Galaxy Z Flip 6: First day traveling around Paris with AI

Until a few days ago, I had never been to Paris, spoke French, or even used a Galaxy Z Flip 6. Now you might not see the connection between the City of Lights, a new flip phone, and a guy who has never flown on an international flight in his life, but there is: Galaxy AI.

The $1,100 Galaxy Z Flip 6 was one of two new Samsung foldable devices that debuted at the company’s Galaxy Unpacked event in July, along with other products like the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Ring. The event took place in Paris, and when my boss asked me to go, I felt excited and nervous, wondering if traveling and working abroad would work out.

Aside from the new hinge, new screen, and new cameras, one of the Galaxy Z Flip 6’s biggest features (or at least the one Samsung touted the most) is Galaxy AI. At a time when nearly every phone manufacturer is touting the ways in which AI will improve our lives, I wanted to see if such claims were true. What better way to spend my first day with the Galaxy Z Flip 6? So I charged up my review sample and set off for a stroll around Paris to put Samsung’s Galaxy AI to the test.

Look at this: 24 hours of testing the Galaxy Z Flip 6 in Paris

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The Galaxy Z Flip 6 Interpreter mostly gets the job done.

My first stop was coffee shop Fringe, a must-visit place in Paris if you’re a fan of specialty coffee. I don’t speak French, but I wanted to have a cortado and learn about the beans they use, so I fired up the Z Flip 6’s AI-powered translator tool to place my order and speak to the barista.

The tool has a nifty mode where I use the cover screen to show the barista a French translation of what I said in English, and then on the main screen I saw in English what the barista said in French. I was able to place my order, learn about small European coffee roasters, and just drink a great cortado. But unlike the drink I had, the translation tool wasn’t great.

During her conversation with the cashier, she noticed that some words and phrases she spoke in French didn’t translate into English the way she intended, or had a different meaning. She thought maybe her accent was the reason the Z Flip 6 wasn’t working. I thought maybe the Galaxy AI was to blame. I wasn’t sure. Whatever the reason, it was clear that the AI ​​translation was making her self-conscious about her accent, which was terrible.

Interestingly, the cashier was fascinated by the phone—not because of its instant translation, but because she’d never seen a foldable before. After playing with the Z Flip 6 for a minute, she asked if there was an iPhone version.

Parisian Croissants vs. AI Croissants

After shooting some video of skateboarders doing tricks at Place de la République, I walked along the Canal Saint-Martin and took some photos. I wanted to test out the Z Flip 6’s new 50MP main camera, but I also needed a few shots to play around with the new AI features that can paint new things onto your images.

With one of my canal photos, I opened the Gallery app and tapped the sparkly AI icon below the photo to launch the sketch-to-image tool. Then I drew two curved lines to recreate the silhouette of a bird flying over the canal. I could have been proud of my five-year-old self.

Then we let the AI ​​do the work.

The result was a pretty realistic looking bird. I was really impressed with this tool, but I’m not sure when I’d ever use it. Even as I write this, I’m still wondering why this tool even exists. I can imagine this could be fun for kids, or a way to take the old “draw a mustache on someone’s face” gag to the next level… but I tried it a few times and unfortunately nothing happened.

But what if a photo isn’t even involved? What if you want to turn a rough sketch you’ve done into a painting? With the same Sketch to Image AI tool, you can do that, too. And when I went to the restaurant Oma, I wanted to see whether the Galaxy AI or a Parisian bakery could make a better croissant.

To turn my doodle into art, I opened the side navigation bar and used the built-in sketchpad. I then drew a rough outline of a croissant and added some ribbed accent lines on the top.[生成]With the press of a button, the tool created several watercolor paintings of croissants, and lo and behold, they all looked like croissants (though a few were clearly more like shrimp than croissants).

It’s really neat that a flip phone can take your very crude doodle, figure out what you’ve drawn, and turn it into a watercolor painting. If you’re into that kind of thing, I could see this as a way to generate your own clip art. But if not, I don’t think I’ll ever use this feature again.

The Z Flip 6 turned my friend into Chance the Rapper

While I was running around Paris, I was also creating a video for CNET, so the talented video producer Jide Akinrinade was filming with me throughout the day. I took a few Portrait mode photos of him with the Z Flip 6 and they came out great, so I decided to try out one last AI feature.

While I was able to turn my own sketch into a photorealistic seagull, I was also able to turn a photo of a real person into a work of art. The tool is called Portrait Studio, and it offers several art styles to choose from, including comics, 3D cartoons, watercolors, and sketches.

Running Jide’s photo through the process produced a bold, cartoon-like illustration. But there was one problem: It didn’t look anything like Jide. “It’s not like that,” Jide admitted. Like the next generation of AI tools, the tool can sometimes miss the mark; one option made Jide look like Chance the Rapper.

I bumped into other reviewers using the new Z Flip 6 and Z Fold 6 later that day, and they had similar results. So, I have to admit, Samsung’s done a great job. Portrait Studio is laughably good, but for me to pay $1,100 for a phone, I’d like something that gives me more of a personal touch.

Galaxy Z Flip 6: Final thoughts so far

I tracked the battery level throughout my first day with the Z Flip 6. I started the day at 100% and ended it at 46%, which was very impressive considering the heat and humidity in Paris, the number of photos and videos I took, and my heavy use of the various AI features.

I also found that it’s easy to get sunburned in the Parisian July sun.

I also found the Galaxy AI to be awesome, like when it generated a photorealistic seagull from two lines I drew, helpful, like when it helped me have a conversation in French and order a coffee, and ridiculous, like when it transformed Jide into Chance the Rapper. The AI ​​has many other flaws that may put some off.

There’s still a lot to test with the Galaxy Z Flip 6, so stay tuned for our in-depth review coming soon.