UK smartphone maker Nothing has been caught out using stock photography to promote the camera capabilities of its new Nothing Phone 3, despite heavily marketing the device in Australia with claims of “great” image quality.

Five images displayed on in-store demo units similar to those used at stores such as JB Hi-Fi, including shots of a spiral staircase, a car headlight, a glass, a window, and a woman looking into the camera,  were passed off as being “shot on Phone 3.”

In reality, they were licensed stock photos taken years before the handset’s release.

One photographer told The Verge who broke the story, that their image was taken in 2023 and licensed to Nothing via stock photo platform Stills, well before the Phone 3 launched in August 2025.

EXIF data confirmed it was not captured using a Nothing device. Another photographer, Roman Fox, confirmed to Android Authority that his car headlight photo had also been purchased by Nothing, but was shot in 2023 with a Fujifilm XH2s.

Despite this, the images were displayed in stores with the tagline: “Judge for yourself. Here’s what our community has captured with Phone 3.”

After the revelation, Nothing issued a statement on X describing the incident as an “unfortunate oversight.” Co-founder and marketing chief Akis Evangelidis explained that demo units require placeholder images to be submitted months ahead of launch, and in this case, some were never updated with real photos.

“Once we enter mass production, those placeholder images are replaced with photo samples through a new version of the LDU,” Evangelidis said. “In this case, some live demo units’ stock imagery were not updated.”

The excuse has raised eyebrows, given that previous Nothing phone launches featured genuine images taken with its own devices. It also adds to growing scrutiny of the company, which has already had to issue multiple bug fixes for the Phone 3.

While Nothing is hardly the first smartphone brand caught exaggerating its camera performance with stock or staged images, critics argue the company should have learned from the mistakes of others.