yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] chetszot:
I've tried your suggestion and it works as I expected - GCam from the lock screen needs the phone to be unlocked first. Regarding the double press the power button - I was unable to select GCam at all.

Although I don't really need Gcam on double press power button (I rarely use it), need to unlock phone if started from lock screen is a big hit. Did you make it somehow able to run without unlocking the phone first when started from the lockscreen?
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] Burnout62:
Well, you are right, I just tested: requires to unlock.

But with face unlock, on a daily basis, no need to unlock as face unlock does it...

But if someone else take my phone, yes he is blocked. Don't know how to bypass this.
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] cpufrost:
All the phones in the world cannot fix the immutable vertical video syndrome!

Please, for the love of the Gods, please (all phone manufactures) LOCK video capture on EVERY device to landscape regardless of how their careless owners hold them so we no longer have to endure vertical video syndrome! It is worse than being interrupted a second before climax FFS! 🙃
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] JohnTheFarm3r:
"improves camera". Still a MEME lol
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] chetszot:
That's what I expected and meant by these little caveats of using 3rd party camera app.

Ehh, what a shame we have to play around with different solutions to make 1000 USD phone work as expected. Pathethic.
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] cpufrost:
Well it looks like it CAN capture high SPL without clipping after all.

I recorded this last night, was literally holding the phone above a dipole stage monitor and the A weighted SPL was over 120 dB!!

Also notice the lack of annoying dot lens flares.

I also captured video with my 14 Pro Max and the HIGHLY annoying dot flares (as seen in my 13 Pro Max videos) were missing. Finally!
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] chetszot:
That's what I meant :)

I did similar test with my drums. I did a couple of recording sessions of me playing (I hit really hard) and this is the first phone that had literally zero clipping, both on low and high frequencies. What made me totally surprised is quite even frequency distribution (however at least by ear, I haven't performed any spectrum analysis).

Actually this is the only one thing that made me keep this phone. Photos were garbage since I opened the box and launched it for the first time - 10 steps backwards when comparing with my 3 year old S20.
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] Fl1nt91:
Yes mics are outstanding, I was able to get a perfect audio also in a rave
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] rockky:
That's always the question.

Have never had a devise IOS or Android where this isn't the case.
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] chetszot:
That's true, although I don't remember THAT bad camera experience in the past.

I started using S-series since S8, I use them for around 3 generations and I always put a top priority to camera. I find other specs just an addition to top tier phone, but camera is the most important.

I don't recall having any software problems with camera on S8, at all. After release there were some truly minor screen issues I personally really didn't care but laughed.

Then I had my best Samsung phone so far - S20. I purchased it about 1-2 software updates after the release and I do remember the photos were overexposured at some scenarios. I didn't like it and I was complaining as (similar case I complain for S23 now) I do remember at that time S8 photos were better than S20 in some scenarios (mainly the ones where the buggy overexposure happened). I remember it was fixed without any bigger announcement, just with some regular security patch and since then I just loved S20's shots.

Now I have S23 and, literally, S20 shots are better in all scenarios. Really. and that concerns me and makes doubt if this phone will ever get even close to S20. Although its photos look different to S8 (way different look, although some Samsung-ish details), if I were to score my past S8, S20 and current S23, I would honestly have given S23 the worst note.
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] citytrader:
Could you share the RAW shots of your S20 and S23 where the S20 is better than S23?
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] chetszot:
Sure, I will them in few days as I don't always have access to my old S20. But not RAWs as RAWs are from Pro mode which does not have HDR as far as I am concerned.
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] nmt1900:
Just my "few cents" on this matter...

