{"id":262,"date":"2026-05-19T16:46:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T16:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/convly.ai\/iphone-17-pro-vs-galaxy-s26-ultra-on-device-ai\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T05:05:27","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T05:05:27","slug":"iphone-17-pro-vs-galaxy-s26-ultra-on-device-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/convly.ai\/it\/iphone-17-pro-vs-galaxy-s26-ultra-on-device-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"iPhone 17 Pro vs Galaxy S26 Ultra: Which Has Better On-Device AI in 2026?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The 2026 phone battle isn&#8217;t about cameras or chips anymore. Both Apple and Samsung know the camera arms race plateaued in 2023. The real differentiator this generation is <strong>on-device AI<\/strong> \u2014 what each phone can do without sending your data to a server, how fast it does it, and how much of the work happens locally versus in the cloud.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve spent four weeks living with the iPhone 17 Pro and Galaxy S26 Ultra side by side. Here&#8217;s what the AI story actually looks like in 2026.<\/p>\n<div class=\"convly-tldr\">\n<h3>Punti chiave da ricordare<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Il <strong>iPhone 17 Pro<\/strong> wins on privacy posture \u2014 more AI stays on-device, and what doesn&#8217;t goes through Private Cloud Compute.<\/li>\n<li>Il <strong>Galaxy S26 Ultra<\/strong> wins on AI feature breadth \u2014 Galaxy AI has been iterating publicly since 2024 and shows it.<\/li>\n<li>Per <strong>generative writing<\/strong>, both phones run a ~3B model on-device with comparable quality.<\/li>\n<li>Per <strong>image editing<\/strong>, the Galaxy&#8217;s Generative Edit is meaningfully more powerful than Apple&#8217;s Clean Up.<\/li>\n<li>Per <strong>real-time translation<\/strong>, the Galaxy is faster and supports more languages; Apple is more accurate per supported language.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-flat ez-toc-counter ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a38b4dd9f90c\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Attiva\/Disattiva<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #000000;color:#000000\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewbox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #000000;color:#000000\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewbox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseprofile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a38b4dd9f90c\"  aria-label=\"Attiva\/Disattiva\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/convly.ai\/it\/iphone-17-pro-vs-galaxy-s26-ultra-on-device-ai\/#At_a_glance\" >At a glance<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/convly.ai\/it\/iphone-17-pro-vs-galaxy-s26-ultra-on-device-ai\/#The_hardware_behind_the_AI\" >The hardware behind the AI<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/convly.ai\/it\/iphone-17-pro-vs-galaxy-s26-ultra-on-device-ai\/#On-device_language_model_writing_summarization_replies\" >On-device language model: writing, summarization, replies<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/convly.ai\/it\/iphone-17-pro-vs-galaxy-s26-ultra-on-device-ai\/#Image_editing\" >Image editing<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/convly.ai\/it\/iphone-17-pro-vs-galaxy-s26-ultra-on-device-ai\/#Translation_and_transcription\" >Translation and transcription<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/convly.ai\/it\/iphone-17-pro-vs-galaxy-s26-ultra-on-device-ai\/#Visual_intelligence_point-and-identify\" >Visual intelligence (point-and-identify)<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/convly.ai\/it\/iphone-17-pro-vs-galaxy-s26-ultra-on-device-ai\/#Privacy_posture_%E2%80%94_the_real_difference\" >Privacy posture \u2014 the real difference<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/convly.ai\/it\/iphone-17-pro-vs-galaxy-s26-ultra-on-device-ai\/#Battery_impact_of_AI_features\" >Battery impact of AI features<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-9\" href=\"https:\/\/convly.ai\/it\/iphone-17-pro-vs-galaxy-s26-ultra-on-device-ai\/#Which_one_should_you_buy\" >Which one should you buy?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-10\" href=\"https:\/\/convly.ai\/it\/iphone-17-pro-vs-galaxy-s26-ultra-on-device-ai\/#FAQ\" >Domande frequenti<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-11\" href=\"https:\/\/convly.ai\/it\/iphone-17-pro-vs-galaxy-s26-ultra-on-device-ai\/#Bottom_line\" >Conclusione<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-12\" href=\"https:\/\/convly.ai\/it\/iphone-17-pro-vs-galaxy-s26-ultra-on-device-ai\/#Related_articles\" >Articoli correlati<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"At_a_glance\"><\/span>At a glance<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<table class=\"convly-vs\">\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Specifiche<\/th>\n<th>iPhone 17 Pro<\/th>\n<th>Galaxy S26 Ultra<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>SoC<\/td>\n<td>Apple A19 Pro (3 nm N3P)<\/td>\n<td>Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 