Samsung Says the Galaxy S22 Has a Worse Battery Life Than the S21

While the Galaxy S22 lineup is full of neat little upgrades and improvements, fans are worried about an odd detail—the Galaxy S22 and S22+ have much smaller batteries than their predecessors. And with updated spec information, Samsung appears to quietly validate these concerns.

Yeah, battery capacity isn’t always an indicator of a device’s battery life. If a phone has a power-efficient display and processor, for example, it may last more than a day on a single charge.

And although the S22 lineup’s new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset is a bit more power-hungry than what we got last year, the S22 and S22+ were expected to ship with power-saving, 1~120Hz adaptive refresh rate LTPO displays. At least, that’s what Samsung told customers before it revised the S22 spec page on February 11th.

The S22 spec page now clarifies that the S22 and S22+ displays are OLED, not LTPO. Additionally, they have a 48~120Hz variable refresh rate, meaning that they always run at a minimum of 48Hz. A minimum of 1Hz is ideal, as it ensures low power consumption when nothing is happening on-screen. (The S22 Ultra has a proper 1~120Hz adaptive refresh rate LTPO screen, )

And as some eagle-eyed fans have noticed, the Samsung website states that the S22 and S22+ only last 54 hours and 64 hours on a charge during audio playback tests. The S21 and S22 last a respective 68 and 75 hours during these same tests. (You can find this data under the “Models” tab after opening a Samsung Galaxy landing page.)

It’s an odd development, to say the least. But until people test these phones in the real world, we can’t be sure that the S21 series actually outlasts Samsung’s new S22 devices.

For what it’s worth, we’re currently working on our Galaxy S22 reviews, and the results seem promising. Still, we need more time to really test the phones’ batteries. (I should also note that Samsung happily sent us a basic Galaxy S22 to review. Some people claim that the company is only sending out S22+ and S22 Ultra review units, which is untrue.)