yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] cheema:
First of all let me say that my only reason for conducting these tests is to bring attention to any issues I find, so that they can be addressed by Samsung and T-Mobile. I am just the messenger, don't shoot.

If you have not seen the results of my display tests for this phone, I encourage to you to check them out here:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1320942

I conducted the following tests with 4 phones. 2 Sprint Galaxy S II phones and 2 T-Mobile Galaxy S II phones. Now let's see how our phone compares with the Sprint phone when it comes to the front camera.

1. Front camera test using DSLR

For this test I borrowed some data from my earlier display test. All 4 phones were switched to front camera and the camera settings were reset to default. I then put the phones down on a table and took a picture with my Canon 60D.

Needless to say, this looks really really bad for T-Mobile sets. This is the test that gave me the idea that something else was going on here in addition to the well known screen problems of the T-Mobile/Telus phone. As we will shortly see, the T-Mobile phone is suffering from a double whammy of screen and camera problems in this test.

2. Low light test

For this test I lined up some random objects on the floor and took pictures using all 4 phones. The room was lit by one CFL bulb, pointed in the opposite direction of the objects being photographed. The camera settings were reset to factory settings. I used the 2-second timer to take pictures from the front camera. The EXIF data on all the pictures is identical. Please keep in mind that this test used jpeg data from the phone camera. And the screen defects played no role. Full size, un-edited pictures are available if you click on an image below.

Camera maker : SAMSUNG

Camera model : Sprint: SPH-D710 T-Mobile: SGH-T989

F-stop : f/2.8

Exposure time: 1/8 sec.

ISO speed : ISO-400

3. High light test

For this test I repeated test 2 above. But opened up the curtains to let the light in from outside and pointed the CFL bulb towards the objects being photographed.

Conclusion

And the parade of tears continues. Like the display, the front camera loses the battle badly. The hardware is supposed to be identical. Why does the T-Mobile continue to perform poorly? Was the QA team sleeping at the wheel?

The low light test probably needs no analysis. It is easy to see that the pictures from the T-Mobile phone are just plain dark. In the bright light test, if one is not paying attention it would be easy to overlook the washed out colors in the pictures produced by the T-Mobile camera.

I'll continue to update this post as additional data on the performance of front facing camera becomes available.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] HRodMusic:
man im getting very disappointed with my phone, tmo users always getting the short end of the stick..
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] manekineko:
Wow, this is really eye-opening. I'm assuming you wiped off the lens on both phones before the tests? The T-Mobile one almost looks like it's shooting through a haze.

Also, has anyone done a comparison on the rear-facing cameras?
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] phewizzo:
Both phones have the same parts... Just different processor. Im really starting to believe its a software issue.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] talltexan:
Dont forget to thank this guy for his hard work WOW. Still trying to get someone with some followers to voice a concern about this.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] Authority:
I noticed this a little too, but I totally overlooked it.. I will probably never use the front facing camera on any device... But it does both me that t-mobile devices are worse quality... Might as well purchase it at walmart :p

I seriously think I am going to side step to the Galaxy Nexus when it is available, mostly for the screen issues on Tmo GS2...
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] Killbynature:
Well first of all no need for a separate thread for this ffc for all phones are crap. Second of all you need more precise test. Like see if Samsung and T-Mobile are using the Same screen manufacturer. You can see this by typing dsmeg. In terminal emulator. You have to remember that you have tested I say about 7-8 devices. Not all of them. Xda is about 1% of a total population that has Samsung galaxy 2

---------- Post added at 10:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:50 PM ----------

SuperCurio the developer for voodoo screen tuning said this himself. We are missing the MdNie chip for processing the screen due to the chipset switch. Meaning

Hardware.

We emulate the chip in our phones using the Qualcomm MDP. Like i said it may can be fixed by getting better emulation software and samsung reworking the drivers for optimization for the screen. The closest update we have is the wifi calling update which will probably bring various bug fixes as well for the samsung galaxy s2.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] Splaktar:
I've done some video chat over Skype in the last few days and this has been the best front facing camera that I have ever used. People have noticed a much clearer and smoother image from the SGS2 FFC than from the 3 different PC webcams that I use. I don't know much about the Sprint version, but I've been very happy with ours.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] phewizzo:
Hopefully they will release an update to fix it...
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] cheema:
I have the same opinion.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] cheema:
We are talking about two separate issues here. You can use the camera to take a picture and analyze on a separate studio display. The phone screen does not play a part here. And any defects with the screen should be discussed separately.

If all FFCs are crap then how come the Sprint Galaxy S II is taking better pictures with the same camera hardware?

