iPhone 6 Plus review

iPhone 6S Plus

If you're after the latest flagship phablet from Apple then it's the iPhone 6S Plus you'll want, not the iPhone 6 Plus.

The iPhone 6S Plus packs in twice as much RAM (2GB), and a faster Apple A9 processor – although in practice the iPhone 6 Plus has near faultless performance anyway.

The design and screens are almost identical, and both phones run iOS 9. So what do you really get if you stump up the extra cash on Apple's flagship? Well, it features 3D Touch, adding a pressure-sensitive aspect to the interface, and it's available with 128GB storage, which is no longer the case with the iPhone 6 Plus.

Other than that, in real terms there's very little to choose between the two phones. But the iPhone 6S Plus will be more future-proofed, both in the sense that Apple will probably support it with updates for a little longer, and in that the extra power will eventually come in handy.

• Read our iPhone 6S Plus review

Samsung Galaxy Note 4

The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 is probably the biggest rival to the iPhone 6 Plus. The Korean firm's supersized smartphones lead the way in the phablet market, and they always come jam-packed full of the latest tech.

You'll find an impressive 5.7-inch QHD display slapped on the front of the Note 4, trumping the full HD screen on the iPhone.

Samsung has updated its design language to include a metal frame running round the outside of the handset, giving it a more premium look and feel.

There's still a sheet of polycarbonate on the rear though, and overall the iPhone 6 Plus still offers the best in terms of design and premium appeal.

Take a look at the spec sheet for the Note 4, though, and it reads a lot better than the iPhone's, with a 2.7GHz quad-core processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, 16MP rear camera and 3.7MP front-facing snapper.

If you want a glut of power, features and spec then the Note 4 is king, while the iPhone 6 Plus offers a more refined, premium take on the now-popular phablet.

Samsung has since launched the Galaxy Note 5, but it's not available everywhere, and it's more of a rival to the iPhone 6S Plus. Still, if you want the cream of the Android crop – and can actually buy it where you are – then it's worth considering as well.

• Read our Samsung Galaxy Note 4 review

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+

The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ is one of Samsung's latest phablets, and it can match or beat the iPhone 6 Plus in a number of ways.

Its metal and glass design, along with a curved screen, makes it every bit as eye-catching. That screen is seriously impressive too – not so much for the curves, but for its sharp 1440 x 2560 resolution, which even stretched across its expansive 5.7-inch size gives it a much higher pixel density than the iPhone 6 Plus.

Remarkably, it also manages to be smaller and thinner than the iPhone 6 Plus, and with an octa-core processor and 4GB of RAM its performance is beastly.

Despite all that it's roughly the same price as the iPhone 6 Plus. But it runs Android, so if you're set on an Apple phone that in itself could be a deal breaker.

• Read our Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ review

LG G4

LG's G4 is a phone that brings the best the brand has to offer – and then encases it in leather.

It's a great phone in a number of ways: the 5.5-inch screen might put this phone squarely in phablet territory, but it's a lot more compact than the iPhone 6 Plus, and has a much sharper and clearer screen as well as improved colour reproduction.

The price is a lot more palatable, even before the inevitable cost plummeting that we see from LG phones, and the camera offers so many modes that even the most seasoned photographer will want to take a look – although the 'auto' mode rivals Apple's for simplicity too.

The UI is a little more complex, and the overall construction nowhere near as good; but this is easily the best phone LG has ever created, and it's well worth a look.

• Read our LG G4 review