The Galaxy S22 Ultra lags behind the S22, S22 Plus when it comes to slow-mo

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is the most expensive and feature-packed phone in the S22 lineup, offering functionality like an S Pen slot, dual telephoto lenses with impressive zoom capabilities, and a huge battery.

However, we noticed on Samsung’s website that the S22 and S22 Plus actually best the Ultra model by offering native 960fps super slow-motion video recording.

You can view Samsung’s disclaimer below:

On Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus, users can record approximately 0.5 seconds of video captured at 960 fps with approximately 16 seconds of playback. On Galaxy S22 Ultra, users can record approximately 1 second of video captured at 480 fps and digitally enhance the video to 960 fps with approximately 32 seconds of playback. 

In other words, the Galaxy S22 Ultra tops out at 480fps super slow-motion and uses software interpolation to reach the 960fps mark. This approach means that half of the frames in the S22 Ultra’s 960fps clips are duplicate frames, which could lead to ghosting and other artifacts.

It wouldn’t be the first time we’ve seen the Ultra model lag behind in this area though, as last year’s S21 Ultra also lacked native 960fps slow-motion support.

We’ve contacted Samsung to find out why the S22 Ultra uses interpolated 960fps slow-motion video recording and will update the article if/when it gets back to us. However, it’s worth noting that the S22 Ultra uses the same Isocell HM3 main camera as the S21 Ultra, and this sensor lacks support for native 960fps output.

Nevertheless, this is quite a niche feature anyway. So I’m sure features like a 10X periscope camera, native S Pen support, and that 5,000mAh battery are enough to make most users forget about this downside.