Monthly Archives: March 2022

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 2022 Review: The Next Galaxy Note

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Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 2022 has finally arrived. With its hot new design and upgraded specs, it hopes to finish first place in the race against many other top-range smartphones. Speaking of other top-range smartphones, is better than its predecessor?  Is it really as great as we hope it to be? Before we can truly say that, let’s check out my review of the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. 

 

 

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra

 

Front and back view of the green Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 2022

 

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Specifications

DISPLAY 6.8 inches, dynamic AMOLED 2X, 120Hz, HDR10+, 1440 x 3088 pixels
BUILD, WEIGHT, DIMENSIONS Glass front (Gorilla Glass Victus+), glass back (Gorilla Glass Victus+), aluminum frame | 229 g (8.04 oz) | 163.3 x 77.9 x 8.9 mm (6.43 x 3.07 x 0.35 in)
CPU & GPU Octa-core, Exynos 2200 (4 nm) – Europe, Qualcomm SM8450 / Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (4 nm) – International |  Xclipse 920 GPU – Europe / Adreno 730 – International   
RAM & STORAGE 128GB 8GB RAM | 256GB 12GB RAM | 512GB 12GB RAM | 1TB 12GB RAM
OPERATING SYSTEM Android 12, One UI 4.1
MAIN CAMERA & VIDEO Quad camera | 108 MP, f/1.8, 23mm (wide), 1/1.33″, 0.8µm, PDAF, Laser AF, OIS | 10 MP, f/4.9, 230mm (periscope telephoto), 10x optical zoom | 10 MP, f/2.4, 70mm (telephoto), 3x optical zoom | 12 MP, f/2.2, 13mm (ultrawide), Super Steady video | features LED flash, auto-HDR, panorama | up to 8K@24fps video, HDR10+
FRONT CAMERA & VIDEO Single-camera | 40 MP, f/2.2, 26mm (wide) | features Dual video call, Auto-HDR | up to 4K@30/60fps video
BATTERY Li-Ion 5000 mAh, non-removable | Fast charging 45W | Fast wireless charging 15W | Reverse wireless charging 4.5W
MISC COLORS – Phantom Black, White, Burgundy, Green, Graphite, Red, Sky Blue | CONNECTIVITY – Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/6e, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot | Bluetooth 5.2 | USB Type-C 3.2, USB On-The-Go | features IP68 dust/water resistant (up to 1.5m for 30 mins) | features Stylus, 2.8ms latency (Bluetooth integration) | Single SIM (Nano-SIM) or Dual SIM (2 Nano-SIMs + eSIM, dual stand-by)

(Source: gsmarena.com)

Reason to Buy

  • Note 20 successor
  • Stunning design
  • Includes S Pen
  • Battery life is pretty good
  • Great camera features with great zoom
  • Great looking display 
  • Fast performance

Reason to Avoid

  • A tall 6.8-inch smartphone that may not fit in your pocket
  • Expensive
  • Slower fast charge
  • Less battery life than predecessor

 

Overview

 

 

I’m surprised that Samsung didn’t call this new top-tier smartphone a Note S22 (or something similar) because it definitely looks like one. I’m sure they have their reasons, but I guess they like the name ‘Ultra’, so they sticking to it. This is the top-range smartphone in the Galaxy S22 series. This one also comes with most of the top features and specs, just like the Galaxy S21 Ultra did last year in the S21 series.

On the outside, you will see a 6.8-inch display, with a single teardrop 40MP camera. At the back, there’s the 108MP main camera with four lenses to take pictures and videos. The exterior is covered in a tough glass covering back and front and encased in an aluminum frame. There’s also a new slot at the bottom section of the phone where you can pull out the S Pen. Pretty neat.  

Under the hood, is an 8-core 5G processor from Exynos or Snapdragon (region depending), a range choice of 8GB or 12GB of memory, and a range choice of 128GB to 1TB of storage. What you get in the box is the S22 Ultra smartphone, the S Pen stylus, a USB-Type C data cable, and an ejection pin. No brick charger plug and no earphones. The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 2022 has some good specs that rival the other top-range smartphones in the market today. but what makes it tick? What do we like about this phone?      

 

 

What’s to Like

 

  • Stunning design
  • Includes S Pen
  • Battery life is pretty good
  • Great camera features with great zoom functionality
  • Great looking display 
  • Fast performance

 

Green, white, phantom black, and red Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 2022

 

We like the design of the S22 Ultra, even though it looks and feels like Samsung’s previous Note models. I guess you can say this is the new ‘Note S22’. It comes with round edges on the side, giving it a more premium look. It’s covered with tough glass and a strong aluminum frame exterior to improve durability. The phone includes 7 choices of colors to choose from. Overall. Great new design. Nice choice of colors. Great durability. 

