I pitted Galaxy AIs photo editing tool against Apple Intelligences Clean Up, and lets just say the results arent even close

Date:
Tue, 15 Apr 2025 14:36:13 +0000

Description:
I compared Samsung S25's AI photo editing to iPhone 16's, and I can't believe how different the results are

FULL STORY ======================================================================

Ive been an iPhone user since 2009 when I got my first iPhone 3G, and since then Ive been a loyal customer, upgrading annually to the best smartphone Apple has to offer.

When Samsung released the S25 series of smartphones earlier this year with AI at their core, I knew I had to finally give Android a proper go and see what Googles mobile operating system was capable of.

Over the next few weeks Im going to pit my S25s Galaxy AI features against my iPhone 16 Pro Maxs Apple Intelligence capabilities to see which smartphone
has AI features worth using compared to those that are just a gimmick.

When I received the S25, early last week, the first thing I decided to do was test Galaxy AIs photo editing prowess, after all, Clean Up on iPhone is one
of the most complete Apple Intelligence features to date, or so I thought.
The dog Image 1 of 3 Original image (Image credit: Future) Original Image 2
of 3 Galaxy AI (Image credit: Future) Galaxy AI Image 3 of 3 Apple Intelligence (Image credit: Future) Apple Intelligence

To start my Galaxy AI Generative Edit versus Clean Up comparison, I decided
to start by erasing my French Bulldog, Kermit, from his very plain grey bed.
I thought this was a good starting point as while the bed is a plain background, there would be the shadow of the dog coming from the natural sunlight of the window in front of the camera.

Galaxy AI had no issue removing Kermit from his bed, in fact not only did it remove the shadow, it continued the brown stitching of the beds border, and smoothed out the surface to completely erase any sign of Kermit from the photo.

Apple Intelligences Clean Up, on the other hand, failed miserably at this simple task, leaving Kermits shadow while removing the dog from the bed. This AI editing created a sort of blur effect that would never pass for an edited image, let alone an original one.

Galaxy AI 1-0 Apple Intelligence The croissant Image 1 of 3 Original image (Image credit: Future) Original Image 2 of 3 Galaxy AI (Image credit: Future) Galaxy AI Image 3 of 3 Apple Intelligence (Image credit: Future) Apple Intelligence

Next up, I took my two smartphones to my local coffee shop to test AI photo editing out in the wild. As I went later in the day, there were only two croissants left, one regular and one pain au chocolat.

For this test, I decided to remove the pain au chocolat from a photo as the coffee shops branded paper underneath was monochrome and a repeating pattern that I thought would make for an interesting comparison.

Again, Samsungs AI editing was impressive, to say the least. Not only did the pain au chocolat completely disappear from the image, but Galaxy Ai
replicated the branded pattern perfectly, keeping some crumbs for added realism.

The iPhones attempt was again, pretty rubbish, creating a sort of crumpled paper effect and leaving the pain au chocolats shadow in plain sight. This
was again pretty disappointing from Apple Intelligence, there may be a trend appearing here

Galaxy AI 2-0 Apple Intelligence The coffee cup Image 1 of 3 Original image (Image credit: Future) Original Image 2 of 3 Galaxy AI (Image credit: Future) Galaxy AI Image 3 of 3 Apple Intelligence (Image credit: Future) Apple Intelligence

I asked the barista behind the bar if he could pour a Flat White so I could try and remove the coffee cup from his hands using Galaxy AI and Apple Intelligence.

I thought it was worth trying just to see how the AI photo editing tools handle pouring liquid, and again the results are night and day.

On the S25, the cup disappeared, Galaxy AI recreated the baristas thumb, inserted some objects on the surface, and tried to create the impact of the hot milk on the sink below.

While the liquids physics is somewhat off, the editing of the hand and the recreation of what Galaxy AI perceived to be behind the cup were seriously impressive.

As for Apple Intelligence Ill let the image do all the talking.

Galaxy AI 3-0 Apple Intelligence The empty shop Image 1 of 3 Original image (Image credit: Future) Original Image 2 of 3 Galaxy AI (Image credit: Future) Galaxy AI Image 3 of 3 Apple Intelligence (Image credit: Future) Apple Intelligence

At this point, I had completely accepted the disparity in effectiveness between Samsung and Apples offerings, so I decided to push Generative Edit
and Clean Up as far as these flagship smartphones would allow me to.

I took a photo of the busy coffee shop, and after erasing one of the people from sight I decided to go even further and just erase everything from the photo, leaving nothing but the seating.

Again, Galaxy AI passed with flying colors, recreating the shops outside the window, and extending the sofa where I had removed my table and coffee cup. Apple Intelligence, well It mushed everything together and was absolutely useless.

Galaxy AI 4-0 Apple Intelligence A whitewash

Its fair to say theres a clear winner when it comes to AI photo editing between these two devices, and if you follow any smartphone news youre probably not surprised.

What was surprising to me, was just how amazing Galaxy AIs photo editing is, and how bad Clean Up on my top-of-the-line iPhone is.

Ive used Clean Up in the past and found it did a decent, but hardly mind-blowing job when it comes to removing a subject from a photo. After
using the S25, I cant believe Clean Up has even shipped in its current state knowing what alternatives are out there.

I want to emphasize that both companies have taken a different approach to AI photo editing. Apple wants to keep the image as close to the original as possible, while Samsung is happy to showcase its AI power and offer more emphatic editing.

While I think thats worth keeping in mind, I do still think Apples Clean Up approach should be capable of some of the simple edits youve seen above. Instead, its come incredibly short of the mark when Samsungs offering is capable of truly achieving what it sets out to do. You might also like
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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/phones/i-pitted-galaxy-ais-photo-editing-tool-agains t-apple-intelligences-clean-up-and-lets-just-say-the-results-arent-even-close


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