Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra could fall behind iPhone 13 Pro in one key area

Edit 12/20: While this isn't great news for the S22, the Ultra model may be getting a new detail enhancement feature for its main camera. 

The Samsung Galaxy S22 rumors are piling up as we approach the phone's expected launch in early 2022, but the latest one might not be good news on the storage front. 

That's according to a retailer leak from the tipster @_snoopytech_, at least, who shared alleged listings which show the basic Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus (or perhaps Pro) featuring either 128- or 256GB onboard storage. The Note-like Galaxy S22 Ultra — which could actually be called the Galaxy S22 Note, according to a new rumor — will reportedly come with either 128, 256 or 512GB of internal storage.

If true, that puts Samsung in the unusual position of being behind Apple. For reference, you can buy any iPhone 13 handset with 128, 256 or 512GB, and if you buy an iPhone 13 Pro, you can up that to 1TB.

So, advantage Apple? Well, maybe. But it’s worth noting that Samsung pioneered these mass-capacity options years ago, offering both the Galaxy S10 Plus and Galaxy Note 10 Plus with 1TB of internal storage. For whatever reason, the following year both the Galaxy S10 Plus and Galaxy Note 10 Plus maxed out at 512GB again, so it’s certainly possible that Samsung’s sales data told them that nobody wanted that much internal storage, and it wasn’t worth pursuing. We’ll have a better idea of whether that’s true if Apple abandons the 1TB option with the iPhone 14.

But it’s also worth remembering that both of Samsung’s 1TB experiments also included a microSD slot for expanding storage. Rumor has it that the S22 family won’t, which could make bigger storage models a necessity for some, rather than just a nice option.  

Elsewhere, @_snoopytech_’s leak also claims to have revealed the S22 range's color options. The S22 and S22 Plus will reportedly come in pink gold, green, black or white — though we’d expect some more poetic naming, given Samsung’s penchant for flowery branding with names such as “mystic bronze.” The S22 Ultra, meanwhile, will apparently come in dark red, black or white hues.  

While the Samsung Galaxy S22 and S22 Plus/Pro are supposed to be barely distinguishable from the S21 in terms of looks, the S22 Ultra will apparently be a Galaxy Note 22 in all but name, right down to the larger curved display and built-in S Pen. 

All three handsets are set to be extremely powerful, either featuring the freshly announced Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip or the extremely exciting Samsung Exynos 2200, depending on your region. They’re expected to arrive in February 2022, a month after the perpetually delayed Galaxy S21 FE.