Shortage In Supply Of The Galaxy S5 Lens Assembly Could Cause Delay In Launch

Shortage in supply of the Galaxy S5 lens assembly could cause delay in launch

BY Valerie Richardson

Valerie Richardson

Valerie is a 26 year old tech writer based in London, UK. She has prior experience working with major media conglomerates. She’s also a lover of all things tech — well, basically anything with a d...

All Articles by Valerie Richardson

Published 17 Mar 2014

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A new report suggests that Samsung is having trouble with the production of the lens assembly required by the Galaxy S5. This scarcity could also cause a delay in the launch of the handset in a few regions.

The smartphone apparently requires a very thin 6-elements lens, which is having trouble adjusting with the positioning of the camera module. Since Samsung doesn’t have enough expertise in this area, it makes the molds and supplies it to third-party manufacturers to do the rest.

However, the yield is only said to be close to 20-30% of what was initially expected, which could be troubling signs for the Korean manufacturer. The smartphone uses a 16 megapixel ISOCELL sensor on the handset, which has won us over since the detailed look we had the other day.

There is some good news for Samsung though. The South Korean Medical Ministry has clarified that the smartphone cannot be considered as a health device with the heart rate monitor on board. If that was the case, Samsung would have had to wait for approval from the government before selling the device in local markets, so this comes as a consolation for the Korean manufacturer.

[Yonhap, ET News]