This smartphone's solar eclipse fail shows the problem with AI-enhanced photography

15 Aug 2026, 07:00 by https://www.creativebloq.com/author/joseph-foley · Creative Bloq

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This week's solar eclipse thrilled millions of people in parts of Northern Europe. It also provided an opportunity for a new battle of the best camera phones that's revived the debate about where line lies between AI-powered smartphone photography and complete fiction.

Users of one particular top-of-the-range phone were disappointed that their snaps of the solar eclipse came out looking like photos of a supermoon being eclipsed by another moon. The phone's AI interpreted the sun as the moon and pasted a fake lunar surface texture over it.

The AI fail is clear in a video by a French tech website below, where the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, Oppo Find X9 Ultra, Xiaomi 17 Ultra, Google Pixel 10 Pro XL are put head to head using the same solar filter and identical testing protocol. One came up sorely lacking (this is another reason why people might want to learn how to make a pinhole camera to view the solar eclipse).

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Disclaimer

Warning: never look directly at a solar eclipse and never try to photography one without using dedicated solar filters and solar viewers.

Quel smartphone a pris LA MEILLEURE photo de l'éclipse ? (comparatif) - YouTube

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There was a famous controversy over Samsung's AI-enhanced moon photos in the past. The company claims that what it's tech does has been misunderstood and insists that it only sharpens real detail rather than generating entirely new imagery.

In Frandroid's comparison video above, Samsung's Galaxy S26 Ultra is actually one of the better performers. Bottom of the class is the Xiaomi 17 Ultra – Ultra in name, but mendacious in nature. Its Leica optical lens designs and colour science went out the window when its 'Supermoon Mode' automatically triggered and pasted a lunar texture over the sun's surface as the moon began to obscure it. All that was missing was Mario twerking.