The Samsung Galaxy S5 is one of those phones that hardly needs an introduction. Like the iPhone and HTC One series, it's a flagship smartphone that gets plenty of attention... and sales. Samsung sells hundreds of millions of Galaxy phones each year, and the Galaxy S5 will be available on all major and many smaller carriers around the globe. Also like most recent smartphones, the fifth generation Galaxy S offers small improvements and a few new features rather than revolutionary change.

The Galaxy S5 runs Android 4.4 KitKat with Samsung's TouchWiz software and UI. It's a little less Hello Kitty looking but still swipes a heavy hand over Android. To Samsung's credit, the phone doesn't bog down under TouchWiz's weight, and no doubt the 2.5GHz quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 CPU with higher clocked Adreno 330 graphics and 2 gigs of DDR3 RAM helps. The phone has 16 gigs of storage and a microSD card slot. We'd really like to see 32 gigs to compete with the HTC One M8, especially since there are just under 11 gigs of available storage out of the box. As a consolation, Samsung continues to modify Android to allow apps to be moved to microSD cards. The GS5 has the usual wireless radios: dual band WiFi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, GPS as well as an IR blaster to control home theatre gear using Samsung's WatchOn app.

Samsung went with a faux leather plastic back, not unlike their recent higher end Android tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition and the new Pro tablets. This time it's a stippled leather look, with a pleasing soft touch feel on the black version. It's available in white and black, with electric blue and gold possibly coming later. The gold is more of a suntan golden brown, and some folks have compared that model's back to a Band-Aid. Is there any metal in this design? Nah. Does it look cheap? Not at all, in fact I actually like the look of the new back. Will it make you have a Rolex moment like the iPhone 5s? Not so much.

Though the 5.1" phone is actually a hair bigger than the Samsung Galaxy S4, it still feels great in hand thanks to a slim 8.1mm design and intelligent curves. Samsung might not aim for aspirational beauty, but they do target ergonomics; and in that respect this is the best Galaxy S yet. The display bezels, though still very slim, are slightly wider and I rarely accidentally activated something on screen when my fingers (admittedly long fingers) wrapped around the edge of the screen as I did with the Galaxy S4. The phone's corners don't jab and poke at my palm as they do on the pure rectangular Sony Xperia Z1S, so it feels smaller and more manageable. The S5 isn't as cold or slippery as the HTC One M8 and obviously it gets you lots more screen real estate than the 4" iPhone 5s. Samsung held their ground and kept the mechanical, clicky home button and capacitive back and multitasking buttons rather than moving to on-screen buttons that Google prefers. On-screen buttons use up screen space and when they auto-hide it's like playing Where's Waldo to find them. Note that the back button on prior Samsung Android phones has been replaced here with the multitasking button, as per Google's dictum for KitKat OS 4.4 and going forward. The Galaxy S5's design is unabashedly practical, and that's a good thing.

Wow, it's refreshingly retro and utilitarian: a removable back cover that grants access to the battery. You'll also find stacked card slots for the micro SIM (lower) and microSD card (upper). You'll have to remove the battery to swap SIM cards but you won't need to do so for the microSD card slot. The phone has a micro USB 3.0 port on the bottom, just like the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and recent Samsung Pro tablets like the Galaxy Note Pro 12.2. You can use micro USB 2.0 cables with the phone too since the port is backward compatible.

OK, dust storms are never fun, and neither is getting beach sand in your beloved phone's nether regions. Happily, the Galaxy S5 is both water resistant and dust resistant, so the beach is no longer your phone's deadly enemy. Keep in mind that salt is corrosive, beer is gummy and fresh tap water is the preferred medium if you want to dunk your phone for up to 30 minutes at a depth of 1 meter. That's not to say a drop in the Atlantic will instantly hose your phone, but you should hose off the salt water with fresh clear water as soon as possible. To resist these perils the phone's back cover has a rubber gasket, so you'll need to make sure it's completely snapped on. The phone will remind you to check the back cover each time you boot it up, and just like the water resistant Sony Xperia Z1, it will nag you if you leave the USB cover open. Unlike the Galaxy S4 Active, the back cover isn't as hard to get on.