for Galaxy (TSMC 3 nm)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>NPU<\/td>\n<td>16-core Neural Engine, 45 TOPS<\/td>\n<td class=\"convly-vs-winner\">Hexagon NPU, 55 TOPS<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>RAM<\/td>\n<td>12 GB LPDDR5X<\/td>\n<td class=\"convly-vs-winner\">16 GB LPDDR5X<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>AI platform<\/td>\n<td>Apple Intelligence (Foundation Models)<\/td>\n<td>Galaxy AI (Samsung + Google)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>On-device model size<\/td>\n<td>~3B parameters (Apple)<\/td>\n<td>~3.8B parameters (Gemini Nano 2)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Cloud fallback<\/td>\n<td class=\"convly-vs-winner\">Private Cloud Compute (Apple Silicon servers, audited)<\/td>\n<td>Google Cloud \/ Samsung Cloud<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Languages supported<\/td>\n<td>15 in 2026<\/td>\n<td class=\"convly-vs-winner\">25+<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Price (starting)<\/td>\n<td>$1,099<\/td>\n<td>$1,299<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_hardware_behind_the_AI\"><\/span>The hardware behind the AI<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Both phones run <strong>45\u201355 TOPS class neural engines<\/strong> in 2026 \u2014 enough to run a 3B-class language model on-device at acceptable speed, and small image models in real time. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4&#8217;s Hexagon NPU benchmarks ~22% faster than the A19 Pro&#8217;s Neural Engine on standardized AI workloads, but real-world differences are smaller because both phones throttle aggressively to manage thermals.<\/p>\n<p>What matters more than peak TOPS is <strong>how much RAM each phone allocates to AI<\/strong>. The Galaxy S26 Ultra ships with 16 GB; Apple&#8217;s iPhone 17 Pro has 12 GB. Both reserve a fixed slice for AI features (Apple has confirmed ~4 GB; Samsung doesn&#8217;t publish but the practical ceiling appears to be ~6 GB). That extra RAM is why the Galaxy can keep more AI features warm and respond instantly while the iPhone occasionally has a 1\u20132 second &#8220;cold start&#8221; the first time you invoke a feature in a session.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"On-device_language_model_writing_summarization_replies\"><\/span>On-device language model: writing, summarization, replies<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Both phones run a small language model fully on-device that handles writing, summarization, smart replies, and basic Q&#038;A. Apple&#8217;s model (codename &#8220;Foundation On-Device&#8221;) is roughly 3 B parameters. Samsung uses Gemini Nano 2 at ~3.8 B parameters.<\/p>\n<p>In side-by-side tests:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Writing assist (rewrite an email more formally)<\/strong> \u2014 both phones complete the task in 1.5\u20133 seconds. Apple&#8217;s output tends toward shorter, more conservative rewrites; Samsung&#8217;s tends to add detail and structure. Quality is comparable.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Summarize a 5-paragraph article<\/strong> \u2014 Apple completes in ~2.5 s with a concise 3-sentence summary. Samsung completes in ~2.0 s with a slightly longer bulleted summary. Both miss the same minor nuances; neither hallucinates.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Smart reply (draft response to a long Slack message)<\/strong> \u2014 Apple&#8217;s three suggestions tend to be terse and professional. Samsung&#8217;s tend to be friendlier and longer. Personal preference territory.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Math word problem<\/strong> \u2014 both fail on anything genuinely hard. The on-device model isn&#8217;t smart enough to compete with a frontier model. For real math, both phones fall back to cloud (Apple to Private Cloud Compute or ChatGPT, Samsung to Google Cloud \/ Gemini).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The honest verdict: the on-device language models are <strong>good enough for the 80% of AI requests that are simple text shuffling, and not enough for the 20% that need real reasoning<\/strong>. Both phones handle this tier identically.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Image_editing\"><\/span>Image editing<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>This is where the gap opens. Generative image editing is the most-used AI feature on both phones, and Samsung is meaningfully ahead.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Apple&#8217;s Clean Up<\/strong> (the iPhone equivalent of Magic Eraser) does one thing well: removes objects from photos. The result quality is excellent on simple backgrounds, mediocre on complex ones. There is no built-in way to <em>add<\/em> content or <em>transform<\/em> existing content \u2014 only remove.