Which phone will be crowned TechRadar's Phone of the Year 2015?

Which phone will be crowned TechRadar's Phone of the Year 2015?

It's that time of year again - after the hi-jinks of last time out - where we put eight phone experts in a darkened room and don't let them emerge until they've decided which is the best phone of the last 12 months.

You're probably thinking 'Well, you've had the Samsung Galaxy S6 as number one for months in your best phones in the world' piece - surely that's going to win?

Not so, discerning reader. While our best list takes into account loads of factors, with price a big factor, the phone awards are all about the phone that's impressed us over the last year.

Tough at the top

While there's a slew to choose from, with Samsung coming back swinging, Apple improving again and LG, Sony and HTC all trying to reclaim their form, we've got six other categories to think about too.

The best tablet award will see Apple trying to repeat its success with the iPad Air with the stunningly named iPad Air, while it will hope to be nominated in our new 'best wearable' category.

We don't all want to spend hundreds and hundreds of our hard-earned though, which is why the 'best value phone' and 'best value tablet' categories are set to be hotly-contested this year - Google's out of the tablet race, due to not making another low-cost one, but can Motorola hang on to its crown?

We've also got two exciting categories to titillate and excite: best innovation, where we look at the thing that's had the biggest impact on smartphones in the last year, and best app - voted for by you, our readers!

If you'd like to vote in the best app category head over to the survey here. You'll have to wait until July 23 to find out who has won though, we'll reveal it at the TechRadar Phone Awards ceremony in London.

  • This article is part of Phone Week, celebrating the best bits about brilliant smartphones as part of the lead up to the TechRadar Phone Awards. To find out what the iPhone 7 could look like, how a phone could survive in space or just learning how to buy the perfect smartphone for you, bookmark TechRadar's Phone Week hub and check out all the great new content coming throughout the week!
Gareth Beavis
Formerly Global Editor in Chief

Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.