Samsung Galaxy S26 (Snapdragon) vs S22 (Snapdragon)

Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.3-inch Samsung Galaxy S26 (Snapdragon) (with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5) that was released on February 25, 2026, against the Samsung Galaxy S22 (Snapdragon), which is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and came out 4 years and 1 month before. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.

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Memory

Key differences

An overview of the main advantages of each smartphone
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S26 (Snapdragon)
  • 3x better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (3898K versus 1281K)
  • Has 50% more RAM: 12GB versus 8GB
  • Newer Bluetooth version (v5.4)
  • The phone is 4 years and 1 month newer
  • Compatible with Wi-Fi 7 wireless networks
  • Faster storage type - UFS 4.0 versus UFS 3.1
  • 2.1x faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 3551 and 1703 points
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S22 (Snapdragon)
  • Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
  • Has 2 SIM card slots

Review

Evaluation of Samsung Galaxy S26 (Snapdragon) and S22 (Snapdragon) 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
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate NanoReview Score
πŸ“± Primary usage:

Value for money (Beta)

Should I update?
No 83% Yes
Yes, this is a clear and meaningful upgrade.
Updating from Samsung Galaxy S22 (Snapdragon) to Samsung Galaxy S26 (Snapdragon) is a clear step forward, and the improvements should be easy to notice.
Main improvements: gaming, performance, and battery life.

Tests and specifications

Comparison table of technical specifications and tests

Display

Type Dynamic AMOLED Dynamic AMOLED
Size 6.3 inches 6.1 inches
Resolution 1080 x 2340 pixels 1080 x 2340 pixels
Aspect ratio 19.5:9 19.5:9
PPI 411 ppi 425 ppi
Refresh rate 120 Hz 120 Hz
Adaptive refresh rate Yes (1-120 Hz) Yes
Max rated brightness 1500 nits 780 nits
Max rated brightness in HDR 2600 nits 1300 nits
HDR support Yes, HDR10+ Yes, HDR10+
Touch sampling rate 240 Hz -
Screen protection Gorilla Glass Victus 2 Gorilla Glass Victus Plus
Screen-to-body ratio 90.9% 88.6%
Display features - DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
- DCI-P3
- Always-On Display
Peak brightness test (auto)

Design and build

Height 149.6 mm (5.89 inches) 146 mm (5.75 inches)
Width 71.7 mm (2.82 inches) 70.6 mm (2.78 inches)
Thickness 7.2 mm (0.28 inches) 7.6 mm (0.3 inches)
Weight 167 g (5.89 oz) 167 g (5.89 oz)
Waterproof IP68 IP68
Advanced cooling Vapor chamber Vapor chamber
Rear material Glass Glass
Frame material Metal Metal
Colors White, Black, Blue, Pink, Purple White, Black, Gray, Blue, Green, Pink, Purple, Yellow
Fingerprint scanner Yes, in-display Yes, in-display
Repairability Good (3.01/5) -
Drop resistance Excellent (A) Β· 270 drops -
Screen-to-body ratio

Performance

Chipset specifications of Samsung Galaxy S26 (Snapdragon) and Samsung Galaxy S22 (Snapdragon)
SoC
Chipset Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
Max clock 4740 MHz 3000 MHz
CPU cores 8 (2 + 6) 8 (1 + 3 + 4)
Architecture - 6 cores at 3.63 GHz: Oryon Gen 3 Performance
- 2 cores at 4.74 GHz: Oryon Gen 3 Prime
- 4 cores at 1.8 GHz: Cortex-A510
- 3 cores at 2.5 GHz: Cortex-A710
- 1 core at 3 GHz: Cortex-X2
L3 cache 12 MB 6 MB
Manufacturing TSMC Samsung
Lithography process 3 nanometers 4 nanometers
Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon Hexagon
GPU
Graphics Adreno 840 Adreno 730
GPU shading units 1536 1024
GPU clock 1300 MHz 818 MHz
FLOPS ~3993.6 GFLOPS ~1675.3 GFLOPS

Benchmarks

Benchmark comparison of Samsung Galaxy S26 (Snapdragon) and Samsung Galaxy S22 (Snapdragon)
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
Compute Score (GPU) 28096 5646
Single-core score 3551 1703
Multi-core score 10235 4021
Sources: Geekbench [3], [4]
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
CPU 1173242 492631
GPU 1544662 220632
Memory 410536 204295
UX 770452 363661
Total score 3898892 1281210
Samples [2 tests] [11 tests]
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Stability - 52%
Graphics test - 11 FPS
Graphics score - 2003
Sources: 3DMark [5]
Web score - 12379
Video editing - 7351
Photo editing - 28711
Data manipulation - 10875
Writing score - 14823

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Samsung Galaxy S26 (Snapdragon)
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-12 (Fahad Nadeem)CPU Throttle51%
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-12 (Fahad Nadeem)Geekbench 6 GPU22177
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-12 (Fahad Nadeem)Geekbench 6 CPU3551 / 10235
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-12 (Fahad Nadeem)AnTuTu 113898892
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-08 (Fahad Nadeem)CPU Throttle80%
Samsung Galaxy S22 (Snapdragon)
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-27 (Khaled)AnTuTu 111341721
πŸ“˜ 2026-06-28 (swooo_rd)AnTuTu 111367038
πŸ“˜ 2026-06-04 (S22)AnTuTu 111310708
πŸ“˜ 2026-05-17 (Lashra)AnTuTu 111346980
πŸ“˜ 2026-05-17 (Licola)AnTuTu 111318272

