After the launch of the new Galaxy S22 and S22+ smartphones, several Internet users wondered about the veracity of the information displayed on the technical sheet of the devices. It would seem that not all of them were accurate.
Samsung lifted the veil last week on a new generation of high-end smartphones, the Galaxy S22, S22+ and S22 Ultra. On the official data sheets, Samsung indicated that the screen of its Galaxy S22 and S22+ offered a variable refresh rate of 10 Hz to 120 Hz, which indicated that they were using an LTPO slab (polycrystalline oxide at low temperature).
With an LTPO panel, a screen can dynamically vary its frequency according to the content displayedallowing significant energy savings. This technology is found on most high-end smartphones, including the OnePlus 9 Pro and OnePlus 10 Pro, the Oppo Find X3 Pro, the Galaxy S21 Ultra, the iPhone 13 Pro or the Pixel 6 Pro.
The Galaxy S22 and S22+ do not use a screen with LTPO technology
Contacted on this subject, Ross Young, CEO of Display Supply Chain Consultants, affirmed that the Galaxy S22 screen did not use an LTPO panel, but an LTPS panel. The problem is that an LTPS panel is currently unable to decrease its refresh rate below 48 Hzas this would cause major flickering issues.
Faced with the anger of Internet users on social networks, Samsung finally officially announced that its Galaxy S22 and S22+ were not compatible with LTPO technology. The Korean manufacturer has therefore made changes to the technical data sheet of both devices. This now specifies that the screen offers a frequency of 48 Hz to 120 Hzrather than 10 Hz to 120 Hz.
This is therefore very bad news for users, since an LTPO screen would have allowed the two smartphones to be much more autonomous than their predecessors.. Unlike the Galaxy S22 UltraSamsung therefore preferred to settle for an LTPS panel on the Galaxy S22 and S22+, which places them at the same level as the Xiaomi 12. Indeed, Xiaomi has also only adopted an LTPO screen on the most popular model. expensive Xiaomi 12 Pro.
Smartphones are able to vary their refresh rate by software on several levels, like what Xiaomi smartphones already do. They will use a frequency of 120 Hz in social networks, but will for example be limited to 60 Hz when watching a video. Battery savings are nowhere near as great as on an LTPO displaysince this is capable of taking any value between 10 Hz and 120 Hz, or 1 Hz and 120 Hz for the LTPO 2.0 technology of the Galaxy S22 Ultra.
What about the autonomy of the Galaxy S22 and S22+?
This year the Galaxy S22 and S22+ have seen their battery size decrease. The smartphones are admittedly slightly smaller than previous models, but their batteries have lost 300 mAh of capacity compared to previous models.. The Galaxy S22 is equipped with a battery of only 3700 mAh, against 4000 mAh for the Galaxy S21. On his side, the Galaxy S22+ uses a 4500 mAh batterysmaller than the 4800 mAh battery of the Galaxy S22+.
Smartphones would therefore have needed a more energy-efficient LTPO screen to offer a slightly longer autonomy. To compensate for the decrease in battery capacity, Samsung has increased the Galaxy S22+’s maximum fast charging power to 45W, but the classic Galaxy S22 still has to make do with just 25W. Samsung is still lagging behind in fast-charging technologies on its smartphones. For example, we are far from the 67 W of the Xiaomi 12, its main competitor.
While waiting to be able to test in depth all the smartphones of the Galaxy S22 series to find out whether or not they are more enduring than their predecessors, you can already go and consult our handling note for all of Samsung’s new flagships. As a reminder, you will still have to be patient before you can get your hands on the devices. The Galaxy S22 Ultra will be available to everyone on February 25while it will be necessary to wait for the March 10 for Galaxy S22 and S22+.
