The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is the company’s top flagship for 2024 and continues the tradition of Samsung’s Ultra series, staying among the best smartphone lineups every year.
The S24 Ultra brings major improvements from the S23 Ultra in the form of a completely flat display, a titanium-coated frame, and a new telephoto lens with 5x optical zoom and 100x digital zoom.
The other three rear cameras are good in themselves: the primary sensor is the same 200 MP 1/1.3″ ISOCELL HP3 sensor as the S23 Ultra, with a good 3x 10 MP 1/3.52″ zoom lens, and the 12 MP 1/2.55″ ultrawide with a 120 degree FOV.
However, the phone has been facing major camera processing issues ever since the February 2024 launch, including but not limited to the following:
- The new telephoto zoom lens with a 5x optical range isn’t as good at long-range zoom as the older lens (which had a 10x optical range) in terms of image quality.
- The camera white balance tuning is inconsistent and sometimes results in cooler outputs than the scene shows in real life.
- Many users have also reported an abnormal red tint in low-light shots taken on the phone, leaving it with disappointingly mediocre camera performance for an Ultra phone.
A while ago, we reported that a major camera update to fix these issues is coming. It was expected to be rolled out by the end of April or in early May, but users will have to wait longer now for this update to roll out.
According to the reliable Samsung tipster Ice Universe (via @UniverseIce on X/Twitter), it is noted that the major camera update for the Galaxy S24 Ultra has been delayed and is now expected to be released in June 2024, one month later than the earlier-expected timeline.
It has to be said that Samsung makes great cameras, but this type of camera optimization, which is only fixed months down the line, is unacceptable for phones that cost more than a thousand dollars.
The delayed camera fixes for the S24 Ultra further aggravate this. It helps to recall that the S24 Ultra initially did not receive any major camera updates for the entire first month after its launch (there was no day one software patch this year). These delays are not a good look for a company with refined flagship cameras.
We hope that Samsung does right with its users by rolling out the update as soon as it is complete and by bringing the perfect camera optimization right out-of-the-box with the Galaxy S25 Ultra: if Google and Apple can achieve this with their flagships, why not Samsung?