Fingerprint Scanner and Pulse Monitor

These are the two big, new features on the S5. Samsung dialed back on software additions and decided to try a few hardware tricks. The fingerprint scanner on the iPhone 5s has been well received and I personally find it both practical and useful. It's easier and quicker than typing in a password to unlock your phone, and that means you're more likely to use it. The same is true of the Samsung's Synaptics fingerprint scanner that, like the iPhone 5s, is embedded in the home button. It's easy and reliable, though it's designed for two-handed use where one hand holds the phone while the other swipes a finger. You can try to train it to recognize your thumb dragged sideways across the sensor but it will notice what you're doing and tell you to swipe your finger downward rather than sideways. Recognition is good when used as directed and you can use it to unlock the phone, log into your Samsung account and with PayPal.

But it's not perfect, or even as secure as the iPhone 5s, though Samsung could easily create firmware improvements to deal with a few key issues. Keep in mind that sophisticated crooks could make a model of your finger if they lift your fingerprint, but unless you're Donald Trump, I don't think that's terribly likely to happen given the skills and patience required. Many fingerprint scanners are vulnerable to this sort of skilled attack, so we won't single out Samsung here. What Samsung must do is offer an option to lock the phone from further fingerprint swipe attempts after 3 or 5 failed swipes. Like the iPhone, it should then require you to enter the backup password created when you first enrolled your fingerprints. Needless to say, the fingerprint lockout should remain on even if the phone is rebooted. Right now, if you flunk 5 attempts it asks for the password, but putting the phone to sleep or rebooting it lets you swipe some more.

The heart rate monitor is embedded next to the rear camera flash and it works in conjunction with Samsung's S Health app that also acts as a pedometer and nutrition tracker. Cold fingers don't work well and you've got to position your finger to completely cover the scanner, but it does work. We tested repeatedly and it gave consistent and fairly accurate results (in our in-depth video review I demo using it while cycling). Is this a feature the world didn't realize it needed? Not so much.

Specs nerds get their knickers in a twist with every new Super AMOLED equipped Samsung phone. Yes, it uses "diamond" sub-pixels and there are fewer sub-pixels compared to IPS and LCD displays. Can you tell without a microscope? No. This is a sharp, high pixel density (432 PPI) 5.1" display with Samsung's usual extremely deep blacks and better than life vivid colors. As ever, you can choose from a few color profiles or opt for the default dynamic profile that will subtly change color balance and saturation depending on what's displayed at a given moment. The full HD 1920 x 1080 screen is simply stunning, though pro photographers and other color purists might still find it a bit over-saturated. Most folks will love it, and it makes my Xperia Z1s and HTC One M8 look a little dull. Viewing angles are extremely wide, and brightness, once Super AMOLED's Achilles' heel, is improved. It can reach 500 nits with auto-brightness enabled if you're standing outdoors in sunlight. It's actually quite readable in sunlight, which wasn't true of the Galaxy S4. Unfortunately, Samsung's auto-brightness is still too dim indoors, and if you disable it, you'll be scrambling to adjust brightness manually when you wander outside on a sunny day.

Samsung makes excellent voice phones and call quality on our T-Mobile and AT&T review units was excellent. Incoming and outgoing voice have good volume and sound full and clear. For carriers that support WiFi calling like T-Mobile and Sprint, you may get even better call quality over WiFi. The phone played nicely with a variety of Bluetooth headsets, my BMW built-in Bluetooth and stereo Bluetooth speakers.

This is an LTE 4G phone with fallback to 3G and (gasp) EDGE. Samsung flaunted their new Download Booster that combines WiFi and 4G for even faster downloads. Sadly, for those who have an incredible need for data speeds, AT&T, Verizon and Sprint have disabled this feature, but our T-Mobile phone retains it. I personally don't have a great need for this feature, but it could come in handy at Starbucks where WiFi is particularly slow. When you first set up the phone it will ask you if you want to enable this feature, and you can later turn it on/off in settings. Be mindful that you may blow through your data allotment much more quickly if you turn this feature on. I suspect that's why three of the big four US carriers disabled it--imagine the customer service calls from irate customers who used up their data plan allowance in a week.

