Samsung's latest budget phone trades pixels for higher refresh rate

Samsung has kicked off its latest round of budget phone launches in Europe starting with the Samsung Galaxy M22. As the successor to the Galaxy M21, the new phone brings several improvements to the camera array and other key areas but does so at the cost of others.

In terms of design, the Galaxy M22 is visually similar to the Galaxy F22 that launched in India in July. This includes a waterdrop notch up front and a textured rear plate with a square quad-camera array at the rear. The Samsung Galaxy M22 employs a 48MP primary rear camera, with 8MP ultra-wide, 2MP macro, and 2MP depth sensors in tow. The selfie shooter employs a 22MP sensor.

While the Galaxy M21 packs a fairly dense 6.4-inch 2,340 x 1,080 AMOLED screen, the M22 drops those extra pixels in favor of a faster refresh rate. Although it retains the 6.4-inch size, the M22’s display features a 1,600 x 720 resolution with a speedier 90Hz refresh rate. This will be a welcome change for gamers on a budget but might not be similarly appreciated by binge-watchers.

Internally, a MediaTek Helio G80 SoC is mated to 128GB of expandable storage and 4GB RAM. Power comes via a 5,000mAh battery with 25W charging support. Notably, that’s 1,000mAh less battery capacity than what you get with the Galaxy M21, but M22 users will gain 10W faster charging.

Other niceties include a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, dedicated dual-SIM slots, Android 11 with One UI 3.1, Wi-Fi 5 support, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Samsung Germany currently lists the Samsung Galaxy M22, but there are no pricing details. Notably, the Galaxy F22 did debut for under $200 in India, but we’d expect European pricing for the M22 to be slightly higher. Colorways available include Black, Blue, and White.