 Last week we covered the new Galaxy S22 Ultra, which is really a note by another name. There's a built-in S Pen, boxier design, yada yada yada, and people are pretty excited about it. But today I want to cover Samsung's other new phones, the S22 Plus and S22, which at first glance are a little more boring. By most indications, last year's Galaxy S21 and S21 Plus fell short of Samsung's sales goals. They just didn't do enough to stand out from a very crowded Android pack, not to mention Samsung's many other phones. And the company cheaped out on the regular S21 by using plastic on the back instead of glass. So with the new lineup, Samsung was trying to right some of those wrongs and re-establish the S22 as the go-to reliable flagship. And well, yeah, I'd agree that now is a pretty good time to buy a Samsung phone. The hardware is as well built and refined as ever before, and somehow we've ended up in a situation where Samsung software is proving more stable and consistent than what's on Google's Pixel 6. Now unlike the new Ultra, the S22 Plus and S22 share a pretty similar overall design with your predecessors, especially the camera module on the back. And this time around you can expect a premium design no matter which model you choose, Plus or Standard. Even so, early on, I think only one of these phones is going to end up worthy of a recommendation, and that's the plus-sized S22. For $999, it's a solid flagship package. It looks like its predecessor, sure, but the hardware specs are nothing to sneeze at. There's a 6.6 inch Full HD display with nice, thin, symmetrical bezels. That display also gets brighter than ever with a peak brightness, indirect sunlight, of 1,750 nits. The refresh rate tops out at 120 Hz, and just like on the Ultra, there's a new Vision Booster feature that keeps everything on screen more contrasty and colorful at any brightness level, whether you're in direct sun or sitting in the dark. On the inside, it's powered by a new 4nm processor, and a more efficient chip should hopefully help balance out the fact that Samsung actually downsides the battery from last year to 4500 mAh. Still respectable, but a drop nonetheless. No matter which model you choose, you get the same camera system on each one. There's a 50 megapixel f1.8 main sensor that's 23% larger than on the S21, a 12 megapixel ultrawide, and a 10 megapixel telephoto camera with three times optical zoom. Samsung says its AI and HDR camera tricks are more advanced than ever before for 2022. Night mode, what they now call nitography, is supposedly improved and more detailed, and there are also new video features like auto frame to make sure up to 10 people stay in focus when you're shooting a clip. But perhaps most impressive is that Samsung claims portrait images can now separate a single strand of hair from the background of your subject, whether it's a human or a pet. It's a big claim, so stay tuned for our full review to see if the S22 actually pulls it off. As for performance, the whole S22 lineup includes the latest Snapdragon 8 gen 1 processor in the US and a few other countries, and Samsung's Exynos chipset everywhere else. The S22 and S22 Plus have less RAM at 8 gigs compared to the 12 you can get with the Ultra, but otherwise, they ought to be just as fast. For a thousand dollars, the Plus model has most features you'd want. Full 5G support, Wi-Fi 6E, ultra wideband, speedy 45-watt wired charging, and so on. Now, like I said earlier, Samsung's new phones might initially feel a bit boring, but the quality and fit and finish is there, like always. Samsung's OLED screens are always just that much nicer than what's on a Pixel. God knows the fingerprint sensor is a lot better. The S22 Plus and S22 have Corning's Gorilla Glass Victus Plus on both front and back. They're the first phones to have that, and they're using Samsung's more rugged Armour aluminum with an IP68 dust and water resistance rating. As for software, Samsung just committed to four years of major Android updates for all of its recent phones. At the time of this video, that's a longer guarantee than Google itself can give you. Meanwhile, One UI has gotten to a very good reliable place. Sure, you still deal with some bloatware and doubled-up apps from Samsung on Google, but the list of features is long, and since these phones come with Android 12, you get greater control over your camera and mic privacy settings. There's also a new Samsung Wallet app that combines Samsung Pay with driver's licenses and even cryptocurrency. So you can tell by now that I'm pretty high on the S22 Plus. Do I wish the display was higher resolution? Maybe. Would it be nice if it had the same cameras as the Ultra? Definitely, but I can't point to anyone in glaring weakness of this phone. That optimism starts to fade with the regular S22, which has a 6.1 inch screen, and it really comes down to price. Much of the hardware of idols, 120Hz screen, processor, RAM, camera system, are identical between the two, and Samsung's mercifully gotten rid of the S21's plastic back and gone back to glass. But as usual, the small phone gets short-changed with a smaller battery, 3700 milliamp hours, and slower 25 watt charging speeds. Samsung even drops the peak brightness and ditches ultra wideband from the standard S22, so you won't get the same precision when you're tracking down lost items. It's a lot of sacrifice and settling when you consider that the S22 costs $799. That's when there's a better argument for competitors from Google, OnePlus, and everybody else. I'd sooner buy Samsung's own S21 FE and its bigger battery for $699 and live with the plastic back. Both new S22 models go on sale February 25th. There's an easier case to be made for the Plus size than the regular, but I have no idea if they're going to prove more popular than last year. Again, they look and feel samey to what came before. What I do know is there's something to be said for consistency, and these days Samsung is on its game. So that's the S22 Plus and S22. There are a lot of new gadgets coming from Samsung lately, so stay tuned to TheVerge.com for full reviews.