh cell that is said to last up to 30 days. There is an LED indicator that alerts you if the battery goes down. Surprisingly, it also supports fast charging.
Mi Electric Toothbrush T100 Specifications:
IP Rating: IPX7
Battery: 350mAh, up to 30 days battery life
Motor Type: coreless motor
Max Speed: 18000r/min
Color: White
Mi Electric Toothbrush T100 Price in Nepal and Availability
The Mi Electric Toothbrush T100 is launched in Nepal for NPR 1,699. You can purchase it from Xiaomi authorized stores across Nepal.
Product
Price in Nepal (Official)
Availability
Mi Electric Toothbrush T100
NPR 1,699
Authorized stores
Xiaomi Bag Pack Overview:
Along with the toothbrush, the business has launched the Xiaomi Bag Pack in Nepal. It is known as the Mi Casual Back Pack in India.
Here, the bag pack has a 21-liter capacity and can easily hold big laptops and other items. Likewise, it is made of an IPX4 rated water-resistant material, making it suitable for usage throughout the rainy season.
Xiaomi Bag Pack Price in Nepal and Availability
The Xiaomi Bag Pack costs NPR 2,099 in Nepal. As for the availability, you can purchase it through Xiaomi authorized outlets throughout Nepal.
Product
Price in Nepal (Official)
Availability
Xiaomi Bag Pack
NPR 2,099
Authorized stores
Meanwhile, check out our initial impressions of the Samsung Galaxy A33 5G.
OnePlus’ flagship phone for 2022—the OnePlus 10 Pro—made its debut in China back in January. And now, the phone is available for pre-order in Nepal as well alongside a bunch of offers. So let’s go through specs, features, official price, pre-order deals, and availability of the OnePlus 10 Pro in Nepal.
OnePlus 10 Pro Price in Nepal & Availability
OnePlus 10 Pro is now available for pre-order in Nepal from today (March 24) to March 30 at the price of NPR 135,000 for the 12/256GB variant. Although the phone launched at a cheaper price in the global market compared to last year’s 9 Pro, it’s had the opposite effect here in Nepal.
Besides this, there’s also something called “Never Settle Gifts”. Those who pre-order the phone will get exciting gifts/offers on Yoyoso, Havells, digistore, One11 Lounge, and more.
OnePlus 10 Pro Overview:
Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
As expected, the OnePlus 10 Pro is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor. This is complemented by 8/12GB LPDDR5 RAM and either 128 or 256GB UFS 3.1 storage. The storage options feel a little off-putting for a 2022 flagship phone, especially when leaked Geekbench results hinted at a 512GB variant as well. Maybe that’s on the cards for some time later.
For gamers, there is a new feature called “Hyperboost” that allows users to “overclock” the CPU for more power. The cooling system also gets some improvements and it now covers 340 sq. cm surface area.
In China, the phone boots on ColorOS 12.1 based on Android 12. However, it will be replaced with OxygenOS 12 when it officially hits the Nepali market.
Display
Furthermore, the OnePlus 10 Pro features a 6.7-inch curved 2K 120Hz AMOLED display. Thanks to LTPO 2.0 backplane technology, this screen can switch between 1 and 120Hz refresh rates much more effectively. For selfies, there is a 32MP Sony IMX615 lens inside the punch-hole cutout.
OnePlus 10 Pro
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Volcanic Black
Emerald Green
Rest of the features
Over at the back, the phone has a triple camera setup led by a 48MP main lens with OIS. Accompanying this is a 50MP ultrawide (150° FOV), and an 8MP telephoto lens (also with OIS) with 3.3x optical zoom. Like last year’s OnePlus 9 series, there’s Hasselblad color calibration on these cameras too.
OnePlus is promising even more closer-to-life colors with the new Natural Color Optimization. Since this partnership didn’t deliver the level of camera results as most people were hoping for, we’re left to wonder if the second-gen “Hasselblad Camera for Mobile” redeems itself at all. Moving on, the OnePlus 10 Pro features a 5000mAh battery with support for 80W wired and 50W wireless charging.
Here, I’ll be going through my initial impressions of the new Samsung Galaxy A53 5G. So far, the company has launched four phones in the A-series this year: the Galaxy A23, A33, A53, and the Galaxy A73. The A23 is the least expensive phone among the four while the A73 is the most expensive one.
As for the Galaxy A53, it is currently available for pre-booking in the US for USD 450, but Samsung is also throwing in a pair of Buds Live worth around USD 150 for free as a part of a pre-booking deal.
Likewise, the phone has already made its way to the Indian market as well, where its base 6/128GB model goes for INR 34,499. We can confirm that the Samsung Galaxy A53 5G will be launching in Nepal pretty soon as well.
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G Specifications:
Body: 74.8 x 159.6 x 8.1mm, 189 gm, IP67 dust-water resistant
Battery: 5000mAh with 25W wired charging (no power adapter provided)
Color Options: Awesome: Peach, Black, Blue, White
What’s inside the box: Galaxy A53, SIM ejector, USB-C to USB-C cable
Price in Nepal: N/A (launching soon)
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G Impressions:
Anyway, the Galaxy A53 is one of the first mid-range phones from Samsung that skips a charger inside the box. Just like the company’s flagship phones, all you get is some paperwork, a SIM ejector tool, and a Type-C to Type-C cable inside the box.
