In summary:
- Samsung teased the Galaxy S26 Ultra’s new low-light camera feature through a video called “Brighten your after hours,” but Tech Advisor reports the content was generated with AI assistance.
- The AI-generated marketing approach raises questions about the phone’s actual camera capabilities since the footage wasn’t from real device testing.
- This controversy highlights concerns over authentic smartphone marketing as Samsung prepares other expected upgrades like privacy screens for the Ultra model.
Samsung just demonstrated a new camera feature for its forthcoming Galaxy S26 Ultra smartphone, but it appears to have used AI to create the teaser.
We’re now just a week out from Samsung’s next Unpacked event, during which it will announce the new Samsung Galaxy S26 range.
It’s the flagship Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra model that’s shaping up to be the only consequential upgrade, and this new official teaser video aimed at highlighting one of its new abilities is catching some flak.
We’re expecting the new Ultra smartphone to be a bit of a low light video champ, and Samsung US just posted a video to that effect. The teaser, titled ‘Brighten your after hours’, shows two suited and booted men skateboarding through a city at night, carrying groceries.
The clincher comes barely a second into the 15-second clip, when the video switches from regular gloom-o-vision (not a technical term) to the clarity and brightness of Samsung’s new AI-enhanced recording system.
Towards the end of the video, however, a piece of small print appears that somewhat detracts from the intended impact of the video. “This content was generated with the assistance of AI tools,” it reads.
This suggests that Samsung employed AI to create the video footage, rather than offering up a straight forward comparison of two actual videos – one taken using Samsung’s new brightening system, the other without. We’d venture to suggest that the latter approach would have been more convincing.
Indeed, it doesn’t take much examination to conclude that the video is AI-generated. There’s a pronounced artificiality to the footage that’s quite distracting.
The video poses the question “Can your phone do that?”, but the real question here is whether the Galaxy S26 Ultra itself can do what Samsung says it can.
The other major upgrade coming to the Galaxy S26 Ultra is the privacy screen, since the Qi2 magnetic charging is strongly tipped to be missing.
We’ll find out everything for sure next week at Galaxy Unpacked.
Author: Jon Mundy, Contributor, Tech Advisor
Jon is a freelance journalist who got his start covering mobile games at the dawn of the App Store. He has since covered everything from smart home tech and laptops to food and culture, but always seems to return to his fascination with smartphones.