Nothing exposed for faking camera shots, joins Huawei and Samsung on the offenders list
The company insists it’s nothing more than “an unfortunate oversight”.
Nothing is the latest phone brand to be caught faking camera shots for its first “true flagship” phone, the Phone (3).
How the controversy started
The issue surfaced in New Zealand, where a screen recording from a Phone (3) retail demo unit showed five photos accompanied by the message: “Judge for yourself. Here’s what our community has captured with Phone (3).” The photos were presented as camera samples to highlight the Phone (3)‘s camera capabilities.
Not shot on the Phone (3)
It was later discovered that the photos weren’t taken by the Phone (3) at all. Instead, they were stock photos from different photographers.
One was a shot of a car headlight by Roman Fox, captured with his Fujifilm XH2s in 2023 and uploaded to his Instagram in June 2024. Other photographers confirmed to Android Authority that while Nothing paid to license the photos, none were taken with the Phone (3).
Nothing responds
Nothing co-founder Akis Evangelidis issued a detailed explanation, clarifying that the demo units were usually preloaded with placeholder stock images during testing. These units were meant to be updated with actual camera samples from the Phone (3) before launch, but some managed to slip through without the update.
Akis added that the company is investigating to prevent similar lapses in future, calling the incident “an unfortunate oversight” and stressing there was “no ill intent”.
The Offenders List
This is not the first time that a phone brand has been caught faking camera photos.
Back in 2012, Nokia was exposed for using a professional camera to demonstrate the Lumia 920’s video stabilisation feature of its Lumia 920 phone. The company later apologised, saying it was “never the company’s intention to deceive anyone.”
Huawei has been caught – not once – but four times using DSLR photos to promote its phone cameras. The incidents involved the P9, Nova 3, P30 and P40 Pro all of which featured photos taken on DSLRs but presented as smartphone shots. The Chinese company defended its decisions, claiming that the photos were “wrongly marked” due to “an oversight by the editor”, and that the photos were “artistic renditions” of its phone’s camera capabilities.
The most recent case came in 2023, when the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra drew criticisms for its Space Zoom feature. While not outright fake, the company relied on aggressive AI processing to “fill in” missing details and reduce noise, producing moon photos that appeared far clearer than what smartphone cameras alone could capture.
Source: Android Authority (1) (2)