We’re not surprised that some phone manufacturers touch up their product images to make them look all shiny and sexy to the consumer. However, some companies really take liberties with their press imagery, showing off mobiles that barely resemble the thing you end up clutching.
It’s a problem that’s plagued fast food joints since their inception. The photo of that Double Whammy Mouthgasm Meat Thrust Burger looks too divine to pass up, so you throw your money at the highly enthused counter staff and tear off the wrapper, to discover that your meaty treat is actually an amemic cowpat in a bun. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me 147 times…
But in recent times, we’ve seen mis-representative product shots trickle into the mobile market too. For instance, Apple’s sexy official product shots for the iPhone 6 showed off a perfectly flat rear end, emphasising the gorgeous slim finish of the handset. Beautuiful enough to moisten the underdrawers of even the most hardened Apple sceptic.
But digital trickery was afoot, as the actual handset sports a jutty-out camera lens that pokes a couple of millimetres from the surface of the phone. Nothing worth harping on about? Well, plenty of fans still took to the interwebs to complain about the unexpected bump, which makes the iPhone 6 jiggle about when the device is resting on a flat surface and you’re tapping the screen.
Thankfully it’s a problem that’s easily solved by wrapping the iPhone 6 in a case, which is advisable anyway given the propensity for dropped iPhones to bite the dust.
Apple was also accused of using trick photography to slim down its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus during its official launch, with the edges shrouded in darkness and barely visible. Considering how pretty the new iPhones are, it seems strange that Apple would even bother fiddling with the press shots, but hey ho.
It’s not just Apple who’s getting busy with Photoshop, however. LG’s G Flex was heralded on its launch as a super-bendy, beautifully curved handset, with some mighty impressive press shots to accompany the hype. Was the reality as impressive as the dream? Well, the shots below should give you some insight.
We’re not taking away from LG’s innovative genius and the curved display on the G Flex is genuinely impressive (although the phone itself needs some work). However, the actual degree of curviness doesn’t quite match those press images and the phone seems to have significantly slimmed down too.
When we saw the press photos of the Kazam Tornado 348, we were certain that some more slimming-down trickery had been used. The side-on view showed an insanely slender phone, barely thicker than a piece of paper.
However, fair play to Kazam as the Tornado 348 really is a size zero mobile, with a thickness of just 5.15mm. And while the central shading on the press photo does make the Tornado look even slimmer than it actually is, the reality pretty much lives up to the device we imagined.
Have you been fooled by any touched-up tech photos? Let us know in the comments below.
Leave a Reply