Starting from S20 Ultra all flagships have had 108 megapixel cameras so there has been more than enough time to get software in good order to work with that. S 23 Ultra is a first major step with new 200 megapixel camera so it should not be impossibly big surprise if getting camera software to the same level will take more than few months or even a year. Comparing S23 Ultra's camera performance with previous models is somehow like comparing apples with oranges - that is in era where a big part of camera functionality is tied into software and software for previous 108 Mpix camera has had more than enough time to mature. Was the camera on S20 Ultra perfect when that phone came out? Many of us might even not remember or had not have that phone.
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] hand-filer:
I had the S20U. When I compare the images from it to the S23U there is no comparison. S23U for the win and it will only get better with updates.
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] citytrader:
HDR is supported in RAW, the RAW that comes from this phones are not the same that come from a normal camera because of the noisy sensor. The only way to understand if one camera is better than the other is shooting RAW, much better if you can do it with ExpertRAW.
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] citytrader:
I agree with you, and is very common for Samsung to release buggy stuff with the new releases, by October we should have a better polished software.
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] citytrader:
Here are the samples from GAMARENA for S20 ultra vs S23 Ultra, pretty bad the result from S20 ...
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] ajarosz:
I would say both here are pretty bad, just in a different way. :D
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] chetszot:
I used to look at their lab comparisons like the one you posted, but I found them completely irrelevant at some point. I saw phones being reportedly "better" in these lab comparison shots, but being certainly worse in real world scenarios and vice versa. Although the idea of such comparison is good, I think this has been less relevant over time.
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] chetszot:
ExpertRAW processess the photo in such an incredible way that I just pretend this thing never existed.

I don't play with RAWs on smartphones. I expect default camera app being just better from generation to generation as this is what I use on my daily basis. I have done tests using how I use the camera. I want few quick, good shots and then watch the reality with my own eyes rather than playing on screen with dozen of settings/different apps/modes, etc.

S20 did so with flying colors.

S23 simply can't as we have to play with GCam ports and this is already some kind of hassle I would love not to have to do in 1000 EUR device.
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] ajarosz:
Yeah. I don't get one thing. Why companies like Samsung don't give us more freedom as to define the look of the photo? For people that are ok with default processing - fine, no work to be done. But for others, some screens for calibration with sliders - saturation, sharpness, contrast, noise reduction, etc. You are tweaking it a bit, saving and you have your profile. I see this as a win-win scenario, where more people are happy with the camera, and more people stick to the producer's app.
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] citytrader:
Maybe you are shooting JPG in ExpertRAW that is bad but I never liked the JPG output of older Samsung phones neither... If someone wants to shot JPG, I like what Proshot can do for 12mpx much more and easier than GCAM.

For 1000 Eur we are paying to be beta testers of Samsung too... ;)

I agree that the camera should be much more tunable specially for people shooting JPG, we should be able to put noise and sharpening to zero, and be able to do other configurations suited to get a palatable JPG output, and something I don't understand why they don't add bracketing...
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] chetszot:
I feel like there is some potential in Camera Assistant app. If Samsung wanted, I bet they could expose a lot more configurations there.

Actually, with medium smoothening it makes S23 photos really a LOT better and more natural looking but at the cost of even more detail loss. In the end it's still far from what S20 did out of the box, but it's nice to have any options besides GCam to make things better.
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] ajarosz:
Softness setting does not affect details per se. Detail level is same for all levels, just sharpenning of them is different. But I agree, that with medium set it is much, much better.
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] chetszot:
Well, in theory - yes, but the reality shows (GCam xD) that Samsung's processing eats tons of details.

Just compare any GCam shot with Samsung's stock one. The difference is very, very significant.
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] ajarosz:
Well, yes, that is true. Samsung processing is a crap, and I use on gcam instead. But what I meant was, that between softness in Camera Assistant set to off and medium, there is no details per se difference. Difference is in sharpening applied to them, and that does not change detail level. It stays the same.
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] chetszot:
Of course, 100% true. It looks as if there were less details, but they are here indeed, but less pronounced because of this smoothening. Still - 10 times worse than GCam.
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] Xvipes:
Could you please share some more comparison photos with the afformentioned difference? I used gcam and I can hardly notice any difference but you guys say there is a huge one.

Also how do you mitigate the fact that gcam can't utilize different modes (portrait, slow-mo, panorama, etc)
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] ajarosz:
You can check my post in this thread with comparisons between GCAM, ExpertRAW, and Camera App both 50 and 12 Mpix in a slightly worse light, JPGs (still did not have time to gather other results but eventually I will): https://xdaforums.com/t/major-updat...-series-improves-camera.4570457/post-88386541

Also, I have uploaded all photos so that you can check them yourself.

