Week in Review: The Galaxy Note gets reincarnated as the S22 Ultra

Plus: the Steam Deck's battery takes a battering, and a Leica that goes on your wrist | The Galaxy S22 Ultra is a Note in all but name | The Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra is one big baby Created for {EMAIL} | [Web Version]( February 11, 2022 CONNECT WITH TECH RADAR  [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [Youtube]( [Tech Radar]( [Tech Radar]( [SIGN UP]( ⋅ [WEBSITE](  [] Welcome to the Week in Review [] Plus: the Steam Deck's battery takes a battering, and a Leica that goes on your wrist It's been a big week in the world of tech, with the first big punch thrown in the 2022 battle of the smartphones as Samsung launched its latest flagship range, the Galaxy S22, S22 Plus and S22 Ultra. I'll get to those – and Samsung's surprisingly impressive new Android tablets – shortly, but that's not all that's happened. We did see a Nintendo Direct this week, although unless you're our Gaming Hardware Editor Adam Vjestica (who is obsessed with the idea of a pink, marshmallow-like video game character named Kirby eating a car for some reason), there wasn't much to talk about. We have, however, been getting early word about the Steam Deck, the device that could truly be a PC-based rival to the Nintendo Switch… but early whispers suggest it might not be all it's cracked up to be. Anyway, enough preamble. Let's get onto the good stuff… Gareth Beavis, Global Editor-in-Chief [] Start with This [] [The Galaxy S22 Ultra is a Note in all but name]( [The Galaxy S22 Ultra is a Note in all but name]( The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (Future) Samsung's Unpacked launch wasn't that much of a surprise, thanks to the fact that – as is often the case with these events – pretty much everything that was announced had already leaked out. However, it was still an exciting launch, not least because of Samsung's mildly-cringeworthy attempts at humor by unveiling the phone in a spoof Bridgerton episode. Thankfully, the devices themselves were more impressive. While the S22 and S22 Plus are nothing huge in terms of an upgrade, the [S22 Ultra]( is the Galaxy Note reborn. It's big, bold and powerful, and boasts a large 6.8-inch OLED display with 120Hz refresh rate; it doesn't have as much RAM as last year's model, but then nobody really needs 16GB of RAM in a smartphone – some of us are lucky to get that much in our laptop. What does impress is that the S Pen is now housed within the chassis of the phone, much like it was on the Note, and the camera experience has been massively enhanced, which is something our US Editor-in-Chief Lance Ulanoff [has been enjoying]( during his early time with the phone. We'll update our hands-on reviews of all three phones with full reviews next week. Will they trouble our list of the best phones in the world? I'd say so, based on what we've seen so far. [] This is Big [] [The Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra is one big baby]( [The Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra is one big baby]( The Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra (Future) I thought the iPad Pro 12.9 was big, but Samsung's gone and added an extra inch and a half to the screen of its flagship tablet, with the Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra rocking a 14.6-inch OLED screen on top of some incredibly powerful innards. Like the iPad Pro, it's designed for creatives, with 16GB of RAM and that huge, bright display working with the S Pen (which is curiously held in place via magnets on the rear of the slate, which means you can't lay it down on a desk without it wobbling all over the place when you've got the stylus docked). Tom Bedford, our resident phones writer and all-round creative person (he dabbles in film editing too) [is enamored with the idea of this tablet](, although he feels it's possibly a little on the large side – he says he had to "cradle it like a baby" to carry it around. That's a bit too big for a tablet in my view; but it doesn't stop me loving the idea of being able to have such a large display in my backpack for some sumptuous movie action on the go. [] Know This [] [This could be the TV to beat them all in 2022]( [This could be the TV to beat them all in 2022]( (LG) Remember CES? That thing that (sort of) happened in Las Vegas at the start of the year? Well, one of the big announcements at the show was the LG C2 OLED, the successor to the C1, [our best OLED TV]( (and one of the best TVs, period). If you've been wondering about all the upgrades it brings (enhanced picture quality, greater sound performance), when you'll likely be able to buy it (we're predicting April or May), or what sizes it'll come in (there's a new, smaller, 42-inch option) then [we've got all the information for you]( – there's much more than the above. [] POLL QUESTION: Are you going to upgrade your TV this year [Vote]( [Yes - I do it every two or three years]( [Vote]( [Yes, finally - I still have a big, fat CRT]( [Vote]( [Maybe - but OLEDs are too expensive]( [Vote]( [No - I watch Netflix on my laptop]( [] Read This [] [Don't panic about the Steam Deck's battery… yet]( [Don't panic about the Steam Deck's battery… yet]( The early reviews are in, and it's mostly looking good for the Steam Deck (Valve) While we'll soon be filing our own full and thorough review of the Steam Deck, Valve's big play into