New Samsung Galaxy S22 leak makes me think iPhone 14 will be the smarter upgrade

Recent phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S21 will be able to upgrade to Android 13 in 2022.

(Image credit: Samsung)

published 13 December 2021

The Samsung Galaxy S22 is shaping up to be one of the best phones in 2022, but the latest bunch of leaks suggest that it might not be the most exciting one. While the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra may be the spiritual successor to the Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, the main phone isn't going to be quite so interesting. Given that we're hearing that the S22 is going up in price, that's a bit of a worry.

The Samsung Galaxy S22 is expected to launch in February, so we'd expect these latest leaks to be joined by many more in the coming weeks.

More colours, but not more memory

The latest leaks, as reported by GSM Arena, come from retailers so they're pretty solid. The standard Galaxy S22 and the Galaxy S22 Plus will have 8GB of RAM; the 12GB and 16GB options are only for the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Leaker Snoopytech says that the confirmed options are:

• Samsung Galaxy S22 5G: 8GB RAM, 128/256GB storage, Black/White/Green/Pink Gold

• Samsung Galaxy S22+ 5G: 8GB RAM, 128/256GB storage, Black/White/Green/Pink Gold

• Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G: 12GB RAM with 128/256GB storage or 16GB with 512GB of storage, Black/White/Dark Red

As far as other specs go, we're expecting the Qualcomm Snapdragon 895 or Exynos 2200 and a better GPU, so the Samsung Galaxy S22 may earn a place in our best gaming phones guide.

It does seem that this year's Samsung is evolutionary rather than revolutionary, so I reckon it'll probably be beaten to the top spot in our best phones guide by the iPhone 14.

I know, I know, I probably sound biased because just yesterday I was getting excited about Apple taking away the notch, something Samsung Galaxy S series owners have rightly mocked for ages. But while Samsung seems to be going for the incremental upgrades this year, at least from what we're hearing so far, Apple is planning a "complete redesign" of its flagship this year with "big things" inside. We know Apple likes to stick with the same design and then shake things up considerably; this year is likely to be the tick to the iPhone 13's tock.

Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).