In an advertisement for the Nothing Phone demo (3), a user found stock photos that were pretending to be taken by a smartphone. The company explained this, but not very convincingly.
In a world full of advanced tech fans, it’s impossible to make a fake that wouldn’t be exposed. Microsoft also stepped on this “rake” with fake video stabilization on Nokia Lumia 920, and Samsung with “enhanced” photos of the MoonNow it’s Nothing’s turn.
A buyer from New Zealand made a video of the demo screen Nothing Phone (3). One of the images shows photos allegedly taken with a phone camera. The hashtag #WithNothing and the phrase “This is what our community shot with a Phone (3)” cannot be interpreted in any other way. However, this turned out to be a direct lie.
One of the photographers who created the images, anonymously appealed to the Android Authority and said that all five photos are available for licensing on the Stills stock platform: window, glass, headlight, stairs and woman. The journalists asked the photographers whether they had used the Phone (3) and received a negative answer. In particular, one of the photos was taken in 2023 with a Fujifilm XH2s camera, which costs 100 thousand UAH and is posted in Instagram by the author. Moreover, the photographers confirm that Nothing did indeed pay them for the photos on Stills.
On request Android Authority about the comment, the company initially responded briefly that it would update the photos with those actually taken by the Phone (3), effectively admitting to the fake. A later, more detailed response allegedly explains how this happened, but raises new questions.
“Accuracy in how we present the capabilities of our product is important to us. The Phone (3) demo models are being updated to show only images taken with the Phone (3),” the initial response read.
Later, the company issued a statement explaining the workflow that led to the photos allegedly being mistakenly included in the final version of the demonstration. Nothing co-founder Akis Evangelidis explains this by using placeholders in the preliminary mockups. Companies have to send demo units about four months before a phone’s launch so that they can be tested before mass production. Once the phone goes into production, companies usually replace placeholders (including stock images) with proper real photos. In the case of Nothing Phone (3) The images were allegedly not replaced.
Re the Phone (3) live demo units (LDU) in some stores using stock imagery – let me explain. An initial version of the LDU needs to be submitted with placeholders around 4 months before launch, to be implemented and tested as we ramp up towards mass production. Once we enter mass…
— Akis Evangelidis 🦞 (@AkisEvangelidis) August 27, 2025
The statement says it is actively correcting the problem, working with promoters to replace all demo images with proper ones, and investigating the incident internally. Evangelidis emphasizes that the company had no bad intentions, only an unfortunate oversight.
In the comments to the post, the company is advised to use photos taken on previous Nothing phones as placeholders — then they will always be authentic. The entrepreneur recalls that this is exactly what they used to do. However, it is unclear why the company decided to use stock photos instead of authentic ones. So the explanation leaves a taste of distrust.
Spelling error report
The following text will be sent to our editors: