Sure, it's not a flagship handset in question, but nobody wants a software update to break their camera phone
(Image credit: Samsung)
Reports are emerging that Samsung's Android 14-based One UI 6.0 software update has broken the primary rear-facing camera of one if its camera phones, specifically its autofocus. The phone in question isn't a high-profile handset like the Galaxy S24 Ultra, but instead the rather more unusual Galaxy XCover 5.
If, like me, this isn't a Galaxy model you're familiar with, that's because it's a ruggedized phone marketed primarily at business users who need a durable device with barcode and QR code scanning abilities - postal workers and couriers, etc. For the primary camera's autofocus to suddenly stop working is therefore particularly inconvenient, rendering the phone essentially useless for its business role.
Side note: the XCover 5 has a removable, user-replaceable battery - how refreshing!
Though Samsung has yet to issue an official statement, there have been claims that its support team has acknowledged that this is indeed a software fault and a fix is in the pipeline. Given the tech giant will be facing pressure to resolve the issue not just from individual users, but also from the businesses that supply Galaxy XCover 5 handsets to their workers, we'd expect Samsung to act quickly to rectify this.
It is worth noting that, while an issue like this should have been identified prior to the mass rollout of the One UI 6.0 update, Samsung is at least still providing updates to what is now a three-year-old phone. The XCover 5 was launched in March 2021 running Android 11, and is now receiving an update to Android 14. Samsung's software update frequency and the overall duration of its software support is unusually good amongst Android phone manufacturers, so we can forgive an occasional mistake like this.
Ben is the Imaging Labs manager, responsible for all the testing on Digital Camera World and across the entire photography portfolio at Future. Whether he's in the lab testing the sharpness of new lenses, the resolution of the latest image sensors, the zoom range of monster bridge cameras or even the latest camera phones, Ben is our go-to guy for technical insight. He's also the team's man-at-arms when it comes to camera bags, filters, memory cards, and all manner of camera accessories – his lab is a bit like the Batcave of photography! With years of experience trialling and testing kit, he's a human encyclopedia of benchmarks when it comes to recommending the best buys.
