We Tested Google’s New Nano Banana AI – The Results Will Shock You!

Google’s Nano Banana AI image generator was released on the 26th of August 2025, and since has been getting praise from early users and tech reviewers who talk about its advanced capabilities and intuitive interface. People are saying it can handle complex photo edits through simple conversations, no technical knowledge required. Sounds pretty appealing, but how does it actually work in practice?

We’ve put Nano Banana through practical, real-world testing scenarios to see how it actually performs when faced with normal user requests. Rather than relying on carefully picked examples or promotional materials, this review shows both the successes and limitations you might encounter during regular use. Our goal is to provide an honest view that helps you understand what this tool can and can’t do.

Nano Banana markets itself as highly capable with natural language prompts, supposedly eliminating the need for complex technical instructions or prompt engineering. The question is whether these claims hold up when you’re actually trying to edit photos for real projects. Let’s look at the evidence.

What Nano Banana Should Be Capable Of

According to Google’s marketing and early user reports, Nano Banana is a large step forward in AI image editing accessibility and quality. Here are the primary capabilities that supposedly set it apart from competitors:

• Identity Preservation – This addresses one of the biggest complaints about AI image editors: faces and objects changing between edits. Nano Banana claims to keep your subject looking consistent even after multiple rounds of modifications. So if you’re editing a photo of yourself, your face should stay recognizably yours whether you’re changing the background, adjusting lighting, or tweaking other elements.
• Natural Language Editing Interface – You can supposedly tell Nano Banana what you want in normal conversation rather than learning complicated technical commands. Instead of dealing with masks and layers like Photoshop, you just say “make this warmer” or “add some trees in the background”. The idea is that anyone can use it without prompt engineering skills.
• Complex Multi-Step Instruction Following – Other AI tools often mess up when you give them detailed requests with multiple parts. Nano Banana is supposed to handle complex instructions reliably, understanding exactly what you want even when you’re asking for several changes at once.
• Professional-Quality Output – The results should be good enough for actual business use, not just personal fun edits. Companies are reportedly using it for product photos and marketing materials because the quality matches commercial standards without needing nearly any additional touch-ups.
• Fast Generation Times – While competitors like GPT-4o Image 1 can take anywhere from 20-120 seconds to generate an image, Nano Banana typically finishes in 10-20 seconds. The speed difference is definitely helpful when you’re making multiple edits or testing different approaches.

Real Examples of Nano Banana

Logo to Product Design Test

We wanted to test Nano Banana’s ability to take an existing logo and transform it into a product mockup. We’re looking for accurate logo reproduction, professional design quality, and whether the result would actually be usable for business purposes.

Prompt Used: “Give me a sleek energy drink can with this logo on it, and it’s called Fello Energy”

Test Results: Nano Banana delivered impressive results on this challenge. The Fello AI logo was interpreted accurately and integrated naturally into the energy drink can design. The overall aesthetic looks professional and polished – something you could genuinely present. The can design itself follows modern energy drink standards, while reflecting the brand vibe. This test shows that Nano Banana excels at product design and brand visualization tasks, making it a solid choice for businesses needing quick mockups or design concepts.

Character Integration and Scene Creation Test

We wanted to see how well Nano Banana handles taking two separate people and placing them together in a completely new environment. This tests character preservation – whether facial features stay accurate – and how naturally the AI can blend people into scenes they were never actually in.

Prompt Used: “Put these 2 people into an image of them laying next to each other on sun beds with a shade umbrella between them. The setting is that they are at a hotel pool in the summer, with the pool a little bit visible behind them. The lady has shades on and they are both sipping a red cocktail just relaxing.”

Test Results: The result here is pretty solid. Both people’s facial features have been kept more or less perfectly, which is huge since that’s where most AI tools mess up. They also look naturally integrated into the pool environment – the lighting and shadows work well together. However, Nano Banana missed one detail from the prompt – they should have both been sipping their cocktails, but neither of them actually is. It’s a minor issue, but it shows the AI doesn’t always catch every instruction, even in relatively straightforward requests.

Object Replacement Test

We wanted to test Nano Banana’s ability to replace specific objects in a photo while keeping everything else natural and intact. This is a common editing need – swapping one item for another without disrupting the rest of the scene. We’re looking at how cleanly it can remove objects and whether the replacement looks believable.

Prompt Used: “Remove the cocktails from their hands. Then place this energy drink into their hands naturally. Keep everything else the same”

Test Results: The result is… well, meh. Nano Banana successfully removed the cocktails from both people’s hands, but it completely failed to integrate the energy drink naturally. You can clearly see that the woman’s hand position is still shaped for holding a cocktail glass, not a can. The energy drink just looks pasted in rather than naturally held. On the positive side, the product itself stayed accurate and recognizable.

