Samsung Galaxy A22 5G review

One UI 3.1 and Android 11, with most features intact

It is hardly a secret that a lot of the appeal of Samsung devices lies in the software. Of course, it's not a universal appeal, but there is a reason why One UI is one of the most popular custom Android implementations out there and has been so for quite some time. For many users, the added value proposition of a Samsung phone lies precisely in the software and ecosystem.

In keeping with its new "Awesome is for everyone" slogan, the Korean giant is significantly stepping up its software game with the new Galaxy A family of devices. That includes the Galaxy A22 5G.

That being said, feature parity only stretches so far and coming down from the A72 towards the A22 has inevitably resulted in some extra feature cuts. Nothing major, though, and the things that are still there are amazing for a budget device.

Right off the bat, the A22 5G ships with the latest One UI 3.1 and Android 11 setup out-of-the-box. There aren't too many massive differences between One UI 3.1 and its recent predecessors, like 3.0 and 2.5. Still, there are some subtle differences worth going over.

At the launch of the A72, A52 and A32, Samsung made a huge commitment to offer three major Android OS updates for those phones, as well as four years of security updates. That will apparently be the case going forward for its high-end and some mid-range models.

Unfortunately, the Galaxy A32 and A32 5G are the cutoff point in that list, and the Galaxy A22 5G is currently scheduled for two major OS updates. This could actually be a reason to prefer the A32 5G for some prospective buyers, particularly if they intend on keeping it for a long time.

Circling back to One UI 3.1 and some of its changes - the default lock screen shortcuts - dialer and camera, are now monochrome - they used to match the respective apps' colors. Oddly enough, if you pick different apps, they will keep their colors - it's not a first-party vs. third-party type of differentiation either.

As more of a functional change - the lock screen has a wellbeing widget - you can now keep track of how much time you've spent on your phone without even unlocking it.

Lock screen, shortcuts and widgets

One notable omission on the Galaxy A22 5G is the always-on display feature. It is hidden away since it would just waste too much battery on the LCD display.

The side-mounted fingerprint reader will likely be the primary method of unlocking for most users, but you can still use face unlock instead or alongside it. It can be more convenient in certain situations, but it generally is less secure since it's just based on the selfie camera. Iris scanners are sadly a thing of the past now.

Biometrics and security

Another notable change is that pulling the notification shade covers the entire screen underneath, even if there's just one notification card or none at all. Previously, a portion of the screen below the last notification still remained visible, just darkened.

While we're here, the quick toggles can now be edited directly from the plus button at the end of the list instead of going into the menu.

Android 11 includes the nifty Notification history feature. It's accessed from the Settings menu, so it's not within immediate reach, but it's there for those occasions when you dismissed a notification too quickly and you can't seem to find what it was about. Just make sure to enable it because it's Off by default.

Notifications, quick toggles and notification history

All of the standard layout adjustments and toggles for the quick panel and taskbar are accounted for. Android 11 has a new way of handling notifications for instant messenger apps called Bubbles, and One UI 3 adopts it, too. That's in addition to a previously available similar feature offered by Samsung by the name of Smart pop-up view. You'll find these settings under the 'Floating notifications' submenu, where you can alternatively turn both of them off and opt for the old-school cards-only interface.

Bubbles is an extension of the Conversations feature, another new development. You tap on an icon in the initial incoming message notification. It turns into a conversation that you can then minimize to a bubble, or what was known as a 'chat head' - originally Facebook Messenger's default way of dealing with chats.

Smart pop-up view is one of One UI's lesser-known proprietary features. In the pre-Bubbles days, it used to add the chat head functionality to any application of your choosing. Tapping the hovering 'head' icon opens the app in a floating window, which you can further maximize to fullscreen or minimize again to an icon. Sort of like Bubbles, only slightly different.

Floating notifications

Android 11's refined multimedia controls have made their way on to One UI. You get the active audio playback apps in a stack right below the quick toggles and swiping to the side switches between the apps.