Like the HTC One M8, the Samsung Galaxy S5 uses Qualcomm's latest, greatest quad core mobile CPU, the Snapdragon 801, clocked at 2.5GHz. The 801 reminds us of Intel Haswell on laptops: it offers very little CPU performance improvements, decent graphics improvements and noticeably better battery life. This is a very fast 32 bit mobile CPU that currently sits at the top of benchmarks. Despite Samsung's heavy software overlay, we experienced no lag and the phone is responsive even when playing 4K video and demanding 3D games like Real Racing 3. The Snapdragon 801 brings support for faster DDR3 rather than DDR2 RAM, and that gives the Adreno 330 graphics chip a lift in benchmarks. The GS5 has 16 gigs of internal storage with approximately 11 gigs free for your use.

Camera resolution creeps up yearly, and though pixel count doesn't tell the whole story, in general you can count on better quality images and videos with each generation. The Galaxy S5 is no exception, and Samsung makes good cameras, so it's only natural that their tech would trickle down to smartphones. The 16 megapixel rear camera has the usual amenities, including a backside illuminated sensor, HDR, panorama and fast/slow motion video recording. The ISOCELL camera uses both traditional contrast detection autofocus and phase detection autofocus (a combo usually only found on higher end DSLRs). Samsung claims this results in very fast focus times, and the camera indeed focuses quickly. Photo detail and exposure are improved over the Galaxy S4, though the difference isn't night and day; in part because the S4 has a very good camera too. Those who shoot video will appreciate the 4K resolution recording mode that captures very high resolution video that looks sharper than 1080p video even when viewed on a less than 4K monitor or TV. The drawback of 4K recording is that it reveals the camera's shortcomings, like serious blockiness when you pan the camera. We also wish the camera had optical image stabilization for less jitters when recording video while moving (the software-based stabilization isn't nearly as effective). So how are photo and video quality? Excellent and only the Nokia Lumia models with PureView 20MP and 41MP cameras clearly best it.

The front 2MP camera's quality is quite good, even if the resolution hasn't increased from last year's model. It can capture 1080p video and delivers clear video chat footage. It can't compete with the HTC One M8's 5MP front camera, but it's above average and you won't look like a blotchy mess.

Finally, improvements in battery life! That's been a sore point for smartphones as their displays get larger and CPUs get faster. The Samsung Galaxy S5 has a removable 2800 mAh Lithium Ion battery. We always love Samsung's engineers for finding a way to keep the phone slim while providing a replaceable battery. That's a large capacity battery for a 5" class phone and that translates into long battery life. The Snapdragon 801 is a fast but very power-frugal CPU and it too contributes to the Galaxy S5 and HTC One M8's (both run on the 801) solid battery life. We averaged 1.5 days on a charge with moderate use that included social networking, email, web browsing, 45 minutes of Netflix and calls. Our battery monitor reported 8 hours of actual screen on time, which is impressive by today's standards.

The LG G3 is the company's flagship Android smartphone for 2014, and it's a big one, literally and figuratively. Actually, for a 5.5" phone, it's surprisingly compact, and it's not much larger than the 5" HTC One M8 and 5.1" Samsung Galaxy S5. The G3's biggest claim to fame is the impressively high 2560 x 1440 IPS display--that's the same resolution as high DPI Windows 8 laptops, but crammed into a 5.5" screen for 538 PPI density. Is that overkill? Sure it is, but it's great for marketing in a world where better than HD and 4k are big buzzwords.

The LG G3 is no slouch in other departments, with the latest, greatest Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad core CPU clocked at 2.5GHz, Adreno 330 graphics, 2 or 3 gigs of RAM (depending on the models your carrier will offer, US models have 3 gigs), a 13MP rear camera with neat tricks on board and a removable humungous 3,000 mAh battery. The phone has LTE 4G, dual band WiFi 802.11ac, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0 and a GPS as well as a microSD card slot. It's available on most major carriers around the world. For our video review, we used the Korean version that LG sent us before general release, but our written review is based on the AT&T, Sprint and Verizon versions of the phone.