And that’s about it. You’ll have to buy a 25W charger separately, which costs about USD 20. All this considered, I seriously think Samsung has got to go easy when pricing this phone. With that out of the way, let’s talk about the phone itself!
Almost everything feels familiar
I have been using the Samsung Galaxy A53 5G for a day or so, and I can instantly notice the same DNA here that we saw on last year’s A52 and A52s. Even if you look at the spec-sheet side-by-side, the A53 doesn’t necessarily bring any major upgrades.
So, Samsung’s formula is basically “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.
But I do see some quality of life improvements here. Starting with the design, although its overall dimension and weight are exactly the same as last year’s A52, Samsung has included a bigger 5000mAh battery this time versus 4500mAh in its predecessor. Plus, A53’s plastic back feels more premium compared to previous models as well.
I think they have used different kinds of polycarbonate material which feels of much better quality. And just like last year, I like this phone’s overall heft and weight distribution as well.
That Awesome Peach is a… peach
It doesn’t feel too big to hold, so you will enjoy typing on this thing—even with one hand. I also love this new Peach color variant, but you can also choose between Black, White, and Blue finishes. But yeah… this Peach color looks quite attractive and unique if you ask me.
Regardless of the color variant you end up going for, the Samsung Galaxy A53 5G gets IP67 dust and waterproofing. And it seems like Samsung is so into this feature that they have included it on the cheaper Galaxy A33 as well.
Upfront, the display also remains the same with a 6.5-inch Super AMOLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+ support, and Gorilla Glass 5 protection. And here too, I feel like the actual quality of the display is better than last year. Seems that Samsung has used a slightly better AMOLED panel with the Galaxy A53 5G.
Terrific display (as always)
As you guys might know, I am using the S22 Ultra right now as my primary phone, and what’s great about the Galaxy A53 5G is that Samsung has used the similar color science of its flagship phones on their cheaper models too.
And since we have been testing a lot of midrange phones from Xiaomi, Realme, and OnePlus in the past couple of weeks, I can instantly tell you that the A53’s display is just better in every possible way.
Sadly, Samsung has removed the headphone jack on the Galaxy A53 5G which was present on last year’s A-series phones. But you do get a stereo speaker here.
Alright, the biggest change the A53 brings is in the internals. There’s a new in-house, Samsung-made Exynos 1280 chip, which is built on an energy-efficient 5nm fabrication process node. It features two Cortex-A78 CPU cores clocked at 2.4GHz and six Cortex-A55 CPU cores clocked at 2GHz—alongside the Mali-G68 GPU with four cores clocked at 1GHz.
Benchmarks
1 of 3
Geekbench 5
AnTuTu 9
3DMark Wild Life
Looking at the benchmark tests that I ran, the Exynos 1280 looks very similar to the Dimensity 920 and the Snapdragon 778G. So, it’s a pretty capable chipset—yes—but if you want pure performance over everything else, Samsung’s mid-range phones aren’t the best option.
You will easily get phones with Dimensity 1200 at a lower price while OnePlus is also launching the Nord 3 with Dimensity 8100 pretty soon. The iQOO 9 SE is another phone that’s priced similar to the Samsung Galaxy A53 5G but comes with a much more powerful Snapdragon 888 chipset.
Decent performance so far
In my brief time with the phone, I’ve found it to be plenty fluid where animations render well and the UI is enjoyable to navigate as well.
I also didn’t notice the phone getting warm, so that’s a positive sign too. As for gaming, I have only had a few sessions of PUBG Mobile so far, but I am a little disappointed to see that the max setting that you can go here is HD graphics and High frame rates. That’s basically 30-35 fps on average and nothing more.
But since it’s a pretty new chipset, a software update should certainly be on the cards which should improve the overall performance. Fingers crossed!
And talking of software updates, Samsung has promised 4 years of OS and 5 years of security updates on the Galaxy A53 5G while this thing runs on the latest Android 12 straight out of the box! So, this is just an insane level of software commitment, which is unheard of on a midrange phone.
Ok, time to talk about its cameras and this is where the A53 wins big time against any mid-range phones you could find right now. We get a familiar-looking curved slope camera cutout here that houses a quad-camera array with a 64MP primary lens equipped with OIS, a 12MP ultrawide lens, and two 5MP depth and macro sensors.
Not much of a camera update
I have captured over 50+ photos with this phone in less than 24 hours and I really like them. During the daytime, you get well-detailed, sharp images with the classic Samsung color-optimization.
Normal
1 of 4
The HDR processing is good and the whites are balanced as well. The 12MP ultra-wide camera is also a class above what the other brands manage.
Ultrawide
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It has a wider field of view and much better details than the one from other mid-range phones that usually settle with an 8MP ultrawide lens.
Portrait
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Even the portraits here have good skin tone and shadow detail while the overall image has a nice bokeh and background exposure. It’s the same with selfie photos too.
Selfie
1 of 2
But I think the biggest improvement with the Galaxy A53 is low-light photography. As you can see, it can capture some good nighttime photos.
Low-light
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Nighttime
Night Mode
Nighttime
Night Mode
Nighttime
Night Mode
Nighttime
Night Mode
Nighttime
Night Mode
And this time around, Night Mode doesn’t take too much time to process the shot either. So, I am guessing the Exynos 1280 has a superior image signal processor compared to the ones from MediaTek and Qualcomm.
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G Impressions: Final Words
So yeah, the Galaxy A53 is definitely a pretty decent mid-range camera phone for photos. But for videos, I think Samsung has deliberately made it look inferior. Companies often do this to differentiate it from their flagship phones, and sadly, the A53 is the victim of this culture.
