Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip 6: AI-Powered Features Enhance User Experience in Paris

Galaxy Z Flip 6: I Spent My First Day AI-ing My Way Through Paris With It

Patrick's play The Cowboy is included in the Best American Short Plays 2011-12 anthology. He co-wrote and starred in the short film Baden Krunk that won the Best Wisconsin Short Film award at the Milwaukee Short Film Festival. Until a few days ago, I had never been to Paris, never spoken French, and definitely never used the Galaxy Z Flip 6. Now, you might not see a connection between the City of Light, a new foldable phone and a guy who'd never flown internationally before, but there is one. It's called Galaxy AI. The $1,100 Galaxy Z Flip 6 is one of a pair of new Samsung foldables that debuted at the company's July Galaxy Unpacked event, along with the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and other products, like the Galaxy Ring. The event was in Paris. And when my boss asked me to go, I was excited, nervous and wondered how traveling and working internationally would all... well, work. Aside from a new hinge, new screen and new camera, one of the Galaxy Z Flip 6's biggest features (or at least the one that Samsung hyped the most) is Galaxy AI. And at a time when nearly every phone maker touts ways AI will improve our lives, I wanted to see if such assertions were true. What better way to spend my first day with the Galaxy Z Flip 6, right? So I charged up my review sample and headed out to explore Paris and test Samsung's Galaxy AI. My first stop was the coffee shop Fringe, which, if you're into specialty coffee, should be on your list of places to visit when in Paris. I don't speak French, but I really wanted to try a cortado and learn about the beans they use. So I fired up the Z Flip 6's AI-powered Interpreter tool to place my order and talk with the barista. There's a nifty mode within the tool that used the cover screen to show the barista a French translation of what I'd said in English. And on the main screen, I saw, in English, what they'd said in French. I was able to order; learn about small batch European coffee roasters; and have a cortado that was simply outstanding. Unlike my beverage, however, the Interpreter tool wasn't great. I noticed during my conversation with the cashier that several of the words and phrases she said in French didn't translate to English in the way she'd intended, or they had a different meaning. She thought it might be her accent that threw off the Z Flip 6. I thought it might be the Galaxy AI. We weren't sure. Whatever the reason, it was clear the AI translation made her feel self-conscious about her accent, a horrible situation. Interestingly, the cashier was fascinated by the phone -- not because it could translate on the fly, but because she'd never seen a foldable before. After playing with the Z Flip 6 for a minute or so, she asked me if there was an iPhone version. After recording some videos of skateboarders doing tricks in the Place de la Republique, I walked down the Canal Saint-Martin to take some photos. I wanted to put the Z Flip 6's new 50-megapixel main camera through its paces, but I also needed a few photos to test out a new AI feature that lets you draw new things into an image. Using one of my canal photos, I opened the Gallery app and tapped the sparkle AI icon under the photo to bring up the Sketch to Image tool. Then I drew two curved lines to replicate the silhouette of a bird flying over the canal -- I did my inner 5-year-old proud. Then, I let AI do its thing. The result was a bird that looked pretty realistic. I'm really impressed by this tool, but I'm not sure when I'd use it. Even as I write this, I wonder why the tool exists. I could see how this might be fun for kids, or even how it could take the old "drawing a mustache on someone's face" gag to the next level... though I tried that several times and, sadly, nothing happened. But what if there weren't any photos involved? What if I wanted to take a crude sketch I'd done and make it a painting? Well, the same Sketch to Image AI tool can do that, too. And when I was at restaurant Oma, I wanted to see who made a better croissant: Galaxy AI or a Parisian bakery? To turn a doodle into art, I opened the side navigation bar and used the built-in sketch pad. Next, I drew a very crude outline of a croissant and added a few riblike accent lines across the top. Then I pressed the Generate button, and the tool created a handful of watercolored paintings of croissants. And what do you know? They all looked like croissants (although some definitely skewed more toward a shrimp than a croissant). It's pretty incredible that a foldable phone can take a very crude doodle, figure out what you drew, and then make a watercolor painting of it. I could see this as a way to generate your own clip art, if you're into that sort of thing. But otherwise, I don't think I'll ever use the feature again. As I was running around Paris, I was also putting together a video for CNET, and that meant I had our talented video producer Jide Akinrinade with me filming all day. I took a few portrait-mode photos of him with the Z Flip 6 that came out great, and I decided to try one last AI feature. While I was able to turn a sketch I made into a photo-realistic seagull, I could also turn an actual photo of someone into artwork. The tool is called Portrait Studio, and you can choose from a handful of art styles: comic, 3D cartoon, watercolor and sketch. When I put Jide's photo through the process, it created bold comic book-like illustrations. However, there was one problem: They looked nothing like Jide -- which he confirmed with a "that's a no." Like the other gen AI tools, it can miss the mark; one of the options made Jide look like Chance the Rapper. Later in the day, I ran into some other reviewers with the new Z Flip 6 and Z Fold 6, and they'd had similar results. I mean, I've got to hand it to Samsung: Portrait Studio was great for a few laughs, but if I'm paying $1,100 for a phone, I want something that can turn out results that look a little more like me. Throughout my first day with the Z Flip 6, I kept track of the battery life. I started my day at 100% and ended it at 46%, which I found very impressive, especially considering how hot and humid Paris was and how many photos and videos I took, as well as how heavily I used various AI features. I learned, too, that I easily sunburn under the Paris sun in July. I also found out that Galaxy AI is impressive, like when it created a photo-realistic seagull from two lines I drew. It's useful, like when it helped me have a conversation in French and order coffee. And it's ridiculous, like when it made Jide into Chance the Rapper. AI also has a lot of other flaws, which might put some people off. I still have so much more testing to do with the Galaxy Z Flip 6, so keep an eye out for my full in-depth review, coming soon.

