 Without a doubt, your smartphone is the most important gadget in your life. It's a single portable portal for information, entertainment, communication, navigation, games, photos, and oh so much more. There's a reason we pick these things up hundreds of times a day and stare at them for hours at a time. So if your smartphone is so important in your life, it's smart to get the best smartphone you can get. Compromise in one area or another and you're looking at hours of frustration over the two years or so you might use the phone. A great smartphone should have a great display, fast performance, a great camera, reliable battery life, the best apps, and great support for when something goes wrong or you just need a little help. The smartphone race is closer than ever, which is a great thing because it's becoming harder and harder to buy a bad phone. But if you want the phone that's going to give you the fewest headaches over the next two years, there's one that stands out. The Apple iPhone 6S is the one to buy. It doesn't matter if you get the smaller 6S or the larger 6S Plus, you're going to get an incredibly well built and capable smartphone with no real drawbacks. The display is sharp and vibrant, the processor is wicked fast, and the camera takes tremendous photos. Apple's app ecosystem is still the strongest around and if you ever have any trouble with your phone, the company's support is second to none. A lot of people will be really happy with the 4.7 inch iPhone 6S, but power users might want to consider the iPhone 6S Plus. It's bigger, yes, but it also has a larger battery and that bigger display makes everything more immersive. Both phones have fast and reliable fingerprint scanners and support Apple Pay. And when you go looking for a case, dock, charger, or some other accessory, you'll find the widest selection available for the iPhone. But if you don't want to buy an iPhone, that's fine. There's never been a better time to buy an Android phone. And the best of the bunch is Google's Nexus 6P. The 6P has a great display, great camera, fast performance, and simple, clean software without any garbage from the carriers. The 6P will also get the latest and greatest Android updates before any other phone. It's only available for purchase unlocked and direct from Google, but it works just fine with every major carrier in the US. The Nexus 6P is a big phone. But if you want the best Android phone you can buy, you just kind of have to deal with a big phone. Every other smaller option, whether it's Samsung's Galaxy S6, HTC's 189, or Google's own Nexus 5X, makes compromises in one way or another that lessen the experience compared to the 6P. There are other big phones that are excellent too, like Samsung's Galaxy Note 5. It's even slightly better than the Nexus 6P in a handful of ways. It has a better screen, better camera, and comes with a stylus. But the Note 5 is a lot more expensive, and we don't think that the extra money you spend for it over the 6P is justified. Unlike the iPhone, which only comes at one premium price, there's a whole array of Android phones up and down the price spectrum, such as Motorola's Moto X or the OnePlus 2. But the money you save with those models over the Nexus 6P isn't that huge, and when a device is as important as your smartphone, it's worth spending a little more to ensure the best experience. So there you go. If you're buying a smartphone, you should buy the iPhone 6S or the Nexus 6P. There's never been a better time to buy a smartphone, and you can't do better than either of those.