Best AI Phones This Year: Smarter, Faster, and More Helpful Than Ever

Smartphones keep on getting smarter, and this time AI is leading the way. From AI-polished photography to intelligent battery management and mobile assistants that actually understand you. In fact, AI phones have become a standard in the tech world.

Today’s phones are packed with lots of powerful AI features. Some are useful, others not so much. In this article, we’ll explore the best AI phones you can buy right now and what makes them stand out.

The Best Overall AI Phone: Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra

The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is undoubtedly the best AI phone out there. In fact, according to Samsung, it was built from the ground up for their Galaxy AI. Making it Samsung’s most ambitious AI phone. Unlike phones that advertise AI gimmicks, this one delivers AI features that will actually improve your daily life.

AI on the Samsung S25 Ultra doesn’t just feel like a bunch of new features with an AI label solely for marketing purposes. Galaxy AI delivers on its promise of making the device much smarter and easier. So here are some of the best AI features on the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.

• Natural Gallery and Settings Search: Thanks to AI integration, you can search for things in settings and gallery apps using natural language by simply describing a setting or issue like “share files,” and it’ll bring up related answers, which in this case is Quick Share.

• Object Eraser: Samsung’s advanced Object Eraser allows it to seamlessly remove people and objects from your images like they were never there.

• Call Transcription & Summaries: Call transcription uses AI to record your phone calls and convert them into written text. Allowing you to review conversations later on, get instant summaries, and search for keywords in the conversation.

Why it’s an AI winner: The Galaxy S25 Ultra is a true AI phone with features that you will actually use. It’s a slick, innovative, AI-first smartphone.

The Best Foldable AI Phone: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 is another outstanding Samsung AI phone. No surprise here, since it’s powered by the same Galaxy AI on the S25 Ultra. What makes the Galaxy Z Fold 6 an alluring AI phone is how well Samsung has taken advantage of the big inner screen for AI features. 

With the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, you get class-leading AI features baked in, plus a big 7.6-inch screen optimized to fully utilize AI, topped off with Samsung S Pen compatibility.

Here are the best AI features on the Galaxy Z Fold 6:

• Interpreter: Interpreter on the Galaxy Z Fold 6 enables seamless multilingual conversations by displaying your language on one screen and theirs on the other using Flex Mode.

• Overlay Translation on PDF/Image: This allows you to instantly translate text within PDFs and images directly on your screen, making it easier to read documents and view content in foreign languages without needing to switch apps.

• Sketch to Image: Using Galaxy AI, you can draw a simple sketch with the S Pen or your finger, and the phone will transform it into a more refined, AI-generated image, complete with graphic elements and colors.

Why it’s an AI winner: It’s like having a phone, tablet, and personal assistant in your pocket. It also comes with many of the same powerful features as the Galaxy S25 Ultra.

The Best Google Integrated AI Phone: Google Pixel 9 Pro XL

The Google Pixel 9 Pro XL is Google’s latest flagship smartphone, so it’s no surprise the Pixel 9 Pro XL is one of the best AI phones in 2025. The Pixel 9 Pro XL is stuffed full with plenty of advanced and useful Google Pixel Artificial Intelligence features, mostly thanks to its close integration with Google’s own Gemini AI. Here are some of our favorite Pixel 9 Pro XL features. 

• Add Me: This feature uses AI to seamlessly add you (or another person) into an existing group photo, even if you weren’t originally in the shot.

• Video Boost: This dramatically enhances video quality by sending your recorded videos to Google’s cloud for AI processing, resulting in improved detail, color, and dynamic range.

• Magic Editor: An advanced photo editing tool, Magic Editor uses generative AI to let you easily rearrange subjects, change backgrounds, or even create entirely new elements within your photos.

• Ask Photos: This allows you to use natural language queries to search and interact with your photo library, making it easy to find specific pictures or get information about them.

Why it’s an AI winner: It’s the best choice if you want the intelligence of Google AI woven into every aspect of your phone’s software.

The Best AI Phone for Creatives: Xiaomi 15 Ultra 

Although it a lesser known brand in the United States, the Chinese giant Xiaomi isn’t left out in the AI phone frenzy. Their latest Xiaomi 15 Ultra is an excellent phone with excellent AI feature showcasing the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence for Android. Similar to most of their Chinese and Western competitors, Xiaomi has relied heavily on generative AI to improve the device camera quality. These are the best AI features on the Xiaomi 15 Ultra.

• AI Subtitles: This feature automatically generates real-time subtitles for video content you’re watching or during video calls.

• AI Film: This feature lets you turn your regular photos into short, cinematic-style videos.

• AI Image Expansion: Expand your photos beyond their original boundaries using AI, which can generate new content to fill out the scene while maintaining consistency.

Why it’s an AI winner: While lesser known in the United States, Xiaomi is well known globally for cutting edge features and the Xiaomi 15 Ultra delivers. It brings amazing creative AI tools right to your fingertips.

Honorable Mention: Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max

The latest and greatest from Apple isn’t lost in the race to be the best AI phone money can buy. But admittedly, Apple Intelligence on iPhones isn’t finished yet, so we can’t rank the iPhone just yet on our list of best AI phones. That aside, the AI features we do have now on the iPhone have earned an honorary mention, as we expect them to improve dramatically in the near term. We’ll keep a close eye on this one as Apple continues to release software updates with new AI features.

Which Phone Should You Choose for the Best AI Features?

The smartphone AI race is always changing, but, currently, if you want the most advanced AI tools paired with premium hardware, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is your best bet. If your looking for a foldable device, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 takes full advantage of its large screen and S Pen with similar features to the S25 Ultra. The Pixel 9 Pro XL, however, still stands out with its intelligent Google integrations. For cinematic AI visuals and innovation at a decent price, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra is a strong player in the smartphone AI space, especially if you’re comfortable importing or live outside the U.S. If your a loyal iPhone user, go for the iPhone 16 Pro Max as Apple will undoubtably be releasing some cutting edge AI features very soon.

How to Get the Latest AI Smartphone for Less

If you’re ready to upgrade to the latest AI powered smartphone, but don’t want to pay full price? You can now trade in your old phone and use the cash towards your new phone purchase. Click below to see your offer for your old phone using our online quoting tool: