Samsung Galaxy S22 vs Apple iPhone 12

77 out of 100
Samsung Galaxy S22
VS
70 out of 100
Apple iPhone 12

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.1-inch Samsung Galaxy S22 (with Exynos 2200) that was released on February 9, 2022, against the Apple iPhone 12, which is powered by Apple A14 Bionic and came out 16 months before. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S22
  • The rear camera has a 3x optical zoom
  • Higher display refresh rate – 120 Hz
  • Comes with 885 mAh larger battery capacity: 3700 vs 2815 mAh
  • Has 2x more RAM: 8GB versus 4GB
  • Modern USB Type-C port
  • Delivers 32% higher peak brightness (851 against 645 nits)
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.2)
  • Fingerprint scanner
  • Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
  • Uses a faster type of memory: LPDDR5
  • 24% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (893K versus 721K)
  • Has 2 SIM card slots
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 12
  • Apple releases software updates and supports their phones a few years longer than Samsung
  • 37% faster in single-core GeekBench 5 test: 1604 and 1169 points

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy S22 and Apple iPhone 12 crucial features
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
Scores with a red asterisk (*) are approximate and may change in the future as we gather more data.
NanoReview Score
Final comparison evaluation
Choose the importance of each parameter to more accurately identify the smartphone that best meets your particular needs.
Adjust priorities
Feature
Priority (Weight)
Display:
Camera:
Performance:
Gaming:
Battery Life:
Connectivity:
The higher the priority, the more it will affect the final NanoReview score.

Value for money

You can enter your local prices of these phones (in USD or other currency) and click on the "Calculate" button to see which one has a better value for money.
VS

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests
Phone:
vs

Display

Type Dynamic AMOLED OLED
Size 6.1 inches 6.1 inches
Resolution 1080 x 2340 pixels 1170 x 2532 pixels
Aspect ratio 19.5:9 19.5:9
PPI 425 ppi 460 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 60 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes No
Max rated brightness 780 nits 625 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR 1300 nits -
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, Dolby Vision
Screen protection Gorilla Glass Victus Plus Ceramic Shield
Screen-to-body ratio 87.4% 86%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
Display tests
RGB color space 99.3% 99.4%
PWM 239 Hz 226 Hz
Response time 10 ms 16 ms
Contrast ∞ Infinity ∞ Infinity
Peak brightness test (auto)
Galaxy S22 +32%
851 nits
645 nits
Sources: NotebookCheck [3], [4]

Design and build

Height 146 mm (5.75 inches) 146.7 mm (5.78 inches)
Width 70.6 mm (2.78 inches) 71.5 mm (2.81 inches)
Thickness 7.6 mm (0.3 inches) 7.4 mm (0.29 inches)
Weight 167 g (5.89 oz) 164 g (5.78 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber -
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors White, Black, Gray, Blue, Green, Pink, Purple, Yellow White, Black, Blue, Green, Red
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display No
Screen-to-body ratio
87.4%
86%

Performance

Tests of Samsung Galaxy S22 and Apple iPhone 12 in the benchmarks
SoC
Chipset Samsung Exynos 2200 Apple A14 Bionic
Max clock 2800 MHz 3100 MHz
CPU cores 8 (1 + 3 + 4) 6 (2 + 4)
Architecture - 4 cores at 1.82 GHz: Cortex-A510
- 3 cores at 2.52 GHz: Cortex-A710
- 1 core at 2.8 GHz: Cortex-X2
- 4 cores at 1.8 GHz: Icestorm
- 2 cores at 3.1 GHz: Firestorm
Lithography process 4 nanometers 5 nanometers
Graphics Samsung Xclipse 920 Apple GPU
GPU clock 1300 MHz -
FLOPS - ~998 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Geekbench 5 (Single-Core)
1169
iPhone 12 +37%
1604
Geekbench 5 (Multi-Core)
3582
iPhone 12 +13%
4054
AnTuTu Benchmark 9
Galaxy S22 +24%
893324
721161
CPU 222420 190881
GPU 371227 276954
Memory 145195 124912
UX 162492 129781
Total score 893324 721161
3DMark Wild Life Performance
6532
iPhone 12 +16%
7609
Max surface temperature 38 °C 41.2 °C
Stability 60% 77%
Graphics test 39 FPS 45 FPS
Graphics score 6532 7609
PCMark 3.0
12507
n/a
Web score 10187 -
Video editing 7164 -
Photo editing 27196 -
Data manipulation 10518 -
Writing score 15080 -
Sources: 3DMark [3], [4]

