What happened
Which?, the UK consumer organization, published a comparison of the AI features of three flagship phones on 1 August 2025. Its testers ran the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max, the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL and the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra side by side in its labs. On the iPhone, Apple Intelligence summarized and prioritized notifications on the lock screen. Which? found that the summaries were correct and that the prioritization reduced interruptions, even with idioms such as "break a leg". It also found that the iPhone gave an accurate transcription and a useful summary of a recorded 15-minute call. Samsung's call feature could not be tested because it was unavailable in the UK and EU. Which? rated Apple's image generation the least impressive of the three. The article gives no counts of the notifications or calls tested and no error rates. It does not describe the models behind the features.
Sources
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Assessment report, by authors with no tie to the system.
Which? (Adam Speight). Apple vs Google vs Samsung: which phone has the best AI? 1 August 2025. Which? tested the phones' AI features side by side in its labs. Section on summarizing and rewriting text and messages.
This feature is currently an iOS exclusive, and in our testing of the iPhone 16 Pro Max, we found it performed pretty well. The summaries were correct and the prioritisation worked as intended - reducing interruptions, even when dealing with ambiguous idioms such as 'bite the bullet' or 'break a leg'.
Apple has chosen to include the AI feature, however. On the iPhone, it worked well, providing an accurate transcription and a useful summary from a 15-minute call.
Details
AI system
- Workflow
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Which? Tested the iPhone 16 Pro Max side by side with two rival phones in its labs. Notification summaries ran on the lock screen, and the call feature recorded, transcribed and summarized a 15-minute call.
- Relation to AI
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Which? Tested the features themselves, so the results describe Apple Intelligence's own output. It did not compare users' time or accuracy with and without the features. The article calls them AI features but does not describe the models behind them.
Follow-up
- Conditions for replication
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The phone must support Apple Intelligence, which Which? Lists for all iPhone 16 models and the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. Which? Reports that Apple says that some features may not be available in all regions and languages.
Entry details
- Sector
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Consumer technology.
- Purpose
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Apple built Apple Intelligence to summarize notifications and calls, rewrite text and search photos on its devices.
Not yet checked: model, release, provider, role, configuration, inputs and outputs, autonomy, human oversight, AI contribution, beneficiaries, reach, distribution and access, duration, every measurement question, every money question, ownership and control, dependencies, cross-border connections, geopolitical implications, replication attempts, availability, institutional decision, grounds, action and result, success criterion, every evidence question, observed or intended, alternative assessments, related entries, other identifiers, category mappings.
Cite this record
Peter H. Vartanian. (2026). Apple Intelligence summaries prove correct in Which? lab tests (AIBD-0876). Artificial Intelligence Benefits Database, edition of 31 October 2026. https://petervartanian.xyz/aibd/records/AIBD-0876.html (archived at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/AADSII, version 4.0)