Samsung Galaxy S6 (128GB)

At first glance, it should be easy to make a flagship smartphone. Scoop off the cream at the top of the component chain, throw in some premium materials - you can take your pick, but metal and glass seem good places to start - and bingo. Problem is, not only can that piecemeal approach leave a phone feeling soulless, but the actual user-experience can prove perversely underwhelming compared to the bulging feature list.There have been earlier moves to step off the specification treadmill and generate appeal in a more fundamental way, with varying degrees of success. Apple is the giant in the room on that front, having carved an enviable marketshare by positioning the iPhone not only as a capable device, but a covetable and cohesive one.HTC has attempted the same strategy with its One series, though with less effective results. As I found when I reviewed its latest One M9 recently, although the concept of timeless design makes for an attractive phone, the reality still involves compromise when all the components aren't up to scratch.If there's a takeaway, it's perhaps this: Good design isn't just about cherry-picking the latest parts and throwing them together, it's about selecting the right components and using them to their best advantage. It's why the mediocre camera on the One M9 is so intrinsic to its shortcomings, despite its 20-megapixel resolution, and why the iPhone 6's mere 8-megapixels aren't, in practice, the limit that they might first appear on paper. Samsung has finally woken up to that lesson.Previous iterations of Galaxy S have more than demonstrated the worth of the South Korean behemoth’s supply chain, but it’s taken until now for those pieces to add up holistically. A camera that not only has the megapixels, but the lens and software to produce legitimately great results with minimal effort. A design that leaves you in zero doubt that you’re holding the top of Samsung’s range. And software that works with you - and with the hardware. Certainly there are some lingering rough edges, and the cleanly executed construction arrives under the cloud of slightly derivative design, but there is no perfection in the smartphone world, only the chasing of it. On that basis, though the Galaxy S6 edge is a stunning example of technological proficiency - and its painful under-utilization - it’s the Galaxy S6 which provides ample retort to Apple’s iPhone, and which is certainly the best Android phone around today.