Galaxy S6 Edge vs iOS Facebook upload problems

[strickforce]

Hi,

I am addicted to phones. I own several, and get the latest and greatest as soon as they come out. I love both Android and iOS. This site feeds my addition....

Here is one major issue I have, that I am surprised no one else is talking about. There is a huge disparity between the quality of pictures uploaded from an Android phone vs an iOS device to social media.

Perfect example - I own both the Galaxy S6 Edge + and iPhone 6S Plus. When I take a picture on the galaxy phone and upload directly to Facebook - the quality is horrible, worse then instagram. If I take the exact same picture with my iPhone - and upload it to Facebook, the picture maintains it's HD quality and looks amazing.

I think this is a huge issue - one that prevents me from using Android as a daily driver. I have seen numerous 'camera comparisons' between these devices - and everyone fails to mention this huge problem - what good is my S6 camera if the pictures I share on social media are horrible compared to iOS for example.

There are several forums that discuss this exact same issue, but there are no solutions (other then copying the photos to a computer, and uploading from a computer). This issue is the same across all Android devices btw - not just the brand new S6. Maybe I am generalizing a bit too much, but I own about 3 android devices a year, and the trend is the same across all of them. Samsung, or Nexus.

I would challenge you and your team at android central HQ to run your own tests to witness this - take an S6, and a 6s - take the same picture of something, and upload both to facebook, then go and look at the pictures and you will notice a huge difference. It is even more obvious when viewing the pictures on a laptop/pc - the resolution is just horrible on the Android versions - and retains the HD quality on the iPhones.

PS. the same is true for video as well - iPhone will upload and maintain much better quality video vs Android counterparts. I almost want to scream at the reviews that say 'the android camera is so much better this time around' - yes, i agree, it is! Especially on the S6 - but guess what? Can't do anything with those pictures...

What gives!

 

[B. Diddy]

That's interesting. I just looked over some photos I've uploaded directly to Facebook using both a Nexus 5 and an ASUS Zenfone 2, and I've not seen any issues with poor resolution. I can't compare directly with iPhones, though.

 

[strickforce]

Yeah, when you compare, it is night and day :/ I only know because I have both. If I had just android and only ever used android, I would probably be content. But the fact that I have two and know that there is something up - just annoys me. I would rather use my S6 as my daily, but end up taking the iPhone to family functions because I know I will be able to upload much better quality pictures :/

I guess I don't care if its Android or Facebook's fault - I am sure some might try to defend Android and blame Facebook - all I know is there is a huge disparity.

One thing you can do with your pictures, after you post them, zoom in on them within the app - you should notice major compression artifacts. Those do not exist on the iOS version of uploads. It also lets you zoom in much further (and looks much better) :/

 

[strickforce]

I almost wonder if iOS has some sort of 'deal' worked out with Facebook - there is just no technical reason I can think of for this disparity.

 

[B. Diddy]

The difficulty here is that Facebook doesn't give any details about the photos--i.e., what resolution they are, either originally or in the uploaded form. On the desktop interface, there's no way to zoom on the photos--you can make it fullscreen, but that's about it.

I just checked out photos on my wife's iPad Mini--I can see that the photos can zoom in more, but the resolution actually doesn't look any better. In fact, zooming in more reveals more blurriness due to the resolution of the photo. Maybe it's different if the photo was taken by an iOS device and directly uploaded to Facebook--these photos were taken and uploaded by an M8.

I would not be surprised if there are differences like this between the Facebook apps on iOS and Android. One of the main advantages of developing for iOS is probably the fact that you're essentially developing for one device, as opposed to the vast array of Android hardware that's out there.

 

[strickforce]

The difficulty here is that Facebook doesn't give any details about the photos--i.e., what resolution they are, either originally or in the uploaded form. On the desktop interface, there's no way to zoom on the photos--you can make it fullscreen, but that's about it.

I just checked out photos on my wife's iPad Mini--I can see that the photos can zoom in more, but the resolution actually doesn't look any better. In fact, zooming in more reveals more blurriness due to the resolution of the photo. Maybe it's different if the photo was taken by an iOS device and directly uploaded to Facebook--these photos were taken and uploaded by an M8.

I would not be surprised if there are differences like this between the Facebook apps on iOS and Android. One of the main advantages of developing for iOS is probably the fact that you're essentially developing for one device, as opposed to the vast array of Android hardware that's out there.

I hear ya.. So here is what I just now did to test to illustrate the difference.

I set both Cameras to 12MP (6s is 12, so I turned S6 down to 12).

I just took a picture from each one, uploaded to FB, then downloaded the pictures from FB to see what their dimensions were.

Android = 960x540
iOS = 2048x1536

And there you have it :/

 

[B. Diddy]

Urgh.:-\

I found this thread from last year, discussing this very issue: http://forums.androidcentral.com/sa...when-uploading-galaxy-s5-photos-facebook.html. Some people mention that uploading a photo using the mobile FB site on the browser gives you full resolution. So it sounds like a limitation of the Android FB app. Not sure why they would favor iPhones in the resolution arena, but Facebook has always seemed to have a closer relationship with Apple than with Google.

 

[milkcoffee22989]

it good for me, my phone has problem

 

[B. Diddy]

it good for me, my phone has problem

I'm sorry, what? Are you referring to the discussion we've been having?

 

[strickforce]

Urgh.:-\

I found this thread from last year, discussing this very issue: http://forums.androidcentral.com/sa...when-uploading-galaxy-s5-photos-facebook.html. Some people mention that uploading a photo using the mobile FB site on the browser gives you full resolution. So it sounds like a limitation of the Android FB app. Not sure why they would favor iPhones in the resolution arena, but Facebook has always seemed to have a closer relationship with Apple than with Google.

I agree - I think that is really what is going on here - there is some sort of relationship that Facebook has with Apple, they worked something out. It is obviously not a technical limitation. It just bothers me. Pictures for me are a huge deal, and while I do buy both Android and iOS devices - I am forced to pretty much stick to my iOS phones as my daily drivers - the irony being that both the S6 edge and Note 5 that I have take amazing photos, better then this iphone 6s - and yet, it gets compressed into a 960x540 res on facebook and other social media - that completely mutes ANY review that anyone has done comparing cameras - because the overwhelming reason people want better cameras is to share on social media. What is the point of having a 16MP camera that takes amazing shots? Might as well be using the OG droid camera if Facebook is going to give Android such a huge disadvantage...