💌 Good morning! Happy Valentine’s Day!

S22 tech oops?

Here’s something odd. Samsung has changed its specs table for the S22 series a few days after launch. A simple mistake or something more?

What’s happened:

• When Samsung announced the Galaxy S22 series, it announced display specs for each device, as you’d expect.
• All three were billed as supporting 120Hz variable refresh rate.
• The S22 Ultra was announced with a refresh rate between 1Hz and 120Hz.
• The S22 and S22 Plus were listed as having the displays vary between 10Hz and 120Hz, seemingly using slightly less aggressive technology to deliver a cheaper overall device. (See the infographic above)
• But …then Samsung in the US did something odd, which was to quietly update the Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus specs to note that their screens actually vary between 48Hz and 120Hz. Again, here’s the old infographic via the Wayback Machine (which I screenshotted and marked up where to look). Here’s the current infographic.
• I’ve also seen a reviewer in Germany note their own device, an S22 Plus, goes down to 24Hz, which is lower than what Samsung is reporting, so it’s all strange.
• Regional variation? European devices get the Exynos 2200 chipset which could be the difference maker? Chip shortages meaning different display components in some cases or in some regions?
• It’s also possible the devices are completely identical.
• The full story is here, and my colleagues have asked Samsung for answers.

What it means:

• It’s unusual Samsung got this wrong and is quietly adjusting its specs sheets.
• But what is actually going on is that this may impact the battery life of the S22 and S22 Plus.
• Running your phone at a higher refresh rate when it isn’t needed, for instance while reading something that’s not moving, is worse for the battery.
• Lower refresh rates help deliver that longer battery lifespan by not using what isn’t needed.
• The S22 series having variable refresh down to 48Hz or so is still better than the S21 and S21 Plus, which only went down to 60Hz.
• But it’s not 10Hz as originally announced.
• So, what happened where one part of Samsung published one number, and then had to change it?
• You might argue this is a small detail. But this is both something small and something massive.
• While we’re here, perhaps that 10Hz refresh number would’ve been useful? There are very early, limited, unverifiedreports mostly on Twitter that battery life of the S22 isn’t looking great. Not terrible, not great.
• There’s truly a lot of testing to do before that becomes a story, though.

Roundup:

🤔 You can run Windows 11 on your phone thanks to Android 13. Also, you can run Android apps on Windows 11. Things are getting weird. (Android Authority).

👉 Nokia G21 announced: Two steps forward, one step back (Android Authority).

🖊 Motorola Edge 30 Pro could have stylus, but it seems like it won’t house the pen in the body of the phone like the Galaxy S22 Ultra (Android Authority).

🤷‍♂️ OnePlus officially announces Oxygen OS 13, which …isn’t supposed to exist (Android Authority).

💡 Google made a smart lamp that you’ll probably never be able to buy: employees only, for some reason (The Verge).

🥽 VR-related claims increased by 31% in 2021, says UK insurance firm (Engadget).

💍 The first trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power debuted at the Super Bowl. I saw someone say all streaming fantasy now looks the same and I semi-agree? (The Verge).

🧙‍♂️ There’s also a new Doctor Strange trailer (general Marvel spoilers within) (Ars Technica).

🎮 Horizon Forbidden West reviews are now out for the PlayStation 5 game, also on PS4. (Metacritic).

💰 FTC warns the public not to let online romance scammers turn them into “money mules” (Gizmodo).

🌔 Wow: ASTROnomers now say the rocket about to strike the Moon is not a SpaceX Falcon 9 at all: probable that the impact object comes from a Chinese rocket launched in 2014, so a lot of the flack poor ol’ Musky caught was unfair (Ars Technica).

📺 “What YouTube channel best fits the definition “quality over quantity“?” (r/askreddit).

Monday Meme

In previous years the Super Bowl halftime show would be throwing up memes galore.

But aside from people surprised at how good Eminem was despite being 50 years old or whatever, the predominant meme I’ve seen is about the Crypto Super Bowl, mostly focused on Coinbase (Knowyourmeme).

• The crypto platform spent a reported $14 million on its Super Bowl ad featuring a bouncing QR code (like the old bouncing DVD logo) that you could scan to get some Bitcoin if you signed up.
• But Coinbase absolutely didn’t spend enough to prepare for the traffic as people scrambled to get the $15 free Bitcoin and a chance to win more cash, and the app completely crashed.
• Anyway, this tweet was pretty great.

Cheers,

Tristan Rayner, Senior Editor