Some owners find the Galaxy S20 Ultra's rear camera glass is inexplicably shattering

midian182

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What just happened? The Galaxy S20 Ultra might be the pinnacle of smartphone technology, but it isn’t without its faults. According to user reports, there could be a design flaw in the device that causes the camera bump to shatter randomly.

SamMobile writes that dozens of owners have been complaining about the problem on Samsung’s official forums. They all insist that the phone hadn’t been dropped and that the glass on the camera broke on its own.

Some users say the issue began with a hairline crack across the glass that stops the camera from zooming beyond a certain level. The crack continues to expand, further limiting the phone’s zoom capabilities. For others, the glass just completely shattered without warning—one person said they woke up to find the camera glass had broken during the night.

As you can see in the pictures, one example of the problem looks like a tiny bullet has been fired through the rear bump—a phenomenon more than one owner claims to have experienced.

It’s unclear what could be causing the glass to crack, though one user theorizes that “there is some sort of a gas between the camera and the glass like in a dual pane window and it just blows out from the inside outward.”

The bad news for those affected is that Samsung classes this as nothing more than cosmetic damage, meaning it isn’t covered under standard warranties. Anyone wanting to repair the glass will have to hand over $400, or $100 if they’re signed up to Samsung’s Premium Care plan.

Many flagship phones tend to have technical issues at launch that are limited to a few buyers, and the S20 Ultra is no exception. But that’s little consolidation to those who paid $1,400 for a handset with a broken camera.

Earlier this month, there were reports that the Exynos version of the Galaxy S20 Ultra was displaying a slew of problems not found in the Snapdragon version.

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Once again, glad I only drop $200 for a phone and let all the rich do the real world testing before I move up ..... in 10 years! LOL
 
Samsung really messed it up this generation.
Imagine Apple having so many problems with one generation like S20 is having right now, that would be gate this, gate that :D
S20 line feels like it can really hurt Samsung reputation and that is IMHO great! Samsung got complacent, stale and a puch to the gut by customers is clearly the best response.
S6
 
I really hate it when the glass on my phone breaks for no reason overnight.....

I've had my S20 ultra since release day. Aside from the camera issue that was known before release, I've had nothing but a good experience with the phone.
 
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I threw my note 9 on the bed and the camera glass hit my portable charge, it now looks like the OP pic.
 
I don't see how this is considered "cosmetic" damage when it limits the phone's zoom capabilities. I suppose exploding Note 7s were also suffering cosmetic damage.

It appears that Samsung is forgetting that people who can afford $1,400 phones can also afford attorneys. Someone will likely smell blood in the water and file a class-action. I'll start the popcorn.
 
Seems like that would interfere with the camera, not to mention being really ugly. It also sounds really fun to reach for your phone only to slice your fingers and get tiny bits of glass embedded in them. To say this is just cosmetic damage and not covered by the warranty is ludicrous, I hope they get sued.
 
Samsung couldn’t get away with this in Australia, consumer law would put them in a world of hurt if they tried this crap. One more reason to avoid this overpriced POS like the plague.
 
I doubt any of these plagues S20 has happens to more than 1% of devices.
Price however is not something people are still excited about.
I was comfortable with Samsung following Apple with their price ranges.
But I dont wanna pay for samsung phone more than I would pay to apple.
 
Samsung saying it's "cosmetic" seems to indicate they've seen it before but aren't paying to fix it beause they have no clue how or why it's happening!!
 
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