LG tried their best to make the phone look like a metal unibody design, not unlike the HTC One M8. At first blush, the plastic back might just fool you and it's not as glossy or grime-prone as LG's past phones. The back is removable for access to the battery, microSD card slot and micro SIM card slot. The overall shape of the phone is much like the One M8, as is the size. The phone is available (depending on carrier) in dark silver metallic, white and gold. The silver and gold models are fairly good imitations of metal in terms of looks, the white not so much. Without resorting to crazy levels of pressure, the back casing on our AT&T, Verizon and Sprint G3 models didn't creak or distort.

As with other recent LG phones, the volume and power buttons are on the back. After using them for some time, I'm still not comfortable with that arrangement and often hit the wrong button despite tactile dips and rises. However, it does avoid that annoying problem of hitting side buttons by accident. LG's Knock On feature, where you tap the screen twice to wake up the phone (or use a knock pattern for security) obviates the need to find that power button. The G3 has on-screen buttons so there are no front mechanical or capacitive buttons to hit by accident. These do use a bit of screen real estate, but happily they automatically hide in most full screen applications like video players and games.

The LG G3's unusually high resolution display has garnered lots of attention in a world where full HD 1920 x 1080 is still flagship. The 2560 x 1440, 5.5" display is both extremely sharp and roomy. It's a pleasure to use for long form reading, playing games and viewing desktop style web pages. Since it's IPS, viewing angles are wide and colors are fairly neutral. If you're accustomed to Samsung's Super AMOLED displays with their seemingly better than life color, the G3 might seem muted and the contrast less striking. The LG has a display setting where you can tweak color and contrast if you want a more Samsung-like experience, but it simply can't look that much like Super AMOLED. That doesn't mean it's not a fine display: it is lovely. We're not too keen on the simply average brightness though, and I'd wager that LG didn't want to go with a very high brightness setting in order to preserve battery life. The phone is bright enough to view outdoors, but it's not quite as easy to see the screen in sunlight as the iPhone 5s and Samsung Galaxy S5.

So does the phenomenal 538 PPI pixel density make a difference, even when compared to the 326 PPI iPhone 5s Retina display or the Galaxy S5's 432 PPI? Honestly, not so much. In our office, folks really couldn't discern individual pixels on any of these three phones (perhaps Apple is right that anything over 320 PPI is gravy). I will say that text; even small text, looks extremely sharp, and I easily used the smallest font in the Kindle and Nook apps with no eyestrain.

Performance and LG UI

The G3 runs Android 4.4 KitKat, the latest version of the Android operating system and it's customized with LG's UI enhancements. To LG's credit, they've flattened the UI and make things more consistent and simple. You won't mistake it for plain Android or HTC's clean Sense UI, but it's no longer something I'd call garish or annoying by any means. Like Samsung's TouchWiz, the LG has features like split window multitasking, a floating video player and a quick access notes app. The phone can use the front camera to sense if you're looking at the screen, and thus not turn it off, and there are motion gestures too. Other features include one-handed mode that shifts the dialer and keyboard toward the side, guest mode and Smart Cleaning that periodically cleans up temp files.

Since the LG G3 runs on the same 2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon quad core CPU with Adreno graphics as competing flagship Android phones like the HTC One M8 and Samsung Galaxy S5, it benchmarks similarly. It also feels generally snappy, and the significantly higher than full HD resolution doesn't take a toll on day-to-day operations. We did notice somewhat lower frame rates in more demanding 3D titles like Asphalt 8, but they were still very playable.

The camera has laser focus (borrowed from LG's robotic vacuum division) to improve focus times and it has a two-tone LED flash for more natural flash colors. The camera has OIS+ optical image stabilization, HDR and a fairly fast f/2.4 lens. Does the laser focus really improve focus times? Yes, particularly in low light situations where phones like the Samsung Galaxy S5 hunt for focus and sometimes fail. Photos and video are among the best in good light with lots of crisp detail, good color saturation and light balance. The laser focus means fewer missed shots of zippy children and wildlife. Low light shots still have noise and a watercolor painted look where in-camera processing smoothes the noise too much. The HTC One M8 is still the winner for low light photography, even if its pixel count means less detail.