And about other modes - I think that portrait and panorama are present in GCAM (I don't use them at all, as I find portrait modes too artificial for my taste, and I prefer to stitch panorama myself in e.g. LR), but the video for sure is not a strong part of it. If you don't shoot with a tripod for sure Samsung Camera App will be better than GCAM.

It is all matter of needs and personal preferences. GCAM for sure has different look than Samsung Camera or ExpertRAW.

I understand that some may prefer much punchier, with more contract and much more sharpening applied pictures, that are ready to put on Instagram or Facebook and looks more pop.

Others, like me, prefer a more natural look, with less processing, but with some more details available. I am just too used to look what my Sony A7 III produces, and many cameras before it. I think my work just made me not like that Samsung look, and maybe because of that, I pay attention to things, that for many are not important at all.

If you don't see the difference or that difference is too small for you that is fine. That only means that the stock app is enough for you and you will not benefit from GCAM.
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] citytrader:
I did another test shots in VERY LOW LIGHT (forgot to add this before), I normalized all to 12mpx and downscaled 50mpx and 30mpx shots.

All cropped from 300% zoomed image

The best picture and colors are from Canon, I put it as a point of comparisson. I shot this kind of stuff because I can see texture and how it behaves in different shots, AI will have a difficult time in this kind of shots.

ExpertRAW as usual applies sharpening by default in RAWs

SMOOTHING removes detail in mid and high, is like Samsung process a sharpened picture and applies a kind of gaussian blur over it instead of getting the normal blur from the sensor because of the bayer...

With GCAM AGC I tried to modify the exposure compensation but seems it doesn't work properly, and not having a working histogram is a problem with this camera and it has the color rendition near to the Canon shot.

JPG from stock and ExpertRAW are really bad in this last firmware.

Histogram in ExperRAW below 1s doesn't work anymore, its bugged.

STOCK NO SMOOTING

STOCK MID SMOOTHING

STOCK HIGH SMOOTHING

GCAM AGC v7

EXPERTRAW JPG

EXPERTRAW LONGER EXPOSURE SHOT

EXPERTRAW 50mpx downscaled no sharpening

CANON M6mkII downscaled
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] citytrader:
Examples in good light of the selfie camera... really horrible camera. (The Canon downsampled shot for comparison in same light conditions)​

STOCK

EXPERTRAW JPG

EXPERTRAW SELFIE RAW

GCAM AGC v7

CANON
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] chetszot:
@citytrader

Please find my comparison shots from my old S20 and new Galaxy S23.

All shots are on auto, default settings without scene optimizer. No Camera Assistant tweaks have been applied.

Please find my comments below:

Scene 01 (x1 lens):

No eyes hurting oversharpening to the tree, grass and distant trees on S20. Subtle shadows on the building have absolute zero noise (S23 produces unpleasant noise to any darker area). Colors on S20 are indeed saturated, but not OVERsaturated like S23's.

Scene 02 (x1 lens):

Again no eyes hurting oversharpening - look at the leafs of the plants. They don't have that unpleasant whitenish tint from too aggressive oversharpening. Buildings are not overexposed on S20. Sky color is very, very accurate on S20 (S23 is a complete miss).

Scene 03 (x3 lens - this is biggest surprise to me):

Better defined objects on S20, bigger magnification (I was not aware that), the furthest objects are a bit better visible on S20.

Scene 04 (x1 lens indoor):

Better colors on S20. Not overexposed animals. Better, more gentle wall color. Absolute zero noise on S20. Fake enhanced floor appearance on S23 + ugly noise on it. Overexposed and overcontrasty calendar photo on S23. I feel like in this photo I would expect to have the exact opposite outcome.

Scene 05 (x2 magnification indoor):

This is like comparing two devices from different decade of mobile photography. Whole S23 photo has tons of noise and is oversharpened, overexposed, oversaturated and overcontrasted. Also a lot of details are lost on S23. Sad and pathethic.

