Ryan Haines / Android Authority
TL;DR A Nothing Phone 3 retail demo has been spotted making misleading claims about photo samples.
Android Authority has spoken to two of the photographers who shot the pics, who confirm they did not use the Phone 3 at all.
Asked for comment, Nothing has not denied these claims, and instead says that it plans to update demo units.
Phone manufacturers, it’s time to wise up! You are selling to a market full of some exceptionally clever, resourceful tech fans, and if you try to deceive them, you’re going to get caught. Companies still sometimes push their luck juicing benchmark performance, or maybe they take a chance at faking camera samples. Over the years we’ve seen everything from Nokia faking video stabilization on the Lumia 920 to Samsung’s “detail enhanced” moon pictures, and now it’s time for Nothing and the Phone 3 to take the hot seat over accusations of misleading camera samples.
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This all starts with a screen recording, purportedly captured from a Nothing Phone 3 retail demo unit on display in New Zealand. Shoppers browsing the interface might come across one screen showing off a selection of five pictures, supposedly taken with the Phone 3’s camera:
Between the #WithNothing hashtag and that statement, “Here’s what our community has captured with the Phone (3),” it’s impossible to read this as anything other than asserting that these are images taken by the smartphone’s own camera hardware.
As it turns out, however, that’s just simply not true.
One of the photographers behind these images reached out anonymously to Android Authority, advising us that all five of these images are available for license on the stock photo marketplace Stills: the window, the glass, the headlight, the staircase, and the woman.
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