The Media screen was already available on One UI 2.5 pre-Android 11, and it offers similar functionality for picking the output device. The volume control panel has gotten a makeover too, and now the four sliders are vertical instead of the horizontal ones of One UIs past.

Media controls

Speaking of the Media screen, there is one notable omission on the Galaxy A22 5G - Music Share. It allows you to play music through Bluetooth accessories connected to a friend's Samsung phone. Quite nifty and understandably a major focus in Samsung's PR campaign for the A72, A52 and A32. Unfortunately, Music Share is nowhere to be found on the Galaxy A22 5G. The same goes for Smart View. Mind you, we tried a lot of workarounds, like installing SmartThings and its various components and even sideloading apps to no avail. There is still an option to cast content to a supported TV via SmartThings, though.

Honestly, though, these sorts of missing features are kind of the exception, rather than the norm on the Galaxy A22 5G. Most core features on One UI 3.1 are present. Like the ability to pin apps to the top of the sheet with Share options. It is actually a native Android 11 feature and a way overdue addition to the Android core in our mind. Things are much better now, but still, we'd like to be able to remove some of the options, too, because that list could sure use some decluttering.

One more thing that Google tweaked in this year's release is the permission handling, and Samsung's implemented it in One UI 3. With this version, you will now see a new prompt for permissions every time an app requests it, letting you deny permission, allow it only while using the app, or just for this one time. If an app requires constant access to permission, you also get a fourth option that takes you to a setting page where you can provide it. This is done to prevent the user from accidentally selecting this option while blazing through the permission dialogs.

Sharing options pinning, casting and permissions handling

The settings menu has seen a subtle but meaningful makeover. Subcategories are made more legible by using a dot separator and extra intervals, while recent searches are now shown as bubbles instead of a list. Additionally, there's a newly added feature to search settings by hashtags - for conceptually related things found in different places in the menu.

One UI Settings

The One UI dialer app lends itself to plenty of customization. There are two different layouts for the in-call screen to choose between. You can also set up a background image or video for that screen, though it's going to be all the same for all of your calls - you can't have a different one on a per-person basis.

Samsung dialer

There are plenty of other smaller visual changes scattered all throughout One UI 3.1. Samsung's excellent theme support and rich online selection are present, as well. The same goes for the system navigation options, with a few tweaks and layouts available for gestures, as well as old-school button controls, even the really-old original style, with the back button on the right side.

One UI 3.1 and navigation options

There are plenty of additional extra features in the Galaxy A22 5G as well. Like we said, most things present on the A32, A52 and A72 made it over, like the Edge panels interface, as well as Game launcher - the hub for all your games, which also provides options for limiting distraction when gaming is here to stay as well.

There are some omissions, though. For instance, there is no mention of Bixby anywhere in the UI, which is another feature that did not dissipate all the way down to the lineup. Though the cutoff point for this one, in particular, was the Galaxy A52, it was also missing from the A32. Another thing missing out of the box is SmartThings. Though, the system-level integration for it within the Devices tab in the notification shade is present. All you need to do is download the SmartThings app to get it working.

Additional software features

Samsung Dex is nowhere to be found. But it is absent from the entire Galaxy A lineup, which we get - some things still need to be flagship exclusives. Another thing absent from the Galaxy A22 5G, which the A32 and beyond do get to enjoy, is the Link to Windows feature. We failed to sideload that one, as well. Android Auto support is baked right in on the Galaxy A22 5G, though.

Overall, like we said, there are some omissions here and there the further down we go into the Galaxy A lineup. However, nothing cut is really major or all that detrimental to the overall One UI experience in our opinion. Fans of Samsung's particular Android experience should still be perfectly at home here.

Synthetic benchmarks

The Galaxy A22 5G is based on the MediaTek Dimensity 700 5G chipset. It currently sits at the bottom of the Dimensity line, but is still fairly popular. Probably more so than the Dimensity 720, which has still only passed by the office in the Galaxy A32 5G. Actually, the Dimensity 700, 720, 800U, 800 and 820 are all quite similar. All of these are based on an efficient 7nm manufacturing node and use a combination of big Cortex-A76 cores and smaller Cortex-A55 ones, plus a Mali-G57 GPU with a progressively increasing number of cores.

