14 DAY TRIAL // Some of the owners of a Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone on the network of wireless carrier Verizon have been plagued with a series of issues related to the camera on their handsets, and the two companies have finally acknowledged the problem.
Users affected by this issue report that the 16-megapixel camera on the back of the device would not work at all at specific times.
A “camera failure” error would pop up on their handsets and, as soon as that happens, the camera on the device stops working completely and remains permanently disabled.
No specific info on what causes this has been provided as of now, but the issue is clearly there and appears to be related to the phone’s hardware rather than to the software loaded on it.
As The Verge notes, some of those affected by the issue have already brought their smartphones to Verizon stores in order to resolve it, but it appears that only a hardware replacement will fix this.
The news site also reports that Samsung has already acknowledged the problem, confirming that this is a major flaw in the phone and that users will need to contact the company in order to receive a replacement device.
“We have learned that a limited number of Galaxy S5 devices may have an issue that causes ‘Camera Failure’ pop-up error message,” a Samsung spokesperson reportedly said.
Verizon too has confirmed this, posting on Twitter that users should contact it as soon as the error message appears on their devices, and that it will resolve the problem one way or the other, including replacing affected devices.
“Galaxy S5 customers who see ‘Warning: Camera Failed’ please contact @VZWsupport & we'll work to resolve it, including replacing the device,” the wireless carrier said.
Basically, owners of Galaxy S5 handsets on Verizon’s network who have seen said issue emerging on their devices can now contact either Samsung or the wireless carrier in order to resolve the problem.
However, it should be noted that the issue does not appear to be widely spread, even if the number of users affected by this is not very small.
Undoubtedly, the companies involved in this would have suspended sales of the phone in the event that this was a problem with all handsets out there.
This also means that there’s little chance that those who have their phones replaced due to this issue will bump into the same problem on the new device.