Customers try out Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S22 smartphone at a company store in Hongdae, Seoul, Sunday. Courtesy of Samsung Electronics

Korean tech giant begins preorders for Galaxy S22 Monday

By Baek Byung-yeul

Samsung Electronics said Sunday it will begin receiving preorders for its newest Galaxy S22 smartphone series. All eyes are on whether the S22 series will be able to achieve higher sales than the S21, as the new premium phone offers better camera performance and a stylus pen, which used to be seen in the Galaxy Note series.

The S22 series consists of three variations: the S22 with a 6.1-inch display, the S22+ with a 6.6-inch display and the 6.8-inch S22 Ultra with an S Pen stylus. They are priced between 999,900 ($833) and 1.55 million won each. They will officially hit the Korean market Feb. 25.

The company claimed that the latest S series has been significantly improved with large image sensors for better picture quality, even in night conditions. Its processing chips are made of 4-nanometer technology for the first time among the Galaxy phones, which means faster processing speeds.

Experts said the company aims to beat the sales record of its previous line given that Samsung decided to release the S22 series at the same prices as the S21 series, and the highest-priced one ― the S22 Ultra with 512-gigabyte of RAM ― is about 40,000 won cheaper than last year's top-end model.

Before introducing the S22 series, Samsung was expected to release the phones at higher prices than the S21 series due to rising raw materials prices and exchange rates, as well as the insufficient semiconductor supply.

Despite the fact that manufacturing costs are expected to have risen sharply, the move can be interpreted as Samsung aggressively seeking to sell more S22 smartphones.

"In terms of annual shipments, the Galaxy S21 series posted around 27 million handsets in sales last year, while the Galaxy S22 is expected to record 30 million sold, which is likely to become the highest-selling model since the Galaxy S10," Kim Sun-woo, an analyst at Meritz Securities, said adding that Samsung's mobile business division is expected significantly to improve its operating profit in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the previous fourth quarter, which was 2.7 trillion won.

Even if Samsung falls short of its sales target of 30 million handsets, the S22 series will still be a positive factor to the operating profit of the company, as the S22 Ultra, which combines the functions of the Galaxy Note, is presumed to receive favorable responses, Hwang Min-seong, an analyst at Samsung Securities, said.

"In terms of cost and margin, Samsung is estimated to have improved the margins of expensive products by installing the pen function, which was provided in the Note series, in the Ultra model," the analyst said.

Consumers can preorder the Galaxy S22 series on Samsung's website, e-commerce markets and through the offline and online shops of mobile carriers, as well as at Samsung's Digital Plaza stores.