Samsung unveiled its new Galaxy S22 phone line at this week’s 2022 Galaxy Unpacked event, where it also debuted a huge new tablet, the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra, which packs a 14.6-inch OLED screen and $1,100 starting price. The Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+ offer improvements in styling, durability and camera functionality over last year’s S21 line and have been characterized as iterative rather than game-changing. Continuing its partnership with Google, Samsung’s new phones are the first to offer YouTube remote watch parties (in Google Duo) and come with YouTube Premium trials.

Samsung also teased Google Assistant support is “coming soon” on the Galaxy Watch 4. CNN calls the S22 Ultra “the clear star” of the show, heralding Samsung’s first phablet update in two years (in the wake of the Galaxy Note’s fizzle after 2016’s massive battery fire recall, a trauma from which it “never quite rebounded”).

Here are the new phone entries as described by the tech press:

Galaxy S22 Ultra: As “the spiritual successor to the now-officially-mostly-dead Galaxy Note series,” per Digital Trends, the big gain here is the “garaged” S-Pen stylus that eliminates the need to carry it separately. Improved stylus response time of 9 milliseconds and a sprawling 6.8-inch screen are also attention-getters.

The camera has a “108-megapixel main shooter, 3x and 10x telephoto cameras, and an ultra-wide,” offering improvements like “low-light quality and portrait mode with depth mapping” and RAW shooting, writes The Verge. It fast charges at 45W.

The Galaxy S22 Ultra comes in a variety of colors, including some exclusively available in Samsung stores, in a new design The Verge warns “may be a little polarizing.” It starts at $1,199 with 128GB.

Galaxy S22 and S22+: Looking very much like last year’s S21 models, the newcomers feature screens of 6.1 and 6.6 inches, respectively, each offering 2,340×1,080 resolution. The main camera updates are better night imagining and an improved portrait mode. The most noteworthy advance: “Gorilla Glass Victus Plus on both the front and the back instead of the cheap plasticky glass that the previous base models had,” The Verge writes.

The base list price on the Galaxy S22 is $800, while the Plus starts at $1,000 (each with 128GB capacity and 8GB RAM).

Galaxy Tab S8, S8 Ultra and S8+: With a vast 14.6-inch OLED screen the Ultra starts at $1,100. The Galaxy Tab S8+ has a 12.4-inch screen and $900 base price, while the entry level S8 comes with an 11-inch screen and $700 base list. All feature 120Hz refresh rate displays and run Android 12, “Samsung’s latest attempt to create a better multitasking experience,” according to The Verge, which says they “can also connect to a Samsung PC as a second screen.”

Related:
Samsung Held an Event in the Metaverse. And it Didn’t Quite Go to Plan, CNBC, 2/10/22