Samsung Galaxy F22 First Impressions: Budget-conscious with a big battery

It is surprising how the manufacturers have managed to squeeze into budget smartphones priced below Rs. 15,000. Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 10 offers Full HD + Super AMOLED display, two speakers, four rear cameras and a 5000mAh battery with 33W fast charging (including 33W charger). Realme’s Narzo 30 gives you a 90Hz refresh rate display, MediaTek Helio G95 SoC, sleek design, and 30W charging.

Samsung with its Galaxy F22 seems to have found some interesting ways to stand out. AT starting price From Rs. 12,499, the Galaxy F22 offers a 90Hz refresh rate Super AMOLED display and 6,000mAh battery with 25W charging support, which seems like a lot. Will this be enough compared to what the competition offers in this price segment? I’ve spent some time with the Samsung Galaxy F22, and here are my first impressions.

The Samsung Galaxy F22 is available in two variants. There is a basic 4GB RAM and 64GB storage variant, which is the one we received for review. It is priced at Rs. 12,499 in India. Then there’s the more ambitious 6GB RAM and 128GB storage variant, which is also competitively priced at Rs. 14,499. Both will be available in two finishes – Denim Black and Denim Blue.

We received a Samsung Galaxy F22 in the Denim Black finish for review. It has a plastic body with Gorilla Glass 5 protection for the screen. The plastic back panel has a fine crest-shaped pattern, which provides good grip and is also good at rejecting fingerprints and smudges. The Samsung Galaxy F22 is not exactly thin, with a thickness of 9.3mm. Weighing 203g, it also looks a bit big. To me, it seems to have a nice feel to the touch, and limited one-handed use is manageable.

The Samsung Galaxy F22 has a grippy plastic back panel

The fingerprint reader is integrated into the power button on the right side, with the volume rocker placed above it. The card tray is on the left, while the 3.5mm headphone jack, USB Type-C port, and speaker are on the bottom.

The Samsung Galaxy F22 has a 6.4 inch Super AMOLED display with 90Hz refresh rate. It is an HD + resolution screen and features vivid colors. The Gorilla Glass 5 display does not easily pick up fingerprints. It was a bit strange to see a teardrop-shaped notch at the top of the screen, as most smartphones in this price range now have perforated screens, which look cleaner. A thick bezel at the bottom of the screen also takes up space at the front.

The Galaxy F22 has a three-slot tray, which accepts two Nano-SIMs and has a dedicated slot for a microSD card. The smartphone supports storage expansion up to 1TB.

The square-shaped camera module of the Samsung Galaxy F22 is on the back

There is a square shaped camera module on the back. This phone packs a quad-camera setup with a 48-megapixel main camera, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera, a 2-megapixel macro camera, and a 2-megapixel depth camera. Selfie tasks are taken care of by a 13-megapixel front camera.

The Samsung Galaxy F22 has a 6000mAh battery and supports 25W fast charging, but comes with a 15W charger in the box. It’s a bit of a letdown compared to what the competition has to offer in this price range, but I expect the larger-than-usual 6000mAh battery to last longer.

The Samsung Galaxy F22 has a single speaker located at the bottom

Samsung’s One UI 3.1 (based on Android 11) runs the show, and on my initial use it seemed to work fine. The 90Hz refresh rate display also makes the software experience quite smooth, and I had to remember that this is a smartphone with only 4GB of RAM. Several apps and games are preinstalled, including many Samsung branded games. There are also third-party apps like Moj and MX TakaTak, as well as the usual Microsoft app services from Samsung, including Office, OneDrive, LinkedIn, and Outlook.

The MediaTek Helio G80 SoC is by no means a bad choice for a budget smartphone, but Narzo de Realme 30 (See again) offers the high-end Helio G95 processor for an additional Rs. 500. Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 (See again) has Qualcomm Snapdragon 678 SoC and offers Full HD + Super AMOLED display, dual stereo speakers and 33W fast charge at Rs. 12,999. Poco M3 (See again) uses the attenuated Snapdragon 662 SoC but with 6 GB of RAM in its base variant priced at Rs. 10,999.

Based on the hardware specs, it’s easy to conclude that aside from the big battery, there isn’t much going on for Samsung’s latest F-series smartphone. However, it’s not just about hardware. We’ll be looking at the overall user experience, battery life, software, build quality, and camera performance, which all matter, so stay tuned for our full review, which should be released soon.

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