Technology

Best AI Phones: The Best Smartphones for AI Features

Published

3 months ago

April 20, 2024

Artificial intelligence has been used on phones for a while now, but the sudden explosion of features in recent times has catapulted it into the mainstream.

Where Siri and Google Assistant rely entirely on your voice, new smartphones now come equipped with serious software that could revolutionize the way you use your handset.

It has gotten to the point where AI can play an important role in deciding which phone to buy. All phones technically have some form of AI, but these are the ones that can make the best use of it.

Recent flagship phones from Samsung

Samsung was one of the first companies to put AI at the forefront of its phones. This was initially just the Galaxy S24 series, but has already been expanded to numerous older flagships.

boasts several features as part of its selling point, so you can see how seriously the new software capabilities are being taken.

One of the most useful AI tools is Circle to searchwhich lets you draw a circle around something on the screen (with your finger or the S Pen, depending on the device) and the topic will immediately be looked up on Google so you can learn more about it.

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

Live translation is another little gem, as it automatically (and in real time) translates voices from other languages into your native language. It is also accompanied by a text transcription. Essentially, it’s Star Trek’s Universal Translator. As you speak into the phone, the recipient hears your words in his or her language, then responds and you hear your language instead. Crazy stuff.

By using virtually the same technology, Transcription help convert your voice recordings into text documents, which can save you ages when you need to transcribe interviews, meetings or lectures. Where was this twenty years ago when I started as a journalist?!

Chat assistance continues this vibe and gives you the ability to change the tone of emails and messages to make them more casual or professional. It can also summarize web pages and then translate the results into 35 different languages.

AI Photo Editing is something you may have seen in a Google Pixel ad, but Samsung’s implementation is even more impressive. Of Generative photo editingyou can fill in the gaps in an image when you want to move a subject to another part of the shot. It can also create new frames in video footage, meaning you can turn any normal video you’ve recorded into slow motion.

One thing to keep in mind is that Samsung’s terms and conditions state that the AI features will be free until the end of 2025, but we don’t know if the company will charge for them after that.

Recent Google Pixel phones

The Google Pixel phones are famous for their cameras, so it’s no big surprise that many of the key AI features on the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro focus on vision and sound.

One of the best-known tools on the Pixels is the Magic eraser. This is a smart AI-powered photo editing suite that lets you remove objects or people from the background, change the exposure and move the subject to a different part of the scene (filling the background automatically).

Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry

Best recording is another useful feature, as it allows you to take multiple photos of people, then select the best facial expressions from the different options and easily combine them into one image. However, it is also controversial.

As for the video side, Audio magic eraser can remove the sounds of cars, wind blowing or other extraneous noises that would otherwise spoil your footage.

You also get, just like with the Samsung Galaxy S24 series, the Circle to search function, plus there is a To summarize tool in Recorder that can show you the highlights of a meeting you recorded, all of which happens offline thanks to the Gemini Nano AI that sits on the device itself. There is also Call screenwho acts as a personal secretary and speaks to a caller on your behalf, live transcribing what he or she says so you can choose whether to answer the call or not.

Translate live is great for travelers as it can instantly translate spoken words, text or characters from one language to another. And of course you still have the Google Assistant to help you with your questions and perform simple tasks via voice commands.

All these features are available on the latest Pixel phones and will no doubt get some new additions when the Pixel 9 series launches later this year. However, Google also makes them available on older models, many of which work on devices dating back to the Pixel 6a.

Asus Zenfone 11Ultra

Another smartphone that gets smarter this time is the Zenfone 11 Ultra from Asus. This one has a number of AI features similar to those mentioned above, although Asus says they will all come with a software update at a later date, so if you already have the phone you can get these features at the time of the release not yet used. to write.

There is a live translation feature called Call Translator, which works like the one on the Samsung S24 series, translating phone calls as you speak and listen. We found it to be slightly slower and less accurate than the Samsung equivalent, but still a useful feature.

A very interesting feature Noise reduction. As the name suggests, it cuts out all ambient noise when you’re on a call, so the recipient can hear you clearly even if you’re in a noisy restaurant or train station.

Anyron Copeman / Foundry

Transcripts is another similar feature to that found on competing handsets, automatically converting voice recordings into text and providing the ability to summarize them.
There is also the option to use AI Generative wallpaper which can create custom images based on the clues you provide, plus a semantic search function that lets you search through images using natural language clues (although this didn’t work that well in our review).

Xiaomi 14 series

The Chinese giant Xiaomi is also throwing its hat into the AI ring with this generation of smartphones. The Xiaomi 14 and Xiaomi 14 Ultra both have some interesting applications of the technology.

Chris Martin / Foundry

One of the nicest features is the AI portrait, which you can train by taking multiple selfies of yourself so that the phone learns your face. It can then take fake selfies of you in whatever situation you describe. Do you want to be an astronaut on the moob? Suddenly you are there. Not the most advanced feature on this list, but probably the nicest.

AI is also present across the wide range of photographic modes and capabilities in the devices, with specialized modules for tone, emulating lighting effects and fusing RAW images to create a single image with enormous dynamic range.

Since the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is primarily a professional camera with a phone attached, it’s not surprising that most of the AI improvements are in that part of the device.

Motorola Moto Edge 50 Series

Motorola recently announced its Moto Edge 50 series, consisting of the Edge 50 Fusion, Edge 50 Pro and flagship Edge 50 Ultra in European markets.

They come with Moto AI, which includes some cool and fun features. There’s the Generative backgrounds which allows you to create wallpapers on your phone based on a design or fabric that you take a photo of with the camera.

Motorola

The cameras come with AI enhancements like Adaptive Stabilization to keep images smooth, while Google Photos tools Magic eraser, Blur photoAnd Magic editor are now available on every device, including the iPhone.

At the time of writing this we haven’t had a chance to review the new Motos, but so far it looks like they’ll offer some great AI tools at prices that are more affordable than many of the other options on this list.

But it won’t be long before all the best smartphones bring AI to the forefront.