Galaxy S23 Series Blurry Camera Issue Persists after April Security Patch

In a few countries, the S23 lineup got the April security update. This wasn’t merely a security patch; tons of new camera optimizations came with the update.

The new camera update that brings the April patch applies algorithmic tweaks to improve dynamic range performance. Video sharpness at 1080P using super steady more is better, too.

However, the update changelog didn’t specify fixing the blurry focus issues. Such reports only describe problems with the S23 and S23+; the Ultra remains unaffected.

This is weird since the S23 Ultra has the new 200MP HP2 sensor. They had to do more optimizations on that phone, and the other models have the same GN5 sensor from the S22 series.

There are reports across the Samsung community forums, Twitter, and YouTube about the blurry “banana” focus issues on the S23 and S23+.

Those affected report that taking close-up images results in a complete blur in a banana shape, which looks totally ridiculous. This is a serious issue in daily use. We rely on cameras a lot for everyday tasks.

Scanning important documents, taking pictures of close-up objects, QR Code scanning, etc., all require getting the primary camera to focus as close as possible. Unfortunately, you can’t do that because of the blurry focus problems on the S23 and S23+.

People are understandably frustrated and angry that 799$ and 999$ phones have such problems.

For some people, using the focus enhancer seems to solve the issue. However, focus enhancer also results in a grainy picture that loses a lot of details. Hence, this isn’t an ideal solution.

Some others on forums also report blurry edges with photographs and extreme motion blur when shooting action photos.

This makes the camera system unreliable for photographing moving pets, kids, or action scenes. Taking photos inside a moving vehicle won’t work since the capture time is long.

A Samsung moderator’s response on the forums is to hold the phone as still as possible or use the motion photos option when shooting moving subjects.

Focusing on close-up subjects is not a problem with the S23 Ultra since the Ultra Wide on the phone has autofocus. The 1/1.3″ primary sensor is too large to focus on close-up subjects properly. So, the phone automatically switches to the ultra-wide camera for close-up photos.

You can try taking some steps back and focusing from a further distance if you have this problem. Alternatively, you can use the 2X digital zoom option to focus better.

Fortunately, people on Reddit claim this is not a software issue or something that updates can fix. Samsung apparently acknowledged this officially as a hardware issue. A user allegedly contacted Samsung support, and the technicians identified it as a problem with the hardware.

If you have this issue, you can try contacting Samsung support. And there’s a good chance you’ll get a replacement unit. There’s no large-scale global recall; only affected units will mostly get replaced if you visit a service center or contact Samsung support.

We’ll update you if there’s more information about the blurry focus issue on the S23 and S23+.