You can get some seriously great phones for less than $ 500 these days, but there are still reasons to pay up for fancier models. Maybe you really want wireless charging. Or perhaps you want the brightest, smoothest screen so you don’t have to squint when it’s sunny out. If that’s the case, you’ll be happy to know our favorite flagship phones out of all the smartphones we’ve tested this year — Samsung’s Galaxy S22 range — have hit their lowest prices yet.
The Galaxy S22 is $ 700 ($ 100 off) and has dipped to this price before, but the Galaxy S22 + and Galaxy S22 Ultra are now $ 200 off, costing $ 800 and $ 1,000, respectively. We haven’t seen them this cheap before.
If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission. This helps support our journalism. Learn more.
What’s WIRED and TIRED About These Phones?
WIRED: It’s hard to find many faults with the S22 series (9/10, WIRED Recommends). Sure, the software isn’t as well-designed or smart as Google Pixel phones, but Samsung currently bests Google in terms of software support: All of these phones will receive 5 years of security updates and four major OS updates, meaning they’ll last you a long time and will stay up to date.
Most people will be happy with the cheapest S22 (we break down the differences between them here). The standard S22 is the smallest of the lot with a 6.1-inch AMOLED screen, yet it has nearly the same features, from the high-end Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor powering it to IP68 water resistance (you can submerge it), robust 5G support, and a smooth 120-Hz screen refresh rate.
The S22 + steps it up to a 6.6-inch screen and adds the new Wi-Fi 6E capabilities (you’ll need a Wi-Fi 6E router to take advantage, though), ultra wideband to track items nearby with “Galaxy Tags” trackers , and it has a slightly larger battery and brighter screen. If these upgrades are important to you, you may just want to consider the S22 Ultra.
The S22 Ultra packs the S Pen stylus inside, so you can whip it out at any time to jot some notes on the gargantuan 6.8-inch screen (or snap a selfie remotely). It’s also the only one of the trio with an optical 10x zoom camera. Yes, the camera can zoom up to 10x and still deliver crisp, detailed photos. This isn’t something that’ll benefit shutterbugs. Want to take a better pic of your kid on the soccer pitch or on stage? This 10x camera will do the job.
