Best Smartphones with AI Features (2024)
When OpenAI’s ChatGPT broke into the mainstream towards the end of 2022, the infusion of AI tech into consumer tech seemed inevitable. In 2024, two major players, Google and Samsung, have successfully integrated AI tech into their flagship smartphone offerings. If you’re looking to buy a flagship smartphone this year, AI integration is something you should certainly consider before making a purchase. So, let’s take a look at the best smartphones with AI features that you can buy right now.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Series
Galaxy AI was Samsung’s biggest talking point at the launch event for its Galaxy S24 Series of smartphones. All three Galaxy S24 smartphones are equipped with Samsung’s AI suite of features. This AI package is also being rolled out to other Samsung smartphones like Galaxy S23 (including Plus, Ultra, and FE) and Galaxy Z Flip and Fold 5. You may already have heard of ‘Circle to Search’ a heavily marketed AI feature on the Galaxy S24 smartphones which can perform a Google search for any object you circle on the screen. Apart from Circle to Search (which isn’t a part of the Galaxy AI suite), the Galaxy S24 Series has the most extensive set of AI features on any smartphone right now, regardless of the platform. With Galaxy AI you can translate your phone calls in real-time, create transcriptions and summaries of your voice notes, summarise any web page, and more. The smartphone also employs AI for photo editing tasks. However, the Galaxy AI package is free only until the end of 2025. The tech giant will likely introduce a subscription-based model for its AI services in 2026.
Google Pixel 8 Series
Google was one of the first OEMs to introduce AI features in its flagship smartphones. Like its Galaxy S24 Series counterparts, Pixel 8 Series smartphones can also live-translate messages, signboards, and real-time conversations. The option to live-translate phone calls has not arrived on the flagship Pixels just yet. You can also transcribe and summarise your voice notes with just a few taps on the Pixel 8. Circle to Search, which made its debut on the Galaxy S24 Series, is actually an Android feature which is now available on the Pixel 8 smartphones as well. Google’s Gemini Nano powers the AI features on the Pixel 8 Series. One of our favourite AI features on the Pixel is ‘Smart Reply’. Essentially a Gboard feature, once turned on, Smart Reply can generate auto-responses for the messages you receive on WhatsApp and other messaging apps. The Gemini Nano bot can also generate AI wallpapers based on pre-set prompts on the Pixel 8. The results can be a hit or miss, but this feature is fun to play around with. The famous Magic Eraser also got a major boost on the newest Pixel smartphones. The Audio Magic Eraser intelligently recognises the different sounds in a video recording and lets you adjust their volume individually. Using advanced machine learning models, your Pixel can extract sounds like wind, speech, crowd noise, sounds of nature, music, and more in any video. Lastly, features like Best Take and Video Boost are also a nice addition to the Google Pixel 8.
Xiaomi 14 Series
Xiaomi’s flagship smartphones are known for having some of the best camera modules. This year’s Xiaomi 14 Ultra gets a quad camera setup at the back, housed inside a giant round cutout. When it comes to AI, Xiaomi is still a few steps behind Google and Samsung. At the MWC 2024 debut of the 14 Series, the Chinese tech giant unveiled just one AI feature which is still being rolled out for the two smartphones. ‘AI Portrait’ generates pictures of any subject based on the prompt given by the user. Another AI feature hidden away in the Gallery app is ‘Video Effects’ which adds special highlights to your portrait videos.
OnePlus 12
Like Xiaomi, OnePlus has also lagged behind when it comes to offering AI features on its flagship smartphones. The new OnePlus 12 released earlier this year did not have any AI-driven tools. But the Chinese OEM has now introduced a Magic Eraser-like photo editing tool in the latest OxygenOS update. OnePlus’ AI Eraser can remove intrusive and unwanted objects from your images and fill the gaps seamlessly. The only downside is that the computational process for object removal using AI Eraser is not carried out on the device. OnePlus uses its cloud servers for the job.
Conclusion
These are the top 4 smartphones with AI features that you can buy right now. Recent reports suggest that Google could be teaming up with Apple to bring their Gemini AI bot to the iPhone 16 Series this year. Apple will announce the new iOS 18 at WWDC in June 2024. Touted as the biggest iOS update yet, the iOS 18 will host a bunch of AI features for the iPhone. Expect Siri to get a lot smarter with AI infusion. Apple’s native apps like Photos, Notes, Voice Memos, iMessage, and more will also get a big boost.