We're particularly fond of the camera's optical image stabilization that results in fewer motion-blurred shots and smoother video. 1080p and 4K video aren't the usual jarring, vertigo-inducing mess thanks to OIS, though we still slightly prefer the Samsung Galaxy S5's video quality overall. The front 2.1MP camera does selfie and video chat work and it can be used simultaneously with the rear camera.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, said Dickens. Now that's a bit extreme when speaking of the LG G3's battery life, but the G3 has either excellent battery life or so-so battery life depending on what you're doing. Stamina is impressive when browsing the web and making phone calls. I spent 1.5 hours on the phone and that used only 10% charge. When playing games, be it casual online games like Hay Day or demanding 3D games like Real Racing 3, the battery drains significantly faster. 20 minutes of Hay Day used 10% of the battery. Clearly, powering that big screen, wireless radio, CPU and graphics for demanding tasks like 3D games takes its toll.

The G3 has a removable 3,000 mAh Lithium Ion battery underneath the back cover. That's a high capacity battery by less than phablet standards, and we're glad you can swap in a spare. These days, unibody phones with permanent batteries are increasingly common.

The design looks better in person than it does on Apple's website where every product looks gorgeous. The phone's curves, particularly where the glass meets the metal body on the white-faced silver and gold models is high-end watch elegant. The phone is impossibly slim at 6.9mm (0.27") and the back is cleanly designed anodized aluminum. Well, almost clean: the camera lens protrudes a tiny, tiny bit--but not enough to cause significant phone wobble when laid on a desk (watch our video to see a wobble test). The antenna lines have turned everyone into a design maven: some folks dislike them; others say Apple has copied HTC. I didn't like them when I saw Apple's first photos, but I've grown to like them and find them less offensive in person. They break up the otherwise barren aluminum surface and their top and bottom outlines provide design continuity with the iPhone 5 and 5s that had separate glass areas for the antennas.

As you'd expect from Apple, there are no creaks, poorly crafted seams or rough edges on this 4.55 ounce smartphone. It may not have the iPhone 5s' Leica inspired design, but the fit and finish still bring to mind that luxury camera maker along with swanky watches. A few folks have managed to put a slight bend in the bigger iPhone 6 Plus (ours hasn't bent or warped despite carrying it in roomy pockets). The smaller iPhone 6 feels very rigid and though it looks delicate thanks to the waifish design, it requires extended or significant force to bend it (you'll find various iPhone torture videos on YouTube). That said, this is no longer a tiny phone that easily fits in any pocket and you should treat it with the same care as any larger phone when cramming it in warm, tight and flexing places like the front pocket of skinny jeans or any back pocket where you may effectively sit on it.

The iPhone has Apple's now standard Lightning port on the bottom along with the thoroughly average mono speaker. The power button is now on the right side to make it easier to reach with one hand (there's a reason most 4.7" and larger phones don't have the power button on the top edge), and the volume controls on the left side are elongated to provide adequate surface area since like the phone, they're very thin. The ringer silence slider is on the left and the 3.5mm headphone jack is on the bottom.

Display

The display is as ever one of the more captivating elements thanks not just to the curved glass edges but complete sRGB color gamut coverage, a very high contrast ratio and extreme brightness of at least 500 nits. It's simply stunning to look at. The resolution is an oddball 1334 x 750 to maintain Apple's preferred 326 PPI Retina pixel density, so it's as sharp as ever, but for eagle-eyed pixel peepers, it's not quite as sharp as the 401 PPI iPhone 6 Plus or the higher PPI full HD Android competition. I doubt the average person can see the difference in sharpness though, and that's why even Android phones at 4.7" and smaller use 720p rather than the 1080p panels found on 5" and larger phones.

Viewing angles have always been excellent on the iPhone, and Apple's Dual Domain pixels further improve viewing angles. Even at 45 degrees, the icons still look painted on. Thanks to a very low reflectance rating and thin top glass layer in conjunction with high brightness, the iPhone 6 remains one of the most legible screens outdoors in sunlight.Unlike the 5.5" 1080p iPhone 6 Plus, you don't get dual pane views in selected apps like Messages, weather and others when in landscape mode. You'll get the same landscape style view that you saw on older iPhones, only with more on screen thanks to the higher resolution. Apple has updated all the built-in apps, iLife and iWork apps for the new high resolution displays. Until third party apps update, their text might look a little fuzzy and you won't see more on screen than you do with the iPhone 5 and 5s. Happily, iOS developers are a responsive and industrious lot, and we expect to see apps updated quickly. For now, Apple has an "updated for iOS 8" section in the App Store, so you can grab updated titles that are resolution aware.

