Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S22 series on Wednesday, and there’s not much for Apple users to be jealous of. The iPhone 13 series from 2021 is as good or better in almost every way.
But there is an exception. The latest Androids from Samsung are almost certainly less likely to break when dropped than iPhone. But the iPhone 14 can — and should — steal a feature from the S22 that will fix that.
Samsung S22 doesn’t beat iPhone 13
A comparison of the Apple and Samsung flagships shows that the iPhone 13 either beats its rival or there’s a tie.
The S22 series comes in a range of sizes, from 6.1 inches to 6.8 inches. The iPhone 13 series ranges from 5.4 inches to 6.7 inches. The odd man out is the 6.8-inch Galaxy S22 Ultra, which has a built-in stylus. That’s not a category Apple competes in. In a similar vein, there’s no S22 model that can compete in size with the 5.4-inch iPhone 13 mini.
PCMag did a side-by-side comparison and says, “Except for the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, all of the iPhone 13 models offer higher-resolution displays.”
A Geekbench 5 comparison of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor in Samsung’s latest showed the chip is slower than the A15 Bionic in the iPhone 13.
Comparing the cameras between the S22 and iPhone 13 isn’t easy because both have areas where they are superior to their competitor.
There was a time iPhone users could count on getting OS updates years after an Android of the same age had become obsolete. But Samsung now promises to offer almost as many OS updates as iPhones routinely receive.
Both devices are equally waterproof. But surviving harsh conditions is an area where Samsung offers a feature Apple should steal.
iPhone 14 needs full protection front and back
There’s little in the Galaxy S22 for Apple to imitate. But Samsung did one thing Apple should emulate: it made the back of its new flagship smartphone as strong as the front. Both are made of Gorilla Glass Victus+, an enhanced version of Corning’s best high-tech glass.
Apple makes the glass over the iPhone 13 series AMOLED display highly rugged. The handsets have Ceramic Shield, which Apple promises is “tougher than any smartphone glass, offering amazing durability and drop performance.”
But it’s only on the front. As the iPhone 13 Pro product description says, “Ceramic Shield front. Textured matte glass back.”
While offering the best protection available for a phone’s display is wonderful, an iPhone with a shattered back is also a disaster. Best Buy charges $499 to repair a broken back panel on an iPhone 13 Pro Max.
That’s why the iPhone 14 needs Ceramic Shield on the front and back. The S22 shouldn’t be better than Apple’s next model in such an obvious way.
Apple and Android device makers regularly “borrow” from each other. It’s been going on for over a decade — Steve Jobs even went on the record calling Android “a stolen product” because it copied the original iPhone so much. The S22 series copies iPhone Pro’s ProRAW format. It just makes sense that’s Apple should borrow a good idea from Samsung and put a rugged back panel in the iPhone 14.