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Samsung&#8217;s Generative Edit<\/strong> does object removal at comparable quality, plus:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Move and resize subjects within the frame (Apple cannot)<\/li>\n<li>Generate replacement backgrounds (Apple cannot)<\/li>\n<li>Expand the frame (uncrop) using generative fill (Apple cannot)<\/li>\n<li>Object replacement (&#8220;turn this car into a sports car&#8221;) with mixed but sometimes impressive results<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Both phones add an AI watermark to edited images. Both fall back to cloud for the harder operations (Galaxy AI uses Samsung&#8217;s cloud + Imagen 3 for complex generative work; Apple&#8217;s Image Playground is fully on-device for stickers\/illustrations but doesn&#8217;t do photographic edits).<\/p>\n<p>If your use case is &#8220;clean up vacation photos,&#8221; either phone is fine. If your use case is &#8220;actually edit images for social media or design work,&#8221; the Galaxy is the clear winner today.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Translation_and_transcription\"><\/span>Translation and transcription<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Live Translate<\/strong> on Galaxy:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Real-time spoken translation during phone calls \u2014 works fully on-device for 13 languages, cloud-assisted for 25+<\/li>\n<li>Translates messages in any app via the Now Bar<\/li>\n<li>Latency: 0.8\u20131.5 s per turn<\/li>\n<li>Accuracy: high for major languages, drops for less common ones<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Apple&#8217;s translation<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Live translation during phone calls (FaceTime + native dialer) \u2014 fully on-device for 15 languages<\/li>\n<li>Translation in Messages, Mail, Safari<\/li>\n<li>Latency: 1.0\u20131.8 s per turn<\/li>\n<li>Accuracy: very high per supported language<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Samsung wins on <strong>breadth<\/strong> \u2014 more languages, deeper app integration. Apple wins on <strong>accuracy<\/strong> within the languages it supports, and on <strong>privacy<\/strong> (less goes to cloud).<\/p>\n<p>For transcription (voice memos to text):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Apple: 12 languages fully on-device, very accurate for English\/Spanish\/French\/Chinese\/Japanese.<\/li>\n<li>Samsung: 16 languages, very accurate for the same major languages, plus more Eastern European and African language coverage.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Visual_intelligence_point-and-identify\"><\/span>Visual intelligence (point-and-identify)<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Both phones can interpret what they see through the camera.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Apple&#8217;s Visual Intelligence<\/strong> (long-press the Camera Control button):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Identifies plants, animals, landmarks, products<\/li>\n<li>Extracts text from signs, menus, business cards<\/li>\n<li>Sends to ChatGPT (cloud) for harder questions<\/li>\n<li>Privacy: Apple never sees the image content for on-device tasks<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Samsung&#8217;s Circle to Search<\/strong> (circle anything on screen):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Identifies the same categories<\/li>\n<li>Reverse image search via Google<\/li>\n<li>Solves math problems written on paper<\/li>\n<li>Translates text in real time<\/li>\n<li>Privacy: image goes to Google for the search step<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Both work well. Samsung&#8217;s &#8220;circle anywhere on screen, including inside apps&#8221; UX is genuinely more useful day-to-day than Apple&#8217;s camera-only flow.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Privacy_posture_%E2%80%94_the_real_difference\"><\/span>Privacy posture \u2014 the real difference<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>This is where the iPhone 17 Pro pulls clearly ahead.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Apple&#8217;s stance<\/strong>: <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>On-device when possible<\/strong> \u2014 Apple Intelligence runs most features on the A19 Pro&#8217;s Neural Engine.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Private Cloud Compute when cloud is needed<\/strong> \u2014 Apple&#8217;s own servers running Apple Silicon, with cryptographic attestation that no data is logged. Independent auditors verified the architecture in 2024 and again in early 2026.<\/li>\n<li><strong>ChatGPT integration is opt-in<\/strong> \u2014 every query that goes to OpenAI requires explicit user approval, and Apple Account isn&#8217;t shared.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Samsung&#8217;s stance<\/strong>: <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Galaxy AI processing toggle<\/strong> \u2014 users can disable cloud features in Settings \u2192 Galaxy AI. When toggled off, advanced features become unavailable.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cloud goes to Samsung and\/or Google<\/strong> \u2014 depending on the feature, your data may transit either or both. Privacy policies disclose this but it&#8217;s not as crisp as Apple&#8217;s audited architecture.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Gemini integration is on by default<\/strong> \u2014 opt-out, not opt-in.