To help you understand which AI tools are genuinely useful, and which brand does it best, we’ve put these newfangled features to the test in our labs in an in-depth investigation.
Read on for all the key lab-tested results explaining which phone has the best AI for your needs.
Summarising and rewriting text and messages
AI tools promise to save you time by summarising a range of content you might receive through a phone, from notifications to emails, and can also tweak your writing style for different purposes. All three phone AIs include a range of tools.
summarise and prioritise notificationssummarising longer content like articles and emailstaking your drafted text and rewriting it in a different styleWinner: Apple iPhone 16 Pro MaxThe iPhone wins this section. Its exclusive notification summaries were a clear plus, and its writing tools were very helpful. Samsung was a close second with its own great tools, while Google’s AI also worked well, but was less convenient to use, so it placed just behind.
Photo, video, and image tools
Modern phone AI is improving how we manage and edit our photos and videos. These tools can help you find a specific memory in a library of thousands, automatically clean up your pictures by removing unwanted people or objects, and even improve the audio in your videos. They also offer creative features, allowing you to generate entirely new images and wallpapers with a simple text command.
search your photo gallery using natural language voice commandsThe iPhone 16 Pro Max was excellent at this, successfully finding photos based on objects, description text (such as the phrase ‘relaxing on a boat’), text within a picture and even landmarks when the photo had no location data attached. The Pixel performed well, too, but was often less accurate, producing a wider range of results. For Samsung, the gallery isn’t as versatile, with it not being possible to find text within images or landmarks in our testing.
search for a specific moment within a videoAudio Mix/Audio Eraser toolmagic editorgenerate images and wallpapers from a text descriptionWinner: Samsung Galaxy S25 UltraSamsung takes the lead here, but it's a very close race. Its tools for editing photos and creating new images gave the best results. The iPhone fought back, proving much better at finding photos and videos. Google’s tools were also good, but didn’t stand out against the competition.
Running out of storage on your phone? Take a look at our guide on to quickly make some extra room.Search and chat shortcuts
AI shortcuts aim to speed up common tasks on your phone. This can range from suggesting one-tap replies to your messages to visual search tools that let you find information about anything on your screen just by circling it. Some phones even offer features to automatically transcribe and summarise your recorded calls, saving you from having to take notes.
Smart replyWriting ToolsAI transcribe and summarise the conversationVisual search toolsWinner: Draw – Apple & SamsungThis one is too close to call. The iPhone has highly effective tools for formatting and organising notes. However, Samsung’s exclusive and functional call recording feature gives it a boost to keep it in the running. Google lags behind due to its less convenient, app-based approach for these tasks.
Voice recognition
The AI behind voice assistants is being developed to better understand natural, conversational language. The goal is for you to be able to talk to your phone less like a robot and more like a human assistant, allowing for follow-up questions and more complex commands. We tested how well each phone's assistant handles these more fluid interactions.
AI voice assistantsGemini Live, a feature within the Google Gemini app, allows for this fluid, free-flowing conversation with AI. It’s a Google feature, but it can be used on all three phones with the app. The experience is impressively conversational, but while basic information is often quite correct, answers to very specific questions can often turn out wrong.
Winner: DrawThis section is a draw, as all three phones performed at a similar level. Their main voice assistants — Bixby, Gemini, and Siri — had comparable abilities and the advanced Gemini Live chat feature was identical on each device. Because of this, no phone had a clear advantage in our tests.
Which phone brand has the best AI?
So, which phone has the best AI? While all three flagships have capable features, our lab testing declares that the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra and the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max offer a slightly better overall experience. The key reason the Google Pixel 9 Pro falls behind in its integration. Its rivals have built these AI features directly into the operating system and core apps, while some Google AI features require the use of the separate Gemini app. We may not be able to give a definitive answer to the question about which phone brand has the best AI, but we can advise which has the best AI for you, as this ultimately depends on how you plan to use AI.
Choose Samsung for AI if......you prioritise visual creativity and the best possible photo editing tools. In our lab tests, Samsung's generative photo editing performed best, removing unwanted objects from pictures, while leaving the cleanest results with the fewest visual flaws. Its tools for creating AI images were also the most versatile, allowing you to generate new pictures from sketches, photos or text. It also has a standout productivity feature that the others lacked in our test: the ability to record and summarise phone calls.
Choose Apple for AI if......your focus is on day-to-day productivity and effortlessly organising your digital life. The iPhone’s gallery search was found to be superior, making it much easier to find specific photos by searching for descriptive text or even landmarks. It was also the only phone that could find moments within a video. For productivity, its exclusive notification summaries help manage daily alerts, and its Writing Tools were very helpful for re-writing text and formatting notes into organised tables.
All is not lost if you're running Google AI......the Google Pixel is also a strong choice, particularly for those who value creative flexibility. The underlying AI often produces excellent results, and its AI image generation tool offers the widest range of creative styles in our test, with 18 different options available. Its visual search and advanced Gemini Live conversational AI also perform on a similar level to the competition. The Pixel’s main drawback is convenience; many AI tasks require copying and pasting into the Gemini app, which feels less seamless for day-to-day productivity compared with the integrated tools on the other phones
Which phones have AI features?
Apple Intelligence is currently available in beta on all iPhone 16 models, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. It’s available in the UK and in English, but Apple states some features may not be available in all regions and languages. For users with those devices, Apple Intelligence is currently free to use.
A free version of Google Gemini is available on all Android phones with 2GB of Ram or more, and which run Android 10 or newer. You do have to pay more for access more advanced AI model. Google AI Pro costs £18.99 per month. But the features tested in this article are available for free.
Samsung’s Galaxy AI is available on the Galaxy S23 series and newer S series devices. It’s also available on the Galaxy Z Flip/Fold 5 series and newer Z series devices. The AI features are currently free but Samsung has stated they are only free until the end of 2025, with no details yet provided on what the cost may be after that.
source https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/apple-vs-samsung-vs-google-which-phone-has-the-best-ai-atsIq6g0aqUj