All the time I make photos on the primary 50MP camera, I have blurry and smudged spots. The blurry area makes photos of documents and texts unusable since that part is unreadable, but it's noticeable in all kinds of photos taken at a distance too. It's like an unfocused area around the center of the image. I've tried to change camera settings, but nothing helps. It's just extremely annoying, especially when you need to make a clear text photo, but it looks blurry all around the center. I googled it and found related information about that issue. Other Galaxy S23 users also report seeing that. It's just unbelievable that we have to experience this. Android Police, Reddit, and others have already mentioned it, but Samsung claims this is not a hardware defect but a characteristic of the big camera sensor that delivers a DSLR-like bokeh effect. Wait, what? A characteristic? It's a really serious problem with the camera, and I want it to be solved. The problem is unlikely to be software-related, as it persists even after Samsung's big camera-focused April update. Customers who sent their phones for repairs to the company were sent the device back in the same condition. Someone else had their camera module swapped with another with the exact same issue. Owners of Samsung's latest flagship phone have been complaining about smudged photos for over a month now. Such a shame. I hope that Samsung can rectify the problem with a software update as soon as possible. I'm not a big fan of making photos, but when you see this all the time, you will be disappointed having a Samsung flagship smartphone and will never buy it again. I prefer now to take photos using my old S10+ because it's fine and doesn't annoy me.
According to a poll made by a German forum, only 7 out of 71 users were not affected by this issue.
Another poll on an Italian forum showed that 17 users out of 25 had it.
Also the S23 Ultra, as far as I know, does not have this issue.
Another example of what it looks like in normal non-closeup photos
Some closeup examples I made:
