diff --git a/src/blob.rs b/src/blob.rs
index bd426a35c0..b03c5c5856 100644
--- a/src/blob.rs
+++ b/src/blob.rs
@@ -388,14 +388,9 @@ impl<'a> BlobObject<'a> {
                 _ => img,
             };
 
-            // max_wh is the maximum image width and height, i.e. the resolution-limit.
-            // target_wh target-resolution for resizing the image.
+            // max_wh is the maximum image width and height, i.e. the resolution-limit,
+            // as set by `Config::MediaQuality`.
             let exceeds_wh = img.width() > max_wh || img.height() > max_wh;
-            let mut target_wh = if exceeds_wh {
-                max_wh
-            } else {
-                max(img.width(), img.height())
-            };
             let exceeds_max_bytes = nr_bytes > max_bytes as u64;
 
             let jpeg_quality = 75;
@@ -434,20 +429,43 @@ impl<'a> BlobObject<'a> {
                         });
 
             if do_scale {
+                let n_px_longest_side = max(img.width(), img.height());
+                let n_all_px = img.width() * img.height();
+
+                // target_wh will be used as the target-resolution for resizing the image,
+                // so that the longest sides of the image match the target-resolution.
+                let mut target_wh = if !is_avatar {
+                    let n_all_px_sqrt = f64::from(n_all_px).sqrt();
+                    // Limit resolution to the number of pixels that fit within max_wh * max_wh,
+                    // so that the image-quality does not depend on the aspect-ratio.
+                    let mut resolution_limit =
+                        (f64::from(n_px_longest_side) * (f64::from(max_wh) / n_all_px_sqrt)) as u32;
+                    // Align (at least) two sides of the resampled image to a multiple of 8 pixels,
+                    // to have fewer partially used JPEG-blocks (which represent 8x8 pixels each).
+                    while !resolution_limit.is_multiple_of(8) {
+                        resolution_limit -= 1
+                    }
+                    resolution_limit
+                } else {
+                    max_wh
+                };
+
+                if target_wh > n_px_longest_side {
+                    target_wh = n_px_longest_side;
+                };
+
                 loop {
                     if mem::take(&mut add_white_bg) {
                         self::add_white_bg(&mut img);
                     }
 
-                    // resize() results in often slightly better quality,
-                    // however, comes at high price of being 4+ times slower than thumbnail().
-                    // for a typical camera image that is sent, this may be a change from "instant" (500ms) to "long time waiting" (3s).
-                    // as we do not have recoding in background while chat has already a preview,
-                    // we vote for speed.
-                    // exception is the avatar image: this is far more often sent than recoded,
-                    // usually has less pixels by cropping, UI that needs to wait anyways,
-                    // and also benefits from slightly better (5%) encoding of Triangle-filtered images.
-                    let new_img = if is_avatar {
+                    // resize() results in better quality than thumbnail(),
+                    // however, comes at the price of being 4+ times slower than thumbnail().
+                    // For a typical camera-image that is sent (often more than 8 megapixels),
+                    // this may be a change from "instant" (500ms) to "long time waiting" (3s).
+                    // As we do not have recoding in the background while the chat already has a preview,
+                    // we vote for speed, if the original image has a high resolution (> 2.56 megapixels).
+                    let new_img = if is_avatar || n_all_px <= 1600 * 1600 {
                         img.resize(target_wh, target_wh, image::imageops::FilterType::Triangle)
                     } else {
                         img.thumbnail(target_wh, target_wh)
@@ -467,7 +485,7 @@ impl<'a> BlobObject<'a> {
                             ));
                         }
 
