Google Nano Banana Review (2025): From Freepik to AI Studio — A Hands-On Test

Hello everyone, welcome back with a new review. Today, I’m going to test one of Google’s most talked-about AI experiments: Google Nano Banana.

I tried this tool on Freepik and Google AI Studio, and the experience was a rollercoaster. Sometimes the results were surprisingly good, other times they were so awkward that I had to laugh. From sitting Donald Trump next to me, to adding Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Elon Musk, and even R2-D2, I pushed Nano Banana to its limits.

This review documents everything — every single prompt, every strange output, and every lesson learned.

Accessing Google Nano Banana

Google Nano Banana is not equally available to everyone:

• On Freepik:
  • Essential plan users → 58 Nano Banana credits.
  • Premium plan users → 150 credits.
  • Pro plan users → unlimited use.
• On Google AI Studio:
  It’s built into Gemini 2.5 Flash Image Preview, allowing direct AI image generation.

So I started on Freepik, chose the Google Nano Banana model, and uploaded a personal photo to test.

Freepik Experiments: Donald Trump and Elon Musk

My first test: I uploaded a summer photo from Çeşme and set it as the image reference. Then I placed Donald Trump next to me, telling the AI: “Sit this man beside the woman.”

👉 Despite the original photo being poorly lit (backlight from the sun), Nano Banana gave me a surprisingly natural result.

Next, I wanted to add Elon Musk. I asked the AI to put him between two people, holding a green apple.

❌ This failed. The lighting was off, Musk’s figure looked out of place, and overall it didn’t feel natural.

I then replaced the background with the Oval Office. Trump blended well, but my own figure looked unnaturally cut out.

Early takeaway: Simple edits like adding one person work decently, but complex tasks break down.

Outfit Swaps and Creative Edits

I tested outfit replacements next.

• I uploaded a portrait in a white shirt against a white background. I told Nano Banana: “Change this shirt to a red polo shirt with the text ‘High World’ on it.”
  ✅ The result was very good.
• Then I asked to place me on a boat wearing a short black dress.
  ✅ Again, the result wasn’t bad.

Encouraged, I experimented with adding Michael Jackson beside me and told the AI: “Make us both smile.”
⚠ Jackson looked natural, but my smile was distorted and unnatural.

Finally, I tried a group shot: Trump, Jackson, Britney Spears, Elon Musk, and R2-D2 together.
❌ The result was chaotic. The AI lost consistency, misaligned faces, and blended bodies in unrealistic ways.

At this point, I realized: Nano Banana works best with one subject at a time.

When tested separately:

• R2-D2 → acceptable.
• Britney Spears → decent, but my face was wrong.
• Elon Musk → same lighting issues.

After hours of testing, the pattern was clear: multiple references confuse the model.

Background Swaps

I tested different backgrounds using my red-shirted photo:

• Café interior with backlighting → Looked realistic.
• Tokyo night lights → The lighting didn’t match my figure.
• Autumn scenery → My figure looked artificial.
• Selfie with Michael Jackson in a green park → Jackson looked very good, but I didn’t.
• Bali beach selfie → Acceptable, but not flawless.

Observation: Nano Banana struggles with natural lighting and blending when inserting subjects into complex environments.

The “Fake T-Shirt” Experiment

Next, I told Nano Banana: “Put red t-shirts on everyone and write ‘Fake’ on them.”

• The AI did this successfully for almost everyone.
• But strangely, Elon Musk didn’t get the shirt. Why? I don’t know.

Then I asked for a wider angle shot, but it didn’t work as intended.

At this point, I wondered: maybe the problem isn’t the tool, but my prompts?

So I asked Gemini directly: “What kind of prompts give good results?”
Gemini suggested things like:

• “A backlit café scene” → which worked nicely.
• “A night shot in Tokyo” → which again had lighting issues.
• “A fall/autumn background” → my figure still looked unrealistic.

I tried more:

• “Selfie with Michael Jackson in a park” → Jackson looked good, but I didn’t.
• “Selfie in Bali by the sea” → not bad, but far from perfect.

Google AI Studio Experiments

Then I switched to Google AI Studio.

Here, I tested clothing changes with my wedding photos:

• In one photo, I asked the AI to replace my dress with another one.
  ✅ Google AI Studio did this beautifully. The face wasn’t exactly mine, but the dress and background looked excellent.
• Freepik, on the other hand, failed on the same task. It awkwardly placed the dress without fitting.
• With a closer wedding portrait, Google AI Studio again gave much better results — realistic dress placement, stable image.

💡 Lesson: For clothing edits, Google AI Studio is more reliable than Freepik.

TIME Magazine Cover Test

I then tried something ambitious: recreating the TIME magazine cover where Elon Musk was “Person of the Year.”

I uploaded my own photo and told Nano Banana: “Replace the text with ‘Woman of the Year’ and write ‘Nuvem’ below.”

✅ It actually worked. The AI changed the text and placed my photo correctly.

Next, I asked for makeup to be added, using a Pinterest makeup reference.

❌ But here I learned another lesson: reference image dimensions must match.

• The Pinterest image was in 9:16 ratio.
• My original was 4:5.

Because of this mismatch, the AI kept cutting parts of the face.

When I used a properly sized photo, the results improved, and the AI applied the makeup naturally.

Lessons Learned

Through all these experiments, I noticed:

• Each modification works best on the original image. If you edit an already edited image, quality degrades with each step.
• Reference dimensions must match to avoid cut-offs.
• Freepik Nano Banana → fun, playful, but inconsistent.
• Google AI Studio → more professional, especially for clothing and background swaps.

✅ Pros and ❌ Cons

Pros

• Easy access on Freepik and Google AI Studio.
• Fun, experimental tool for casual creativity.
• Works well for single-subject edits.
• Outfit changes and text replacements are impressive.

Cons

• Lighting inconsistencies break realism.
• Faces often look unnatural.
• Struggles with group edits or multiple references.
• Quality degrades when editing an already processed image.

Key Takeaways

• Keep prompts simple and single-subject.
• Google AI Studio > Freepik for realistic edits.
• Match reference image sizes to avoid distortions.
• Fun for experiments, but not yet competition for MidJourney or Stable Diffusion.

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Final Verdict

Google’s Nano Banana is a fascinating, fun experiment in AI image editing. It shines in simple tasks like clothing swaps, single-person edits, and playful text changes. But when pushed into complex scenarios — multiple celebrities, inconsistent lighting, or repeated editing — it collapses.

Compared to other AI tools, Nano Banana feels experimental rather than production-ready. But it gives us a valuable preview of how Google envisions the future of AI creativity.

👉 Would you use Nano Banana for your creative projects, or do you prefer more advanced AI generators? Share your thoughts in the comments below!