Expandable storage used to be a standout feature for any new Samsung phone, but in the case of the Galaxy S22, does the company's most recent flagship lineup still retain the feature? At the beginning of every year, Samsung uses its Galaxy S series to showcase the best of what it has to offer. For 2022, that takes the shape of the Galaxy S22 family. Samsung crammed in a lot with this latest entry. It's touting a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, 120Hz AMOLED display technology, upgraded cameras, refined designs, and more.
While Galaxy S handsets get better and more powerful every year, Samsung's also dropped certain features with its last couple of releases. The Galaxy S20, for example, was the first time Samsung shipped a major Galaxy S device without a 3.5mm headphone jack. More recently, last year's Galaxy S21 marked the end of MST support for Samsung Pay. Smartphone trends come and go at a rapid pace, and because of this, it's only natural for certain features to eventually phase-out.
This is also true of expandable storage. It used to be that any Samsung phone you bought had a microSD slot for increasing its storage. These days? The feature is all but extinct. If someone buys the Galaxy S22, Galaxy S22+, or Galaxy S22 Ultra, they'll get a phone that does not have expandable storage. This follows the trend Samsung started in 2021 when it also omitted microSD support from its Galaxy S21 devices. Considering this ongoing pattern with Samsung and the industry at large, it's unlikely expandable storage will return to the Galaxy S lineup any time soon.
All Galaxy S22 Storage Sizes You Can Choose From
Although expandable storage isn't present for the Galaxy S22 series, Samsung has made sure to offer robust internal storage options for shoppers to choose from. Starting with the baseline Galaxy S22, the phone starts with 128GB of storage and has an optional upgrade to 256GB. For casual smartphone users, the standard 128GB configuration should be plenty of space. Even with dozens of apps installed, lots of photos, and some downloaded albums, 128GB is still quite roomy. However, if you like having a lot of downloaded games, movies, songs, and podcasts, splurging for the 256GB model is a wise choice.
The Galaxy S22+ offers the same 128 and 256GB storage options, but the Galaxy S22 Ultra kicks things up a notch. In addition to those two choices, S22 Ultra owners can get the phone with 512GB or 1TB of storage. On top of that, buying more storage for the S22 Ultra also comes with additional RAM. While the 128GB configuration has just 8GB of RAM, users get 12GB of RAM when buying the S22 Ultra with 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of storage. Some Samsung fans will (rightfully) argue this doesn't fully make up for the lack of expandable storage, but unfortunately, it's just how things are with the Galaxy S22.
Source: Samsung