That’s because both the 4K 30 fps and 1080p 60 fps videos don’t have stable results despite the phone’s primary lens featuring OIS, whose primary task is to… stabilize the videos. And when using the “Super Steady” mode, it caps out at 1080p 30fps and the overall video quality gets even worse.
Anyway, although the Samsung Galaxy A53 5G has left a pretty good impression on me—before I can give you my solid judgment about the phone—I will be using this phone alongside the iQOO 9 SE which I have just bought for review.
Watch our early impressions video of the Samsung Galaxy A53 5G.
As Samsung prepares to bring the new Galaxy A53 5G in Nepal, it has reduced the price of the Galaxy A52s 5G. Galaxy A52s 5G was a well-received midrange phone last year and the price cut makes it even more appealing now. So, let’s take a look at the specs, features, official price, and availability of the Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G in Nepal.
Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G Overview:
Design and Display
To start with, Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G has the same design as the regular A52. The two phones have the same dimensions, weight, and “Awesome” color options as well.
You get a 6.5-inch Super AMOLED panel with an Infinity-O notch. This FHD display now supports a 120Hz refresh rate compared to 90Hz on the regular A52.
Performance and Memory
The most significant difference between Samsung Galaxy A52 and A52s 5G is the silicon powering them. A52 is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 720G, while Samsung has upgraded it to Snapdragon 778G on the A52s 5G. The new chipset is based on a smaller 6nm process and features 4x Cortex-A78 and 4x Cortex-A55 CPU cores.
The camera setup on the Galaxy A52s 5G also remains unchanged. Leading the quad-camera array is a 64MP primary sensor with an f/1.8 aperture and Optical Image Stabilization (OIS). It is accompanied by a 12MP ultrawide sensor.
Completing the setup are two 5MP sensors for portrait and macro shots, respectively. Upfront, Samsung has included a 32MP shooter for selfies and video calls.
Battery and Charging
Fueling the Galaxy A52s 5G is the same 4,500mAh cell as the A52. Fast charging is also capped at 25W. However, A52s 5G ships with a 15W charger inside the box. Nevertheless, this phone also has an optical fingerprint scanner underneath the screen for biometrics. It is IP67 rated against dust and water damage as well.
Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G Specifications:
Body: 75.1 x 159.9 x 8.4mm, 189 gm, IP67 dust/water resistant
Display: 6.5-inches “Infinity-O” Super AMOLED panel, 120Hz refresh rate
Resolution: FHD+ (2400 x 1080 pixels), 20:9 aspect ratio
Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G 5G (6nm Mobile Platform)
Battery: 4500mAh with 25W fast charging (15W adapter provided)
Color Options: Awesome – Black, Green, Violet
Awesome White not available in Nepal
Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G Price in Nepal and Availability
Samsung has slashed the price of Galaxy A52s 5G in Nepal by Rs. 4,000 for both memory configurations. The new price of Galaxy A52s 5G in Nepal is Rs. 49,999 for the 6/128GB variant and Rs. 51,999 for the 8/128GB variant.
Galaxy S22 Ultra and iPhone 13 Pro Max are easily the hottest phones right now so we decided to put them to test for this gaming review. As we know, Samsung recently took the wraps off of the Galaxy S22 series. And frankly, the regular S22 and S22+ are a safe bet—yes—but they’re nothing extraordinary. The S22 Ultra though… yeah, the S22 Ultra is pretty special.
With the beloved “Galaxy Note” brand now officially dead and done for, it’s up to the Ultra to carry on that Note legacy, while trying to carve its own identity in the process. That sharp, boxy design that most people know and love is back in the S22 Ultra, and so is the S-Pen in its natural habitat.
It’s raining Snapdragon!
But the reason this phone has that extra special sauce—at least in South Asian markets like Nepal and India—is that Samsung is shipping the Snapdragon variant this time around. Although the new Exynos 2200 promises a new legacy for Samsung’s in-house mobile chip division, early comparisons and reviews point to the same old story. But that’s not what we’re discussing today.
Instead, I’ll be comparing the Galaxy S22 Ultra with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 against the iPhone 13 Pro Max in the gaming arena in this review.
Galaxy S22 Ultra, iPhone 13 Pro Max: Key Specifications
Galaxy S22 Ultra vs iPhone 13 Pro Max: Gaming (Performance Benchmarks)
Even without looking at all the benchmark and gaming results, many people would assume the iPhone to come out victorious in this battle, right? I mean, the A15 Bionic—despite the last-gen ARMv8 architecture—has been a proven performer. On the other hand, the new dragon already has a well-documented case of overheating and thermal throttling.
To make matters worse, Samsung’s Game Optimizing Service (GOS) on the S22 series is apparently throttling CPU and GPU performance of around 10,000 apps including games like Genshin Impact—while letting benchmarking apps run free of restraint.
Geekbench “swiftly” acknowledged this discovery by delisting the last 4 generations of Samsung’s flagship phones on its platform. In response, Samsung has promised a software update that’ll let users back in the driver’s seat to crank up the performance as they see fit. And that update has been slowly rolling out in different regions.
AnTuTu
Anyway, let’s start with the good ol’ AnTuTu benchmark. Here, the S22 Ultra draws first blood with a score of over 900 thousand whereas the iPhone 13 Pro Max manages about 14% lower total. But as we all know, a single AnTuTu run isn’t really indicative of a phone’s gaming prowess or performance under stress.