Performance and Horsepower

Apple claims up to 25% performance improvement with the A8 CPU used in the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. They also say it throttles less, which means that the CPU and graphics chip won't drop the clock speed as markedly as the last generation A7 or some competing phone processors. Indeed, it doesn't throttle down as far as the iPhone 5s or our Galaxy S5, but it does throttle some--and that's necessary with smartphones because they're passively cooled and would overheat without thermal throttling. What does his mean to you? 3D game frame rates won't drop noticeably after you've been playing for 20 minutes. Does it get warm on the back when playing a 3D game for 20 minutes or streaming HD video? Yes, but not burning hot.

The A8 is clocked at 1.4GHz, same as the iPhone 6 Plus, and it's a dual core, 64 bit CPU. 64 bit CPUs can address more than 4 gigs of memory, but that's irrelevant right now since 1 to 3 gigs is all that you'll get in a smartphone. It does improve speeds, but only if an app is compiled as a 64 bit app. Apple's native apps are 64 bit, but most third party apps are still 32 bit. What's more interesting is that the A8 is smaller and built on a 20nm process, so it's even cooler and less power hungry. That means that Apple boosted the iPhone 6 battery capacity to power the larger display--it's not needed for the CPU.

The GPU is likely a quad core PowerVR chip, and 3D benchmarks show the iPhone 6 as doing quite well both in terms of competing against the iPhone 5s and current Android flagships running the Snapdragon 801 with Adreno 330 graphics. The A8 likewise does well in single core benchmark tests where it surpasses the 801. Even multi-core test results are impressive and match the quad core Snapdragon 801. Experientially, one rarely hears someone complaining about lagging iPhones, and the iPhone 6 is as ever very responsive and stable. Apple's control over both hardware and software helps with speed and stability, and apps from the store generally behave well.

Apple sticks with 1 gig of DDR3 low power RAM, though some wish for more to reduce Safari page reloads when switching tabs and other small telltale signs that iOS' memory management is reclaiming RAM frequently. In truth, the OS does a very good job of memory management, and we've not run into any problems related to RAM. Given how cheap and tiny RAM is, we have to assume that Apple didn't feel more RAM would make much of a difference in performance. Apple tends to avoid specs upgrades purely for marketing purposes. Storage has changed a bit, with the base model staying at 16 gigs, while the middle model now has 64 gigs and the top model has 128 gigs. We're happy to see the increased storage, especially in a phone with no microSD card slot.

Cameras

Apple continues to impress us with their rear cameras. Despite a not particularly high megapixel rating or many software features, the iPhone 6 takes excellent photos and 1080p video. Like the iPhone 5s, the iPhone 6 has an 8 megapixel camera with BSI and HDR mode. But it's not the same camera module: Apple uses larger pixel sensors (1.5 microns) to gather more light, not unlike the HTC One M8. Though megapixels aren't everything, we're happy Apple didn't go with the paltry 4MP used on the M8--that's just too low for my purposes. Yes, there are higher megapixel phones like the Samsung Galaxy S5, LG G3 and much higher megapixel cameras on high end Nokia Lumia phones. Yes I'm a photo nut (hint, I also review cameras), and 8MP is adequate for my phone as long as the images and video are high quality. That means low noise, no watercolor effect from excessive noise reduction and enough image data to crop a photo and still have something usable for more than my Facebook page. Apple leaves me impressed that such a simple user experience and mediocre (by today's standards) resolution yields some of the best photos and video I've taken with a camera phone.

Images are colorful and natural looking with good exposure, even in high contrast outdoor settings. The f/2.2 lens is fast and lets plenty of light in, and the ever so slightly protruding lens cover is sapphire crystal to significantly reduce scratches. The iPhone 6 has digital image stabilization while the bigger iPhone 6 Plus has optical image stabilization. That means you'll need a slightly steadier hand with the iPhone 6 and the camera will user smaller apertures and higher ISOs to ensure a sharp image. What does that mean in layman's terms? You'll get a tad brighter and sharper images with OIS, but that said, the iPhone 6 in use takes plenty good photos. We could see some difference in nightclub and dark street shots, with the iPhone 6 Plus having the advantage.

