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Camera Module Problems May Delay Samsung's Galaxy S5
concertina226 writes "There's less than a month to go before Samsung launches its new flagship Galaxy S5 smartphone worldwide on 11 April, and the new device has still not gone into mass production due to camera module manufacturing problems. The 16 megapixel camera module consists of six plastic pieces, one more piece than in the existing 13 megapixel camera modules in the Galaxy S4. The problem that Samsung is having is that even though the number of plastic pieces has gone up, the thickness of each piece has remained the same, so in order to fit the new camera module into the Galaxy S5, the lens makers will likely have to develop new technology to make thinner lenses. Not only that, joining six pieces together instead of five for the 13 megapixel camera modules increases the risk of optical faults surfacing at the lens manufacturers' plants dramatically."
There are good glass / alternative options out there that will hold up to some abuse a little better. i.e. it won't look frosted over time from minute scratches.
The true reason for the production problems is that it's difficult to fit the tiny NSA module in there.
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
How quaint.
Cellphone manufacturer may delay introducing new shiny toy due to uninteresting process problems.
Stuff that matters... nope... check.
News for nerds... nope... check.
Business bullshit... check.
Favouring a structural plastic part over the lens, the lens is everything.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
These are photographs, not telescopic images of the universe. How many megapixels does a camera phone need? Are people going to be sending me the full pictures and then I have to spend time reducing them to a reasonable size?
the lens makers will likely have to develop new technology
They will likely have to develop it eh? When are they going to do that?
Answer: If they would have to, they already have. If Samsung is going to ship this thing in 3.5 weeks, then I'm guessing it's done if it needed to be.
This whole thing sounds like some fanboy taking guesses with no basis in reality.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
I think it's nice that a consumer device is actually being delayed because technology hasn't caught up with its design yet. It's a good thing (for us) when consumer-grade products are on the leading edge of technology rather than trailing behind industrial grade devices as they commonly do.
Let's get this out of the way: I have an iPhone 4, I tend to like Apple's designs, and I've scornfully referred to Samsung's phones as "the phones that Tupperware made" in the past.
This isn't changing my mind any.
Let me also say that I think that the Lumia phones, the HTC one and the Xperia Z1 compact all tickle my design bone in some way, so this isn't just some anti-Android rant.
Samsung really seems to slap together their phones from stuff that's available with no mind towards anything other than just cramming stuff in, and it turns out they're not even very good at that. Why anyone continues to buy them is honestly beyond me when there are so many good options available, even just within the Android ecosystem. This is why Apple continues to have so many fans. They at least try to have all their ducks in a row before making announcements and promises.
Hopefully more people start bailing out of the Samsung trapâ"what differentiates their phones other than 8GB of system software and a flimsy plastic body?
Samsung is not known for quality, but for making the cheapest version possible, then spending multiple times other companies like Apple or Microsoft to sell them.
What good is a tiny 16MP sensor if the lens cannot match that resolution?
[sarcasm] Yes, because Apple's history of being the forefront of technology has been why they have succeeded so far. [/sarcasm]
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
So optical engineers have to develop an entirely new plastic lens molding technology because the mechanical engineers who got Cs at mediocre schools can't build a simpler holder.
Nice.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
I was rushed into a phone purchase by my parents who needed me to pick a new phone while I was driving through a traffic circle. I was talking to them via handsfree but couldn't concentrate enough and they were in a time crunch and NEEDED and answer. I begrudgingly chose the S4 because I liked the Samsung-made Nexus I had been using.
To my dismay, it's lock via Knox and made secure for use by the NSA apparently. I can't install CyanogenMod and their touchwiz UI is horrid. I'm never buying another Samsung phone again, regardless of how nice the hardware looks on paper.
-SaNo
Where can you buy a "cheap feature phone" that isn't a smartphone?