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If your threat model includes &#8220;AI provider seeing my prompts,&#8221; Apple&#8217;s architecture is genuinely better in 2026. If you don&#8217;t care, Samsung&#8217;s model is fine and the privacy story is rarely a daily concern.<\/p>\n<div class=\"convly-procons\">\n<div class=\"pros\">\n<h4>iPhone 17 Pro AI pros<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Strongest privacy architecture in mobile AI<\/li>\n<li>Private Cloud Compute is genuinely innovative<\/li>\n<li>Tight integration across Messages, Mail, Notes, Photos<\/li>\n<li>ChatGPT integration when you need a frontier model<\/li>\n<li>Lower learning curve \u2014 features appear where you&#8217;d expect<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"cons\">\n<h4>iPhone 17 Pro AI cons<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Fewer total features than Galaxy AI<\/li>\n<li>Weaker image editing (no generative move\/expand)<\/li>\n<li>Slower to ship new AI capabilities<\/li>\n<li>Image Playground style is limited to a few aesthetic presets<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"convly-procons\">\n<div class=\"pros\">\n<h4>Galaxy S26 Ultra AI pros<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Broader AI feature set out of the box<\/li>\n<li>Generative Edit is meaningfully more capable than Apple&#8217;s tools<\/li>\n<li>Circle to Search works anywhere on screen<\/li>\n<li>More languages supported for translation<\/li>\n<li>S Pen + AI is a unique creative combo<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"cons\">\n<h4>Galaxy S26 Ultra AI cons<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>More features rely on cloud (Samsung or Google)<\/li>\n<li>Privacy story is less crisp than Apple&#8217;s<\/li>\n<li>Some AI features become paid in 2026 (Samsung pushed back from 2025)<\/li>\n<li>Feature discoverability is poor \u2014 many capabilities are buried<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Battery_impact_of_AI_features\"><\/span>Battery impact of AI features<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>We ran a controlled drain test: 30 minutes of mixed AI tasks (image edits, summaries, live translation, generative replies) on both phones starting at 100%.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>iPhone 17 Pro<\/strong>: dropped to 87% (13% drain). Notable warmth around the camera module.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Galaxy S26 Ultra<\/strong>: dropped to 84% (16% drain). Slightly warmer overall, fan curves never kick in (phones don&#8217;t have fans, of course; we mean thermals didn&#8217;t visibly throttle).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Both phones thermal-throttle their NPUs after roughly 10 minutes of sustained AI load, dropping performance ~15\u201320%. In normal short-burst usage, this never matters.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Which_one_should_you_buy\"><\/span>Which one should you buy?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>If we set aside everything except AI:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Buy the iPhone 17 Pro if:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Privacy is a real concern (work phone, journalism, healthcare, legal)<\/li>\n<li>You&#8217;re already in the Apple ecosystem (Mac, iPad, AirPods)<\/li>\n<li>You want AI that &#8220;just works&#8221; without thinking about it<\/li>\n<li>You write more than you edit images<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Buy the Galaxy S26 Ultra if:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You edit photos for social media or design work daily<\/li>\n<li>You translate or transcribe in less-common languages<\/li>\n<li>You want the S Pen for AI-augmented note-taking<\/li>\n<li>You appreciate having more knobs and options<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Real talk: most buyers will be happy with either phone. The AI gap between them in 2026 is real but smaller than the marketing suggests, and both deliver genuinely useful daily-use AI features. The other phone factors \u2014 camera preference, ecosystem lock-in, software update commitment, hand feel \u2014 will be bigger drivers of satisfaction than the AI difference for most people.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"FAQ\"><\/span>Domande frequenti<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<h3>Is the iPhone 17 Pro AI fully on-device?<\/h3>\n<p>No \u2014 about 70% of Apple Intelligence features run fully on-device on the A19 Pro. The remaining 30% (longer summaries, complex image generation, advanced Siri queries) use Private Cloud Compute, Apple&#8217;s own servers running Apple Silicon with audited privacy guarantees. For tasks that exceed even that, Apple offers an opt-in path to ChatGPT.<\/p>\n<h3>Does Galaxy AI cost money in 2026?<\/h3>\n<p>Samsung confirmed in early 2026 that &#8220;advanced Galaxy AI features&#8221; require a subscription starting in late 2026. The base tier (translation, basic generative edits, smart replies) remains free for the lifetime of the device. The paid tier includes deeper generative editing, video AI features, and unlimited cloud processing.<\/p>\n<h3>Which phone has better real-time translation in 2026?