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Samsung Galaxy S5 owners hit by fatal camera error problem

Permanent camera conk-outs reported on pricy earslabs from Apple rival

Samsung's latest phone the Galaxy S5 has a fatal flaw that has been appearing in the wild.

The flaw has meant that some owners report that after a few days of using the phone they are confronted with a "Warning: Camera Failed" message that makes the earslab's high-quality camera stop working.

Some of the owners have said that they were not able to bring their phone back to life even when they perform a force stop, clear the cache, perform a factory reset through settings, or even perform a factory reset through recovery.

US carrier Verizon acknowledged the flaw in a post to Twitter on Friday, and said it would replace devices affected by the flaw.

"I had this happen to my GS5 last week after using it for about 5 days," one user wrote on the XDA Developers forums this week. "I took it back to Best Buy mobile and their Samsung Experience Rep Flashed the factory binaries from an image (something similar to Odin) Factory reset. Still camera failed in the camera app and any app that uses the camera. IN fact if you try to open the camera in any other app like messaging etc. etc. it will force close that specific app and cause you to clear cache in said app. Samsung tech said it was definitely hardware related and promptly gave me a new phone."

In a statement, a Samsung spokesperson told us: "Samsung is committed to providing the best experience for customers. We have learned that a limited number of Galaxy S 5 devices may have an issue that causes "Camera Failure" pop-up error message. We ask that customers affected call 1-888-987-4357 or visit their carrier for service under Samsung’s standard limited warranty."

The Samsung S5 launched worldwide in April with many reviewers, including one of our own Vultures, responding favorably to the tech.

We even complimented the camera, noting that: "the camera does focus with impressive speed, as promised, and coped with dim light and colour gradation handily" – unfortunately, some owners of the earslabs can't seem to enjoy these clever capabilities. ®

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