GADGET GIZMO SPECIAL Battle of the flagships

GADGET GIZMO SPECIAL  Battle of the flagships   The top ten flagship smartphones that are available in India and  vying for your attention Flagship mobile phones may be expensive, but they're built for power and  designed to handle anything you'd like to do on them. And they'll look good while doing it. So here we cut the clutter, take away the value propositions, and give you a list of the most powerful smartphones available in India right now. 1 SAMSUNG GALAXY S6 S6 EDGE Samsung made its best looking phone this year, which was equally at par in performance with its flagship peers. The Galaxy S6 is the perfect marriage of metallic and glass elements on both sides of the device. This sleek and lightweight 5.1-inch device packs in the latest hardware, stable software, a highly competent camera, and a rather capable battery. Having said that, the Galaxy S6 misses out on expandable storage, owing to its overall construction. The Galaxy S6 Edge is mostly seen as a product delivering on the innovation promise that Samsung harps on about. The dualside Edge screen is mostly gimmicky in nature. It borrows the Galaxy S6's hardware and camera, but it's loaded with lower capacity battery. 2 APPLE IPHONE 6 6 PLUS Apple gave the iPhone a bump up in size with the iPhone 6, along with a new curved design. As always, the camera delivers crisp and detailed images with colour reproduction of the highest order. If only Apple could do something about below-par battery. The iPhone 6 Plus was Apple's way of telling Samsung that it was right to launch the Note series, but the 6 Plus is little more than an iPhone 6 with a bigger 5.5-inch screen. 3 ONEPLUS 2 What could OnePlus possibly do to make the OnePlus 2 an apt OnePlus One successor? It continues with the same size and resolution as the OPO, but with use of metal on the edges, lending it a refined and polished look. There's also a physical Home button that's also a fingerprint scanner. The OP2 packs a Snapdragon 810 octa-core CPU with 4 GB RAM, dualSIM support,  4G connectivity, and 64 GB storage space. OnePlus seems to have worked  extensively on the camera, and the results are impressive. 4 GOOGLE NEXUS 6 Google's latest Nexus is a phone that moves away from the usual `super cheap super phone' and into phablet territory with a massive 6-inch QHD resolution display. You'll always get the latest Android updates with this one, and while it's something you'd have to use twohanded, it packs a tremendous display, premium specs, with great use of Android Lollipop. It's not cheap, but it's the best Nexus ever made. 5 SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 5 The Note series has always been expensive, and now its aesthetics match the price, thanks to a premium glass back. The downside is that there's no micro SD card slot or removable battery. Power users can blame everyone who complained about the plastic-clad phones. That said, the Note 5 is still a worthy upgrade. It has top-of-the-line specs, a 5.7-inch display that's rightfully considered the best, and the camera takes the best of all the phones we've tested. 6 LG G4 With the G4, LG has tried to focus good design, a colourrich display, and a great camera, but it doesn't quite deliver as impressively as we'd hoped. The leather back is nice, but fails to last, so the metal version that may be the better option. Its large screen is one of the best on the market, the 16-megapixel laser auto-focus  camera takes cracking shots, and the rear buttons are easier to hit on a handset  this size. 7 XIAOMI MI4 The Mi 4 offers high-end performance at an affordable price point. Powerful hardware, a good back camera and long battery life are major plusses, but the lack of 4G and dual-SIM support are an issue. A great buy at Rs 15,000 for 16 GB. 8 MOTOROLA MOTO TURBO Moto Turbo takes the Moto X to new heights. Its quad HD display looks better, internal specs get to tasks faster and you get two days of use from the battery. At Rs 41,000, it's the most expensive Moto phone, but it's worth it. 9 SONY XPERIA Z3 The Xperia Z3's powerful 20.7-megaixel camera matches the best in the market, and it's got 4K recording too. This is one of the best 5.2inch devices around, with a long-lasting battery to boot. Its unibody glass-back frame is favourable for rough use and IP57 certification means it's fairly waterproof too. 10 LENOVO VIBE Z2 PRO Even though it came out last year, the Vibe Z2 Pro has enough in the tank to be considered even today. For Rs 32,999, you get a mammoth 6-inch quad-HD display with Snapdragon 801 SoC and 3 GB RAM.The camera fails to light up the room, but you'll get enough juice from the 4000mAh battery. A compelling option for business users and workaholics.

Tech Radar India

MM21SEP15