Samsung has taken the unusual step of announcing that a big software update is coming to Galaxy S24 phones to fix a few issues that have been a cause for complaint from many owners.
Samsung says in a new blog post that "based on your feedback" the Galaxy S24 will get some "enhanced options and experiences across the device display and camera."
That seems to be a generous way of saying that Samsung has (potentially) sorted the much-criticized vivid display issue that made the screen appear more washed out than previous Galaxy phones.
The solution is a new 'vividness' option within the display's 'advanced settings', which lets you choose a more vibrant look than the "natural" one that Samsung mistakingly thought you'd prefer. You'll still get to choose between 'vivid' and 'natural' display options, but this new slider will give you additional fine-tuning controls.
Alongside that screen fix, Samsung says that it's made enhancements "across the camera experience", including boosts for the "device’s zoom functions, Portrait Mode, Nightography, rear camera video shooting capabilities and more".
Samsung didn't reveals any more specifics about what exactly these refinements do, but hopefully they'll fix a few of the other issues that some Galaxy S24 owners have experienced. These include an image shift problem that seemed to change the camera's field of view when switching from 1x to 5x zoom on the Galaxy S24 Ultra.
These updates will "begin rolling out in February" according to Samsung, so keep an eye out for its arrival within the next ten days or so.
An end to the S24 issues?
Unfortunately, recent complaints about the Galaxy S24's display haven't stopped at that previously-mentioned vividness issue – this week we've seen several Reddit users report some odd grain on their S24 displays when viewing dark and gray colors.
Meanwhile, other owners have reported seeing "frankly unacceptable" horizontal bars when looking at the screens when they're set at low brightness. We don't yet know if Samsung's software update is going to help fix either or both of these reported issues, but we'll soon find out as the rollout is imminent.
The grainy screen problem appears to be more hardware-related, as some affected owners have reported being offered a free replacement from Samsung. But given that Samsung has unusually made a public announcement for this incoming software update, we're expecting it to also fix as many bugs as possible alongside the new features.
In our tests, we also haven't encountered any of the issues above with the Samsung Galaxy S24, Galaxy S24 Plus or Galaxy S24 Ultra, so have no hesitation recommending the phones. If you do prefer your smartphone displays to be on the punchy side, you'll also now have that extra option with the S24 series thanks to this update.
