Samsung Galaxy’s AI on the new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 has at least one trick that can surprise and delight my friends, family, and — apparently — my dentist.
I get so nervous at the dentist that I always look for distractions, things that will help me forget that I’m lying in a dentist’s chair with my mouth hanging open. So when my dentist casually asked me how I was and what I had done, I told her I had just come back from the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked in Paris.
She smiled behind her mask, and since I didn’t care if she was pretending to be interested or if she really was, I quickly pulled the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 out of my pocket. She, along with my hygienist, who was standing on the other side of my chair with her hands full of tools placed over my mouth, stopped and admired the foldable Android device. Foldables aren’t particularly popular or widespread in my part of the world, and I realized this might be the first time they’d seen one.
Now that I had their attention and had temporarily distracted them from their task of piercing my mouth, I quickly unfolded the phone’s 7.6-inch flexible display and began talking about artificial intelligence. The dental hygienist, however, was more interested in what I think is the most fascinating Android phone she’s ever seen. A self-confessed iPhone fan, she was intrigued by this usually fungible device.
I went ahead and started explaining all the AI features while the hygienist told me she thought the phone was cool, but she wouldn’t give up her iPhone for it. A demonstration, I thought, might change her mind—and delay my dental work even further.
There are plenty of Samsung Galaxy AI features on this phone, as well as the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and other Galaxy phones, like Live Translate and Circle to Search, but I knew I needed something quick, visual, and fun, and I went with Sketch to Image.
Sketch to Image is built into the Notes app, and it’s pretty simple: you open a blank page and draw a basic image with your finger, or with a real S Pen for the Galaxy Z Fold 6, if you have one. Then you select the Galaxy AI button, select what you want the generative AI to transform, and wait about 10 seconds for the result (Samsung uses a hybrid model for its AI, with some features running locally on your device, but Sketch to Image requires a cloud connection).
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As I lay in that chair, I knew I didn’t have much time left. My dentist couldn’t talk to me all morning—other patients were waiting. Still, I realized I was doing a great job of putting off the inevitable.
I opened Notes and explained what I was going to do. The problem was, I didn’t know what to draw. Since I started testing the phone, I’ve found that Sketch to Image works best on simple line drawings. It shies away from more complex sketches with too much detail, which is why my drawing of Notre Dame will never be touched by the digital hands of Galaxy AI.
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I went with the most obvious idea given the circumstances: a tooth. It wasn’t a great drawing, even though my dentist kindly told me it was “not bad.” I didn’t write the words “it’s a tooth” underneath or give Sketch to Image any other advice. I selected the drawing, hit generate, and a few seconds later my dentist and hygienist were screaming with joy. (They were so loud I almost jumped out of the chair… okay, maybe I just wanted to leave.)
“Wow!”
I had to agree, it was an excellent representation of a single tooth.
The hygienist pulled herself together and told me she might consider buying that Android phone, but she also admitted that while it was great, she had no idea how she would use Sketch to Image. Ah, the age-old AI problem: impressive solutions looking for problems to solve.
I was going to tell them about the price, but by then my audience had returned to the task at hand and were gently tilting my chair back, asking me to open wide…