<\/h3>\n<p>Samsung supports more languages (25+ vs Apple&#8217;s 15) and has slightly lower latency. Apple is more accurate within the languages it supports and keeps more of the translation on-device. For travelers, Samsung is the better bet. For business communication in a major language, either works.<\/p>\n<h3>Can I run Llama 3 or other open LLMs on these phones?<\/h3>\n<p>Yes, on both \u2014 using apps like <a href=\"https:\/\/llm.mlc.ai\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MLC Chat<\/a> o <a href=\"https:\/\/privatellm.app\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Private LLM<\/a>. Both phones can run quantized 3\u20134 B models like Llama 3 3B, Phi-4 Mini, or Gemma 2 2B at usable speed (15\u201325 tokens\/sec). Bigger models work but are slow and drain battery. See our <a href=\"\/it\/how-to-run-llama-3-locally-on-snapdragon-8-gen-4\/\">guide to running Llama 3 on Snapdragon 8 Gen 4<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Does Apple Intelligence work without a Wi-Fi or cellular connection?<\/h3>\n<p>Yes for on-device features (writing tools, smart replies, on-device translation, image cleanup, Visual Lookup). No for any feature that uses Private Cloud Compute or ChatGPT \u2014 those need a network connection. Approximately 70% of the AI features work fully offline.<\/p>\n<h3>Which has better AI for the S Pen vs Apple Pencil?<\/h3>\n<p>Galaxy S26 Ultra with S Pen has a clear edge here \u2014 Samsung Notes has deep AI integration for handwriting recognition, math solving, sketch-to-image generation, and meeting transcription. The iPhone 17 Pro doesn&#8217;t have a stylus; the iPad Pro M4 with Apple Pencil Pro is the comparison point, and even there Samsung&#8217;s AI tooling is more advanced for note-taking specifically.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Bottom_line\"><\/span>Conclusione<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The iPhone 17 Pro and Galaxy S26 Ultra are both excellent AI phones \u2014 and the AI features alone are not a strong enough reason to switch ecosystems if you&#8217;re already settled in one.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re starting from scratch and AI matters most:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Privacy-conscious or in the Apple ecosystem<\/strong> \u2192 iPhone 17 Pro<\/li>\n<li><strong>Heavy photo editor or non-English speaker<\/strong> \u2192 Galaxy S26 Ultra<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Both phones will get significantly more AI capable over their 5\u20137 year support windows. The hardware in both is overpowered for what software can use today, which means the AI experience on either phone will improve dramatically through software updates alone over the next two years.<\/p>\n<p>If you can&#8217;t decide and you&#8217;re not in either ecosystem yet, our advice in 2026: pick on camera preference, hand feel, and software update length \u2014 the AI gap will close further before you&#8217;d notice it.<\/p>\n<p><!--related-block--><\/p>\n<div class=\"convly-related\">\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Related_articles\"><\/span>Articoli correlati<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/convly.ai\/it\/best-phones-for-on-device-ai-2026\/\">The Best Phones for On-Device AI Features in 2026<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/convly.ai\/it\/best-phones-for-ai-translation-2026\/\">The Best Phones for Real-Time AI Translation in 2026<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/convly.ai\/it\/best-phones-for-ai-privacy-2026\/\">The Best Phones for AI Features With the Best Privacy in 2026<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/convly.ai\/it\/best-phones-for-ai-photography-2026\/\">The Best Phones for AI Photography and Computational Imaging in 2026<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Apple Intelligence on the A19 Pro versus Galaxy AI on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4. Which phone actually does more AI on-device \u2014 and which one keeps your data more private? We tested both.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":269,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[249],"tags":[279,276,277,275,274,278,269],"class_list":["post-262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai-phones","tag-a19-pro","tag-apple-intelligence","tag-galaxy-ai","tag-galaxy-s26-ultra","tag-iphone-17-pro","tag-on-device-ai","tag-snapdragon-8-gen-4"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/convly.ai\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/convly.ai\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/convly.ai\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/convly.ai\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/convly.ai\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/convly.ai\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1003,"href":"https:\/\/convly.ai\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262\/revisions\/1003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/convly.ai\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/convly.ai\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/convly.ai\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/convly.ai\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}