I used $50 alcatel phone for the last four years. It was actually pretty nice for the first three years, it wasn't even slow for many purposes (though cruising the web was annoying). That it's screen was 1/3 normal size helped - sped things up and made the phone much tougher.

The phone was killed in the last year by the gradual process of applications upgrading themselves and exceeding memory. And then the touch screen started dying.

The cheapish thing I have does more but is not more aesthetically pleasing.

See: https://medium.com/matter/shitphone-a-love-story-a44e6643480...