Samsung has reportedly paused the rollout of One UI 6.1.1, its major feature update that brings AI to millions of phones, because some users are experiencing camera issues on the Galaxy S23 Ultra.
Galaxy S23 Ultra owners have been reporting on Samsung’s Community forums that the update is making zoomed-in pictures look blurry when magnified between 16x and 19.9x.
“When using the camera if u zoom to 17[x] until about 20[x] and take a photo it becomes blurred…this is unacceptable.” One Galaxy S23 Ultra owner wrote. “Using every other zoom level is fine but 17x is a mess. Needs fixing ASAP with a hot fix.” Another complained.
The problem only popped up after the One UI 6.1.1 update, which started rolling out this week, and doesn’t seem to affect any other Galaxy devices including the base Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23 Plus. SamMobile found that the bug won’t surface at 20x zoom, but will between 16x and 19.9x.
A Samsung representative acknowledged the issue yesterday on one of the Community forum threads and confirmed that the company is working on a fix. Before that patch lands, Samsung has now paused roll out of One UI 6.1.1 to Galaxy S23 Ultra devices according to SamMobile.
It’s not exactly clear what is causing the bug, but the Galaxy S23 Ultra has a different array of camera sensors to the S23 and S23 Plus, which is likely a factor. For now, one affected user discovered a temporary workaround until Samsung releases a solution.
In the settings menu of the camera app, tap “intelligent optimization” and switch from maximum to medium quality. This should solve the problem, but it does mean that all pictures taken with the Galaxy S23 Ultra will have reduced quality overall. Unless users are taking a lot of zoomed-in pictures between 16x and 19.9x, it’s not necessary.
For everyone else who owns a 2023 and 2024 Galaxy phone, Samsung is currently rolling out One UI 6.1.1 to several countries. The update’s main event is the raft of new AI features it brings to older phones. These tools were previously exclusive to the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6.
This includes AI-powered skills such as improved real-time translation in Interpreter. A new Note Assist feature that can now transcribe and format voice recordings. Finally, there is the new Sketch To Image tool, which uses generative AI to add more content to a hand-drawn picture.
