Sony just walked into one of the most awkward marketing moments of the year. The company’s brand new AI Camera Assistant on the Xperia 1 VIII is being mocked across social media after side by side photos showed the AI version looking flatter, brighter, and washed out compared to the originals. Even Nothing CEO Carl Pei joined the pile on. Here is what actually happened.
What Sony Showed and Why People Are Roasting It
On May 14, Sony’s official Xperia account posted three split images on X to promote the new feature. Each image was split, showing an original photo captured by the phone next to a version processed by the AI Camera Assistant. The internet did not react the way Sony hoped.
To most viewers, the “before” shots clearly looked better than the “after” shots. According to most users, the consensus is that the AI enhanced samples show visible overexposure, low vibrance, and low dynamic range, while the original images look more balanced.
One image of a sandwich became the unofficial poster child of the disaster. The after photos looked vastly overexposed, with washed out contrast, lost detail, less realism, and an overprocessed HDR look, and the after image of the sandwich compared to the original was especially bad. Critics joked that Sony had accidentally swapped the labels.
Sony Xperia 1 VIII AI Camera Assistant backlash viral photos
Nothing CEO Carl Pei Pours Fuel on the Fire
The backlash escalated fast once a rival jumped in. Nothing CEO Carl Pei jumped on rival Sony’s misfortune, reposting the photos and questioning whether it was engagement farming on the Japanese giant’s part.
That accusation hit a nerve because the post kept climbing the charts. Many phone enthusiasts began sharing their own purposefully overexposed “before and after” samples, sarcastically thanking Sony’s new AI Camera Assistant for “making photos pop,” while others argued the chaos was simply free marketing for the Xperia 1 VIII.
“Is this engagement farming?” The question from Carl Pei summed up what thousands of users were already typing in the replies.
How the AI Camera Assistant Actually Works
Behind the meme storm sits a real feature with a serious pitch. The new AI Camera Assistant powered by Xperia Intelligence is designed to make photography even more enjoyable, automatically recognising the scene by combining factors such as the subject and weather conditions to suggest different options for color tones, lens effects and bokeh expressions.
These recommendations are based on Creative Look that reflects Sony’s unique imaging philosophy cultivated through its Alpha camera line, and a single tap applies the suggestion.
Sony also tried to cool things down after the post went viral. The company released an official statement clarifying that the feature does not edit photos after shooting, and instead suggests four settings in different creative directions based on the scene and subject. In other words, Sony says the AI shots are creative options, not a fixed “improved” version.
Key things to know about the feature
- Optional and toggleable. The AI Camera Assistant is an optional feature within the Xperia 1 VIII’s camera interface and can be turned off.
- Pre shot, not post edit. It nudges your settings before you tap the shutter.
- Four creative directions. Each scene generates a small menu of looks rather than one final result.
- Built on Alpha DNA. The suggestions borrow from Sony’s professional Creative Look system.
Hardware Is Strong, but the AI Defaults Are Hurting the Story
The painful part for Sony is that the rest of the phone is genuinely impressive. The new telephoto camera is equipped with a 1/1.56 inch image sensor, approximately four times larger than that used in the Xperia 1 VII, enabling improved delicate and highly detailed shots of distant subjects.
It runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 platform and starts at 1,499 euros or £1,399 for the 12GB RAM and 256GB storage configuration, climbing to 1,999 euros or £1,849 for the 16GB RAM and 1TB version. Sony has confirmed the phone will not launch in the United States.
| Spec | Detail |
|---|---|
| Display | 6.5 inch OLED, 120Hz |
| Chipset | Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 |
| Main camera | 48MP 24mm wide |
| Telephoto | 48MP 70mm, 1/1.56 inch sensor |
| Ultra wide | 48MP 16mm |
| Starting price | £1,399 / 1,499 euros |
| US release | Not planned |
Reviewers point out that the bones are excellent. For buyers purchasing this phone for RAW files, burst shooting, and manual control, the assistant is not an obstacle in practice because Sony’s pro feature set is entirely intact, and the telephoto sensor upgrade alone gives the Xperia 1 VIII a legitimate claim on serious consideration. The advice from most outlets is simple. Find the toggle and switch it off.
A Bigger Problem With AI Photography
This is not just a Sony slip up. It is the loudest example of a trend that has been creeping across the smartphone industry.
The Pixel camera is still consistent and still good, but the same issue Sony is leaning into has been quietly pushed by Google too, just in a much milder form. Earlier this week, Google demonstrated a new Smart Enhance tool for the Instagram Edits app on Android.
That tool brightens all the shadows to match the subject for a flat and frankly boring picture, and while it is sharper and more eye catching, it gets worse the longer you look at it.
“AI is in everything now.” Critics argue that constantly throwing more AI at smartphone cameras is producing photos that look polished at a glance but emotionally lifeless on a second look.
In the past, Pixel phones were popular for their great cameras, the powerful night mode, and a very specific high contrast look, but that specific Pixel look is long gone, which does not mean the Pixel 10 camera takes bad photos, just that it mostly takes boring photos that look slightly artificial, like the rest of the leading smartphones. Sony’s bigger sin, then, was making the bland look unmissable.
What Sony Should Do Next
The damage right now is reputational, not technical. Sony still has a flagship with serious camera credentials and a loyal photography crowd that values manual control. The fix is mostly about taste and tuning.
- Replace the marketing samples. Show comparisons where the AI option clearly adds something rather than washing color away.
- Tone down the brightness bias. Match the Alpha philosophy Sony keeps citing, which respects contrast and shadow detail.
- Make the four creative options visible in promos. Right now most people think the AI gives one bad result, not a menu of looks.
- Let the toggle be obvious. Buyers want a quick way to keep the hardware and skip the filter.
For shoppers eyeing the Xperia 1 VIII, the practical takeaway is encouraging. The new telephoto sensor, the dedicated shutter button, the headphone jack, and the RAW pipeline are all here, and the AI feature can be switched off in seconds.
Sony’s Xperia 1 VIII saga is a reminder that the camera in your pocket is only as good as the taste behind its software, and right now the internet thinks Sony’s AI has none. The hardware deserves better marketing, and photographers deserve software that respects what their eyes actually see. If you have an opinion on AI smartphone photography, drop a comment below and share your thoughts using #SonyXperia and #Xperia1VIII on X to join the conversation that is still trending right now.
