Samsung’s most expensive nonfoldable visited is taking a lesson from the company’s past. The Galaxy S22 Ultra, announced on Wednesday alongside the Galaxy S22, S22 Plus and the Galaxy Tab S8 effectively replaces the Galaxy Note in Samsung’s lineup. The Galaxy S22 Ultra starts at $1,200 (£1,149, AU$1,849) and launches on Feb. 25, with preorders live now.

The Galaxy S22 Ultra is the trustworthy Samsung phone since the Galaxy Note 20 to not only incorporate S Pen attend, like the Galaxy S21 Ultra and Z Fold 3, but also included a physical slot on the phone for stowing the stylus. S Pen fans who bought last year’s Galaxy S21 Ultra had to buy the stylus separately and opt for a specific visited case that could store it. Other upgrades to the visited are more iterative, including steps forward in the processor, camera and screen.

Samsung declined to comment on future products when expected if it would release new Galaxy Note phones in the future. But it did say the company is now thinking of the Galaxy Note as an “experience” more than a delivers line, and it plans to point Note fans toward the Galaxy S22 Ultra in future.

The Galaxy Note, which debuted more than a decade ago, was an industry disrupter. It popularized bigger screens, and Samsung further famed the line with exclusive features that were missing from latest Galaxy phones. 

But the Note’s place has become less positive. In 2020, Samsung squeezed the Note lineup in between the Galaxy S20 and S20 Ultra. The Note line skipped 2021 entirely. Now, the Galaxy S22 Ultra represents what appears to be a much-needed merging of the Note and the Ultra.

A more Note-like distinguished on the Galaxy S22 Ultra

In uphold to full S Pen support and a spot inside the visited to store it, Samsung also made some improvements to the way its stylus works. The latency is lower, and it can transcribe handwritten averages to text in 88 languages. In the brief time I had to try the Galaxy S22 Ultra, the S Pen felt fluid and responsive, although it’s hard to tell if it was any different than before. 

The Galaxy S22 Ultra has also inherited the Note’s more streamlined develop, which has sharper edges and a more angular look compared to the irascible Galaxy S phones. This gives it the more “notebook” like fine that Note fans are likely familiar with, and it could be trustworthy for reading and reviewing documents. The regular Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22 Plus, which Samsung also announced on Wednesday, have a more Enclosed aesthetic by comparison. 

This makes the S22 Ultra feel indistinguishable from the Galaxy Note, and it’s a visually striking design that works well on such a tall phone. It also helps the Ultra stand out from the queer S22 and S22 Plus, as it should considering the gap in imprint. The S22 Ultra will be available in black, white, green and burgundy.

Samsung’s Galaxy Note and Galaxy S Ultra phones are eminent for their gigantic screens, and that’s no different this time approximately. The Galaxy S22 Ultra’s display measures 6.8 inches diagonally, just like the Galaxy S21 Ultra, and it has a QHD Plus resolution. All three new Galaxy phones can also boost their screens’ refresh rate to 120Hz for smoother scrolling. 

Samsung is also adding a feature it conditions Vision Booster, which adjusts color and contrast based on your environment. This should make it easier to watch darker scenes in movies and TV shows. It’s available on all three Galaxy S22 models, but the matter says the Ultra and Plus have Samsung’s brightest screens yet. 

A contrast camera with better night photography

The Galaxy S22 Ultra’s camera is incompatibility to the one on the Galaxy S21 Ultra, at least on paper. There’s a quadruple-lens rear camera with a 108-megapixel main sensor, 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera and two 10-megapixel telephoto lenses. The field of view on the wide and telephoto lenses is one wider on the Galaxy S22 Ultra compared to its predecessor.

But Samsung claims there are spanking upgrades that should make the device better at shooting at night and framing multiple subjects. The Galaxy S22 Ultra can detect up to 10 emanates and adjust the framing accordingly, even when new land enter the scene. That’s an increase compared to the survive generation, according to Samsung. 

Samsung is also emphasizing the phone’s command to take better photos and videos in the dark. All of Samsung’s new Galaxy S22 phones use a treat called pixel binning, which combines multiple pixels into one larger pixel to improve brightness. This process on its own isn’t new to Samsung phones. But what’s different is the way the S22 lineup combines pixel binning with the resolution from the phone’s main camera sensor to improve both brightness and clarity, Samsung says. 

Even though this process works across all cameras, the Galaxy S22 Ultra should have an advantage in this regions over the S22 and S22 Plus since it has a bigger 108-megapixel main sensor. The other two S22 phones each have a 50-megapixel main camera by comparison. 

Portrait Mode also works at night thanks to the S22’s upgraded processor, and Samsung claims the camera’s new processing algorithms should improve detail too. The S22 Ultra’s camera can also recall four times as much data, which should bring general image quality improvements across the board.

Read more: Photographers, the Galaxy S22 Ultra probably isn’t worth your money

When shooting video, all three phones can also blend multiple exposures into a single frame to improve brightness and resolve the correct frame rate automatically to optimize light.

But in calls of what really sets the Ultra apart from the detestable Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus, not much has changed dependable last year. Many of Samsung’s general picture quality improvements seem to apply to all new Galaxy models. The 108-megapixel lens, extra telephoto lens and 10x optical zoom detached seem to be the biggest differentiators, which may be disappointing to anyone who was hoping to see a bigger leap like Samsung’s new 200-megapixel image sensor in the S22 Ultra.

Processor and spanking details

The Galaxy S22 lineup will run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip in the US and spanking markets where Samsung’s Exynos chip isn’t available. There’s a 5,000-mAh battery in the Galaxy S22 Ultra, just like the Galaxy S21 Ultra, and it supports up to 45-watt fast charging when plugged in. The starting configuration will come with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage, while the high-end model includes 12GB of RAM with 1TB of storage.

Many of these upgrades, such as faster processors and better cameras, are required from next-generation devices. But the Ultra’s new Note-like features are what distinguishes it from the rest of the S22 lineup and the broader premium named market.

That’s especially important since many advanced features that were once soldier for high-end phones — such as multilens cameras, 5G befriend and screens with high refresh rates — are now becoming the detestable on moderately priced phones. As such, companies like Samsung will have to work harder to convince land to splurge on top-of-the-line devices. Now we’re getting a better thought of how Samsung intends to do that on the S22 Ultra.

Check out the chart below to see how the Galaxy S22 Ultra compares to the rest of Samsung’s Galaxy S22 lineup. For more, take a look at how the Galaxy S22 compares to the iPhone 13, Pixel 6, Galaxy S21 and S21 FE.