So I also put these two under 5 consecutive AnTuTu cycles which lasted for about 50 minutes. As you can see, the S22 Ultra still posts higher scores.
However, the iPhone delivers a much steadier result with just a 6% performance drop between the first and fifth run—while that number comes to roughly 10% on the S22 Ultra. By the way, I ran these tests under the “Optimized” processing speed on the Ultra.
AnTuTu (5 Loops)
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Galaxy S22 Ultra vs iPhone 13 Pro Max
Galaxy S22 Ultra (Optimized vs Maximum)
But even when switching to the “Maximum” profile, I didn’t find a substantial performance jump here. It did manage somewhat better performance endurance throughout the tests but this can almost be dismissed as a simple run-to-run variation.
3DMark
Moving on, our 3DMark Wild Life Extreme Stress Test shows superior performance and stability on the iPhone as well.
GFXBench
GFXBench
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1st Loop
10th Loop
Temperature
The S22 Ultra’s performance dip was quite significant in our GFXBench stress test too where the iPhone’s 10th loop score is similar to the 1st loop score of the Ultra! Despite this, I found the surface temperature on both these phones to be quite identical.
Galaxy S22 Ultra vs iPhone 13 Pro Max: Gaming Results
On to the gaming side of things, allow me to kick things off with Genshin Impact. Before getting to the actual gameplay itself, let’s look at how this game treats these two phones—or better yet, these two platforms—based on the settings.
When selecting the “Highest” graphics quality, the iPhone keeps the Visual Effects to “Highest” while the S22 Ultra keeps it a step below. There’s a similar difference under the “High” preset too. Moreover, the game shows a “Smooth” performance load on iPhone 13 Pro Max whereas the S22 Ultra is “Overclocked” here.
Genshin Impact
So for a fair comparison, I kept both phones in the same settings under every parameter. At “Highest” graphics quality with 60 fps on and motion blur turned off, the S22 Ultra kicks off to a decent 50-55 average fps for the first 5 minutes into the game with 96% stability.
During this period, the phone doesn’t get that hot either—and the CPU/GPU usage hovers around the 73/76% mark only. Yet, after 20 minutes or so, the frame drop is quite significant since the average fps falls by a whopping 35% to just 35-41 fps. At this point, I logged its surface temperature at 38.5 and 36.2°C on the front and back of the phone, which is surprisingly better than what I was expecting, to be honest.
Looks like Samsung’s redesigned cooling system for the S22 Ultra works its magic just fine. To compare, the iPhone was slightly hotter in this instance. But the bigger thing to understand here is where the heat is localized on these phones.
The iPhone mostly dissipates heat on the 1/3rd portion of the phone near the camera module—while the rest of the chassis remains comfortably cool enough. On the contrary, the S22 Ultra is warm throughout the chassis, with the upper 2/3rd portion getting considerably hot. The iPhone 13 Pro Max also delivers a more stable 56-60 fps gameplay in the first 5 minutes while settling to 44-51 fps after 20 minutes.
High graphics
Bringing it down a notch to “High” graphics, the S22 Ultra maintains a comparatively steadier result with around 50 fps average throughout the gameplay.
Under this, the phone stays a couple of degrees cooler too. But the iPhone 13 Pro Max is once again the superior of the two as it gives a steady 58-60 fps in the first 10 minutes of the game while being subject to minor, negligible frame drops a few minutes later.
PUBG Mobile
PUBG Mobile (Ultra HD graphics, Ultra frame rates)
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PUBG (Ultra HD graphics, Ultra frame rates)
iPhone 13 Pro Max
On to some relatively less demanding games, PUBG Mobile plays without any trouble at the highest settings on the S22 Ultra. I got a stable 40 fps with practically zero frame drop even after 30 minutes into the game and the phone didn’t get that hot either.
PUBG Mobile (HDR graphics, Extreme frame rates)
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Galaxy S22 Ultra
iPhone 13 Pro Max
For a smoother gaming experience, switching to HDR graphics and Extreme frame rates does the trick. As expected, the phone keeps up the 60 fps gameplay through and through without any stutters or anything. iPhone 13 Pro Max manages a similar result at both settings but surprisingly enough, it even jumps to the 50 fps mark every now and then at Ultra frame rate.
Call of Duty Mobile
Call of Duty is also a smooth 60 fps sailing on either phone at the highest settings. This game doesn’t quite bother the S22 Ultra’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 as well since the CPU/GPU usage here never climbed above 60 and 48%.
COD Mobile (Very High graphics, Max frame rates)
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COD Mobile (Very High graphics, Max frame rates)
iPhone 13 Pro Max
It’s the same with the iPhone too where the average CPU and GPU usage hover near 50% only. Additionally, both phones maintain an exceptional surface temperature on COD Mobile—never going beyond 34°C on either side.
Brawlhalla
Brawlhalla
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Galaxy S22 Ultra
iPhone 13 Pro Max
I also played Brawlhalla on these phones—which is yet another game that’s easy on the processor. Needless to say, the S22 Ultra and the iPhone 13 Pro Max handled it without breaking a sweat—all the while maintaining excellent temperatures.
