The Samsung Galaxy S20 series went to great lengths to showcase its camera system to the world when it was first announced, from the massive 108MP sensor and 100x space zoom capability in the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra to the still impressive S20, All models use the same advanced autofocus technology.

The S20 lineup was designed to offer the best camera phones on the market, but even before the phones hit store shelves, the camera software in this series has come under fire from many early reviewers.

Some dealers say that the bouncing focus finder has trouble identifying what it is looking at, and sometimes is completely unable to do so. On the other hand, publications such as The Verge say that image processing is "aggressive" and smoothes the skin to the point of oversaturation.

Samsung wrote in a statement: [The Galaxy S20 features a revolutionary and advanced camera system. We are constantly working to optimize performance to provide consumers with the best possible experience. As part of this ongoing effort, we are working on future updates to improve the camera experience."

How bad is it? Well, bad enough that Samsung is already working on camera software updates before the phone even hits store shelves. Good grief.

While we didn't encounter any serious problems in our initial tests, we've been keeping an eye on the phone over the past few weeks and can confirm that we've spotted a few flyers compared to the S20 Ultra's main rival, the iPhone 11 Pro Max. Editor-in-Chief Mark Spoonauer's findings are as follows:

When approaching the mini-arcade machine and trying to focus, the Galaxy S20 Ultra was noticeably slower to come into focus than the iPhone 11 Pro Max. The Samsung's focus was jumpy, while the iPhone's focus was practically instantaneous and smooth.

However, I did not notice a problem when trying to take a photo of a coworker a few feet away; the Galaxy S20 Ultra seems to have problems with close-up and macro photography.

To test this, we compared two photos of the iPhone 11 Pro Max and the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra side-by-side in the same lighting conditions. See the results below:

Comparing the two images side-by-side, you can see the Samsung's jumpy focusing error and soft-focus background in the image above. Since Samsung seems to be providing an update to correct this problem, we can conclude that it is clearly a software issue rather than a hardware problem.

Unfortunately, we have not been given the timing of the patch. However, with Samsung's flagship taking on water, one can imagine that the development team is working hard to fix these issues as soon as possible. Otherwise, Samsung could be in real trouble if these camera issues affect sales of their otherwise excellent phone series.

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