However, there’s also an unexplained cropping issue – the image got trimmed even though we didn’t ask for that. This test shows that while Nano Banana can handle simple removals, complex object replacements that require repositioning hands or body parts are still a struggle.

Complete Scene and Character Transformation Test

We wanted to push Nano Banana further by testing multiple complex edits simultaneously – completely changing the environment, adjusting the characters’ clothing to match the new setting, and seeing if it could finally nail the energy drink placement.

Prompt Used: “Change this whole scene to the couple sitting on chairs in a coffee shop at Christmas time. The coffee shop is decorated with a Christmas theme, the couple is dressed in winter appropriate clothes, and both are holding the energy drink.”

Test Results: This one’s frustrating because Nano Banana nailed most of it but failed where it matters most. The background transformation is genuinely impressive – the Christmas coffee shop looks authentic and well-detailed. The facial features are preserved almost perfectly, though the woman’s face might be starting to drift slightly from the original. They’re integrated naturally into the winter scene and their clothing fits the setting appropriately.

But the energy drink placement is still awful. It looks copy-pasted again, and their hand positions are completely unnatural for holding cans. This makes the entire image unusable despite getting 90% of the complex edits right.

Complete Environment & Pose Change Test

We decided to reset and try a completely different setting prepared for further edits – changing the location entirely while adding a romantic pose and adjusting their styling to match a new cultural setting.

Prompt Used: “Let’s completely change the scene now – make it so that they would be standing in front of the Eiffel Tower mid-kiss. The scene should look natural, meaning that there are normal tourists around them minding their own business. Change their outfits appropriately to match French Parisian culture. No Energy drink in this image anymore”

Test Results: The instructions were mostly fulfilled, but with some notable issues. The Eiffel Tower background looks nice, though maybe slightly overstylized depending on your preference. The background tourists are integrated reasonably well, but Nano Banana struggles with depth perception – some people further away look unnaturally small compared to those just slightly closer.

The woman’s facial features are drifting more noticeably from the original now, while the man still maintains his features pretty well. However, there’s one mentionable success – the kiss looks natural, which is something AI tools used to struggle with badly. So while there are technical issues with scaling and character consistency, Nano Banana handled the pose surprisingly well.

Quality Downgrade Test

We wanted to see if Nano Banana could do the opposite of enhancement – taking a professional-looking photo and making it appear more casual and iPhone-quality. This tests whether it can intentionally reduce image quality and remove professional touches to create a more normal, everyday look.

Prompt Used: “Change the quality of this image to look like it was shot on the average iPhone. Just a super casual picture, no fancy blurs or colour grades”

Test Results: Well… look at it. Nano Banana didn’t ruin anything, but it definitely didn’t deliver what we asked for either. Maybe the background blur is slightly reduced and the sunlight looks less edited, but overall it’s nowhere near the casual iPhone aesthetic we wanted. The image still looks quite polished and professional.

Interestingly though, the background tourists look better now – there are fewer of them but the distance scaling effect appears more natural than before. So while it failed the main objective, it accidentally fixed some issues from the previous edit.

Object Recognition Test

We decided to test something completely different – whether Nano Banana can identify famous landmarks in photos and provide accurate educational information about it without ruining the image. This tests its ability to recognize objects, analyze them accurately, and present information in a visually appealing way.

Prompt Used: “You are a location-based AR experience generator. Highlight the Eiffel Tower in this image and annotate relevant information about it”

Test Results: The result is actually pretty impressive. Nano Banana perfectly outlined the Eiffel Tower, which shows it can clearly identify and isolate background objects even when they’re not the main focus. It managed to provide accurate historical and factual information in a clean overlay format that doesn’t obstruct the main subjects of the photo. The information box looks professional and contains genuine facts about the landmark. This is honestly a pretty cool feature – kind of like those object analysis systems you see in spy movies.

Complex Pose and Object Integration

We decided to reset the multi-turn editing chain and start fresh with the original photos to see if that would improve results. This time we tested combining character placement, specific poses, object integration, and natural scenery all in one request.

Prompt Used: “Place these 2 people as a couple standing on the promenade in front of a sandy beach in Spain. The man is kissing the woman’s cheek, while the woman drinks the energy drink (from the photo I attached). The time of day is the afternoon and the sky is blue. The scene has to look natural so there should be other tourists on the beach minding their own business. The shot should look like a regular iPhone picture”

Test Results: Amazing. The facial features of both characters are practically perfectly maintained, the Spanish beach setting is captured beautifully, and the background tourists look natural and well-integrated. The lighting feels authentic for an afternoon beach scene, and – finally! – the energy drink is integrated really well and naturally into the woman’s hand. Her grip looks believable and the can appears to belong in the scene. And although the man is doing exactly what he was supposed to, the woman is definitely not drinking from the can, but that’s a minor error.

