Samsung vs. Honor: The ultimate AI showdown

You can't get a phone these days without a generous serving of AI. If anything, most brands have pivoted to AI as being the cornerstone of their products, with Honor going all-in with its Alpha Plan. I'm still not convinced that AI-assisted features on phones are useful (at least to my requirements), and if you're of a similar mind, you can deactivate AI entirely on your phone.

But if you're willing to try out phone-based AI, there's no shortage of features available. Most brands have partnered with Google to pre-install Gemini on their devices, and they have their own suite of utilities as a differentiator. Samsung bundles its AI offerings into Galaxy AI, and given the scale of the brand's reach, its features get the most mainstream usage.

Chinese brands aren't shying away from integrating AI into their phones, and Honor is ahead of its rivals in this regard. Honor AI combines a suite of utilities, from AI-assisted translation and transcribing to image editing, and intent-based interactions. Having used the Magic V5 and Galaxy Z Fold 7 extensively in the last two months, I decided to pit both manufacturers' AI offerings against each other, and see which one comes out ahead.

Galaxy AI vs. Honor AI: What features are available?

Samsung has an extensive selection of AI tools, with 11 available: Call Assist, Writing Assist, Interpreter, Note Assist, Transcript Assist, Browsing Assist, Photo Assist, Drawing Assist, Audio Eraser, Now Brief, and Health Assist. What I like about Samsung's implementation is that most features can be toggled to use on-device models exclusively, ensuring your data doesn't go to a cloud server.

Honor has eight AI utilities not including the image editing features: Magic Sidebar, AI Deepfake Detection, Magic Text, Magic Portal, AI Subtitles, AI Translate, Call Translation, and AI Writing.

Galaxy AI vs. Honor AI: Translation and contextual services

The defining AI feature is Magic Portal, which the brand calls intent-based AI. Basically, it changes context according to the situation; if you've selected text, it pulls up a list of messaging apps where you can paste that text with ease. Similarly, pressing and holding an image surfaces Instagram, X, and other social media apps, making it easier to share content.

Honor says the goal is to simplify how you use your phone, and Magic Portal ties in with Google apps to provide contextual info. I use it predominantly to add a location to Google Maps to navigate, and to paste text between messaging clients. I use Magic Text quite a bit as well, with the utility able to extract text from images.

Honor's AI Writing and Samsung's Writing Assist fulfil similar roles, but I found Writing Assist to be better at summarizing long-form articles. You also get additional options when it comes to polishing text, and it has built-in chat translation as well. You miss out on summarization if you use on-device processing with Writing Assist, and Honor doesn't even have that option.

AI Subtitles is a nifty addition on Honor phones that generates subtitles in a real-time when a video is playing. It is is quite good at transcribing content on-the-fly and creating subtitles, and you can save the generated text. Accuracy is hit-and-miss based on the language you select, but I haven't had issues using these tools with English.

Both Honor and Samsung have an AI-based interpreter, and they're just as effective. I talked in Hindi, and both utilities did a decent job translating in real-time to English. Both brands have a call-assist feature as well, and Samsung has the edge in this regard. When using Hindi to English, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 did a better job translating in real-time, and you can use it in several messaging services, including Meet and Telegram.

Samsung's Browsing Assist is definitely handy, as it lets you summarize web content with relative ease. Similarly, Now Brief suggests contextual content based on time of day, and it's more useful than I thought — it's a decent alternative to Google's At A Glance widget.

When it comes to writing and real-time translation, Samsung just gives you more in the way of utilities, and I prefer using Galaxy AI to Honor AI in this regard.

Galaxy AI vs. Honor AI: Image editing

Both brands have generative image editing, and Samsung's Sketch to Image and Portrait Studio are plenty to fun to use. But when it comes to image editing, Honor's AI Eraser does a much better job than Generative Edit on Samsung phones. While editing photos I took in London, Honor's utility provided edits that looked more realistic, doing a great job taking out background elements and filling in the details.

Honor's AI Upscale and AI Cutout also do a standout job, but it's AI Outpainting that I like the most. The feature basically lets you expand the canvas considerably, and it is astoundingly good. I rely on this feature extensively, and it makes a genuine difference — and it's effortless to use. Honor also has an image-to-video feature on select models that uses Google's Veo 2 image engine, and it's fantastic.

Galaxy AI vs. Honor AI: The bottom line

Both Samsung and Honor have their strengths and weaknesses. If you need writing or real-time translation features, Galaxy AI has a definite edge over what Honor is offering. But if you rely on image editing and want to turn images to videos, Honor is unmatched in this area.

While Samsung doesn't offer quite as many features when it comes to image editing, it does a decent enough job in its own right. While AI isn't the differentiator when it comes to choosing between these two brands, the upgrades to the Galaxy Z Fold 7 make it a clear frontrunner against the Magic V5, so if you're looking to get a new phone this year and are considering foldables, the Z Fold 7 would be my recommendation.