It is easy to sit back and point fingers at the data that somebody put a lot of effort to produce. It identifies problems in this device so that they can be fixed. Samsung, T-Mobile and much of user community of this phone are oblivious to these issues.

What you say here is irrelevant and absolutely does not matter. The question I set out to answer was:

"Does the front camera on T-Mobile Galaxy S II take better or worse pictures than Sprint Galaxy S II". I answered that with my research and shared the results with everybody else.

You are very welcome to run your own tests and share the results with us. Additionally if you are going to ask others to go on wild goose chases for you, perhaps you should attempt to meet them halfway. I am assuming that you have the same T-Mobile phone as I, you can parse the dmesg as well as anybody else. Tell us what screen we are using. And we'll go from there.

And how did you connect mDNIe to the front facing camera? I am not saying that it is not relevant, but I am curious to know if you have any real information connecting the two or if you are spouting nonsense again.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] cheema:
All 4 phones were wiped clean. They are like new to begin with.

I do not know of any comparison performed on the rear facing camera with the Sprint phone. I might do that one day, if there is enough demand.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] cheema:
The camera on the phones is better than the 0.3 megapixel cameras on most netbooks and notebook computers. However performs poorly under low light and renders colors incorrectly. In some use cases (e.g. plenty of light) many users will not notice an issue. Specially when they have not seen the output of the equivalent camera on the Sprint phone.

In short, the camera produces decent output for a front facing camera. But it can be much much better!

And that is the goal here. To wake up Samsung.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] Killbynature:
You seem mad. You should calm down. Let me explain it to you. A chipset switch means different devices . Qualcomm and exynos the camera rendering is different on each device. Exynos chipset and qualcomm chipset are different.

The phones are nothing alike except in name. Its like taking a amd processor and comparing it to an i7 the way they work is totally different. Have you looked at the source code. I don't think so because if you did you know we have most of our drivers largely reworked for our processor.

Very little in common with our other variants. A sprint galaxy s2 is closely related to the original galaxy s2. Because it has the same chipset as the galaxy s2. The source even has similar drivers.

The only way to fix it is to have Samsung A) rework the drivers to make it the best they can it they haven't already did that yet. or B) recall all products and switch out processors. Either one is probably most likely not going to happen. Telus did the right thing by naming it Samsung galaxy x2 because that what it is. It is not a galaxy s2 in performance or anything except in name.

DNie -DNIe offers better detail than conventional televisions by using four proprietary processes that optimize and enhance image quality and sound: a Motion Optimizer that is a noise processing technology used to eliminate blurring and noise in moving images; a Contrast Enhancer that offers rich details and image quality; a Detail Enhancer that automatically analyzes the picture signal and reproduces images that result in lifelike video; a Color Optimizer that analyzes the video signals being generated so that the quantities of reds, greens, and blues are calculated to provide natural, realistic colors. The M part stands for mobile.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] cheema:
The processors are different. We all understand that. But the camera hardware is the same and the display hardware is the same.

Going by your example, If I had two PCs, sitting side by side, one had an AMD processor and the other had an Intel one, but everything else, including the monitor and the Logitech webcam attached were the same. Would I be so wrong to complain if the Logitech camera on one PC produced pictures that were much worse?

I think the problem is in the software and T-Mobile / Samsung rushed a product out the door, that was not quite ready for release.

People who paid good money for this product, deserve better. In the meantime I will try to help them find these problems that they seem to have overlooked.

If you think these manufacturers do not overlook problems when they ship products, I point you to Samsung Vibrant and its GPS problems as an example.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] Killbynature:
That chip is a big problem for us because that causing everything to look bad. If we had lets say a super lcd screen. We have the drivers to calibrate it correctly. The Qualcomm chips have the correct drivers for it. As i see in most galaxy 2 we are missing the part where we can calibrate the screen are self. A setting under display.

I not a big fan of samsung but the qualcomm chip is much weaker than the chipset in exynos.So is the gpu. It maybe samsung couldn't sacrifice performance trying to emulate precisely. So be wary of what we get because the update might make the phones performance worst. If you compared it to the amaze 4g since they have similar chipsets. The amaze takes great pictures back and front. Since HTC has optimized their device sensors and such for the drivers.

You can't really compare two computers like you do phones. Phones different so much from each other. It's not even funny. More like cars if i get the fastest Cadillac with the most powerful engine and then buy a Cadillac with a different engine then expect them to have the same horsepower and performance. Besides computers have a good integration phones do not. Yes i do feel things were rushed though.

