Camera issues still persist
Samsung makes some of the best phones out there bar none, especially if you’re a shutterbug on the run. But even the world’s most popular Android brand can’t get everything perfect on launch day. Indeed, the cameras on the Galaxy S23 series — most notably on the Galaxy S23 Ultra — weren’t doing as well as they sohuld’ve been. While Samsung recently rolled out an update addressing these concerns, still more need to be ironed out and it looks like another OTA will be needed to fix them.
Chinese tech blogger Ice Universe claims Samsung is working on an update to fix an HDR processing issue on the Galaxy S23 Ultra which is leaving odd halos around subjects in photos.
One of the more difficult tasks in HDR processing lies in dealing with areas where there is a large difference in contrast. Long story short, you’ll see these halo-esque contours if your device is doing a bad job of handling itself. Semiconductor and smartphone companies have refined techniques over the years to produce images that still have an expansive range of colors without the obnoxious banding of contrast, but it seems there’s something going on in the S23 Ultra that’s making it fail.
SamMobile suggests there’s a chance that the patch could be bundled with the May 2023 security update, so if you own an Ultra, you’ll still need to wait a few weeks at the very least before the issue to rest.
The last camera update patched video recording and focus-related problems in addition to improving noise reduction in photos. Aside from the Galaxy S23, a similar halo is also being reported by one Galaxy S22 Ultra user.
It’s only been two months since the Galaxy S23’s launch and Samsung faces the very real risk of dominating the news cycle (if only in this niche corner of tech) for all the wrong reasons. It is currently bracing for a subpar Q1 2023 in financial terms based on a recent earnings forecast. That said, the company’s successful smartphone business could prove to be one of the few positives to come out of the quarter.
Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
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If you’re looking for the best of the best out of Android in 2023, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra is it. It’s the only one in the S23 lineup to feature the company’s flagship 200MP ISOCELL HP2 camera sensor, the only one with a 5,000mAh battery, and the only one to push the storage envelope up to 1TB. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy should run fast and easy and everything on that 6.8″ Dynamic AMOLED 2x display (the only one in the series with adaptive refresh rates between 1 and 120Hz) should look smooth and beautiful. And who can forget about all the note-taking features and the added convenience the S Pen brings? This is Samsung’s all-out effort for the Galaxy S nameplate.
