Galaxy Note II flash LED is less than half the brightness of Galaxy S3 & Galaxy Nexus?

[BuyOneGetFour]

There are currently 5 Samsung smartphones in my family:

Galaxy Note II (Verizon)
GalaxyNote II (in'tl unlocked bought overseas)
Galaxy S3 (Verizon) <- only used as spare device on wifi
Galaxy Nexus (Verizon) <- only used as spare device on wifi
Galaxy Nexus (int'l unlocked, bought overseas) <- only used as spare device on wifi

I can't believe I never noticed this, but the Note II's rear flash LED is less than half the brightness of all my other phones.
Just in case I was not mistaken, I took my VZW Galaxy Note II and VZW Galaxy Nexus with me to the local VZW corproate
store this morning. They had three Note II phones on display. I turned all of their flash LEDs on and compared. Just
as dim as the LED on my own Note II. The store's Galaxy S3's flash LED was just as bright as my Galaxy Nexus. (both
are double the brightness of the Note II, when the light is directed on the wall)

(just to be fair, I used 4 of the most popular apps that turn the flash LED on as flashlights.. installed all 4 apps on all phones
during the comparison)

Is this a design "flaw" on the Note II? I can't think of any reason why Samsung would deliberately use a dim flash LED?

Thanks for any feedback on this.

 

[1812dave]

the only thing I'd say on the subject is that flash pics on the Note 2 are terrible. they come out overexposed and blue (quite obvious if doing portraits). I have to switch Scene Mode ="Party/Indoor" to get decent color with the flash. if the flash was any brighter, the results would be even worse! Flash shots taken in moderate to bright light are fine. It's the dim indoors shots that I have trouble with, requiring a switch to Party/Indoor.

 

[rexxcastle]

the only thing I'd say on the subject is that flash pics on the Note 2 are terrible. they come out overexposed and blue (quite obvious if doing portraits). I have to switch Scene Mode ="Party/Indoor" to get decent color with the flash. if the flash was any brighter, the results would be even worse! Flash shots taken in moderate to bright light are fine. It's the dim indoors shots that I have trouble with, requiring a switch to Party/Indoor.

Having to switch to indoor mode when taking pictures indoors!! What an outrage....

 

[1812dave]

the party mode will prevent the "blues" as well as overexposure as I said...your sarcasm was unnecessary

I posted about this issue quite a while ago and people were happy to use my suggestion as it cured the color cast issue.

 

[SenseMonkey]

Regards of it being less flashy, i dont know about you guys but my n2 takes great shots in low low light. :thumbup:

Sent from my Behemoth of a phone, the Galaxy Note 2

 

[BuyOneGetFour]

Regards of it being less flashy, i dont know about you guys but my n2 takes great shots in low low light. :thumbup:

Sent from my Behemoth of a phone, the Galaxy Note 2

well... I don't dispute that. Of all the 11 smartphones I've owned in the last 3 and half hears, the Note II has one of the best low-light pictures!

it's just that the Galaxy Note II is almost useless as a LED flashlight... : D: (compared directly with my Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Nexus)

 

[bigoldthor]

Lucid Mike had a video that explained this. Said Samsung purposely did this to help reduce badly washed out photos and dark borders seen on the GS3 and other Samsung phones due to too much flash.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note II SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 2

 

[planoman]

My note 2's LED is plenty bright. If used as a flashlight, it is fine. Comparing to my wife SGSIII and my Nexus 4 which is pretty bright also.

 

[roberte1342]

It seems to me that the LED is only brightest at the moment the picture is captured.
Perhaps the torch apps are not able to enable the higher intensity mode or my eyes are playing tricks on me.

 

[qICEM4Np]

Ill gladly let this be the only bad thing about my note 2 so far lol.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Android Central Forums

 

[SpookDroid]

I once saw a video that compared LED brightness on the Note 2 and, apparently, for some reason, using widgets to turn the LED On resulted in lower levels than using an app directly and that, in turn, was different when using Samsung's own widget. Weird.

 

[TheOtherBill]

It seems to me that the LED is only brightest at the moment the picture is captured.
Perhaps the torch apps are not able to enable the higher intensity mode or my eyes are playing tricks on me.

That would make a lot of sense. Driving LEDs too hard is a sure way to overheat, and ultimately kill, them.