Galaxy S6 vs iPhone 6s

                           
                                                      Galaxy S6 vs iPhone 6s

iPhone 6 vs Samsung Galaxy S6: Which of the best phones of 2015 should you buy? Here's our verdict on the battle of the Apple and Samsung flagships

The Samsung Galaxy S6 along with the Galaxy S6 Edge are two of the best smartphones the Korean company has come up with in a very long time.

For the first time in a long time, we finally have a flagship worthy of comparison with the iPhone 6.. Although Apple has now officially revealed its 2015 flagship duo in the shape of the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus.

So if you don't go for the new iPhone and had to spend the money to upgrade, which is the one handset you should go for?

We've been using these two fine smartphones since they launched and still use them now. So we have a pretty good idea of what they're good and bad at doing. Unlike last year's shootout of the S5 vs iPhone 6, it's not as clear cut.

SAMSUNG GALAXY S6 VS IPHONE 6: DESIGN

Samsung Galaxy S6: 6.9mm thick, 138g, aluminium unibody and glass panel, White Pearl/Black Sapphire/Gold Platinum/Blue Topaz

iPhone 6: 6.9mm thick, 129g, anodised aluminium back, Space Grey/Silver/Gold

Both the iPhone 6 and Galaxy S6 mark a radical rethink of the design philosophies for their flagship phones. The iPhone 6, and iPhone 6 Plus, show a delayed decision to follow the trend of phones with larger screens. Samsung's changes are even more of a departure from previous phones. Following years of dubious design and material decisions aimed at its preference for using plastic made to look like something else on top-end phones, it's finally decided to deliver something that feels worth its cost. The S6 is the luxuriously-made phone many have been clamouring for.

As a result, it's made choosing between the two more difficult than ever.

With the Galaxy S6 Samsung has delivered a phone that can finally rival the iPhone in terms of design, build-quality and materials used. From the front, the S6 could be mistaken for the S5 or even the S4. Closer inspection shows some big changes, though. The physical home button has grown to accommodate the improved fingerprint sensor, the screen bezel has narrowed significantly down the sides, while the top and bottom edges of the phone elegantly curve to create the more attractive look.

iPhone 6s

                        iPhone 6s                                  Summary                                                                                                                                              The iPhone 6s keeps the same design as the iPhone 6, but packs better cameras, a snappier processor and 3D Touch, a smart new way to get things done in fewer steps. Beyond that, the combination of iOS 9 and some well-built hardware help makes the 6s one of the best iPhones ever made... even if we wish it had some of the 6s Plus' niceties.

Some people look a little unkindly on the so-called "S" years -- those years when Apple updates the iPhone, but doesn't change how it looks, and then sells that while secretly working on something flashier that will debut 12 months later. I don't think that's exactly fair. Those "S" years are when Apple adds some of its most useful features. Siri? Touch ID? Both valuable additions to the iPhone platform that have since grown in importance. This year we get 3D Touch, a potentially awesome way to interact with iPhones. The thing is, a device's worth isn't just tied up in one feature: It's about how all those moving parts work together. That's why the new 6s and 6s Plus (starting at $649 and $749, respectively, for 16GB models) are such great phones. The combination of much-improved hardware and some polished software makes this year's release far more than just a modest refresh.

                                          Related: iPhone 6 release date

So the iPhone 6S is still a great phone and one that I’m happy to recommend. It’s the middle iPhone size-wise, and in my mind feels the most comfortable to hold. The SE is limited by its small size, while the iPhone 6S Plus is often ungainly. The 4.7-inch display, which sits above a 720p resolution, is soundly beaten on paper by the Android rivals but it’s compact and still looks good.

Even though it’s been on the market for well over six months, the iPhone 6S has aged well. The A9 CPU and 2GB RAM is still a potent combination that feels as snappy as it did last September. The phone still easily handles all the games and apps I throw at it.

Battery life hasn’t seen a dramatic downturn either. So far, the 6S keeps up with my workload fine. I normally hit 5% by around 10pm on a normal day, and that’s without using the Low Power mode – that’s around 12 to 14 hours a day.

3D Touch, a headline feature at launch, has slowly been improving without really setting the world alight. More apps use it now, but it’s still limited and lacks a real function. Hopefully the iPhone 7 will take it to the next level. I like ‘3D Touching’ app icons to bring up shortcuts, but beyond that I don’t use it that much.

WHAT IS THE IPHONE 6S?

For all its “fast moving innovation” the tech industry is a predictable thing sometimes. Every other year Apple puts an ‘S’ on the end of its last phone, buffs it up with a few tarty new features and delivers it to splendid applause.

That’s a horrific simplification, of course, but the general point stands. The iPhone 6S is that phone this year, and it adds some clever new ‘taptic’ features, camera improvements and a radically faster processor to last year’s iPhone 6.

You can get it in Rose Gold now if you fancy a change. But whatever your feelings on the matter, rest assured this another excellent phone from Apple.

samsungGALAXYs6 edge

                the properties samsungGALAXYs6 edge+                  

Samsung’s first venture into the curved edge display game began with the Galaxy Note Edge, but it wasn’t until earlier this year that Samsung would truly perfect the concept by introducing a dual-edge design to the Galaxy S family. The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge is easily one of the most eye-catching and uniquely designed smartphones we’ve seen from Samsung in a while, and now Samsung has taken a page from some of its competitors’ playbooks, giving the handset the “Plus treatment”.

    

                                 Performance

     Under the hood, the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ packs the same octa-core Exynos 7420 processor as the original, clocked at 2.1 GHz, and backed by the Mali-T760MP8 GPU, but with an additional gig of RAM, for 4 GB in total. As was the case with the current Galaxy S flagships, the Galaxy S6 Edge+ is extremely fast in day to day use, and everything from general navigation and web browsing, to multi-tasking and gaming, are a breeze. The availability of an additional gig of RAM seems to have allowed Samsung to scale back on the aggressive RAM management issues that plagued the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, with it being possible to load and run a lot more applications simultaneously, before running into any unwanted app refreshes.

 Some of the credit for the general improvement in performance with Samsung devices this year has to do with the toning down and optimization of the software, but while the experience has been smooth and snappy for the most part, Samsung still hasn’t figured out a fix for the scrolling stutters that occur when moving in between the Flipboard secondary screen and the main home screen. It is far from a deal breaker of course, and is a rather small blemish in the grand scheme of things, but is still very noticeable.

                             Hardware 

On the hardware front, you get the usual bells and whistles that are now the standard with Samsung flagships, such as the heart rate monitor on the back, and the fingerprint scanner that is integrated into the tactile home button up front.

The fingerprint scanner is still just as fast, reliable, and accurate as it was on the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge, with just a simple press and hold of the home button required to unlock the device, and its usefulness as a security measure is only going to be enhanced with the upcoming launch of Samsung Pay. Multiple fingerprints can be stored at a time, and the process of setting it up is simple and takes only a minute or two, involving just repeated presses of the home button. The fingerprint software is easy to use, and a minor improvement has been made to allow you to find out which fingerprints have been registered, just in case you ever forget