Keep in mind our drivers are largely different. The MDNie chip is largely where our problem is if you read about the Dnie: "DNIe generally improves images are made sharper with DNIe, contrast is improved, and color accuracy is enhanced in many ways.That was from Samsung site. We have a hacked emulated one. You should talk to Samsung through online chat to show them the issues on our devices. Because on the phone i got people who had no idea of the problem. After 20 minutes waiting.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] huggosz:
I think the OP got a defective tmobile phone! either that or he works for sprint and he's trying to convince us that their SGS2 version is better so we should switch. I've compared my phone side by side with the sprint one and there's no difference on the screen whatsoever, I tried different angles, different brightness, etc. Our phones are actually faster in my experience!
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] cheema:
1. I have been through 3 T-Mobile phones. They all show the same symptoms. And there are plenty of other people who were complaining about the displays before I decided to get a little more scientific about it.

2. I do not work for Sprint. Otherwise I would not be hosting the pictures on my own website. My motivation is that I want the problems fixed. Is that really that hard to understand?

3. Plenty of people have said that they have done the comparison. Some find issues, others do not. Those who do not, have not actually put up any data to support their claims. I suspect most of these people are testing/comparing under bright lights where the T-Mobile display and camera problems are less obvious.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] kosnarf:
I have noticed this, while comparing my phone with my friend's S2. Honestly the factory settings are junk. I usually, at minimum, change the ISO setting to 200, to get decent pictures. -.-
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] cheema:
You cannot change the ISO when using the front camera.

Anyway, the user visible settings in the test are the same. Including the ISO. This can be verified by looking at the EXIF data in the photos.

The pictures produced by the cameras with the same exact settings should be equal in quality. They are not in this case. T-Mobile phones produced noticeably lower quality pictures every time.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] Authority:
+1

Galaxy Nexus here I come! :rolleyes:
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] :
It is hardware unfortunately.DNIe begins with an Intelligent Analyzer that analyzes any kind of input signal to optimize the picture quality. By analyzing the frequency characteristics of the input signal, the Analyzer automatically detects the amount of noise in the signal, identifies the source level as analogue, SD, or HD, and even determines whether it has been scaled." that was from samsung themselves. Also from anandtech http://www.anandtech.com/Show/Index/4686?cPage=7&all=False&sort=0&page=7&slug=samsung-galaxy-s-2-international-review-the-best-redefined. The first paragraph states that the MDNie controls the camera settings as well. Without having that fixes are little to none. The problem with that is that samsung could have included but choose to not. I'm guessing to save money as their was a the i9001 s plus which had a snapdragon chipset and had MDNie.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] cheema:
I disagree. You are making a lot of assumptions.

I do not know if mDNIe chip is missing from the T-Mobile phone. But for the sake of the argument, lets say it is. You have absolutely no proof that whatever Samsung replaced it with (software or hardware), is what is causing the problems. But you go around parroting it anyway.

You appear to be suggesting that we should throw up our hands and give up on these issues. As there is nothing we or Samsung could do to make these problems go away.

All based on some shaky assumptions.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] :
I don't think you even really read anything. You might be in denial. I never once said give up. Most phone chip sets are integrated now. Once you remove that chip set to replace it. You change everything. A qualcomm processor uses a MDP for image processing. All Qualcomm powered devices have had amoled standard, lcd , or super lcd. None have had super amoled except one. Samsung chip set exynos and humming bird uses MDNIe for image processing.

I really don't know where you get Im making assumptions from:confused:. I want to know what hardware do you they think they added to a chip set that was already done? The processor is not new it's been used in the hp touchpad. Phones aren't like computers everything is integrated on a single chip. You can't just replace parts in phones like a computer. So what do you do? You emulate the process with software that the chip set is capable of.

We can either have samsung have a total recall and swap out a chip set or have them emulate the software better. It is no assumptions at all:confused: almost all phone chip sets have everything integrated. Why would you hardware to something already done. It just makes higher production cost.:confused:
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] cheema:
I give up. I have no idea what your point is.

We can sit here and try to guess what chips are inside and how they impact the phone performance. That would be a waste of time. None of it really matters. The screen output is subpar and the camera output is subpar. At the end of the day that is what matters. I am hoping that we can convince Samsung to put a little effort into fixing these issues, by bringing this data to their attention. That is what I am hoping for.

I do not know what you are aiming for, if anything.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] yzf750:
99% of the people owning this phone could care less, and are quite happy with its screen and camera, or don't have the problems as your trying to portray it.

