The next generation of smartphones are almost here. With the Samsung Galaxy S6, HTC One M9, LG G4, OnePlus Two, Moto X 3rd Gen, iPhone 6S, and more coming. Tune in for what you can expect from these next-gen flagship devices.
2015 is a brand new year to be filled with a lot of smartphone announcements so welcome to my top smartphones to be announced in 2015. So I’ll go with the order on when I think these devices will be released.
#1: HTC One M9
The HTC One M9 is going to be announced right before the Samsung Galaxy S6 event on March 1st in Barcelona, at the Mobile World Congress event and our own Cam will be there to cover the whole event live and have hands-on with the HTC One M9. But typically, it’s the next generation of the HTC One device—similar design, a lot of improved specs in terms of the Snapdragon 810 processor, 3GB of RAM, perhaps a resolution bump on the display. But we’re still going to have that beautiful metal design with BoomSound speakers. It’s going to be a very fantastic device. There have been rumors about different stuff coming out with the HTC One M9, perhaps a different model or a bigger model like the iPhone 6 Plus; and also a wearable of some sort.
#2: Samsung Galaxy S6
Right after the HTC One M9 is the Samsung Galaxy S6 and perhaps the Samsung Galaxy S Edge; which all could also be announced on March 1st at Mobile World Congress. Now, the Galaxy S6 we’ve seen a lot of videos about it from Samsung—it’s got a slim profile, looks to be made out of metal, looks to be a little curved and tapered on the sides, and it looks to be the best Samsung device that will be coming out of the Galaxy S range. It’ll probably be a whole lot better than the Galaxy S5 and all the ones before it. It’s going to have really improved hardware in terms of its processor, probably the 810 or maybe the Exynos octa-core chip from Samsung, especially in Korea. I’m basically guessing one of the best Exynos chips we’ve seen. I’m not sure if it’ll make its way to the US. We’re also going to find it equipped with Android 5.0 Lollipop, TouchWiz, and just a lot of improvements.
And we also might find an Edge variant of the Galaxy S, which could be saying a couple of things either the Edge thing is catching on to a lot of people or it’s just a secondary experiment to see if people like the Edge in a smaller form factor. The Galaxy S6 is probably going to be shrunken down to a 5-inch display but the resolution will be Quad HD at 2560x1440, 3GB of RAM, and it’s probably going to have a brand new and spectacular camera especially since Samsung has not disappointed camera tech so we might find a 20MP or 21MP or even a 30MP camera. While it’s very unlikely, Samsung could probably pull it off.
#3: OnePlus Two
The next phone on my list is the OnePlus Two, which I know is going to be coming out sometime between Q2 and Q3 of 2015. Now this phone is going to be more expensive, that’s one thing that I’m probably and everyone agrees on. It’s going to be a more expensive phone so they can mass produce them. Also it’s going to be amazing. I mean, we’re talking about the best specs available half-time through this year. Probably talking about the 810 chip, a faster clock speed than the Galaxy S6 and HTC One M9, 3-4GB of RAM, it’s going to have a Quad HD display. It’s going to be good and it might be a higher quality phone. In terms of design and materials used, it’s going to be a spectacular phone and I definitely cannot wait since everyone has grown to love the OnePlus One. I definitely loved it and think it’s one of the best devices that recently just got updated to Android 5.0 Lollipop, a stock form of Lollipop. It’s just one of the best phones of 2014 and it still is to this day, one of my favorite devices.
#4: LG G4
Now after the OnePlus Two, we’re probably going to take a look at the next generation LG flagship called the LG G4. Last year’s LG G3 was one of my most favorite devices. It had a Quad HD display, beautiful design, great camera, OIS, 4K UHD video, great display, IPS was not the brightest display but it was definitely one of the most vivid displays and more color accurate displays of 2014. It’s really up there with the HTC One M8 in terms of accuracy.