The Dimensity 700, in particular, has two Cortex-A76 cores, clocked at up to 2.2 GHz and another six Cortex-A55 ones, working at up to 2.0 GHz. The Dimensity 720 gets the exact same configuration, though, interestingly enough, with its bigger cores only going up to 2.0 GHz. Just like the specs suggest, we can verify through GeekBench and its pure CPU tests that, indeed, The Dimensity 700 inside the Galaxy A22 5G has a bit more raw CPU performance than the Dimensity 720 inside the Galaxy A32 5G. Not that it's a huge delta or anything significant for real-world use, but still interesting to note.

GeekBench 5 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  2909
• Poco X3 Pro
  2574
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  2009
• Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G
  1787
• Realme 8 5G
  1784
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  1780
• Poco X3 NFC
  1777
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  1719
• Realme 8
  1690
• Realme 8 Pro
  1678
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  1673
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  1627
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  1599
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  1577
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10S
  1576
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  1277
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  1034
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  495

GeekBench 5 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  803
• Poco X3 Pro
  735
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  661
• Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G
  597
• Realme 8 5G
  569
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  569
• Poco X3 NFC
  568
• Realme 8 Pro
  566
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  560
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  537
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  534
• Realme 8
  533
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  525
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  505
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10S
  502
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  361
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  169
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  131

We can also see that the Realme 8 5G has managed to squeeze a bit more performance out of the Dimensity 700. Again, not a significant difference. We can also clearly see that the CPU performance is about on par with what the Snapdragon 732G offers. While getting outpaced by the Snapdragon 750G 5G inside the Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite.

AnTuTu paints a bit of less-favorable picture of the Galaxy A22 5G. It makes sense, seeing how AnTuTu has a more compound set of tests that also take into account thing like resolution, memory and storage speeds. Still, the A22 5G holds its own.

AnTuTu 8

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  465534
• Poco X3 Pro
  453223
• Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G
  333952
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  318882
• Realme 8 5G
  302059
• Realme 8
  298328
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  295442
• Realme 8 Pro
  286666
• Poco X3 NFC
  283750
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  279342
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  261282
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  242155
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  226561
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  218788
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  174332
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  107189
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  90811

AnTuTu 9

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  522490
• Realme 8 5G
  361505
• Realme 8
  357488
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  333668
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10S
  330909
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  223188
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  222125

It should really come as no surprise that the Galaxy A22 5G is not a graphics powerhouse. It only has two Mali-G57 GPU cores. The Dimensity 720 and 800U have three of these cores, four in the Dimensity 800 and five in the 820. Just to give you some context.

GFX Manhattan ES 3.0 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 Pro
  102
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  89
• Realme 8
  53
• Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G
  51
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  45
• Poco X3 NFC
  44
• Realme 8 Pro
  43
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  39
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  39
• Realme 8 5G
  38
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  32
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  24
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  24
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  12
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  9.3

GFX Manhattan ES 3.0 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 Pro
  93
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  78
• Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G
  48
• Realme 8
  48
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  39
• Realme 8 Pro
  38
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  35
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  35
• Realme 8 5G
  35
• Poco X3 NFC
  33
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  31
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  21
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  21
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  19
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  16

Something potentially worth noting here is that the Galaxy A22 5G has a 2400 x 1080p display. This is important for on-screen tests. The higher native resolution on the A22 5G is definitely not helping in combination with its weak GPU.

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 Pro
  75
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  65
• Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G
  35
• Realme 8
  33
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  33
• Poco X3 NFC
  33
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  29
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  29
• Realme 8 Pro
  28
• Realme 8 5G
  25
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  24
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  17
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  15
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  7.7
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  6.1

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 Pro
  67
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  57
• Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G
  51
• Realme 8 Pro
  31
• Realme 8
  29
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  28
• Poco X3 NFC
  27
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  26
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  26
• Realme 8 5G
  22
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  21
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  15
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  13
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  13
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  12