Asphalt 9
Asphalt 9 was an interesting test though. The iPhone even has the 60 fps option unlocked whereas the S22 Ultra is limited to just 30 fps. And under the 60 fps mode, the iPhone manages a stable 60 fps gameplay but it does get slightly warm after 6/7 minutes into the game. Then again, it’s nothing concerning, seriously.
iPhone 13 Pro Max – Asphalt 9 (60 fps)
When dialing it down to 30 fps, the phone still pushes 45-60 fps occasionally but the average fps ultimately comes in the ballpark of 30 fps.
Asphalt 9 (30 fps)
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Asphalt 9
iPhone 13 Pro Max
Likewise, the S22 Ultra also gives a steady 30 fps but I really wish Samsung had worked with the devs to enable 60 fps gameplay on its latest flagship device. I mean… it’s almost embarrassing to be content with 30 fps gaming on such a high-end phone, no?
Injustice 2
Nevertheless, things take a turn in Samsung’s favor when it comes to high fps games. Both Injustice 2 and Critical Ops max out at 60 fps on the iPhone while the S22 Ultra handles either game at their highest settings under 120 fps. Still, I did notice minor frame drops on Injustice 2 after about 15 minutes or so.
Injustice 2
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Injustice 2
iPhone 13 Pro Max
As you can see from this chart, the S22 Ultra falls to 108-114 fps during a prolonged session although that’s nothing to worry about. The CPU/GPU usage here maxed out at 53/93% compared to 55/52% on the iPhone 13 Pro Max.
Critical Ops
Critical Ops resulted in a similar experience as well—with a slight frame drop from 120 fps on the S22 Ultra after some time—whereas the iPhone delivered a stable 60 fps without any hiccup. Even though the 120Hz ProMotion display on the iPhone 13 Pro series is a pretty big deal, Apple hasn’t been able to extend the smooth capabilities of this tech to the majority of third-party apps as of yet.
Critical Ops
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Critical Ops
iPhone 13 Pro Max
To note, Critical Ops does have the 120 fps option in the settings—despite the gameplay suggesting otherwise. But this should soon be a thing of the past since Apple has introduced 120Hz refresh rate support for all apps with the new iOS 15.4 update. And you know… the developers have to optimize their games to take full advantage of the 120Hz display too.
Emulator games
Moving on, I also played a couple of emulator games on the S22 Ultra. I wanted to try it out on the iPhone as well but I couldn’t find any emulator on the App Store. And the ones that could work either needed a jailbroken device or had to be installed from a third-party app store like “AltStore”. But for privacy and security reasons, I opted out of both options.
Galaxy S22 Ultra (God of War: Ghost of Sparta)
As for the S22 Ultra, I used the PPSSPP emulator to play God of War (Ghost of Sparta) and Tekken 6. Keeping the render resolution at 4x, I enjoyed a smooth 60 fps on both games. The phone is subject to some jitters under a heavy attack sequence or when there are multiple NPCs on God of War though.
Looking at the frame rate chart, we can see the game dip to as low as 48 fps under the aforementioned conditions—while the spikes are when I purposefully sped up the cutscene.
Galaxy S22 Ultra (Tekken 6)
Moreover, the CPU/GPU usage here maxed out at 46 and 92% despite more than comfortable temperatures throughout my gaming session. On the other hand, Tekken 6 renders a steady 60 fps gameplay without any trouble. After 30 minutes of gaming, the S22 Ultra’s surface temperature clocked at just 33°C, which is all the more commendable.
Galaxy S22 Ultra vs iPhone 13 Pro Max: Gaming (Conclusion)
Wrapping it all up, I guess it’s plain as day that the iPhone 13 Pro Max is still superior to the Galaxy S22 Ultra when it comes to gaming. From better fps stability to cooler temperatures, the iPhone wins this battle quite comfortably—especially in terms of resource-heavy games like Genshin Impact.
Although the S22 Ultra could eke out higher fps once the fix for GOS performance throttling arrives, the laws of physics are still against Samsung’s odds since higher performance requires more power—which means more heat.
And ultimately, the phone is bound to throttle performance if the cooling solution isn’t well-equipped to handle all the heat—literally. Mind you that all our tests have been conducted during this favorable chilly weather and things could easily go downhill come summertime. Besides excessive heat, using up more power also means faster battery drain. So… maybe don’t play demanding games at max settings? I don’t know.
Efficiency is equally as important as powerful
Then, what are the broader findings from this test you ask? Well, instead of gunning for sheer performance, Qualcomm and Samsung should’ve prioritized power efficiency like Apple did with the A15 Bionic. This also points towards worse performance yield and heating issues in Samsung’s 4nm node which has prompted Qualcomm to shift to TSMC’s 4nm process for 8 Gen 1’s successor.
Like I mentioned earlier, the Exynos 2200—despite all the “AMD partnership” hype—has pretty much been a no-show either. At this rate, the performance gap between the latest Android and iOS smartphones will only get wider if chipmakers can’t keep up with Apple. And that’s ultimately bad for the end consumers—Android consumers, that is.
Watch our video review of gaming performance between Galaxy S22 Ultra and iPhone 13 Pro Max
Redmi has launched a 100-inch TV in China called Redmi Max 100”. It’s the successor to 2020’s 98-inch Redmi Smart TV Max. So, let’s go through the specs, features, availability, and expected price of the Redmi Max 100-inch in Nepal.
Redmi Max 100-inch Overview:
Display
As implied by the name itself, the TV houses a 100-inch screen. It’s an LED-backlit LCD panel with a multi-zone backlight system and an ambient light sensor for auto-brightness. The display also features 700nits of peak brightness, 178° viewing angle, and covers 94% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. Similarly, it offers colors accuracy of ΔE≈2, MEMC, and support for HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and IMAX Enhanced.
