The best smartphones you can buy now: Galaxy S6 Edge & iPhone 6S. Tech Apple Samsung

© Provided by IBT Media (UK) HTC smartphone As another year draws to a close, IBTimes UK has looked back at the best and worst smartphones to fall beneath our fingertips in 2015. The assembled handsets represent not only a vintage year for phone makers but also one of change and surprises, too.

These are the best smartphones you can buy right now – but you better be quick, because with 2016 and major technology events such as CES and Mobile World Congress just around the corner, a whole host of new handsets will be here before you know it.

1. Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge
© Provided by IBT Media (UK) Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge 

As soon as we laid eyes on the Galaxy S6 Edge, we knew Apple and its conservative iPhone design team would struggle to match it. Samsung was first to bring a curved smartphone to the mass market and it did so with one that is absolutely gorgeous. The thin edges may cause the phone to suffer in the comfort stakes but the huge resolution, classy design and double curves added up to produce the best smartphone of 2015.

2. Apple iPhone 6S
© Provided by IBT Media (UK) 

Apple iPhone 6s with 3D Touch It may not have had the killer design of the Galaxy S6 Edge but Apple still produced an excellent iPhone this year with the S6. As the "tock" of Apple's "tick-tock" update cycle, this was never going to be a revolutionary handset, but the introduction of 3D Touch went a long way to, quite literally, make the 6S feel like an upgrade from the iPhone 6.
The 6S also introduced a new, more powerful processor, an improved camera with new features, and the new Rose Gold colour option. Developers haven't done much with 3D Touch, but we hope that will change over the coming months. Second place in the IBTimes UK Technology Awards 2015 was well deserved, and we can't wait to see what Apple has in store for the iPhone 7.