Overview
- Sony's Xperia 1 VIII promo on Thursday showed before-and-after photos on X that many viewers said looked overexposed, washed out, and less detailed.
- The post drew heavy engagement with millions of views and thousands of comments as users shared memes and mocked the brighter, flatter results.
- After the uproar on Friday, Sony said the AI Camera Assistant does not edit photos after capture and only suggests four setting options that users can ignore.
- Rival Nothing CEO Carl Pei questioned whether the post was engagement bait, while others suggested the images might have been mislabeled, though Sony has not said that.
- Critics link Sony's examples to a wider phone-camera shift toward AI that lifts shadows, flattens contrast, and can make photos look less natural, a trend also seen in tools like Google's Smart Enhance.