The TV also supports 120Hz Variable Refresh Rate (VRR). Here, the TV can adjust the refresh rate from 48Hz to 120Hz in real-time to the frame rate output by a games console or PC. Likewise, you get 4ms low-latency as well as AMD FreeSync compatibility.
In terms of performance, the Redmi Max 100” is powered by an unknown chipset comprising an ARM Cortex-A73 quad-core CPU and ARM Mali-G52 MC1 GPU. This is paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. Over on the software front, it comes pre-installed with MIUI for TV. As of now, the OS supports almost every popular streaming platform in China. You can also get it with MIUI TV Enterprise Edition features for businesses.
Rest of the specs
Moving on, the I/O option includes 1 x HDMI 2.1, 2 x HDMI 2.0, 2 x USB, AV, Ethernet, S/PDIF, and Antenna. It utilizes WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 for wireless connectivity. For audio, the TV is fitted with two 15W speakers that support Dolby Atmos, Dolby Audio, and DTS-HD. It also has far-field microphones for Xiao AI virtual assistants.
A quick intro before heading into this review of the Samsung Galaxy S22+. It’s no surprise that among all three phones in Samsung’s Galaxy S22 series, the S22 Ultra has been getting all the attention while the regular S22 and S22+ are, well, living under its shadow.
And that’s totally understandable! I mean, the Ultra has gotten a complete design overhaul this time whereas it also brings the S-Pen built-in—and a fancier camera setup. But, this also begs another question, “Is Samsung deliberately skipping some essential features on the Plus model to make the Ultra look better?”
Samsung Galaxy S22+ Specifications:
Body: 75.8 x 157.4 x 7.6mm, 196 gm, Gorilla Glass Victus+ back, Armored aluminum frames, IP68 dust-water resistant
Now, don’t get me wrong—I think this is a reasonably good iterative upgrade from its predecessor. But I can’t help but think how this phone could have been so much better if Samsung had shared some spotlight of the Ultra on to the Plus variant too.
Anyway, I have been using it alongside the S22 Ultra for the past 3 weeks. And in this review, I will be sharing my experience of the Samsung Galaxy S22+ with you guys and also answering the question of whether it’s worth considering it over the Ultra as your daily driver or not. Let’s begin!
Design & Build
75.8 x 157.4 x 7.6mm, 196 grams
Glass front/back, Armored aluminum frames
IP68 dust-and-water resistant
Okay, let’s start with the design side of things. When I first saw the official renders of the S22+, I thought “hey, it looks exactly like the S21+”. But looks can be deceiving after all since the hands-on feel of this phone turned out to be nothing like the Galaxy S21+.
Ditching the classic curved design, Samsung has gone with a more squared-off form factor with round edges this time—kind of like the iPhones.
And I am both happy and sad about this change!
Happy, because the boxier design helps with the grip a lot. Sad, because, well the edges of the S22+ are a bit… sharp—so holding it might not be that comfortable at times. I just wish Samsung had refined this design a bit more—similar to how the S22 Ultra feels so seamless on the hands.
Design
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Volume rockers, Power button
Speaker, USB-C, SIM Tray
With the glass back and Armored Aluminum frames, the phone does retain a good heft though. And because Samsung has decided to go with a smaller battery here, the S22+ is actually lighter than the S21+ and a bit thinner too.
And something that I’ve always liked about the “Plus” variants is that they are just the right size. They aren’t too small like the entry-level S-series phone and they aren’t that huge like your Ultras either!
As expected, Samsung hasn’t missed out on any flagship features here. You get Gorilla Glass Victus+ protection—both on front and back—then there’s IP68 dust-and-water resistance and also an awesome pair of stereo speakers.
Audio
Dual stereo speaker setup
No 3.5mm headphone jack
Now, these speakers sound really good. Samsung has fine-tuned the already impressive speakers of the S21+ to give us a more balanced output on the S22+. Pitting it against the Ultra, they sound pretty similar. It’s only that this one slightly boosts the highs while the Ultra’s audio is more leveled up. In most cases, you probably won’t notice the difference between the two though!
Display
6.6-inches FHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X
120/240Hz refresh/touch sampling rate
Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+ protection
1750 nits peak brightness, Vision Booster
Samsung always makes sure to provide the best display experience in its flagship phones and you can expect nothing less from the S22+.
This 6.6 inches Dynamic AMOLED display is crisp, the color reproduction is amazing, and it has double the contrast ratio compared to the S21+, which means darker blacks and brighter whites! Not to forget, it achieves 1750 nits of peak brightness, so using it in the brightest environments is not going to result in any kind of visibility issues either.
Even in terms of visual aesthetics, the bezels here are symmetrical and almost non-existent, so the viewing experience on the S22+ is among the absolute best. And just like the S22 Ultra, it also brings the “Vision Booster” feature which adjusts things like contrast and color saturation in harsh lighting conditions.
It’s something similar to the True Tone feature you’ll find on iPhones—although this is mostly geared towards maintaining excellent visibility under direct sunlight while maintaining excellent colors and contrast levels. But I found this feature to be quite subtle and even unnoticeable at times though!
Regardless, one thing that has bugged me about this display is how it’s not as adaptive as the S22 Ultra.