Memory

RAM
RAM size 12 GB 8 GB
Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR5
Memory clock 5300 MHz -
Channels 4 4
Storage
Storage size 256 GB 128 GB
Storage type UFS 4.0 UFS 3.1
Memory card No No

Software

Operating system Android 16 Android 12 (Can be upgraded to Android 16)
ROM One UI 8.5 One UI 8.0
OS size 31.6 GB -
OS updates 7 years -
Security updates 7 years -

Battery

Capacity 4300 mAh 3700 mAh
Max charge power 25 W 25 W
Battery type Li-Ion Li-Po
Replaceable No No
Wireless charging Yes (15 W) Yes (15 W)
Reverse charging Yes, (wireless) Yes, (wireless)
Bypass charging Yes -
Fast charging Yes Yes (63% in 30 min)
Full charging time - 1:03 hr
Battery cycles 1200 cycles -
Battery life tests
Web browsing - 06:06 hr
Watching video - 10:26 hr
Gaming - 04:19 hr
Standby - 89 hr
General battery life

Main camera

Matrix 50 megapixels 50 megapixels
Image resolution 8160 x 6120 8160 x 6120
Zoom Optical, 3x Optical, 3x
Flash LED LED
Stabilization Optical Optical
8K video recording Up to 30FPS Up to 24FPS
4K video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
1080p video recording Up to 60FPS Up to 60FPS
Slow motion 240 FPS (1080p) 960 FPS (720p)
Angle of widest lens 120Β° 120Β°
Lenses 1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Telephoto: 10 MP
3) Ultrawide: 12 MP
1) Standard: 50 MP
2) Telephoto: 10 MP
3) Ultrawide: 12 MP
Camera features - Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
- Bokeh mode
- Pro mode
- RAW support
Standard lens
Image resolution 50 MP 50 MP
Aperture f/1.8 f/1.8
Focal length 24 mm 24 mm
Sensor Samsung ISOCELL S5KGN3 Samsung GN5
Sensor size 1/1.56" (β‰ˆ 0.64 inch) 1/1.56" (β‰ˆ 0.64 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 1 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Optical Optical
Telephoto lens
Image resolution 10 MP 10 MP
Aperture f/2.4 f/2.4
Focal length 67 mm 70 mm
Sensor Samsung ISOCELL S5K3K1 Sony IMX772
Sensor size 1/3.94" (β‰ˆ 0.25 inch) 1/3.94" (β‰ˆ 0.25 inch)
Pixel size 1 micron 1 micron
Stabilization Optical Optical
Ultra-wide lens
Image resolution 12 MP 12 MP
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 13 mm 13 mm
Sensor Sony IMX564 Sony IMX713
Sensor size 1/2.55" (β‰ˆ 0.39 inch) 1/2.55" (β‰ˆ 0.39 inch)
Pixel size 1.4 micron 1.4 micron
Stabilization Digital Digital

Selfie camera

Megapixels 12 megapixels 10 megapixels
Image resolution 4000 x 3000 3872 x 2592
Aperture f/2.2 f/2.2
Focal length 26 mm 26 mm
Sensor Samsung S5K3LU CMOS
Sensor size 1/3.2" (β‰ˆ 0.31 inch) 1/3.24" (β‰ˆ 0.31 inch)
Pixel size 1.12 micron 1.22 micron
Autofocus Phase autofocus Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel)
Stabilization Digital Digital
Video resolution 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS
Depth sensor (TOF 3D) No No

Connectivity

Wi-Fi standard Wi-Fi 7 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax/be) 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 5.4 5.2
Bluetooth features LE LE
USB type USB Type-C USB Type-C
USB version 3.2 3.2
USB features - Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
- Charging
- USB-Storage mode
- OTG
DisplayPort Yes, DP 1.2 Yes, DP 1.2
GPS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo
NFC* Yes Yes
Infrared port No No
Network
Number of SIM* 1 2
Type of SIM card Nano Nano
Multi SIM mode Standby Standby
eSIM support* Yes Yes
Hybrid slot No No
LTE Cat* - 20
5G support Yes Yes

Sound

Speakers Stereo Stereo
Headphone audio jack No No
FM radio No No
Dolby Atmos Yes Yes

Other

Category Flagship Flagship
Announced February 2026 February 2022
Release date March 2026 February 2022
Launch price (MSRP) $899 $799
Successor - - Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus (Snapdragon)
SAR (head) - 0.21 W/kg
SAR (body) - 1.59 W/kg
Sensors - Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
- Hall-effect sensor
- Barometer
- Proximity sensor
- Gyroscope
- Accelerometer
- Ambient light sensor
- Compass
- Fingerprint
Bundled charger Not included 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 S26 (Snapdragon) is definitely a better buy.

Cast your vote

So, which phone would you choose?
10 (27.8%)
26 (72.2%)
Total votes: 36

User opinions

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