Scene 06 (x3 lens indoor):

Mixture of scene 04 and 05 to me. S20 is winner again.

I didn't have way to take some comparison night time photos, but believe me - the outcome and results are the same if not even more prominent.

Without the night mode, S23 photos have TONS of noise, they are unusable to me. They might resolve more details, but this is useless given the amount of the noise.

With night mode enabled S20 photos are just outstanding and S23 is again like decade ago to my taste. Better details, no oversharpening and no object halos. S23 tend to produce weird halo effect on the edges of every object being backgrounded by the dark sky or wall.

S23 camera is really, really bad and a lot worse than S20. Not what I expect from 1000 EUR phone being 3 generations more recent.
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] ajarosz:
I have to say, I am shocked. Except for Scene 03, where I think that s23 might be in some things better, S20 here is a clear winner. I don't care how long S23U is on the market, and we should get updates, which should get better with time. If they need more time to improve it, they should start development earlier.
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] Fl1nt91:
The only reason to buy s23 is the possibility to use gcam and blow away any comparison with ****ty Samsung processing
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] citytrader:
JPG out of this phone is trash at the moment.

Thanks for your comparison, very interesting, something I saw from your picture besides the bad S23 jpg results overall are two things, the details in the shadows are much better in S23 than S20, I cleaned up the noise in PS and the result was much better than S20, the glass in the S20 is worse towards the edge (does not resolve well 12mpx), much worse compared to the S23.

There is no doubt that the JPG output of S23 is trash because of the bad software (even the RAW is sharpened, unbelievable this) and we are paying a premium for a subpar software product on the camera department at the moment, let see how much will improve with the updates in this beta testing period of S23...
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] ajarosz:
I would say not much, but sure, they are better in the S23. But at the cost of the rest of the picture.

Left S20, right S23. S23 is just bad.
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] chetszot:
I totally agree with you. S23 hardware is clearly better than S20's. There's no doubt about it and GCam perfectly proves that. That's why I am that disappointed, because I truly feel like the device has big potential just killed by Samsung's laziness / lack of competence. Or deliberately work to make next year's S24 "better" - I've read that opinion somewhere and seeing how bad S23 is given its relatively good hardware, I started to believe that.

Thank you guys for your opinions about my tests, I truly appreciate that :). I'm considering to provide the exact same samples to Samsung and see their reaction. I hope they won't downgrade S20's camera next update but fix S23 instead :). Although I've lost my faith they're going to improve S23.
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] CarlosLopezES:
HW it's better but SW it's very important too. Pixel 5 with the old 12Mpx sensor was better than new 50Mpx sensor on Pixel 6 for many months until Google optimised it.

We now have a 200Mpx sensor on first generation... too many mpx for a small sensor, and probably Samsung it's struggling to get it well done. However, many reviews only talk about the king of photography, so... I don't understand anymore.

Gcam it's good but it's hit and miss too...
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] chetszot:
Since S23 I really stopped reading any reviews online nor Youtubers. Either they are just paid by Samsung or they are blind and have really no idea about the (mobile) photography at all. Whole S23 series is praised literally everywhere about how good the camera reportedly is. We can see reality in the above pictures xD.

And GCam is good, is awesome, is better than stock, but its experience is far from good on daily basis usage. I've mentioned it earlier but it's slow, we cannot launch it from the lock screen, photo preview doesn't work and videos are worse. It's not good experience when you have to switch between the apps to take shots / record videos because the default system software is just bad.
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] citytrader:
I applied 4 stops of exposure to see the difference and Topaz denoising on the S23U picture , on the left S20 and on the right the S23U, on S20 denoising is hard that the details are lost and it has a kind of yellow vertical banding...

In the edges (left S20, right S23U) Considering the bad oversharpening of S23U

Here how bad the S23U (right) camera software is:
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] citytrader:
I agree with you, simply for getting a phone for free they can talk wonders of a bad product...
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] chetszot:
Great analysis, thank you for that. What I hate most with this oversharpening artifacts is that green grass is whitenish and brown wood is also whitenish.

