My ownership of Galaxy S22 Ultra is short lived. The smartphone arrived on Dec. 15, 2022, and, today, FedEx delivered its replacement: successor S23 Ultra, which Samsung launched on Feb. 1, 2023. Feelings are mixed. For one, two months seems such short amount of time. For another, I am quite satisfied with the now older model. Additionally, I somewhat regret my color choice.
The smartphone comes in a choice of four standard colors: cream, lavender, green, and phantom black. Samsung sells four more direct: graphite, lime, red, and sky blue. Ordering from the manufacturer’s website, I opted for red, but hours later changed my mind. Unfortunately, undoing the decision would have meant cancelling the purchase and making another; I worried about losing the discounts and extras already given.
They were plentiful. Purchase credits made the break-fix warranty free, and I ended up choosing, also at no cost, SmartThings Station (fancy name for 15W wireless charging hub). Samsung doubled the storage, essentially selling the 512GB variant for the price of the 256-gigger. Five-hundred dollar trade-in credit covered all but $100 of my purchase price for the S22 Ultra—thanks to generous Christmas holiday discounts and accepted value of my iPhone 13 Pro.
Samsung’s trade-in policy is lovely. The value is applied immediately at point of sale. Should the buyer choose to keep the older device, only then is the credit card charged for the difference. By contrast, Apple doesn’t extend the same kind of trust, opting instead to refund the trade-in value after receiving the device.
I joked with my wife that the fruit logo company rewards customers with same selling price, or more, and nothing else when releasing a new iPhone. Samsung woos loyal customers and potential converts with generous incentives during the initial preorder period, which ends tomorrow, incidentally.
The S22 Ultra is so big a phone—and meaning way more than its size—that I am considering keeping and letting that additional $500 charge to my credit card. That would happen if Annie agrees to using the smartphone instead of her much smaller S22, which hilariously cost me more than the bigger phone when bought in December. We would keep that one as an emergency spare. She doesn’t talk much on the phone, but she does access content and take photos; the brighter, more spacious screen and better camera system (10x zoom, baby) are huge benefits. We have 12 days to decide.
As for the color, which sure looks salmon to me, it will grow on me, surely. Besides, I can stand apart from the herd of iPhone users—and that is quite the apparent majority here in San Diego. That’s about all for tonight, except to add this: Samsung sure makes easy the data transfer and settings migration between devices. That’s a wrap.
The Featured Image and companion come from Leica Q2. Vitals, aperture set for both: f/4, ISO 100, 1/40 sec, 28mm; 4:28 p.m. PST. The other is the same but 1/30 sec, one minute earlier.