The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra might be one of the best smartphones on the market, but what should have been its biggest selling point has been its greatest weakness since its launch in January.
It's safe to say that the quality of a smartphone's camera will greatly influence your next smartphone purchase. In fact, several surveys have shown that nearly half of phone purchases cite camera quality as a key factor in the decision to buy or upgrade. This is great news if you're Samsung, a manufacturer that has become synonymous with spectacular snappers — with last year's Galaxy S23 Ultra being a shining example.
Naturally, you'd presume that the Galaxy S24 Ultra would see Samsung capture the hearts and minds of shutterbugs the world over all the more. However, things haven't been so straightforward.
Photogaffes: How the S24 Ultra's camera has stumbled
Shutter lag, over-exposure, white balance issues, poor telephoto imagery, and "abnormal" red coloring appearing in captured images have all plagued the camera of Samsung's flagship smartphone, causing a mad scramble to address these issues with software updates.
The first update attempted to solve shutter-lag issues causing motion blur in images. While it was an improvement, the issue remains, leaving some users (like AndroidAuthority's Rita El Khoury) to find their own workarounds. The update did improve some of the S24's exposure issues, however. So it wasn't all bad.
The second update offered by Samsung sought to address camera quality and white balance issues. Unfortunately for Samsung and S24 Ultra owners, once again, reports of inaccurate white balance in photos continue.
Now, SamMobile is reporting that auto-focus issues can be added to this growing list, too. According to reputable tech tipster Ice Universe, Samsung is scrambling to release a third firmware update to address the growing list of issues being reported with its flagship's cameras — with telephoto image quality and white balance fixes apparently being a high priority.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra will improve many camera problems in the next "camera firmware update", Including telephoto image quality, inaccurate white balance and abnormal red color.but they have not given an accurate timetable.I hope they can solve it in AprilApril 7, 2024
Outlook
It remains to be seen whether or not the third time is the charm for Samsung to set its snapper right, but it remains a frustration for early adopters until they figure out the cause of many of these issues.
We're hopeful to see this rumored firmware update roll out sometime this month, (though, we may have to wait until May or later) and for S24 Ultra owners to finally get the camera experience they hoped for in return — especially after having paid a premium for an expected premium experience.
