Samsung Galaxy Z Fold6 and Z Flip6 hands-on review

Software and Galaxy AI

One of the major selling points for the Galaxy S24 generation was Galaxy AI - a set of AI-powered features to spice up various parts of the mobile experience. It only makes sense for Samsung to bring AI to the Galaxy Z Fold6 and Z Flip6. This won't be an exhaustive list of all of the Galaxy AI features, but we will try to point out some of the new additions Samsung is introducing alongside this device launch event.

Note Assist is already a thing. It can format notes automatically, summarize them, generate covers based on note contents, correct spelling and grammar and translate text. Now, Samsung is adding an automatic transcription, translation and summarization feature for voice recordings directly in notes. The Notes app can now also do "PDF overlay translation". The name is quite descriptive. The feature basically translates text in PDF files and overlays the translation on top of it.

Sketch to image is another new addition to the mix. It is meant to extend the usefulness of the optional S Pen for the Z Fold 6. You can sketch rough objects on top of images within the Gallery or Notes app and then have AI replace those doodles with actual art pieces.

The Interpreter feature for live translation is also already included in Galaxy AI. However, it now gets a special conversation mode specifically designed to leverage the foldable form factor of the Z Fold6 and Z Flip6. In this mode, one party in the conversation sees the translation on the main screen while the other one sees the cover screen.

Speaking of translation, Live Translate - another existing feature that translates phone calls on the fly- is now expanding beyond the default Samsung phone app to a selection of popular third-party apps.

Photo Assist seems to be at least partially new. It offers some AI-powered advanced photo editing tools. And that's on top of the existing functionality to adjust image angles, fill in the gaps around the edges, and select and move, resize or remove objects in the frame. For more creative possibilities, Portrait Studio creates various portrait styles, such as 3D cartoon or watercolor.

FlexCam is specifically meant to leverage the unique form factor of the Z Flip6. As the name suggests, it enables you to use the phone's main cameras alongside the cover display as a viewfinder. Not only that, but thanks to Auto Zoom, the phone will intelligently zoom and frame whoever and whatever is in the frame.

Photo Ambient also seems to be a new AI-powered feature that is only available on the Z Flip6 for now. It allows you to make wallpapers change in real time based on time and weather. You can also easily create a unified look and feel with suggested screen layout options by analyzing your wallpaper - such as moving the clock and changing the frame color to ensure the background image stands.

In no particular order, we will mention some other Galaxy AI features that were already introduced with the Galaxy S24 family and are now making their way to the Z Fold6 and Z Flip6.

Composer is built into Samsung Keyboard. It can generate text based on simple keywords and do so in a particular style that is more or less formal, depending on what you will be using the text for.

Circle to Search is a system-wide feature that garnered a lot of attention around the S24 launch, so it hardly needs any introduction. You just long press the bottom of the screen and circle, highlight or tap the screen to select an object to be used in a web search.

And speaking of searching, the Google Gemini app is fully integrated into the new Galaxy Z series. You simply need to swipe the corner of your screen or say "Hey Google" for Gemini to pop up. It is also integrated into some Google apps, like Google Maps.

Instant Slow-mo is here. It allows you to instantly slow a video by generating additional frames right from within the Samsung Gallery app.

The Voice recorder app also has some tricks, thanks to Transcript assist. You can automatically transcribe a voice note into text with advanced speaker recognition if multiple parties are speaking. The resulting text can then be translated or further edited.

Galaxy Z Fold6 and Z Flip6 cases

Last but not least, you might find Browsing assist quite useful if you use Samsung's internet browser. It can both summarize and translate pages for you on the fly.

Conclusion

It's kind of hard to innovate each and every year and we've kind of gotten used to phones bringing more or less incremental upgrades. This is definitely the case with the Galaxy Z Fold6 and Z Flip6. Still, there are some nice little additions to the mix and tweaks here and there this year. We like the design refinement on both phones. The Z Fold6 has an improved and more natural aspect ratio on the cover display and the Z Flip6, is now closer than ever to the mainstream Galaxy S line with a bigger battery and better main camera.