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 Pro
  45
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  40
• Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G
  20
• Realme 8
  20
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  19
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  19
• Poco X3 NFC
  19
• Realme 8 Pro
  18
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  17
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  17
• Realme 8 5G
  15
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  14
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  9.3
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  9.3
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  3.4
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  3.3

GFX Car Chase ES 3.1 (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 Pro
  38
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  35
• Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G
  18
• Realme 8
  18
• Realme 8 Pro
  16
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
  16
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  16
• Poco X3 NFC
  16
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  15
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  15
• Realme 8 5G
  13
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  12
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  8.1
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  7.9
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  6.1
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  5

Even in OpenGL ES 3.0 runs, the Galaxy A22 5G barely manages to break through the 30fps barriers and things only get worse from thereon. This is a bit deceiving though, since any mobile game engine worth its salt will scale back dynamically in detail and resolution to accommodate the available power. In fact, we saw this fist hand with many casual games we managed to run at over 60fps, with extra smoothness, taking advantage of the 90Hz refresh rate of the phone's panel.

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 Pro
  27
• Realme 8 Pro
  11
• Realme 8
  11
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  11
• Poco X3 NFC
  11
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  10
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  10
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  7.8
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  5.3
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  4.4
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  3.8
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  3.5

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 Pro
  26
• Realme 8
  12
• Realme 8 Pro
  11
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  11
• Poco X3 NFC
  11
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  10
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  10
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  8.4
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  5.6
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  5
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  4.6
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  3.5

GFX Aztek Vulkan High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 Pro
  18
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  7.6
• Realme 8
  7.5
• Realme 8 Pro
  7.2
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  7
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  7
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  5.1
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  3.5
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  2.9
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  1.2
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  1.1

GFX Aztek ES 3.1 High (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 Pro
  17
• Realme 8
  7.7
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  7.3
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  7
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  7
• Realme 8 Pro
  7
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  5.5
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  3.7
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  3.3
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  1.5
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  1.2

Hence, take these numbers for what they are - artificial figures, measured within as much of a controlled scenario as possible to be comparable. Not reflective of real-world performance. In GPU test, in particular, display resolution also plays a role in on-screen benchmarks, which also needs to be taken into account.

3DMark traditionally paints a more cohesive picture in terms of comparative performance between devices. For instance, it makes plenty of sense that the Dimensity 720 in the Galaxy A32 5G is higher up the ladder than the Dimensity 700 in the A22 5G, due to the extra GPU core.

3DMark SSE ES 3.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G
  3167
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  2789
• Poco X3 NFC
  2689
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  2638
• Realme 8
  2610
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  2529
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  2517
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  2391
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  1471
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  1323
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  438
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  365

3DMark SSE Vulkan 1.0 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G
  3035
• Realme 8
  2639
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  2595
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  2509
• Poco X3 NFC
  2495
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  2406
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  2395
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  2257
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  1372
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  1371
• Samsung Galaxy A12
  612
• Samsung Galaxy A02s
  489

3DMark Wild Life Vulkan 1.1 (offscreen 1440p)

Higher is better

• Poco X3 Pro
  3401
• Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite 5G
  3136
• Realme Narzo 30 Pro 5G
  1556
• Realme 8
  1486
• Samsung Galaxy A32 5G
  1185
• Samsung Galaxy A22 5G
  1104
• Realme 8 5G
  1104
• Xiaomi Mi 10T Lite
  1098
• Realme 8 Pro
  1051
• Samsung Galaxy A52
  1040
• Samsung Galaxy A72
  1031
• Samsung Galaxy A32
  686
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
  482

It is important to note that we felt no shortage of performance while using the Galaxy A22 5G with regular, day-to-day tasks. In fact, even light game titles felt great and clearly managed to run smoother with the 90Hz mode enabled, meaning they manage to go above the 60fps mark. Is the Galaxy A22 5G a powerhouse or even a good budget gaming device? No, definitely not. If that is what you are after, you can get better value out of your money.

The Dimensity 700 delivers a modern and competent feature set and connectivity options, plus good power efficiency at a budget price point, all without being strapped for power for the tasks most of its users are likely to carry out.