iPhone 14 Pro vs. Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus: Which should you buy?

Apple and Samsung both make some pretty great phones, which is great, but may leave you confused as to which one to pick. Apple recently unveiled the iPhone 14 Pro, which goes up against Samsung's Galaxy S22+. Apple is bringing a powerful new chipset called the A16 Bionic, based on a 4nm process. While the Samsung S22+ sports a pretty great camera setup, the iPhone 14 comes with a new and improved camera system. Here's our breakdown of the iPhone 14 vs. Samsung Galaxy S22+, and which one you should pick!

iPhone 14 Pro vs. Galaxy S22+: Specifications

Specifications aren't paramount, but they do help in differentiating a few key aspects when comparing two phones. Here's how the two phones stack up next to each other.

As you can see, the iPhone 14 Pro and the Galaxy S22+ are both very similar, but there's one big difference. The S22+ is a bigger phone, coming with a 6.6-inch screen compared to the iPhone 14 Pro's 6.1-inch screen. Despite that, the iPhone 14 Pro weighs in heavier at 206g, compared to the 195g weight of the S22+. Despite these differences, the two smartphones are definitely in the same lane. Let's take a deeper look at the key aspects of these phones to see which one you should buy.

iPhone 14 Pro vs. Galaxy S22+ Design: Battle of the aesthetics

Both the iPhone 14 and the Galaxy S22+ look classy enough for their looks to not be a problem. The iPhone 14 Pro is an awful lot like the iPhone 13 Pro in terms of looks, except now it has a notch replacement, which is a pill-shaped cutout called Dynamic Island. The UI surrounding this implementation is rather impressive, too. The iPhone 14 has the same flat-edged design, while the S22+ carries a curvier design. 

Size apart, both phones sport solid build materials. There's a key difference here as well, though. Both phones are glass sandwiches, but the iPhone uses a stainless steel frame, while the Galaxy S22 has an Aluminium body. This actually is a key reason why the iPhone 14 is heavier despite being smaller. It will also have better structural integrity, especially in the frame, than the S22+. Coming to the glasses, the iPhone 14's CeramicShield glass screen is more shatter-proof than the Gorilla Glass Victus+ on the S22+. However, the latter is more scratch resistant than the Phone 14's glass.

The Galaxy S22+ is a bit bigger than the iPhone 14 Pro and it also has a bigger screen. However, it's not a better display. While the S22+ has a pretty brilliant display, the iPhone 14 is coming in hot with the best display Apple has ever put on an iPhone. The screen on the S22+ has a resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels, at 393 ppi, while the iPhone 14 Pro gets a huge advantage with its screen running at 1179 x 2556 pixels, at 460 ppi. The iPhone's screen also goes up to 2000 nits of peak brightness, while the S22+can only hit 1750 nits. The iPhone is the clear winner here, especially since it has 120Hz ProMotion to match the refresh rate on the S22+.

iPhone 14 Pro vs. Galaxy S22+ Performance: Apple Siicon brings its A-game, again

Samsung had the top Qualcomm chip in the S22+ when it debuted, but the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 has since then gotten a sequel that corrects some of its flaws. On the other hand, Apple has put in a brand new 4nm A16 Bionic in the iPhone 14 Pro, and it's safe to say it blows the 8 Gen 1 away because the A15 Bionic did as well. In regular usage, you're unlikely to notice any major differences in performance, but the A16 Bionic will serve you better if you're a heavy user.

Coming to storage, the iPhone 14 Pro comes in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB storage capacities. The Galaxy S22+ only gets 128GB and 256GB, with no higher options available. While 256GB is plenty of storage, the lack of higher storage options makes the S22+ apoor option for anybody that needs a local storage. If you want to do a ton of photography and video recording, the iPhone 14 would make more sense for you.

The iPhone 14 Pro also comes with a great battery life promise. Apple is promising video playback of up to 23 hours and audio playback of up to 75 hours. The Samsung Galaxy S22+ comes with a much bigger battery than the S22, although smaller than the S21+. It has a decent enough battery life, if not the best. Given the iPhone 14 Pro's battery promises and the larger battery on the S22+, the two should get very close in terms of real-life battery life. So if you're to pick one phone based on the battery alone, you can rely on the other specifications to make your choice between these two phones.

iPhone 14 Pro vs. Galaxy S22+ price: Features and software

Android vs iOS used to be a much different debate a few years ago than it is today. Today, both operating systems offer a similar feature set while retaining some of their individual personalities. Android is more flexible, but iOS excels at user privacy and stability. The iPhone 14 Pro comes with iOS 16, which has been a major upgrade for the OS.

