Ryan Haines / Android Authority
Since the launch of the Nothing Phone 1 in 2022, Nothing has marketed itself as “not like the other phone brands.” From product design to offbeat videos showing CEO Carl Pei reacting to reviews, the company has constantly tried to demonstrate how it stands apart from other smartphone makers.
However, Nothing has recently been involved in a photo-fakery scandal. Between this latest controversy and previous ones, it’s clear that Nothing isn’t really different from other brands. And these incidents make it harder to trust the company.
The same controversies as other brands Just this week, it emerged that Nothing Phone 3 demo units sold in some markets showed a selection of photos apparently taken with the phone. However, these photos were actually taken with standalone cameras. That puts Nothing in an unenviable club that includes Samsung, HUAWEI, and Nokia when it comes to faking camera output.
The company didn’t deny the practice in its original statement, only saying it would update the demo unit software accordingly. Nothing co-founder Akis Evangelidis would step up with a more comprehensive explanation. He claimed that this was a mistake and that these stock photos were supposed to be placeholder images for software submitted four months ahead of launch.
Whether it's intentional or not, Nothing's latest controversy only raises more questions about the firm's authenticity in marketing and strategy.
My first thought was, why wouldn’t you simply use placeholder images taken with older Nothing Phones? And I wasn’t alone. In fact, Evangelidis told a follower that this used to be a standard practice at the firm before the “process broke down.”
This isn’t the only Nothing controversy we’ve seen in 2025. The company was previously criticized for comparing video stabilization from the Nothing Phone 3a Pro‘s main camera to the iPhone 16‘s ultrawide camera instead of the Apple device’s own primary shooter. Nothing said this was an accident, too, and that it had no intention to mislead consumers.
Mistakes happen (I’m certainly guilty of my fair share), and it may well be the case that Nothing didn’t intend to deceive customers with these incidents. Even if these are accidents, though, it still demonstrates that Nothing isn’t special when it comes to controversies.
Not the only way Nothing has eroded trust
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