The camera can shoot slow motion video up to 240 fps (really slow!), fast motion video, 60 fps 1080p video and it can shoot panoramas in still mode. There are a handful of effects/filters and you can control the two-tone flash, HDR (auto is on by default and it will take two photos if needed, one HDR and the other not) and switch between front and rear cameras. The front 1.2MP Facetime camera is adequate but not as remarkably sharp as 5MP front shooters like the HTC One M8.

How does it compare to the Samsung Galaxy S5 and LG G3, two top Android camera phones? Both the LG and Samsung deliver even more detail given their higher resolutions, but the iPhone 6 delivers enough sharp detail that this likely won't matter to most folks unless you're cropping down to a very small section of the image or printing 8 x 10 photos. The LG G3 does well at night (much better than the GS5) and it's one of my favorite cameras, though it tends to unnecessarily smooth detail in processing, leading to occasional watercolor effects we don't see in the iPhone unless using digital zoom. The 20MP Nokias like the Lumia 1520 and Icon resolve noticeably more detail when zoomed in to 100% and can even shoot in RAW mode, though they can be slower to capture photos and a little less consistent in exposure than the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

The iPhone 6 has an 1810 mAh Lithium Ion battery that's sealed inside (Apple's service personnel can replace the battery if needed). That's a marked increase from the iPhone 5s' 1560 mAh battery, and the iPhone 6 needs the added juice to power the larger display. The net result is battery life that's similar to the iPhone 5s. If you use the phone for 30 minutes of calls, music playback with the screen off, watching a few streaming videos, checking email and social networks, it will easily last you until bedtime. If you're an avid 3D gamer, use the GPS for an hour or more or use the Mobile Hotspot feature, expect shorter runtimes.

Apple makes typically modest battery life claims, and they state the iPhone 6 should last for 11 hours of web browsing over WiFi. This is actual use time, though not many of us spend 11 hours straight browsing the web. And yes, LTE 4G generally consumes more battery than WiFi. The Samsung Galaxy S5 with its much larger 2,800 mAh battery outlasted the iPhone 6 in our mixed use tests, for those who choose their phones by battery power more than preferred OS. But for those who love iOS and need long battery life, Apple has you covered with the iPhone 6 Plus' 2915 mAh battery, which is one of the longest lived big smartphones on the market.

Samsung showed the world its two newest phablets, the Galaxy Note 4 and the Galaxy Note Edge, in early September of this year at the IFA tech tradeshow in Berlin and at an event in New York City. At the time, they didn't state pricing, though it was self-evident that the rounded display on the Note Edge would cost more. They didn't say when it would be available either, and it wasn't until mid-October that we found out Samsung had decided the Note Edge was a limited edition sort of model, with 1 million expected to ship in 2014 (and not all countries are getting it). I wouldn't be surprised if they widened their goals in 2015 if demand for the Note Edge is strong. Phone enthusiasts who tuned in to our and other sites' coverage of Samsung's announcement seemed to lean toward the Note Edge, since it was a more novel and clear update from the otherwise slowly evolving Note line. But the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, arguably Samsung's best phone yet, had a month lead on the Note Edge and with availability up in the air until recently, lots of folks grabbed a Note 4. This review is for those of you who haven't purchased a Note 4 yet, or are within your return period.

Just about everything is the same as the Note 4, other than the curved glass display. The Samsung Galaxy Note Edge runs on the same 2.7GHz quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 CPU with Adreno 420 graphics, 3 gigs of RAM and 32 gigs of storage. It has a strikingly good QHD Super AMOLED display running at 2560 x 1440 + 160, but the display is 5.6" rather than 5.7" (the main or flat portion of the display). It has a removable 3,000 mAh battery, microSD card slot, dual band WiFi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and a GPS with GLONASS. The phone runs Android 4.4.4 KitKat with Samsung's TouchWiz UI and apps added. The Edge 4 uses the same S Pen (Wacom) with 2,048 levels of pressure sensitivity and it has the same note taking apps.