Performance-wise, the S22 Ultra comes with the latest performance chips. As expected, the display moves seamlessly and smoother, with fast loading of apps, a fast load of web browsing, and an attractive user interface. From testing and benchmarking, the performance is fast, fluid, and smooth, which has become a  standard top-range feature for top-tier smartphones. 

Battery life is pretty good with the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra. Upon testing, at moderate use, you’re looking at about 4 days and 12 hours before the battery runs flat. That’s pretty good battery life. Next is the display. So the S22 Ultra comes with a 6.8-inch screen, with a 120Hz refresh rate and a 1440p FHD+ screen resolution. You can’t help but be amazed.

The screen comes with good brightness, displaying detailed and sharp images and video, and good color accuracy. It makes it a joy to look at high-quality videos and images. Overall. Stunning display. In terms of the camera, the overall experience has been wonderful. During the day the pictures on a normal wide camera are detailed, with bright colors and great detail. The ultrawide images are good but there is some loss of detail.

The zoom function, however, is a great feature. you can zoom up to 3 times or even 10 times and the image quality still looks great. At low light, the camera takes stunning pictures with excellent detail. For video recording, the S22 Ultra can record up to 8K videos at 24fps. If you’re worried about storage then 4K videos are better off or FHD as they are even more smooth and more detailed. Overall. Impressive pictures and videos. 

    

What’s not to Like

 

  • A tall 6.8-inch smartphone that may not fit in your pocket
  • Slower fast charge
  • Less battery life than predecessor

The Samsung S22 Ultra comes with stunning features, but there are a few things that we must note about it. So here’s a list of what we don’t like about this phone. 

 

Front and side view of the sky-blue Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 2022

 

The S22 Ultra is a nice and tall phone. But it may be too large to fit in your pocket. If you like keeping it stored safely in your pocket, then this phone is not for you. Rather get a separate pouch to keep it safely stored on you. The battery life may be great with the S22 Ultra smartphone but the charging speed isn’t. With a 25W charger, in 30 minutes the phone is charged 61%, whereas with a 45W charger the phone is charged 60%. Not much difference there. It’s just disappointing that a 45W charger performs this way as we expected a faster charge speed than the 25W.

Sticking to the battery life, with the S22 Ultra you can get a good 4 days and 12 hours of battery life, whereas with the older S21 Ultra, on moderate use, you can get up to 4 days and 18 hours of battery life. You may be thinking it’s only a few hours difference but a few hours difference goes a long way.      

 

 

Verdict

 

Front and back view of the white Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 2022

 

All I can say is, well done Samsung. The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is by far the best-looking, best-performing, and best features smartphone of 2022 so far. If this phone is the apple of your eye, or you plan to get it any time soon, then you’ve made a great choice. It would be nice to know there’s a 45W charger out there that outperforms the existing 25W charger in terms of charge speed. And the battery life difference between the S22 Ultra and the S21 Ultra may not seem much but it helps to have more. Overall, the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is a great smartphone to buy. I highly recommend it. Get it now, while stocks last.    

There are other great alternatives out there like the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. It’s last year’s model, but still the best. There’s also the older Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. It’s 2 years older but a lot cheaper. Click on the links to check out my reviews. Thanks for checking out my review of the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 2022. If you have questions, or you wish to leave a comment, please do so below. So if you like what you see, click here to check more, and experience one of the best smartphones of 2022.

 

Bandai Namco Elden Ring Review: Bigger, Fearsome, Better

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Introducing Bandai Namco Elden Ring, the biggest, most terrifying, but also one of the best video games ever created by FromSoftware. If you’re familiar with game titles such as Demon Souls, Bloodborne, and the Dark souls gaming franchise, you’ll have a better idea as to what you’re getting yourself into. A challenging but rewarding gaming experience.

For first-time players getting into the action RPG and souls genre, it’s a good idea for you to know what exactly what you’re getting yourself into. The developers from FromSoftware are known for making challenging video games, that test you mentally, and emotionally, and Elden Ring is no different. With that being said, I bring you my review of Elden Ring. 

 

 

Bandai Namco Elden Ring

 

Available on PS5, PS4, PC, and Xbox One / Series X

Get it at GameFly!

 

Reason to Buy

    • Open-world exploration to find dungeons, defeat foes & bosses
    • Awesome new gaming mechanics
    • Stunning graphic visuals with detailed environments & landscapes
    • Smooth & fluid gameplay with 80+ hours of gaming

Reason to Avoid

    • Challenging with no difficulty options
    • Occasional performance issues and bugs on PC version

 

 

Overview

 

 

You are Tarnished. You start off in a tomb after character creation and a beautiful intro cinematic. You encounter a mini-boss that kills you, then you wake up deep in a dungeon, where you go through a quick gaming tutorial then you fight another mini-boss. You win the fight.  You find a way out of the dungeon, then you finally see the vast world you need to explore.  What’s next is up to you. 

