 This is the brand new Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra in name at least but in look feel and function It's really a galaxy note that's now sitting on top of the S22 lineup It's got the same squared off corners as a note the same S Pen silo the same pretty much everything It's a note and it looks every bit like an evolution of the note 20 from two years ago But Samsung is sticking with the ultra brand instead of calling this say the S22 note edition Okay, then Here's the deal Samsung tells us that I've used the note as more of an overarching experience nowadays more than a singular device That makes some sense when you consider that the S Pen works with the Z fold 3 and some of Samsung's tablets and laptops Even so I think it was a dumb decision Note brand is iconic and has more cachet with consumers than the ultra, but oh well here We are but if you are one of those loyal note fans And you've been waiting for a new model with modern specs the S22 ultra doesn't disappoint It's got a gorgeous 6.8 inch 1440p display with 120 Hertz max refresh rate Just like the rest of the lineup the screen is brighter than ever before with a peak brightness of 1750 nits Samsung says there's a new vision booster algorithm that adapts the color and contrast to ensure everything on screen stays visible Even in direct sunlight and now the display can drop all the way down to 1 Hertz when there are static items on screen to save battery Inside the S22 ultra is Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor It's first 4 nanometer chip up to 1 terabyte of storage and up to 12 gigabytes of RAM a 5000 milliamp hour battery with 45 watt fast charging reverse wireless charging Wi-Fi 6e and every flavor of 5g No matter whether it's called a note or ultra this thing is still a specs beast and it's also IP 68 dust and water resistant like always Those top-tier specs extend to the camera system too before we go any further I want to give a shout out to the discontinued S21 ultra which had one of the coolest looking camera designs ever That black model was so damn sleek But since Samsung has switched over to a note influence style this year the novel wraparound camera module is gone Now there's a bunch of different lenses sticking out which looks fine If a bit boring for the main camera Samsung is using a 108 megapixel f2.2 sensor That's larger than the S21 ultra is it's still pixel binning all that data down into 12 megapixel files The telephoto camera still offers 10 times optical zoom and the gimmicky hundred times space zoom. That's more of a stunt than anything else There is a secondary telephoto lens with three times optical zoom and a faster f2.4 aperture for your portrait shots as well Samsung's big focus this year is making everything look great No matter your photo skill level the S22 ultra and other S22s have a new auto framing feature for video That can detect up to 10 people in the scene keep everyone in the shot with the right focus Samsung's super steady stabilization was already impressive, but that's also getting better this year as well You can shoot 4k video up to 60 frames per second or 8k at up to 24 frames per second As for stills and night mode shots Samsung says it's making a lot of AI Improvements to increase detail reduce noise and optimize the shot based on what's in the scene But maybe the biggest upgrade this year is for portraits Samsung claims that it can now separate individual strands of hair on your subject and blur out the background Now hair and things like glasses are usually tricky for phone cameras So if the S22 can deliver on those big words, that'd be a huge deal Portrait mode is also now accurate for pets as well as for software the S22 ultra runs Android 12 So you've got more control over privacy and things like your camera and microphone than ever before There are a few new tricks here and there like the option to share your screen in Google Duo But not in teams or zoom which is kind of a bummer And then there's the S Pen Samsung says its handwriting latency is now dropped all the way down to 2.8 milliseconds To achieve that Samsung is using AI to predict which direction you move the S Pen next for handwriting and drawing that little difference really felt Great in the short time that I had to test out the new S Pen So that's the new Galaxy S22 no- Ultra it's coming in late February for a steep starting price of $1,200 And look, this is a phone for people who want a productivity powerhouse But maybe aren't ready for foldables just yet like the Z Fold 3 It's the best of Samsung in a traditional Dependable form factor and the S Pen feels fundamentally more useful and important when you've got a place to put it The note is dead, but also very much back at the same time And I think a lot of people are gonna be very happy about that So if the phones weren't enough Samsung also introduced a new Tab S8 Ultra that has a notch on the screen Check out theverge.com for our full impressions of that