Will Samsung solve the ‘Banana Blur’ problem in June?

According to rumors, Samsung will release a camera update for the Galaxy S23 series in June. With this update, a number of new features should come to the smartphones, such as a 2x zoom option in portrait mode. There would also be an annoying problem with out-of-focus photos that would be addressed.

Camera update

The camera update that Samsung would release in June is intended for the Galaxy S23, S23 + and the S23 Ultra and that update will probably come with some new features. For example, the smartphones should have a 2x zoom option for portrait mode. Here’s how: the devices from the S23 series all have a telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom. This lens is used at exactly 3x zoom, so there is an optical zoom without loss of quality. From 1.1 to 2.9x zoom, the smartphones digitally zoom in with the main camera. This quality is therefore less good because the pixels are digitally zoomed in.

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Now there are a number of manufacturers who have improved this digital zoom by making a crop of the main sensor, which often has a high resolution. As an example, a 50 MP main camera, such as the main camera of the S23 and S23 +, can make a crop of 12 MP. Software then further rearranges the pixels and this should result in images that are less ‘pixelated’ than ‘ordinary’ digitally zoomed photos. According to the well-known rumor spreader IceUniverse should the feature appear in the upcoming June update.

2x zoom in portrait mode Galaxy S23 series. Image: IceUniverse

Banana Blur

More and more stories are coming out about the so-called ‘Banana Blur’. Many users of an S23(+) indicate that they experience problems with their photos, as some parts are out of focus. This mainly translates to the right and continues upwards in a curve. The out-of-focus portion looks like a banana-shaped blur, hence the name ‘Banana Blur’. You can read more about it on this Samsung forum, among others.

It is not known whether Samsung will also solve this problem in the June update and/or whether it can be solved with a software update at all. If the problem is hardware related, this won’t help much.

Do you suffer from ‘Banana Blur’ with the Galaxy S23, S23+ and/or S23 Ultra? Let us know in the comments below this article.

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Thanks for the tip Michelle!