SMARTPHONE OVERLOAD: The Samsung Galaxy S4 Is Completely Amazing and Utterly Boring.

Does that sound familiar? It should. We said it about the iPhone, too. And it is pretty much true of all high-end phones — at those least running Android or iOS. The wow factor of a few years ago is gone. And counterintuitively, that’s great.

Think about it. These are the requirements for entry for any high-end handset now: a great interface, a gorgeous pixel-dense display, great cameras front and back, a super-fast processor, 4G LTE, multi-carrier availability, a robust app store and superb industrial design. We’ve got the form factors pretty well dialed in, even if we’re still experimenting with sizes. Externally, the materials will change, and continue getting better and better. Software will continue to improve. And there will always be surprising new features, like Siri or S-Translate.

All of which means the bottom line is almost any flagship phone you buy today is going to be great, because it’s going to be an iterative device built on the shoulders of giants.

Progress is good.