the world of portable gaming, some write-ups have already emerged online. While they're generally positive, some vloggers have highlighted the fact that they're [able to run down the battery in as little as 87 minutes]( – which is far less than the two-to-eight hours Valve has promised. We shouldn't be too worried for now, though. First, these reviews are of units running early software, and battery optimization is often one of the last things to get done as a device comes to market, so there are likely some improvements in the pipeline. Second, the rapid battery drain is happening when every setting is cranked up to maximum – and you don't need to run games at high frame rates when the screen is only capable of handling 60Hz. If you want higher frame rates, it's back to the dedicated [gaming laptop]( for you. [] What About This? [] [Surprise: it turns out a 15-year-old phone isn't much use]( [Surprise: it turns out a 15-year-old phone isn't much use]( We've come a long, long way since the original iPhone (Future) Are you one of those people who's got an original iPhone lying in a drawer somewhere and sometimes wonders about getting it out again and using it? [Don't bother](. We got one of our long-standing writers to dig out their old iPhone, and (after taking time to locate the necessary 30-pin plug) try to use it as their daily phone. They didn't get very far. The 2G signal that it once connected to has been turned off, so that was a non-starter. It also wouldn't connect to the writer's Wi-Fi router, so basically it was just an ancient iPod Touch. There were still a lot of callbacks and curios that make this a fascinating read though - check it out, and be transported back to a time when the smartphone world was all Nokia and BlackBerry, and nobody could have predicted the seismic shifts that were coming. [] Don't Miss This [] [There's nothing quite like a Leica watch]( [There's nothing quite like a Leica watch]( High-end credentials: the Leica L2 watch (Leica) There's a mentality about camera makers that I love: they live in an industry that prides itself on precision and craftsmanship. High-end cameras have the cachet of a luxury sports car or a premium wristwatch – so it's not really a surprise that Leica has [launched a watch of its own](. There are actually two watches, the Leica L1 and L2, and they've been in development since 2018, showing how much time and effort the company has put into getting them right. So what are you getting? A few subtle nods to the brand's photographic heritage for a start. Both watches feature a domed glass, which Leica says "recalls the front elements of a camera lens". Naturally, you also get the brand's famous red dot on the watch's crown, which itself has an interesting feature: rather than pulling it out to change the time, you push it in (another photography feature being mimicked) to scroll the hands around. They certainly look the part, but they're not cheap, at $10,000 for the L1 and $14,000 for the L2. It suddenly makes that ceramic [Apple Watch]( seem like a bargain doesn't it? [] The Sign Off [] [No pit stops on the Red Planet]( [No pit stops on the Red Planet]( An artist's rendering of the Curiosity Rover on the surface of Mars (NASA/JPL-Caltech) I have to admit that when I saw the tires on NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover I was a little worried. [Look at those holes!]( The wear in the tread! Who's going to go up there and put new treads on the little thing? Our very own John Loeffler spoke to NASA to see what's up - and a spokesperson reassured us that the wear and tear was expected, and that the rover was actually trundling on well beyond the two-year lifespan it was predicted to enjoy. "It's by no means the first time people on social media have reacted to Curiosity's wheels," said Andrew Good of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "They've looked like that for quite some time. We've written stories about the wheels since about 2017. "We recently extended the distance [between wheel checks] to every 1,000 meters, since the wheel performance seems to be fairly predictable - an indication that mitigations that have been put in place, like our traction control algorithm, seem to be having their intended effect (reducing wear, extending wheel life)." So, far from worrying about whether Curiosity is going to fall apart, it's now a question of just how much longer it can carry on roving. [] This is from the editor [] It’s been a hectic week, and our phones team is still hard at work testing Samsung’s new phones as I write this. I can’t wait to see how they perform, but I’m also curious to see how they might impact the upcoming iPhone 14. The launch of the S22 range isn’t going to influence anything about the new iPhone’s design, because that’s likely been set for months. But might it convince Apple to go with a faster-charging battery? Will it push the brand to develop more robust rear glass? If the S22 Ultra proves to be a hit, it’ll be interesting to see how Apple responds. As ever, please [email me](mailto:gareth.beavis@futurenet.com) with your thoughts, remembering to include 'NEWSLETTER' in the subject line – I’d love to hear your thoughts on the S22 range. Good enough? Boring? And do [subscribe]( to this newsletter if you haven't already, and share the love with friends and family. Thanks for reading! 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