It’s an open-world, souls-genre, action RPG, where you explore this vast world, battling enemies,  and monsters, to get stronger. It comes with a deep storyline, with lots of dialogue, good cinematics, and new gaming mechanics. Those who have played previous gaming titles may spot similar gaming elements, like the same character animations, and the same character leveling system. But those are some of the many things that make FromSoftware such a great gaming developer. 

It promises plenty of hours of gameplay, lots of weapons and magic spells to find and defeat your foes, and a massive map to explore.     

 

Fight lesser foes and bosses to learn spells and get legendary weapons.

 

There’s also an online multiplayer mode, where you can invade other characters’ worlds to battle or join them to help them fight tough enemy bosses. Overall, it’s a tough action RPG. It includes great graphics, great gameplay, and long hours of gameplay, and comes with newer gaming mechanics which will come later on. 

 

 

What We Like

 

So what’s to like about this? Well, lots of things. Firstly, Elden Ring is available for next-gen consoles and PC.  From my playthrough, I was blown away by how good-looking the graphics were. From the detailed day-to-night sky to the detailed NPCs and enemy AI, the graphics look stunning with awesome visuals, detailed landscapes, and environments.

Next is the gameplay. I was amazed at how fluid and the smoothness of the gameplay were, especially the overall character, enemy, and other gaming animations. The music and sound effects are livelier than ever. It just made boss battles more epic. 

Then there are the new gaming mechanics that include:

  • Open-world to exploration using a magical mount
  • Crafting items on the go to help you in combat
  • More weapons, magic, and accessories to discover
  • More epic boss fights to beat & strengthen your character

 

Explore and encounter massive ground and flying beasts.

 

And lastly, the game will take you more than 80+ hours to complete. I’ve played for over 50 hours and am still nowhere close to the finish. There’s just so much to explore, so many enemies and bosses to defeat, and not to mention there are so many powerful items to find. If you like this type of game, then, believe me, you’ll enjoy every minute of Elden Ring. In short, this is one of the best looking, best gaming experiences I’ve ever had, and you’ll also as well. With all the good things of Elden Ring, there are things you must know.  

 

 

What We Don’t Like

 

Firstly, Elden Ring is a really hard game.  There are no other difficulty options.  Enemies can easily overpower and kill you if you’re not careful, and the game works on a limited stamina system. In other words, if your stamina bar is 0, you become vulnerable.  So going in there to fight guns blazing is not a good idea.  

  

Prepare for battle as you fight massive foes on your magical steed.

 

Next, there are performance issues and bugs on the PC version,  even if you have a 3080 RTX gaming PC. From my playthrough on PC, the frame rate drops often affecting the performance, glitches that got me stuck on rocks, and the enemies plus your mount appear invisible at times. I was not impressed.

However, the game runs well on consoles. From playing on the PS5, I experienced very minor issues but I had no problems with gaming performance and graphics. The bottom line is if you have a next-gen console, get the console version.

Unless stated otherwise like a patch for the PC to fix the performance and graphic issues, I suggest that you do not buy the PC version yet. The game is also hard but it’s a lot of fun. It’s really not a game for everyone but if you can handle it, then go for it.

 

     

Overall Verdict

 

Bandai Namco Elden Ring is a great game. It comes with a huge but beautifully detailed map to explore. It has challenging enemies, and hard bosses to defeat.  There are so many skills, magic abilities, weapons, and crafting materials to find, that are geared to strengthen your character. 

 

But I don’t recommend you play Elden Ring. 

 

It’s very challenging. It’s not for everyone. The enemies are brutal.  Your character will die a lot, and if you don’t watch yourself, you’ll end up frustrated, then you end up tossing and breaking your controller. 

 

Explore the massive lands of Lands Between and uncover its secrets.

 

But it’s all about finding good gear, finding and defeating lesser foes over and over again then leveling up to get stronger, and executing different tactics to defeat stronger foes. Then you’ll feel satisfied and more confident and want to take on stronger foes.  

 

And that’s why I recommend you play Elden Ring.  

 

There are plenty of helpful strategies, guides, and videos online that you can use. I’m no expert either and I make use of online guides to help me get through the game.  You can also seek help online by summoning other players to help you fight bosses.       

With that said, if you’re new to this gaming franchise and feel up to the challenge, then buy Elden Ring.  You’ll have a hard time playing this game, but once you get into it, you’ll yearn for more and more.    

If you like my review of Bandai Namco Elden Ring, please add your comments below. All that’s left for you to do is to click here, purchase or rent Elden Ring, and give it a try. That’s all from me. Stay safe until next time.