Samsung on Friday confirmed that its latest Android flagship handset is affected by a major camera failure, without actually revealing how many Galaxy S5 devices have the flaw. Apparently, after a few days of regular use, the Galaxy S5’s main camera delivers an unexpected message – “Warning: Camera Failed” – and the camera stops working. The issue isn’t fixed after rebooting the device or returning it to factory settings.
“We have learned that a limited number of Galaxy S5 devices may have an issue that causes a ‘Camera Failure’ pop-up error message,” Samsung told Re/code.
The company further described the issue in a statement to Reuters. “We have discovered that the issue has been seen in a very limited portion of early production Galaxy S5 units, and was caused by complications in the ROM (Read Only Memory) component which stores the information necessary to operate the camera,” the company wrote in an email.
In addition to the U.S., the problem has been reported in other markets as well. Unfortunately, users won’t be able to repair the camera themselves, and it looks like a software update won’t be released to deal with the matter. Affected customers are invited to contact either Samsung customer service or their carriers, which will likely replace the faulty units with new, fully functional ones.
Ironically, Samsung late last week published a new “The Next Big Thing Is Here” ad for the Galaxy S5 taking a subtle, but clear hit at the iPhone’s camera in the process – that ad follows below.
