Disappointed, but trying not to be. Help/Ideas?

General
#1

I’ve had my new phone for a bit over a week now. I am having a hard time and trying not to be disappointed. I am not a heavy user for phones, and thought all of the features of this phone would be perfect for me. Here are the struggles I am having:
Camera: Both front and rear cameras give me grainy photos. Especially the front, extremely grainy. But the back one is not very impressive either. I use my phone primarily to take pics of my kids, and so this is a borderline dealbreaker for me if I can’t figure out how to get it sorted

Battery: Yikes, this sucker drains fast. I am not impressed with the battery life at all, and it is certainly not all day battery. I am not a heavy phone user. I don’t sit there and game on it. It drains while just sitting there?

Connectivity: If I turn off my wifi so that I can use my phone’s data, why is it switching itself back on to reconnect? I turned OFF the wifi, I expect it to say OFF. Ideas?

Also, places I have had great service before, I am now having spotty service. My service provider has not changed, so this is concerning.

Alarm clock: When my alarm clock goes off, I want dismiss the alarm and get up. Instead I find myself mashing the dismiss button over and over desperately trying to get the alarm to shut off before it wakes up my partner. I’ll probably download a different clock app and try that but still irksome.

Overall I like the phone, but those issues are really getting to me. Especially the photo quality. I am not getting the same nice quality as I see others getting. I don’t expect a perfect selfie cam, but the pictures should not be entirely grainy the way they are? Pictures of my still, unmoving children in decent lighting should be clear.

Thanks for any insight. I am up to date, Teracube_S1_06_20200114-1642

3 new photos by Jessica Patton

Here is a photo album with three example pictures. 1) The best quality image I have managed to get out of this phone, in perfect daylight with an unmoving dog, which is undefined and grainy. 2) an average quality image I am able to get with good indoor lighting and a still subject, very grainy. 3) a selfie with the front cam in good indoor lighting, very very grainy
#2

Hi there,

Thank you for your feedback. The camera on Teracube (One) takes better pictures in outdoor lighting. We are aware of the indoor picture issues. However we do not have a fix for it right now. We will update everyone if we are able to improve on this.

For the battery issue, could you check if you have the SW6 software update? You can check it by going to Settings > System > Advanced > About Phone > Wireless update. (More Details here - Software update available)

For the Wifi turning itself on automatically, please go to Settings > Network & Internet > WiFi > WiFi preferences. Disable “Turn on Wi-Fi automatically”.

#3

Teracube_S1_06_20200114-1642 is the update I am on.

Thanks for the tip about the wifi, and for the feedback!

#4

It seems you are already on the latest update. The battery should not be draining as fast as you are experiencing. Could you try the suggestions mentioned in this thread - Battery issues.

If it still drains fast, then please share your Acubattery screenshots.

#5

I prefer the UX of Simple Apps’ Clock app. Check it out on the Store.

For the camera, try using OpenCamera with Camera2 API enabled, and tweak the JPEG settings and post-process settings to your preference. The stock camera settings are way too aggressive for noise reduction, returning muddy images with no detail even in good lighting.

As Sharhad noted, the sensor does much better in bright light, but such is life with a small sensor with very, very small photosites which are smaller than a typical photon, not BSI, and with high readout noise. Samsung designed this sensor for “fast” readout and fast focus, so it would appear that these are deliberate design considerations. I think with some firmware/app tweaks, we can get a much improved camera experience, even outside of ideal lighting, but just be cognizant of the physical limitations of such a sensor. Physics is physics, post-processing magic to make up data out of thin air notwithstanding.

DRO Mode with all post-process NR turned off and Edge Detect turned up is where I like it best thus far. I’m willing to take ISO Noise and Color Noise in return for sharper images.

DRO - Outdoor

IMG_20200607_094258_DRO
IMG_20200607_094258_DRO2016×1512 2.33 MB

DRO - Indoor

IMG_20200603_092608_DRO
IMG_20200603_092608_DRO2016×1512 3.65 MB

DRO - Indoor (Post-Processed Lightly)

image
image2016×1512 2.4 MB

#6

I’m very disappointed with the photo quality and I’m considering getting another phone.
It’s a shame as I was pleased to buy a more sustainable product.

1 Like
#7

Welcome!

Sorry to hear that.

You may find you enjoy the image quality better with a different camera app and settings, like I posted about above.

Have you explored anything like that yet?

#8

Thank you for the advice.
I’m not sure how to do that but I’ll look into it.

Thank you again

1 Like
#9

Here’s the link to OpenCamera:

Here’s the link to their documentation if you want to read over how to change settings:
https://www.opencamera.org.uk/help.html