The S22 Ultra uses LTPO 2.0 technology and thus features an adaptive refresh rate, where the screen can go from 1 – 120Hz depending on your usage scenario. But the S22+ employs something called an LTPS backplane that can only shift between 48 to 120Hz.
Unnecessarily petty
Honestly, I am a little disappointed to see Samsung make such an unnecessary disparity between these two phones. I think it makes perfect sense to include LTPO 2.0 on the S22+ considering its smaller battery capacity and the fact that this is still a USD 1,000 flagship phone.
Other than that, I’m quite satisfied with the display experience on this thing. This screen also includes an ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensor and I have to say that Samsung has really perfected it over the years. The sensor’s response is blazingly fast and it’s quite accurate too.
Also, the haptic feedback here is just great—the vibration is strong but it’s not buzzy at all. Even when I had the phone in my bag, I’ve never missed a call and the typing experience on the S22 + is quite pleasant as well.
Performance
Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 5G SoC (4nm)
8GB LPDDR5 RAM, 128/256GB UFS 3.1 storage (fixed)
Android 12 with Samsung’s One UI 4.1 on top
4 years platform, 5 years security updates guaranteed
Okay, supporting the performance on the S22 series is Qualcomm’s latest and greatest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 or Samsung’s in-house Exynos 2200 chip depending on where you live. Previously, the Nepali market would always get the Exynos model. But it’s the opposite this time.
I’ll admit—I was quite bummed about not getting the Exynos variant since there was a lot of hype surrounding Samsung’s collaboration with AMD for RDNA 2 graphics on the Exynos 2200.
I remember Samsung even posted a tagline saying “Playtime is over” to promote its latest flagship mobile chip. But ultimately, the Exynos 2200’s real-life performance met with a lot of criticism and the Snapdragon variant turned out to be the superior, more stable option after all!
And with that, I’ve found the real-life performance on the Samsung Galaxy S22+ to be great throughout the review period. The phone is fast, responsive, and capable of handling anything you throw at it. From the most demanding games to heavy multitasking, the S22+ can take it all.
As I mentioned before, I have been using it alongside the S22 Ultra and have been monitoring both their performances too. Naturally, with the same chipset and the same software optimization, both phones deliver similar performance during regular, everyday tasks.
Literally not as cool as the S22 Ultra
However, gaming and thermals under heavy load are where the S22 Ultra has a significant upper hand—mainly because of the newer and improved cooling solution it has, which includes a “Gel-TIM” thermal paste.
According to Samsung, it can supposedly transfer heat up to 3.5x more effectively than its predecessor along with graphite sheeting for effective cooling—all of which are missing on the regular S22 and S22+.
Samsung Galaxy S22+ Review: Gaming
Hence, demanding games like Genshin Impact play better on the Ultra with slightly higher fps and sustained thermal performance under the highest settings and 60 fps mode turned on. You have to note that the in-game stability is almost similar between these phones though.
It’s just that the S22+ gets considerably warm rather quickly, and reaches around 43°C near and below the camera module after around 20 minutes into the game. To compare, the S22 Ultra was able to keep the thermals in check with a comparatively cooler surface temperature.
In other less demanding games like PUBG and COD though, both phones showed very similar results where the Plus mostly maintained below 40°C temperature, similar to the Ultra.
On a different note, I am also slightly disappointed in Samsung regarding the fact that being a USD 1,000 flagship phone, the S22+ is restricted to just 8GB RAM and up to 256GB storage while you can configure the Ultra with up to 12GB RAM and an insane 1TB storage.
One UI is still as fun and reliable as ever
Now, regarding the software experience, I like how the company has focused on minute details to improve the overall smartphone experience.
I love how you can match the entire theme of the UI based on the wallpaper you choose and the adaptive refresh rate works flawlessly while switching from one app to another as well. I know, I know—the theming stuff is part of the Android 12 experience but it’s so well implemented on such a heavily customized Android skin.
And lately, Samsung has been doing great in terms of software updates as well. This time around, it has even promised up to 4 years of platform and 5 years of security updates for its flagship phone! Finally, it feels like Android is almost on-par with iOS in terms of software support and I couldn’t be happier about it!
Cameras
Triple camera setup at the back
(50MP main, 12MP ultra-wide, 10MP telephoto)
10MP selfie camera (hole-punch cutout)
Cameras
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Back
Front
Alright, let’s talk about cameras now. For this review, I compared the cameras on the Samsung Galaxy S22+ to last year’s S21+. As you might know, the company has made a series of changes in the cameras in this iteration. First off, the main sensor here is a 50MP wide lens followed by a 10MP telephoto camera capable of 3x optical zoom compared to the 3x hybrid zoom on the S21+. Finally, there’s a 12MP ultra-wide lens and a 10MP shooter up front for selfies.
Now, with these cameras, there were basically 2 things I wanted to check:
How much of an improvement is there coming from the S21+?
What are the differences between S22+ and S22 Ultra’s cameras?
Normal Images
Pitting the images from the S21+ and S22+ against each other, you can notice how Samsung has improved shadow processing with the new 50MP sensor where the details levels are relatively better too.
Normal
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S21+
S22+
S21+
S22+
S21+
S22+
S21+
S22+
S21+
S22+
In general, I find the slightly warmer color tone of the S22+ to look more appealing than the cooler ones from the S21+.
Ultrawide Images
Ultrawide
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S21+
S22+
S21+
S22+
The warmer color tones and better shadow processing extend to ultra-wide images too, while the detail levels remain more-or-less the same.
