$350 gets you a 6 years old phone design, an iPhone 5 with better internals. $700 gets you a 4 years old phone design, an iPhone 6 with better internals. $1000 gets you a brand new iPhone.

I got a Sony XZ1 Compact for €500 and it works the same or better than an iPhone.

What's wrong with the "6 year old design"? All phones since the original iPhone are basically a slab of glass with improved intervals and different size screens.

I have a larger phone but the larger screen doesn't actually help me as far as usability. I use my phone for typing email and messages because it's better for one hand use. But I'm quick to grab my iPad given a choice.

So why not get the smaller phone?

Out of curiosity what year design is the Sony XZ1 Compact?

It was released in 2017, although perhaps your comment is alluding to the (small) iterative design updates that Sony gives its phones.

I wanted an XZ1 Compact due to USB Type-C and the plastic back, but settled for a Z5 Compact due to LineageOS support.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Xperia_XZ1_Compact

I've used mostly Android phones in the past I was trying to decide whether to get the Z5 Compact or finally try Apple with the iPhone SE. After nearly a year with my first iPhone I'm ready to switch back. How has your experience been with that phone?

Well, you can get an iPhone 6S for ~€500 (actually 5% more). That's not 4y old, it was officially released less than two years prior to the XZ1.

Not that I'd recommend getting one. iPhones have never been the best bang for buck product, especially not the substantially older but barely cheaper older models. But you're exaggerating a bit here.

This is a silly comment, to distinguish between the "design" (by which I assume you mean what it looks like) and the "internals" (how it works). In any practical sense, a phone with new internals is a new phone.

And people say that Apple fans are too sensitive to how things look...

What is the iPhone 8, but an iPhone original with better internals? The design differences are negligible at best. The iPhone X is the first deviation from the basic design.

The point is the age of the internals, not the design deviations.

5 year old phones don't run todays software very well.

Parent I was responding to was complaining about iPhones being old designs with new internals.

The SE isn't 5 years old, it's the same internals as (and newer than) the 6S.

There is no phone you can buy from Apple today that has 5 year old internals.

the SE runs great. have you ever used one?

Yes, and new Android phones start as low as $30-$50.

Example: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EYT1URO/