I have none of the problems shown on my screen (low brightness lines) and the ffc serves its purpose ( occasional video chat) just fine. Whats next? The tolerances of the solder connections :)
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] :
You can even read the Qualcomm chip pdf and exynos process features states what chips inside. No one arguing about chip sets. You can get simple facts by googling it. The sites for qualcomm and samsung give it to you. Even the website for each chip set shows each device using its own type image processing. Cheema seems to be dissatisfied with a phone that's

only a Samsung galaxy s2 in name

.

The hardware is different the software is different even though they all run touchwiz on top. Samsung will most likely not fix it. It is a hardware problem. Not software. Just be happy with the phone. Xda like you said is less than one percent anyway of tmobile galaxy s2 owners. The phone does what it is suppose to do be a multimedia device. If you don't like the device just take it back to t-mobile and get a sprint device.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] manekineko:
What are you threadcrappers even doing in this thread if you feel that way? It's easy enough to just not click on threads that don't interest you.

cheema is doing the community a service by demonstrating very clearly areas where the phone seems to be performing below its capabilities, and is attempting to rally like-minded people to convince Samsung to improve the capabilities.

You guys are just talking **** to him and doing absolutely nothing constructive. Okay, so your screen is fine, and you don't care about the quality of the camera, then cheema's threads are not applicable to you.

He doesn't want to take the phone back to T-Mobile and get a Sprint device, he wants to find like-minded people and convince Samsung to improve the phone for everyone. Maybe it's a longshot but at least he's trying to do something for the community unlike the naysayers.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] cheema:
This is what bothers me about your posts.

If we are able to get Samsung to fix the problem with a software update, would you be willing to eat a crow?
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] :
I'll Gladly eat it.:D
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] cheema:
Thank you! I was beginning to lose faith in this group.

Just the other day I read some people complain about the audio quality on these phones. And the first thought that came to my mind was to put it to a detailed test. Both mic and speaker, music and phone calls. But then I thought that if I actually find something unexpected, something that we could report to Samsung to work on; this community will really turn on me and blast me with their subjective and unscientific "But the phone works OK for me".

For now, I'll hold off on any further tests. For many people ignorance is bliss.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] hazard99:
This isnt a thread crap by any means. But I will admit that until I see these threads I notice no problems. Is it really a problem if I dont notice?

Some of the positions people take in these threads make it seem like the phone is the absolute worse phone ever. And its not just this phone but a lot of phones. The vibrant had a terrible gps so did my g2x. This phone has had a great gps I love it. Certain wallpapers cause me to notice the lines in the screen other times I dont even notice. I didnt notice until the threats started to popup. But over all the phone is a fast smooth experience and thats what I want in a phone.

btw I also follow supercurio. He is a well recognized developer and even writes for blogs and what not.

this is one of the things he had to say.

supercurio François Simond

Reading T-Mobile #GalaxySII source: presence of complete gamma LUTs. Could be perfect to calibrate an LCD screen. But useless for AMOLED ^^

26 Oct.

I also remember him saying that our hardware was so different he didnt know how samsung would provide updates.

I hope sammy fixes what they can.. no phone is perfect.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] gdmlaz:
Damnnnn glad you brought this out
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] tigerz0202:
My ffc takes great pics sometimes when browsing my pics i forgot i took them with it ,i dont have these problems posted in these pics in this thread
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] blestsol:
Can you post some of them?
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] cheema:
In bright light, you will not notice a problem. Even though the colors are washed out most of the time, normal people may not notice the washed out colors.

The front camera problems are more noticeable in less than ideal light. For example in dim light point the camera at yourself and see the preview on the screen. If that looks normal to you then you really need something decent to compare against. Lacking a Sprint SGSII, grab an old ipod touch and compare the output with your T-Mobile SGSII.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] :
I still don't know why you think hardware is identical. When it is not.:confused:
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] cheema:
I never said hardware is identical.

The screen is the same, the cameras are the same and so is the name. Various silicon components inside are different.

There is a reasonable expectation that the screen and camera should not perform noticeably worse than the rest of the phones in the Galaxy S II family. But they do. Some of us hope and believe that a software update can fix these issues.

You seem to think that this is not possible. And have repeated your bizarre theories many times. I obviously do not agree with them.
[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II SGH-T989] :
My logic is coming from if you take two same brand dslr cameras with the same lens and different sensor they will not take the same quality of pictures. Just because there both eight megapixel doesn't mean the quality will come out the same. I will take it that this is basically a new device since most likely everything was optimized around the original internals of the device.

Well since were at it did you check the back camera as well? If you have a tripod you can set the device on. The test you'll be doing would be more precise as the sensor might be affected by slight movement since no human being can be completely still.