Samsung has a job to do
here. While by no means a sales flop, there’s a feeling that the company lost
its way somewhat with the Galaxy S5. That it just wasn’t a flagship worthy of
the company bearing the standard for Android in the war against Apple.
The S6, then, is
an opportunity to bounce back - and Samsung hasn’t squandered it.Just about
every criticism levelled at the S5 has been fixed, and while it might not cause
your friends to go quite as enviously green as the Galaxy S6 Edge, the
vanilla S6 has 99.9% of the substance, just skimming off that top layer of
flashy panache. The people who said Samsung had lost its mojo were wrong.
Samsung Galaxy
S6 Edge+
THIS is Utimate Android phone, and it comes with an ultra-premium price tag. Oil barons with billions to burn, forget those bonkers gold mobiles from Vertu. This is the status symbol you’re looking for. As for the rest of us, it’s the phablet interest-free overdrafts were made for.
The Edge+’s concept is
nothing too bold. It’s a larger version of the Samsung Galaxy S6
Edge that wowed us earlier this year, with a screen
that curves around at the edges. The sort of thing that would only have been a
far-off concept design a couple of years ago. However, an extra chunk of screen
gives the Edge+’s display that extra-impressive edge while it’s also
technologically superior to almost everything out there.
Yes, it’s real stuff, but part of what makes
leather so rugged, so able to age well, is its malleability and ability tosoak
up impacts. And LG has stripped a lot of this away by making it quite this
thin. Is it worse than plastic or aluminium? Absolutely not, just don’t go
expecting miracles. This ain’t the stuff of motorbike duds.
The iPhone 6s is the Sir Alex Ferguson of
smartphones. It is Superman once the world’s been purged of kryptonite. It is a
kebab you drunkenly ordered at 3am.
And yet Apple claims it
has innovated, adding 3D Touch, a new 12-megapixel camera and the faster than
ever A9 processor to what is already a supremely
capable phone. With the iPhone 6s, Jony Ive and co say they’ve finessed every
aspect of an already great product. Not sat on their laurels or chased the
bandwagon in a never-ending specs war.
OnePlus 2
Where Samsung
and co. go to great lengths to try to persuade you to buy their phones, it can
at times seem as though OnePlus makes buying its phones deliberately difficult.
First, you can only buy them from the OnePlus store.
Those of you
familiar with the OnePlus One may remember this style. It's a rear
cover texture that sits somewhere between felt and sandpaper, giving you a
rough and grippy surface that has some of the tactile vibe of fabric.
HTC One M9+
The One M9 is
a smartphone of rare class, but the bloody nose it's received at the hands of
the Samsung Galaxy S6 clearly rankles with the good folks at
HTC - because they've already unleashed an upgraded version.
To hold the One M9+ in
your hand is like receiving a firm handshake. The solid, all-metal design and
impeccable detailing that we’ve come to expect from HTC gives the phone a
hefty, comfortable feel in your hand.
Vodafone
Smart Prime 6
Do you care what brand socks you wear? Would
you consider a personalised number plate? Do you make… fashion decisions? The
Vodafone Smart Prime 6 probably isn’t for you.
Not put off yet? Well
Vodafone has another crack at it with the design. The back of the Vodafone
Smart Prime 6 is a grey expanse of bland-o-rama while the front seems to have
taken one too many cues from the Early Learning Centre catalogue, bunging
childish-looking gigantic light-up soft keys below the screen.
Sony Xperia
Z5 Compact
The Sony Xperia Z5 Compact is the kind of
phone no-one seems to make anymore: a small one. And it’s not just small, it’s
powerful too. Just about as powerful as the full-fat Sony Xperia Z5, in
fact.
I like the Sony Xperia
Z5 Compact. It’s a nice phone. But I have an issue with this little guy. He’s
really not that little in all respects.
Apple iPhone 6s Plus
When Apple’s first
phablet dropped last year, it basically turned out to be a big iPhone.One year on, you might
be wondering whether the iPhone 6s Plus has found its own identity. The advent
of 3D Touch and 4K video seem to offer it a coming-of-age moment. One that
arrives without the need to spend Saturday in high school detention or head to
the woods in search of a dead body.
Motorola Moto G (3rd Gen)
The first Motorola Moto G hit a golden
formula. Low price, a nice screen and near-perfect performance made it the best
affordable phone ever back in 2013. At that time we hadn’t seen a phone that good
sell that cheap.
Motorola hasn’t changed things up too much in
this third-generation edition. However, it has gained a few pounds now that it
can afford to be a little less aggressive on the price, since ‘Moto G’ has
become a widely recognised name to trust.
Read more at
http://www.stuff.tv/motorola/moto-g-3rd-gen/review#rcw52a2R7e07iaH0.99