Nothing used inventory pictures in Phone 3 advert (Updated: Clarification)

Update, August 27, 2025 (07:40 AM ET): Nothing co-founder Akis Evangelidis has offered an in depth clarification for the inventory pictures discovered on Nothing Phone 3 demo models.

Original article, August 26, 2025 (16:41 AM ET): Phone producers, it’s time to smart up! You are promoting to a market stuffed with some exceptionally intelligent, resourceful tech followers, and in case you attempt to get one previous them, you’re going to get caught. Companies nonetheless generally push their luck juicing benchmark efficiency, or possibly they take an opportunity at faking digicam samples. Over the years we’ve seen the whole lot from Nokia faking video stabilization on the Lumia 920 to Samsung’s “detail enhanced” moon footage, and now it’s time for Nothing and the Phone 3 to take the new seat over accusations of deceptive digicam samples.

This all begins with a display screen recording, purportedly captured from a Nothing Phone 3 retail demo unit on show in New Zealand. Shoppers searching the interface may come throughout one display screen displaying off a collection of 5 footage, supposedly taken with the Phone 3’s digicam:

Between the #WithNothing hashtag and that assertion, “Here’s what our community has captured with the Phone (3),” it’s unimaginable to learn this as something apart from asserting that these are photographs taken by the smartphone’s personal digicam {hardware}.

As it seems, nonetheless, that’s simply merely not true.

One of the photographers behind these photographs reached out anonymously to Android Authority, advising us that every one 5 of those photographs can be found for license on the inventory picture market Stills: the window, the glass, the headlight, the staircase, and the woman.

We requested these photographers about their expertise right here — might a few of these photographs actually originate from a Phone 3? — and heard again from Roman Fox, the photographer who took the automobile headlight picture Nothing used.

Rather than a Phone 3, Fox confirms that he shot the headlight pic utilizing a Fujifilm XH2s, as a substitute. In truth, he took the image in Paris all the best way again in 2023, lengthy earlier than the Phone 3 was even a glimmer in Nothing’s eye — you may even see it shared on Fox’s Instagram in a publish from final summer season.

The photographers we spoke to substantiate that Nothing did pay them for his or her pictures via the Stills platform, so whereas the corporate’s utilization was licensed, it presents their work in a manner that’s virtually assured to mislead buyers.

With this a lot of the image clear, we contacted Nothing to see if the corporate had any response to the seemingly damning allegations. The assertion Nothing offered doesn’t try and deny what we discovered, and is solely targeted on subsequent steps. An organization spokesperson tells us:

Accuracy in how we signify our product capabilities is vital to us. Phone (3) demo models are being up to date to characteristic solely photographs captured with Phone (3).

That’s lower than utterly satisfying, and we’re left with as many questions as solutions. Has Nothing accomplished something like this earlier than — and gotten away with it? How remoted of an incident was this?

What makes this all of the extra irritating is that trendy smartphone cameras are fairly rattling spectacular in their very own proper, and if Nothing simply acquired the Phone 3 into the palms of the identical type of proficient photographers because the group who took these pics right here, they in all probability would have produced some dazzling outcomes. We actually discovered so much to love in regards to the Phone 3’s digicam capabilities in our evaluation. So why danger a lot goodwill with buyers by doing one thing like this?

We hope that is the final time we’ve got to name a cellphone producer out on faking digicam samples, however given the decade-plus monitor document the business has offered, we’re not holding our breath.