Selfie Images
And I even found the selfies to have quite similar properties except that the S21+ has a reddish tint, whereas the photos from the S22+ have more of a yellowish tint to them.
Selfie
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S21+
S22+
S21+
S22+
S21+
S22+
As I mentioned earlier, I prefer a warmer hue but it’s totally a matter of personal preference. Also, contrast is a lot more balanced on the S22+.
Portrait Images
The S22+ natively uses its 3x telephoto lens for portrait images while the S21+ zooms in 2x to take the same shot.
Portrait
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S21+
S22+
S21+
S22+
S21+
S22+
S21+
S22+
S22+’s portraits look great with a nice subject focus and good details, but I wish the shadow processing on subjects was better.
Portraits
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S21+
S22+
S21+
S22+
S21+
S22+
The S21+ does soften the subject—a lot actually—but I found that it was able to process shadows better. Hence, in some scenarios, last year’s S21+ actually brings out better portraits.
Nighttime Images
On the other hand, I found the nighttime pictures of the S22+ to be slightly sharper, a bit brighter, and less noisy.
Nighttime
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S21+
S22+
S21+
S22+
Night mode on both phones works well to reduce noise, but the S22+ still captures better-detailed shots with slightly superior exposure control too.
Night Mode
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S21+
S22+
S21+
S22+
So yeah, Samsung has definitely refined the cameras on the S22+. But, it’s worth considering that except for a few subtle improvements, the S21+ is still a great camera phone. And a reliable one at that!
Samsung Galaxy S22+ Review: vs S22 Ultra
Now, comes the more interesting part. Are the cameras on the S22+ as good as the S22 Ultra? Well, if I don’t nitpick, I will say yes. Yeah, it cannot zoom in 100x times like the Ultra, but answer me this: how often would you really use those crazy zoom levels—if at all?
Normal
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S22+
S22 Ultra
S22+
S22 Ultra
S22+
S22 Ultra
Apart from that, the normal daytime images from the S22 Ultra have better sharpness—even when you zoom in—and they have a slightly warmer color tone too. Besides that, there isn’t much visible difference here.
Portrait
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S22+
S22 Ultra
However, the bigger sensor on the S22 Ultra does struggle to lock focus on close-up subjects which is not a problem for the S22+.
Nighttime
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S22+
S22 Ultra
S22+
S22 Ultra
But during nighttime, its 108MP main sensor does manage to capture more light and maintain better sharpness.
Night Mode
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S22+
S22 Ultra
S22+
S22 Ultra
And yes, it comes with the same videography prowess as the Ultra where you can shoot up to 8K 24 fps footages with good stabilization. Actually, a lot better stabilization compared to the S21+. But then again, I don’t ever shoot in 8K, so it wasn’t a big deal for me.
Stable at 4K
On the other hand, 4K 60 fps footage is quite stable here, both from the front and the back camera. So if you are someone who’s into vlogging, this is certainly one of the best options out there after the iPhones of course.
Recently, I went on a trip and I shot a lot of videos from both phones. And what I will tell you is that if I go for another trip anytime soon, I will confidently take the S22+ or the Ultra with me for my videography needs.
Battery
4500mAh battery with 45W fast charging
15W wireless charging, Wireless PowerShare
Lastly, let’s talk get into the battery portion of this review of the Samsung Galaxy S22+. Aaaand… it hasn’t been extraordinary, which is a given considering its smaller battery capacity, a power-hungry processor, and the lack of a better dynamic refresh rate feature. In my normal usage, the phone would go from morning to evening with no trouble on a single charge, but that’s it.
If I had to go out for the night, I would have to recharge the battery again. Yet, Samsung seems to have improved the standby time here. With last year’s S21+, I had graphed the overnight battery drain to be as high as 7-8% but with this phone, that number comes to just 2-3%.
I know, not as good as the iPhones, but it’s noteworthy nonetheless.
For charging, the phone supports up to 45W charging, which seems like an upgrade compared to 25W charging on the S21 series, but there’s more to the story. Using a compatible 45W power brick, I logged the time it goes from 0 to 100% at exactly one hour whereas funnily enough, the phone takes just 5 minutes more for a fill-up using a 25W power adapter.
So, if you are thinking of getting the 45W charger for yourself, I would strongly suggest you save the trouble and your money, and go for the 25W charger instead!
Samsung Galaxy S22+ Review: Conclusion
Alright, we have now come to the end of this review and I have to admit that I’ve had a great time using the Samsung Galaxy S22+. I think this is an incredibly practical device for someone who wants to use a flagship Samsung phone, but does not want to go all-in with cash, does not use the S-Pen, and doesn’t need all those fancy zoom capabilities.
For those people, this phone ticks almost all boxes and nails the basics in a really impressive way. I mean, it’s got a great design, an impressive display, cameras that are almost on par with the Ultra, and you’re also getting similar performance levels—if not the same.
Despite everything I discussed throughout this review, I do think Samsung could have made the Galaxy S22+ even better, but decided not to because after all, they’ve got to sell the more expensive phone which has higher profit margins for the company. In the end, this is business!
In an ideal universe, it would have been a perfect phone, if it had all the goodness of the Ultra like the advanced LTPO 2.0 display, the 108MP primary camera, and the new cooling mechanism. Yeah, that would have been a pretty dope universe to live in! So… run, Barry, run… mess up the timeline again!
