I see a lot of phones in my work here at TechCrunch, and I’m genuinely impressed with where the average level of quality is at compared to where it was even just five years ago. I’ve seen Android mature so much in that time that it’s amazing – but for all the work Android OEMs have done in terms of narrowing the gap with the iPhone, which had a considerable lead on any competitors early on, there’s no question that Apple’s smartphone is still the best one out there.

Why is now the time for this friendly reminder? We’ve just seen basically every major Android OEM unleash their new devices, for one. And there are other factors, too; my girlfriend finally came back to the iPhone fold after a brief foray into Samsung territory, for instance, and my father just declared that he’s going to stop carrying a standalone camera while traveling in favor of just using his iPhone 5s, which is a huge deal for a lifelong photography enthusiast.

The iPhone’s camera remains one of its hard-to-quantify advantages over the competition – on paper, there are many Android cameras that should fare better, but consistently the iPhone manages to take the best pictures of any integrated mobile device shooter, with a minimum of fuss required on the part of the actual photographer.

Other advantages of the iPhone over its newer competitors include consistency of experience (various Android skins and modifications still mean that apps behave differently depending on what device you’re using), portability of the device (monstrous screens are attractive while in use, but for the majority of time, your phone is still in your pocket), and build quality. And even though the iPhone 5s came out last fall, it shows no signs of being unable to handle the latest in software and web technologies in terms of performance.

I’m sure this opinion will have its detractors, but I’m equally sure that some switchers will quietly acknowledge in their heart of hearts that I’m right, and that despite the lure of the novel (which seems to occur more frequently as the pace of tech development speeds up), Apple’s smartphone tech still shines above and beyond the newer efforts of its competitors.