Samsung Admits Camera Failure Affecting ‘Very Limited’ Number Of Galaxy S5s

Samsung has confirmed the presence of a fault in a number of Galaxy S5 smartphones that prevents users from using the device’s camera.

A number of owners of the smartphone have noted a “camera failed” warning on their screen when they have opened the camera app, after which they have been unable to use the camera, even after taking measures such as a factory reset or hard reset.

It said that affected devices had been reported in the US and a number of other countries but did not disclose just how Galaxy S5s had been impacted.

Samsung Galaxy S5 camera

The Korean manufacturer has only said that the number of units that have shipped with faulty cameras was “very limited” and that it is making sure future smartphones are not affected by what it describes as a memory issue.

“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,” Samsung told Reuters.

Although the scale of the problem is not yet known, the presence of such a fault is a blow for Samsung, which touted the imaging features of the Galaxy S5 at its launch at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona earlier this year, and is looking to the device to reverse falling profits.

Earlier this month, ethical hackers were able to find vulnerabilities in another one of the S5’s headline features. Researchers at Security Research Labs (SRLabs) were able to bypass the device’s fingerprint authentication less than a week after it officially went on sale.

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