Every new AI feature coming to Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 (and how they work)

Also: What you missed at Samsung Unpacked July 2024: Galaxy Z Fold 6, Watch Ultra, Ring, AI, more To help you parse through the plethora of new AI features and identify which might be most useful to you, I rounded them all up and broke them down into three categories. The best AI features are the ones that can help with everyday tasks, and the Galaxy Z Fold 6 is packed with them. Starting with Note Assist on Samsung Notes, the onboard AI helps you translate, summarize, and even auto-format notes. Additionally, you can translate PDFs in the Notes app using the PDF overlay translation feature. The Composer feature in Samsung Keyboard automatically generates suggested text for email and, in social media apps, even creates text that uses your tone from previous posts. Also: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 hands-on: These key upgrades put it above the OnePlus Open for me You can also incorporate the smartphone's S Pen to create shortcuts for these features. Additionally, the S Pen features Smart Select, which suggests useful features like translation, and a new Sketch to Image feature, which provides you with image options based on quick sketches. To help you better communicate across different languages, Samsung upgraded the Interpreter feature on the Galaxy Z Fold 6 to include a new conversation mode, which allows both participants in a conversation to view the translations on the main and cover screens. Samsung is even encouraging some popular third-party apps to integrate the Live Translate feature, which translates calls directly on your device in real-time in Samsung's native calling app. You can use the smartphone's S Pen to create shortcuts for these helpful features. Additionally, the S Pen has a Smart Select feature, which suggests useful features like translation or the new Sketch to Image feature, which provides you with image options based on sketches. Access to a good camera is only one part of taking a good photo; knowing how to take a good photo is just as important. Samsung's new AI features help take the guesswork out of digital photography, automatically adjusting for factors like composition, color grading, and more. Also: Save up to $1,200 on new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 phones - here's how For example, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 features an AI-powered ProVisual Engine, which uses the AI chip to understand what you're taking pictures of and optimizes the colors and sharpness based on the subject. Portrait Studio helps you create different portrait styles of your images, such as 3D cartoons or watercolors, as seen in the image below. Lastly, Instant Slow-mo lets you slow down a video by automatically generating additional frames. The Galaxy Z Flip 6 features Auto Zoom for FlexCam, which leverages the phone's unique clamshell design for high-quality, hands-free photos. Auto Zoom uses AI to automatically detect the subjects of a photo, including the background elements you would like to keep in frame, by panning in and out before adjusting accordingly. This feature could especially be useful for creators who are out and about on their own. Gemini for Android, which Google launched in February, lets Android users access a more intelligent AI assistant than the typical ones that come preloaded on their phones. Samsung has integrated the Gemini app into the Galaxy Z series to offer an AI-powered assistant accessible by swiping the corner of the screen or by simply saying, "Hey, Google." Once you access the Gemini app, you will see a Gemini overlay, pictured above, which helps you get AI assistance with specific tasks such as writing an email or sending a text message, or invoking the multimodal AI to answer specific questions about text or images on the screen. You can also click on your home button to activate the Circle to Search feature to highlight parts of an image and get search results in real time.