Nano Banana seems to perform much better when you give it fresh source material rather than asking it to modify images that have already been through multiple editing rounds.

Object Addition Test

We wanted to test Nano Banana’s ability to add specific objects to an existing photo while keeping everything else identical. This tests precise editing control – can it make targeted additions without altering the foundation of the image?

Prompt Used: “Keep this original image of the couple exactly the same. Only add this Birkin Bag into the image (the lady is wearing it). And add this GLD chain and RayBan sunglasses into the image (the man is wearing them).”

Test Results: Complete disaster. While the object integration itself looks natural, Nano Banana completely ignored the “keep everything else the same” instruction and generated entirely new people in a different location. Even our Fello Energy drink got swapped for something else. We tested this multiple times and each attempt resulted in brand new people being generated, revealing a major struggle with precise, targeted edits.

Close-Up Portrait Test

We backtracked one step to the original beach image and asked Nano Banana to create a focused portrait of just the woman, testing its ability to crop and reframe while maintaining character accuracy.

Prompt Used: “Create a close up portrait shot of only the woman in this image in the same place (Without the energy drink)”

Test Results: Well, not sure if you’d call this a “close up portrait” but the details are impressive. The facial features are practically perfectly preserved, the setting matches, and it maintains the iPhone photo aesthetic from the original. Even small details like the tan line on her hand fit perfectly with the beach scenery they’re in. The framing could be closer for a true portrait, but overall this shows Nano Banana can extract and focus on individual subjects while keeping consistency.

Male Portrait Test

We asked Nano Banana to do the same extraction and portrait creation for the man from the beach scene.

Prompt Used: “Create a close up portrait shot of only the man in this image in the same place.”

Test Results: This one actually is a close up portrait, which is good. The background fits the beach setting and maintains the iPhone photo quality, though not quite as well as the woman’s version. The man’s facial features are pretty well preserved considering that in the source photo his face was only visible from profile while kissing the woman’s cheek. Referencing back to the original source images, it’s not perfect, but still impressive given the challenging angle it had to work with.

Profile Angle Test

We tried one final test to see how well Nano Banana could maintain character consistency while generating a completely different camera angle from the same subject.

Prompt Used: “Now change the angle of this photo to be take from the side, while maintaining all facial characteristics”

Test Results: Looking purely at facial characteristics, it’s pretty impressive since generating different angles is something other AI tools often struggle with. The background still looks appropriate for the beach setting. However, the image quality is getting a bit too polished and has that give-away “AI-generated” finish to it. So while the angle generation and character consistency are solid, the overall rawness takes a hit. Still impressive, but not perfect yet.

How to try Nano Banana (fast)

1. Gemini on the web/app: open Gemini, pick a recent model (users report best results with 2.5 Flash), upload your image(s), and give precise edit instructions. Use multi-turn edits (one change at a time) and reference photos for better accuracy (“use the yellow Porsche as the car”).
2. AI Image Studio on iOS: download the app, upload a photo, and type your edit prompt. The app uses Gemini’s Nano Banana models under the hood and is optimized for quick, clean edits. No sign-up needed.
3. Other Third‑party testers: some folks use “battle mode” sites that pit models head‑to‑head. If you use one, be cautious with uploads and never pay shady sites claiming “official Nano Banana.”

Conclusion

There are many more use cases for Nano Banana since it really is a powerful AI image generator, but covering them all in one article would be pretty hard. Based on our testing, it’s clear that product design, mockups, and maintaining facial characteristics across multiple edits are Nano Banana’s main strengths. What surprised us is how much it struggled with simple tasks like replacing an object in someone’s hand, especially since many social media posts suggest it handles this well.

Perhaps some of the limited results we got could be due to our natural language prompting approach, though it shouldn’t be since Nano Banana is specifically designed to handle conversational instructions well.

Either way, most people will find its capabilities valuable for either personal projects or business applications. The facial preservation and natural scene integration work well enough for real-world use, even if some details don’t always land perfectly. The speed advantage over competitors also makes it practical for iterative editing workflows, for example – when developing new products.

Your best move is testing Nano Banana yourself with your specific needs, since it might perform perfectly for your particular use case. Overall, it’s a solid tool that delivers mostly good results, but it’s not a massive breakthrough – just a pretty good incremental update to Google’s AI image generator lineup.