The LG G4 is looking to be a much more improved version, probably around the same design while it might be a little different. It might actually be made out of metal this year. We’re probably looking at the 810 chip or maybe something different, 3-4GB of RAM, and a very specked out phone. We’re probably not going to see a lot of design changes maybe some material changes but this is going to be focused on the hardware and software. Android 5.0 Lollipop is guaranteed.
We’re also going to see a modified version of the LG UI to fit Android 5.0 Lollipop a little bit better than the LG G Flex 2. And generally, we’re going to see a much better camera with OIS to fit the LG G4.
#5: Moto X
The fifth phone that we’re talking about is the next generation Moto X. Now we’re talking about the third generation Moto X. It’s probably going to be a tiny bit bigger, have Quad HD display, better camera, bigger battery and Android 5.1 Lollipop or whichever version of Lollipop will be available at that time. It’s basically going to run the same version of Stock Android with a little bit of Motorola’s customization in terms of Moto Voice, Moto Actions, etc. We’re probably going to see more improvements, a little more of Lenovo in terms of its influence on the design or pricing. It’s definitely going to be one of those devices I’m really looking forward to in 2015. It’s going to be pretty far off in 2015, maybe August to September time since that’s when the Moto X second generation came out last year. It’s going to be a very interesting device that I’m super excited for. I loved the first and second generation Moto X and it’s still one of my favorite devices. It’s probably going to carry over the great hardware build, customization of Moto Maker and running the latest version of Android along with the best hardware probably 810 and 3GB of RAM. It’s going to be a smoking phone.
#6: Apple iPhone 6S
The next phone on this list is going to be an Apple product, the iPhone 6S. While it’s probably not going to change aesthetically or design-wise or thickness-wise, it’s probably going to have OIS on the camera, a slightly upgraded hardware like an extra core processor, some extra RAM. The biggest change to the iPhone 6S this year is probably going to be all software based of iOS 9. Now we haven’t seen much about it and we won’t see much about it until WWDC this year, which actually isn’t too far off. It’s going to be in June 2015 and that’s going to be the biggest thing with iOS 9 and the brand new iPhone 6S.
Other than that, we’re probably going to see a slight camera upgrade, maybe 4K video recording. I’m definitely praying for that. And honestly, there’s not much else. Apple kind of directly went drastic with the iPhone 6, I don’t see them changing it again for the iPhone 6S unless they just go ahead and ditch the S and make the iPhone 7 but I highly doubt that.
#7: iPhone 6 Plus S
Right after the iPhone 6 is going to be the next generation iPhone 6 Plus, maybe called the iPhone 6 Plus S; which does not sound clever at all. But it’s Apple, they can pull it off. And it’s going to have basically the same story: an updated camera, perhaps iOS 9, and will probably be supported more in landscape in terms of Apple adding more functionality to the iPhone 6 Plus with iOS 9. That’s definitely one thing I want to see. And having it turn over to portrait or landscape side can give it more functionality. That would be great. Other than that, not much else is going to be changed with the brand new iPhone.
#8: Samsung Galaxy Note 5
And the last phone on this list is the Samsung Galaxy Note 5. We literally just got finished with the Galaxy Note 4, which is still one of the best devices around. It has the best display, a lot of great hardware. But in September, the Galaxy Note 5 will be here. It’s going to have a bigger and faster processor, probably the 810 or 815 or even something we haven’t seen before. It’s going to have a better display, probably the same resolution of 2560x1440 (I do not see the 4K resolution) being pushed into mobile this year or next. It’s going to be an interesting thing to see. It’s going to be happening in the next couple of years but it’s going to be a very amazing phone. Probably a little bit of different design, maybe round off the edges or make it little iPhone 6 Plus-esque. Also, Android 5.0 Lollipop and the next generation of TouchWiz. It’s just going to be a very powerful beast of a phone with a bigger battery—just a whole lot of improvements on the size maybe 5.8-inches. I don’t see that phone getting much bigger because I think 5.7 is a sweet spot with the Galaxy Note models. And I think that would be great.
Make sure to leave me some comments below, especially if I missed any of the major phones that will be released this year.