One correction to your post - the photos I posted are from vanilla S23. It's not Ultra, although I was comparing Ultra with my unit at local store and the processing is pretty much the same - with the same nonsense oversharpening.
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] citytrader:
Are the same cameras, but the problem is the software that all share in common...
[Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e Questions & Answers] VIJIKRISHNA:
Dear sir ,

I have unlocked bootloader, tried to root with magisk / install twrp . I have unlocked bootloader in download mode. Download mode - power button + volume up & down . Once you are in download mode , long press volume up button till screen shows that bootloader unloced . Then I have followed the steps that are described in LOS official page , i am able to install Lineage OS vbmeta.tar followed by LOS recovery .tar file. Successful installed Lineage OS . After that boot into download mode by using Odin , I am able to flash twrp.tar file into AP . once flashed then reboot to recovery . TWRP will be installed permanently. No problem so far .
[Mogul, XV6800 ROM Development] syntheticexctasy:
I am running the R4R rom on my HTC Mogul, and I cannot seem to get nuepower to work properly. I install the driver first, soft reset, then install nuepower cpl, then soft reset.

I can find the CPL applet in the settings menu, but all it ever says is "charging" and that my battery is at 0%. Am I missing something?
[Mogul, XV6800 ROM Development] bitserve:
Are you installing from cab? If you're installing these components manually, don't forget to import the certs, otherwise you may get the results that you're experiencing.

Also, are you sure you're installing the Titan driver, and not the diamond one?

By the way, I'm running R4R without nuePower, and I still get 1% incremements on my battery meter.
[Mogul, XV6800 ROM Development] syntheticexctasy:
I get the 1% increments as well, I just kind of like having the extra statistics that nuepower provides.

I didn't know that I had to install any certificates. I am using the Titan driver.
[Mogul, XV6800 ROM Development] syntheticexctasy:
okay, so I think I found the certs you were talking about. sdkcerts.cab, correct?

I installed said cab, then installed the driver, soft reset, installed nuepower cpl, and had the same result.
[Mogul, XV6800 ROM Development] syntheticexctasy:
hmm. tried installing nueextrom as well. Got the driver, then the CPL installed, and I'm able to hide/unhide the extended rom via the CPL, but it does nothing.

Coincidence? I think not.
[Mogul, XV6800 ROM Development] bitserve:
No2chem signs cabs with his own cert, not those ones from the SDK. Just install from his cabs?
[Mogul, XV6800 ROM Development] syntheticexctasy:
I installed from his cabs. I also have the NO2-Hellfire cert installed.
[Mogul, XV6800 ROM Development] tmanner:
Can Someone Give Me A Link To The Cab For Nuepower? Thanks
[Mogul, XV6800 ROM Development] tmanner:
Found The Cabs But I Am Getting The Same Response No Power Is Shown, Whats This About Certificates? Im Lost. Thanks All
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] Roman geek:
Hello, my phone (samsung galaxy s20+) bootlooped which warranted me flash in the android 13 stuck firmware into it. I successfully did but now I don't have any sound or recordings from the device (even Bluetooth speakers don't work) every effort to update the software have not been able to resolve the issue. Who has experience with this, and how do I solve it? Is it possible it could be a hardware issue?
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] nobodyAtall:
Try to do a full reset. See if the problem still persist.
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] amirage:
You'd be better off posting in the right forum...
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] Roman geek:
Done that severally but same issue persists.. just audio and recordings everywhere thin works fine
[Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra] Oswald Boelcke:
@Roman geek Thread closed as duplicate of

https://xdaforums.com/t/bug-after-installation-of-android-13-on-s20.4570577/

Please review the XDA Forum Rules with special emphasis on rule no. 5 and post only ONCE. If you think you're thread is at the wrong location, just report your thread instead of creating a new one, and we're happy to move it to your new desired location. Thanks for your cooperation.

Regards

Oswald Boelcke

Senior Moderator
[Android Head-Units] nuri_2077:
Hi. I need help.

I have a EUNAVI Android 10 headunit

EUNAVI TDA7803A RK3399 PX6 MCU - STM32-20200721-11-KC6-40

Where can I get a custom firmware for it as the one it comes with is quite boring.

Thanks in advance