Are Chinese consumers tossing out their Galaxy S22 Ultra for the iPhone 14 Pro?
Despite being the world's biggest smartphone seller, Samsung has a negligible footprint in China, which happens to be the world's largest smartphone market, and it looks like the release of Apple's iPhone 14 range will see Samsung's phones dwindle further in popularity.
Leaker Ice Universe says that a large number of China-based Galaxy S22 Ultra owners decided to sell their units after going through iPhone 14 Pro's stellar reviews, citing online posts.
After watching last night's iPhone 14 Pro review, today, a large number of S22 Ultra users are starting to sell their S22 Ultra. pic.twitter.com/FZpIzdQMi1
— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) September 15, 2022
The Galaxy S22 Ultra and iPhone 14 Pro are both amongst the best phones of 2022 but have a few key differences. The S22 Ultra has a 6.8 inches display and the iPhone 14 Pro Max a 6.7 inches screen and both support a high refresh rate of 120Hz.
The S22 Ultra has a pinhole for the front camera whereas the iPhone 14 Pro Max features a pill-shaped cutout for the front camera and Face ID tech.
Samsung's phone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and Apple's handset has the A16 Bionic under the hold. The S22 Ultra's quad camera array features a 108MP main camera and a 10MP periscope telephoto module with 10x optical zoom and the iPhone 14 Pro Max has a triple camera array with a 48MP main camera and a 12MP telephoto unit with 3x optical zoom.
The Ultra packs a 5,000mAh battery and the Pro Max comes with a 4,323mAh cell.
Samsung's social media pages have been trying to make fun of the iPhone 14
Ice's tweet cannot be taken as definitive proof that consumers in China are ditching their S22 Ultra for the iPhone 14 Pro Max but what we can say with a fair amount of certainty is that Apple's new phones are definitely off to a good start in the country, with one report saying that 2 million units were preordered within 24 hours and the initial response was so overwhelming that it crashed servers in China.
Around 85 percent of the pre-orders were for the Pro models and their lead times have been pushed out substantially, meaning many customers won't be able to get their hands on the phones on the September 16 release date.
According to Counterpoint Research, Apple led the premium market in China with a 46 percent share in Q2 2022, and Samsung didn't even make it to the top six.
So, whether or not Chinese consumers are ditching their S22 Ultras for the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, what's clear is that not many people had the S22 Ultra to begin with.
On paper, the S22 Ultra may look like it has an edge over the iPhone 14 Pro, but its chip is prone to overheating and its main camera has smaller pixels than the iPhone 14 Pro's 48MP sensor. It offers a few extras though such as the S Pen and reverse wireless charging capabilities, and its global sales have been promising.
Regardless, if customers in China - and maybe elsewhere - are actually swapping out their Galaxy phones for Apple's new phones, it must be so embarrassing for Samsung as lately it has been obsessed with dissing the iPhone 14.
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