S23 Ultra camera consistently worse than 4 year old Note 10+

JonnyBreeze2003 · ‎21-05-2023

This a quick post to get peoples' opinions, hopefully, possible solutions and to spark a conversation about why this is.

My first thoughts:

After owning a Note 10+ since its release (almost 4 years ago) it has always had an incredibly impressive camera. This natrually led me to compare it to my new S23 Ultra, which I only upgraded to due to the Note 10+ needed £250 worth of repairs. Don't get me wrong, the specs of the S23's cameras are definitively better in every category, and the new zoom lenses crush the Note 10+ in pretty much every single way. The primary camera, however, does not follow the same trend.

Comparisons:

At first glance, these photos seem fairly similiar. The S23 Ultra has a slightly wider view and also a boost in saturation.

S23 UltraNote 10+

As soon as you zoom in however...

You can see that the S23 Ultra starts to fall apart. No matter where you zoom in, the photo looks like an oil painting. There is so much processing going on it just ruins the photo. Its absolute night and day.

S23 UltraNote 10+

Final thoughts:

I do not know what is causing this. I have tried turning scene optimiser on/off, I have fiddled with almost all the settings and I cannot get results even close to that of the Note 10+. Obviously, boosting the quality to 50 or 200mp on the S23 Ultra elleviates these issue as the sheer resolution then pushes the need for all this processing away. This is not a fix for this issue however, as the file size is quite frankly a waste of storage and the camera is so much slower to opperate when in these modes. Anyone would guess that these photos were the other way around!

My guess:

This issue comes from poor software when combining the 200mp into a 12mp image? I would welcome for someone to show me a fix or prove me wrong, it is a bit annoying spending £1000 on a new phone only to be outperformed by a 4 year old product, despite it being so exceptional at the time of release.

Drconfused · ‎22-05-2023

I would suspect this in any phone really but from the looks of it I think that maybe the S23 Ultra was built for longer distances but still I would also be irritated

ChrisONZ · ‎22-05-2023

Completely agree. Just got my s23 ultra and as you say, when you zoom in the photos lose all definition, compared to my old S9+ it's way worse. So disappointed after shelling out £1200. I've even switched to raw format and downloaded the expert raw plugin for the camera app. That only allows 50mp max and still same zoom issues. If you look at the size/details of each pic, you see the basic 16:9 pic is only taken at 7mp, ridiculous. If you want 12mp you have to switch to 4:3 size, so it's like horrid apple format with bad megapixel resolution... I suspect as you say, it's poor software, but Samsung really need to up their game here as I prefer my old S9+. What is the point of having a superior image sensor and then ruining the pics with poor software.

Bezbozny · ‎04-06-2023

It s agood idea to download the camera assistant and change the picture softening to medium. This will reduce the oversharpening. I am also quite annoyed by this, the pics just don't look good because of suboptimal software. Not sure if trying a different app like gcam would improve things

JonnyBreeze2003 · ‎05-06-2023

Just checked this and my picture softening option was already completely off! Thought this would be a good improvement as I didn't believe it was as already as sharp as it could get but...

Members_Y8wdjMb · ‎06-09-2023

I couldn't agree more with you Jonny.

Here is a croped version of note10 photo and the same with a S23

Nokia10

Note10

vs S23

I guess there is a stupid AI f^$%ng up all photos and details.

K M · ‎30-09-2023

A week ago I bought Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. And already now I am totally disappointed with cameras of this smartphone.

Over the internet I found that S23 Ultra has one of the best smartphone cameras. But it's not true at all. It's like a deception. Cameras are bad, very bad. I have no words to express my disappointment.

Cameras are worse than in my previuous Galaxy S21 Ultra. Moreover, I would say that cameras are even worse than in my old Galaxy S7 Edge.

I don't know what to do now, because I spent so much money on this device. I's really expensive. I should return it. I hope I have enough time to return and take my money back...

dean1dj · ‎09-11-2023

I completely agree. This is by far the worst camera Samsung have produced. Even the Shad a better camera. The S9 had Dual aperture and I think that is what is lacking in the S23 Ultra. I sent mine back to Samsung with examples of how it smudges the faces of people, puts halos around images and basically just doesn't focus correctly. Samsung had the phone for a month and then sent it back saying there was nothing wrong with it. Unfortunately I am stuck in a contract for another 2 years but I can guarantee this will be my last Samsung phone.

10 ft away S23 Ultra

10 Ft S23 Ultra

50 ft away S23 Ultra

50Ft S23 Ultra

50 ft away S23 Ultra

35 ft away S9+

30 ft away S9+

Capt Spandex · ‎15-11-2023

worst camera ever....my old note 9 takes better photo's and my last device the Oppo x2 pro still kicks my S23 ultra out of the park for picture quality. for a flagship device its... its very mediocre... although I have found some improvement if you use the 3x zoom or 10x but eveything else it does is horrible

Ciludner · ‎16-11-2023

(delete, wrong reply)