The Samsung Galaxy Note Edge has a one tenth of an inch smaller main display, a 200 mAh smaller battery (it's a shorter version of the Note 4 battery) and it's ever so slightly shorter and slightly wider than the Note 4. The power button is up top since it can't sit on the right side (there's glass there!). It has the same removable faux leather back (actually thin plastic) and metal sides, though the sides and back cover are necessarily designed a bit differently to fit the Edge's shape. For those who are interested in Samsung's Gear VR glasses, sorry it won't fit (those glasses are designed to house a Note 4).

The star of the show here is the curved Super AMOLED display that gracefully seems to flow like a waterfall down the right side. The curve is very pronounced and it is indeed a single piece of Gorilla Glass 3 with a curved AMOLED display underneath. In order to create a bit of symmetry, the left side has just a little hint of a curve. Samsung says it's a very tech-intensive process to make the Note Edge, and I'd wager their profit margins are slimmer on the Edge because of this. It's simply lovely to look at and it bends the mind in a good way. The first time I saw it at Samsung's launch event I was taken with the stunning look, excellent viewing angles for both the edge display and main display and the useful widgets that ran on the edge display. You can have up to 7 widgets running on the edge display, and several are pre-installed. There's an app launcher that can hold up to 10 apps (you can select the apps), a second launcher screen that's not customizable on our T-Mobile version, speed dial, news, sports and stock tickers from Yahoo, weather, Twitter (sadly it's trending hashtags and not your own feed) and you can download more widgets. We downloaded the calendar widget and two games (all made by Samsung) and Samsung offers a developer SDK so third party developers can create more.

We're impressed at Samsung's execution: it's all well thought out and polished. Here are a few examples:

- The side display has palm detection so you don't accidentally activate something on the edge display. If you're tapping the main display it rightly ignores a simultaneous tap on the edge display.

- The phone's metal frame sticks out just enough so that it will contact the ground first if you drop the Note Edge and it lands on the curved glass side or its face. Still, I'd avoid dropping this expensive piece of tech!

- Wait, you're left handed like me? Though I actually find the phone usable in normal mode, it is more comfortable when held in the left hand, as a righty would. There's a 180 degree option you can enable so you can use the phone upside down, with the curve on the left. It's not as bad as you might think: I actually prefer the pen at the top and the power button at the bottom. What about the home, back and multi-tasking keys being up top? Samsung adds a small set of on-screen buttons at the bottom accessible via a little grab handle with virtual buttons. When 180 degree mode is enabled, it activates accelerometer-based rotation, so you can use it in normal and upside down modes simply by rotating the phone.

Color me impressed: I expected all sorts of quirks and usability issues, but Samsung has it all under control. The main screen doesn't accidentally bleed onto the side, nor does the side bar ever intrude on the main screen, though refraction through the apex of the curve might make it look like a window is extending beyond the divide. Since it's all one display rather than two discrete units, it's all handled via firmware and software. Several of the built-in apps make use of the side screen, for example the video player controls are on the edge display so they don't cover your movie. S Note's buttons are on the edge as are the camera's. You get a more uncluttered view in these apps, and thanks to the shortcuts launcher widget, you don't need a gaggle of icons on your home screen. It also makes multi-tasking easier and quicker. You know that sidebar Samsung's used with previous Note models that you bring up by pressing and holding the back button or by leaving a little drawer handle exposed? Everyone seems to like the multi-tasking idea but many folks complained about the little drawer handle blocking app windows. This is the perfect solution: a side display that doesn't interfere with the main attraction. Third party applications can add support for the edge display if they wish, and we'd love to see Evernote, the webkit web browser and even games do so.

But wait, there's more: swipe down on the edge screen and you'll be greeted with 5 handy utilities: a ruler, stopwatch, timer, flashlight control and the voice recorder. Swipe back and forth along the length of the edge display when the phone is sleeping, and just the edge display will come alive for interaction. There's a scheduled bedside clock mode (you can have it active for up to 12 hours per day) that shows you the time and temperature. When a call comes in, the notification and action buttons appear on the edge display rather than blocking whatever you were doing on screen. It's all very cool and generally speaking it makes the phone more expedient and pleasant to use.