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 are totally reliant on your voice, new smartphones are now equipped with some serious software that could revolutionise how you use your handset.
It’s got to the point where AI could play a major role in deciding which phone you buy. All phones have technically got AI in some form, but these are the ones that put it to best use.
Recent flagship Samsung phones
Samsung was one of the first companies to put AI at the forefront of its phones. This was initially just the Galaxy S24 range, but it’s already been extended to plenty of older flagships.
boasts various features as part of its selling point, so you can see how serious the new software capabilities are being taken.
One of the most useful AI tools is Circle to Search, which allows you to draw a circle around anything on the screen (either with your finger or the S Pen, depending on the device) and the subject will instantly be looked up on Google so you can find out more about it.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
Live Translation is another little gem, as this will automatically (and in real-time) translate voices from other languages into your mother tongue. It’s also accompanied by a text transcription. Essentially, it’s the Universal Translator from Star Trek, as you speak into the phone, the recipient will hear your words in their language, then respond and you’ll hear your language instead. Crazy stuff.
Using pretty much the same technology, Transcript Assist will turn your voice recordings into text documents, which could save you ages if you need to transcribe interviews, meetings or lectures. Where was this 20 years ago when I started out as a journalist?!
Chat Assist continues this vibe, giving you the ability to change the tone of emails and messages to make them more casual or professional. It can also summarise web pages and then translate the results into 35 different languages.
AI Photo Editing is something you may have seen on a Google Pixel advert, but Samsung’s implementation is even more impressive. With Generative Photo Editing, you can fill in the gaps left in an image if you want to move a subject to a different part of the shot. It can also create new frames in video footage, meaning you can turn any normal video you’ve captured into slow-motion instead.
Samsung Galaxy S24
Read our review Price When Reviewed: $799.99 Best Prices Today: $749.99 at Amazon | $799.99 at Samsung
Samsung Galaxy S24+
Read our review Price When Reviewed: From $999 Best Prices Today: $999.99 at Best Buy | Not Available at Amazon
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
Read our review Price When Reviewed: From $1,299.99 Best Prices Today: $1299.99 at Samsung | $1419.99 at Best Buy | Not Available at Amazon
One thing to bear in mind is that the Samsung terms & conditions say that the AI features are free until the end of 2025, but we don’t know if the company will charge for them after that point.
Recent Google Pixel phones
The Google Pixel phones are famed for their cameras, so it’s no great surprise that much of the main AI features on the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro focus on visuals and sound.
Google Pixel 8
Read our review Price When Reviewed: From $699 Best Prices Today: $549 at Amazon | $609 at Best Buy | $699 at Google
One of the most famous tools on the Pixels is the Magic Eraser. This is a clever AI-powered photo editing suite that lets you remove objects or people from the background, change the lighting and move the subject to a different part of the scene (with the background being filled automatically).
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
Best Take is another helpful feature, as it allows you to take multiple shots of people, then select the best facial expressions from the various options and combine them easily into a single image. However, it’s also a controversial one.
On the video side of things, Audio Magic Eraser can remove the sounds of cars, winds blowing or other extraneous noises that would otherwise spoil your footage.
You also get, as with the Samsung Galaxy S24 series, the Circle to Search feature, plus there’s a Summarise tool in Recorder that can show you the highlights of a meeting you’ve recorded, all of which is done offline thanks to the Gemini Nano AI that’s on the device itself. There’s also Call Screen, which acts as a personal secretary and talks to a caller on your behalf, live transcribing what they say so you can choose whether to take the call or not.
Live Translate is amazing for travellers, as it can translate spoken words, text or signs from one language to another instantly. And of course, you still have the Google Assistant to help you with your questions and complete simple tasks through voice commands.
Google Pixel 8 Pro
Read our review Price When Reviewed: From $999 Best Prices Today: $799 at Amazon | $859 at Best Buy | $999 at Google
All of these features are available on the latest Pixel phones, and will no doubt have some new additions when the Pixel 9 series launches later this year. Google also makes them available on older models though, with many working on devices as far back as the Pixel 6a.
Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra
Another smartphone that is getting smarter this time around is the Zenfone 11 Ultra from Asus. This has some AI features similar to those mentioned above, although Asus says that they will all come at a later date with a software update, so if you have the phone already you won’t be able to use these features yet at the time of writing.
There’s a live translation feature, called Call Translator, which works like the one on the Samsung S24 series where phone calls are translated as you speak and listen. We noticed that it was a little slower and less accurate than the Samsung equivalent, but still a useful feature.
One very interesting feature is Noise Cancellation. As the name suggests, this gets rid of all the environmental din when you’re on a call, allowing the recipient to hear you clearly even if you’re in a noisy restaurant or train station.
Anyron Copeman / Foundry
Transcripts is another similar feature to the ones on rival handsets, with voice recordings turned into text automatically and the ability to have them summarised.
There’s also the ability to use AI Generative Wallpaper that can create bespoke images from prompts you give, plus a Semantic Search that allows natural language cues to search through images (although this didn’t work too well in our review).
Asus Zenfone 11 Ultra
Read our review Price When Reviewed: $899.99 Best Prices Today: $899.99 at Asus
Xiaomi 14 series
Chinese giant Xiaomi is also throwing its hat in the AI ring with this generation of its smartphones. The Xiaomi 14 and Xiaomi 14 Ultra both boast some interesting applications of the technology.
Chris Martin / Foundry
One of the most fun features is the AI Portrait, which you can train by taking multiple selfies of yourself so that the phone learns your face. Then, it can create fake selfies of you in whichever situation you describe. Want to be an astronaut on the moob? Suddenly, there you are. Not the most sophisticated feature on this list, but probably the most fun.
Xiaomi 14
Read our review Price When Reviewed: Unavailable in the US
There’s also AI across the wide range of photographic modes and capabilities in the devices, with specialist modules for tone, emulating lighting effects, as well as fusing RAW images together to create a single image with a huge dynamic range.
With the Xiaomi 14 Ultra being mainly a pro camera with a phone attached, it’s not surprising that the majority of AI enhancements are found in that area of the device.
Xiaomi 14 Ultra
Read our review Price When Reviewed: Unavailable in the US
Motorola Moto Edge 50 series
Motorola has recently announced its Moto Edge 50 series, comprising 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 Wallpapers that can create backgrounds 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 such as Adaptive Stabilisation to keep footage smooth, while the Google Photos tools Magic Eraser, Photo Unblur, and Magic Editor are now available on any device – including the iPhone.
At the time of writing, we haven’t had a chance to review the new Motos, but so far they look like they will bring some great AI tools at prices more affordable than many of the other options on this list.
But before long, expect all of the best smartphones to put AI at the forefront.