There are a few unique features that the iPhone 14 Pro brings that the Samsung Galaxy S22+ doesn't have. First of all, we have emergency SOS via satellite. This feature will let users text emergency services for help if they're stranded without a cell signal or Wi-Fi. Another new feature unique to the iPhone 14 Pro is Crash Detection, which can detect a crash and contact emergency services, and your emergency contacts.

Samsung isn't too far behind with the S22+ running Android 12 with One UI 4.1 Android 12 is a pretty reliable version of Android, offering a ton of customization options via Material You. Material You lets you customize the visuals on your phone using the wallpaper, colors, widgets, and more. One UI 4.1 works pretty well atop Android 12, with improved notification design, among other features. However, iOS 16 adds enough customization options to the iPhone 14 Pro to make it a solid recommendation, even against Samsung's matured combination. Dynamic Island is also a very solid implementation for the new notch replacement, earning the iPhone 14 Pro extra points on the software front.

iPhone 14 Pro vs. Galaxy S22+: Apple upgrades the camera system

Year over year, we see the same debate of the iPhone camera vs the Samsung Camera. Well now, the battle might be one-sided as being the newer phone of the two, the iPhone 14 Pro is bringing enough to the table to take the crown.

Make no mistake, the S22+ has a great camera. You get a 50MP primary camera, a 12MP ultrawide, and a 10MP telephoto camera, as well as a 10MP front camera. however, the iPhone 14 Pro has what is probably the biggest upgrade to the iPhone's cameras in years. You get a 48MP main camera, a 12MP ultrawide, and a 12MP telephoto camera. The front camera system also gets an upgrade. You get a dual-lens 12MP camera. 

There are a couple of things you get with the S22+ that the iPhone 14 Pro is missing though. Samsung still offers higher zoom, with the space zoom going up to 30x, while the iPhone can only go to 15x. Both phones have 3x optical zoom. While the 30x space zoom on the S22+ is good to have, it's still digital zoom, which means it comes at the cost of quality. 

The iPhone's image processing is superior and produces colour accurate images, and now with higher detail than ever thanks to the new 48MP sensor and pixel-binning and Photonic Engine. On the other hand, the S22+ produces more vivid images that may be preferred by some. Coming to the video recording capabilities, iPhones generally perform better, and you can expect the iPhone 14 Pro to do better than the S22+. However, despite the upgraded hardware, the iPhone 14 Pro still doesn't have 8K recording. So, if the space zoom and 8K video recording are important for you, the camera on the S22+ will serve you better. If not, the iPhone 14 Pro is the way to go.

iPhone 14 Pro vs. Galaxy S22+: Which should you buy?

This is never an easy question to answer, especially given how close Apple and Samsung get with their matching offerings these days. However, with the iPhone 14 Pro, Apple has done something special.

If the software experience is important for you, iOS now comes close to Android's customizability while sticking to its promise of privacy. If you want a better camera, the iPhone 14 Pro improves on all fronts. On the screen side of things, you even get a better and brighter screen on the iPhone 14 Pro. While the battery life is likely to be tied, the performance on the iPhone is miles ahead of the S22+ as of now. The iPhone is also the smaller phone, so keep that in mind if one-hand usage is your thing. Also remember, the S22+ promises four years of Android updates, while Apple has regularly surpassed that figure despite not making any hard promises.

There's no doubt that the iPhone 14 Pro is the best iPhone the company has ever made, and if you're to pit it against the S22+, it'll win on most fronts, if not all. However, there is one thing to remember, and that is the price. The iPhone 14 Pro and S22+ both retail at $999. However, the big difference is that the S22+ launched about six months before the iPhone 14 Pro, which means that it is now available at a lower price.

The S22+ now mostly retails for $799 and goes for even lower at times. The iPhone 14 Pro is very new, so don't expect a discount anytime soon. With that in mind, the decision comes down to the price, and your budget. If you want to get the better phone of the two regardless of the cost, the iPhone 14 Pro is the way to go. However, if you're getting the S22+ for $799 and want to save the extra $200, the S22+ is a no-brainer.