Camera for photos of the kids is certainly my self-justification. My SLR takes better photos - but all the best photos of my kids are on my phone - because it’s what I have in my pocket.

This. 20 years from now you will be happy you have the best possible pictures of the kids.

20 years from now you will be happy with the best possible pictures of the kids, true. Where 'best' is defined as 'pictures showing the children as they were, doing what they were doing where and with whom they were doing it with'. Whether those pictures were taken with, say, a Motorola Defy (5 MP sensor, takes good pictures as long as there is enough light but gets noisy in low-light situations) or a Samsung Galaxy S8 or Google Pixel (which take good pictures in most situations) is of less importance unless you are in the habit of taking pictures of your children in near-darkness.

Personally, I just like to use the latest technology – I live and breath it every day in my job and I like to keep up on trends. I don't go out and spend a ton of money at clubs, bars, and fancy restaurants, I go to the movies maybe once a year, I drive a sensible car. For me, hardware like the latest smartphone or computer is what I like to spend my discretional income on – simple as that. To each his/her own.

I do nothing with my expensive phone (Pixel 1 XL atm, soon to be iPhone X). Nothing to justify the price, at least. I buy them because I enjoy the quality feeling, which is partially real and partially self enforced.

With that said though, I've been with Android since the G1 (literally all of the Nexus lines), and few cheap phones compare to the high end phones for me.

My best phone of all time? The Nexus 4.. or was it 5... I honestly can't remember now. It was one of these $200 phone. It felt cheap as hell, but it was a very nice compromise on features vs price. Yet, that's going back to what I was saying above. Despite me loving that phone, and it being an amazing phone for $200, it was still a compromise of quality. If you show me a phone that has the OS and build feel of my Pixel 1 XL, I'd happily buy it. However, I've not ever seen this. Same goes for my Macbook Pro. It's far from perfect, and definitely feels overpriced, but the OS and Hardware combo has no competition from my perspective. Unfortunately.

So back to your original question, I definitely don't do anything with the phone to inherently justify the price.

>I often wonder what people do with these super expensive phones to be honest.

For one, some might make so much, that it's not "super expensive" to them -- just a phone, and they buy whatever they like, whenever they like.

Second, some might use it as a status signal that they have such a phone. Which might not be as effective as a house or an expensive car, but combined with other such stuff, works wonders socially compared to not having it. This depends on your social aspirations of course (e.g. caring to play this game, climb some social ladder, for small "status" differences etc).

Others are interested in gadgets, and can save and sacrificice other stuff to have the latest phone/PC etc, even if they don't make as much money.

Others are hobbyists (or semi/pros) and use them for their camera, video, music creation, drawing, etc capabilities.

For others yet it's a fashion accessory. The buy expensive phones for the same reason they wouldn't want to be seen with old cheapo sneakers (this is similar to the "social status" thing).

I, like most people, use my smartphone a LOT. It's worth at least US$1/day, and I'll use it for probably 3 years ... making a top-end iPhone X amortize out to dirt cheap. At that low low price, why not get the best UI/UX I can?

I'll spend more on coffee than I will on an "expensive" phone during the same time.

I'm an iPhone user, but my primary reason for upgrading in the past was the camera. These days, the cameras are good enough, so I hung onto my 5S for an extra year or two and expect I'll keep the 7 for 3+ years as well.

Status/feel-better-inside, cameras, stupidity (dont know what they want so they get best), don't know what to do with money, some people need it for their job (marketing stuff, you HAVE to be cool) etc etc.

>stupidity (dont know what they want so they get best)

How is that stupid? It's not like a brain surgeon who just gets what's the best out there (or considered top) is in any way stupid because they're not a tech-geek to care to do a full "market review" on their own...

I'm buying it primarily for the camera, yeah. I'm not 100% convinced that I'll get on with Face ID and the lack of a home button, mind.