-                        target_wh = target_wh * 2 / 3;
+                        target_wh = target_wh * 7 / 8;
                     } else {
                         info!(
                             context,
diff --git a/src/blob/blob_tests.rs b/src/blob/blob_tests.rs
index ed5a2b0017..63763f54a6 100644
--- a/src/blob/blob_tests.rs
+++ b/src/blob/blob_tests.rs
@@ -384,8 +384,8 @@ async fn test_recode_image_balanced_png() {
         extension: "png",
         original_width: 1920,
         original_height: 1080,
-        compressed_width: constants::WORSE_IMAGE_SIZE,
-        compressed_height: constants::WORSE_IMAGE_SIZE * 1080 / 1920,
+        compressed_width: 848,
+        compressed_height: 477,
         ..Default::default()
     }
     .test()
@@ -475,8 +475,8 @@ async fn test_recode_image_rgba_png_to_jpeg() {
         extension: "png",
         original_width: 1920,
         original_height: 1080,
-        compressed_width: constants::WORSE_IMAGE_SIZE,
-        compressed_height: constants::WORSE_IMAGE_SIZE * 1080 / 1920,
+        compressed_width: 848,
+        compressed_height: 477,
         ..Default::default()
     }
     .test()
@@ -495,8 +495,8 @@ async fn test_recode_image_huge_jpg() {
         has_exif: true,
         original_width: 1920,
         original_height: 1080,
-        compressed_width: constants::BALANCED_IMAGE_SIZE,
-        compressed_height: constants::BALANCED_IMAGE_SIZE * 1080 / 1920,
+        compressed_width: 1704,
+        compressed_height: 959,
         ..Default::default()
     }
     .test()
diff --git a/src/constants.rs b/src/constants.rs
index 28eb4c0fed..6850cf243f 100644
--- a/src/constants.rs
+++ b/src/constants.rs
@@ -199,7 +199,7 @@ pub const WORSE_IMAGE_BYTES: usize = 130_000;
 // max. width/height and bytes of an avatar
 pub(crate) const BALANCED_AVATAR_SIZE: u32 = 512;
 pub(crate) const BALANCED_AVATAR_BYTES: usize = 60_000;
-pub(crate) const WORSE_AVATAR_SIZE: u32 = 128;
+pub(crate) const WORSE_AVATAR_SIZE: u32 = 256;
 pub(crate) const WORSE_AVATAR_BYTES: usize = 20_000; // this also fits to Outlook servers don't allowing headers larger than 32k.
 
 // max. width/height of images scaled down because of being too huge
diff --git a/src/tests/pre_messages/additional_text.rs b/src/tests/pre_messages/additional_text.rs
index 0af33ec8c6..40204a9c97 100644
--- a/src/tests/pre_messages/additional_text.rs
+++ b/src/tests/pre_messages/additional_text.rs
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ async fn test_additional_text_on_different_viewtypes() -> Result<()> {
     let (pre_message, _, _) = send_large_image_message(alice, a_group_id).await?;
     let msg = bob.recv_msg(&pre_message).await;
     assert_eq!(msg.text, "test".to_owned());
-    assert_eq!(msg.get_text(), "test [Image – 146.12 KiB]".to_owned());
+    assert_eq!(msg.get_text(), "test [Image – 210.38 KiB]".to_owned());
 
     Ok(())
 }
diff --git a/src/tests/pre_messages/receiving.rs b/src/tests/pre_messages/receiving.rs
index 0657f523fd..3f7e38467d 100644
--- a/src/tests/pre_messages/receiving.rs
+++ b/src/tests/pre_messages/receiving.rs
@@ -323,9 +323,9 @@ async fn test_receive_pre_message_image() -> Result<()> {
     // test that metadata is correctly returned by methods
     assert_eq!(msg.get_post_message_viewtype(), Some(Viewtype::Image));
     // recoded image dimensions
-    assert_eq!(msg.get_filebytes(bob).await?, Some(149632));
-    assert_eq!(msg.get_height(), 1280);
-    assert_eq!(msg.get_width(), 720);
+    assert_eq!(msg.get_filebytes(bob).await?, Some(215424));
+    assert_eq!(msg.get_height(), 1704);
+    assert_eq!(msg.get_width(), 959);
 
     Ok(())
 }