Memory

RAM
RAM size 8 GB 4 GB
Memory type LPDDR5 LPDDR4X
Channels 4 2
Storage
Storage size 128, 256 GB 64, 128, 256 GB
Storage type UFS 3.1 NVMe
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 12 (Can be upgraded to Android 13) iOS 14.1 (Can be upgraded to iOS 16.4)
ROM One UI 5.1 -
OS size 30.2 GB 7 GB

Battery

Capacity 3700 mAh 2815 mAh
Max charge power 25 W 18 W
Battery type Li-Po Li-Ion
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (15 W) Yes (7.5 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) No
Fast charging Yes (63% in 30 min) Yes (58% in 30 min)
Full charging time 1:03 hr 1:30 hr
Battery life tests
Web browsing - 11:23 hr
Watching video - 12:11 hr
Gaming - 05:11 hr
Standby - 119 hr
General battery life
32:28 hr

Camera

Specs and camera test of smartphones
Main camera
Matrix 50 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 8160 x 6120 4032 x 3024
Zoom Optical, 3x Digital
Flash LED Quad LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 24FPS No
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 960 FPS (720p) 240 FPS (1080p)
Angle of widest lens 120° 120°
Lenses 3 (50 MP + 10 MP + 12 MP) 2 (12 MP + 12 MP)
Wide (main) lens - 50 MP
- Aperture: f/1.8
- Focal length: 24 mm
- Pixel size: 1 micron
- Sensor: 1/1.56", Samsung GN5 (ISOCELL Plus CMOS)
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
- Optical stabilization
- 12 MP
- Aperture: f/1.6
- Focal length: 26 mm
- Pixel size: 1.4 micron
- Sensor: 1/3.4", Sony IMX372 (Exmor-RS CMOS)
- Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
- Optical stabilization
Telephoto lens - 10 MP
- Aperture: f/2.4
- Focal length: 70 mm
- Pixel size: 1 micron
- Sensor: 1/3.94", Sony IMX772 (Exmor-RS CMOS)
- Phase autofocus
- Optical stabilization
-
Ultra-wide lens - 12 MP
- Aperture: f/2.2
- Focal length: 13 mm
- Pixel size: 1.4 micron
- Sensor: 1/2.55", Sony IMX713 (Exmor-RS CMOS)
- Phase autofocus
- 12 MP
- Aperture: f/2.4
- Focal length: 13 mm
- Sensor: 1/3.6" (CMOS)
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
Samples Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S22 from DxOMark Photo samples of Apple iPhone 12 from DxOMark
Selfie camera
Megapixels 10 megapixels 12 megapixels
Image resolution 3872 x 2592 4032 x 3024
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 26 mm 23 mm
Pixel size 1.22 microns -
Sensor type CMOS BSI CMOS
Sensor size 1/3.24" -
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS

DxOMark camera tests

Photo quality
iPhone 12 +11%
132
Video quality
116
112
Generic camera score
iPhone 12 +2%
122

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
Wi-Fi features - Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
- Dual Band
- Wi-Fi MiMO
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Display
Bluetooth version 5.2 5
Bluetooth features LE LE, A2DP
USB type USB Type-C No
USB version 3.2 -
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM* 2 1
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby -
eSIM support* Yes Yes
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat* 20 18
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos Yes Yes
Speakers test
Max loudness
Galaxy S22 +10%
89.5 dB
81.1 dB

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced February 2022 October 2020
Release date March 2022 October 2020
SAR (head) - 0.99 W/kg
SAR (body) - 0.99 W/kg
Sensors - Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Face recognition sensor
Bundled charger Not included -
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.

Conclusion

After analyzing all the data, we think that the Samsung Galaxy S22 is definitely a better buy.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
353 (64.8%)
192 (35.2%)
Total votes: 545

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