iPhone SE was released in 2016 and still runs the latest version of iOS.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_SE

It never cost anything close to $180 though. That was my point: a phone that cost that little in 2016 was probably an older android and is unlikely to have current software support.

I got burned by Android being out of date (insecure) because my phone had to be updated by the carrier. I was royally pissed that neither the manufacturer of the phone nor my phone provider was taking ownership-- of the thing they took ownership of by not supporting vanilla Android to begin with-- and leaving me with an insecure device on their network.

Total BS.

I switched to iPhone now.

I hate this attitude. My super cheap budget android phone isn't getting updates, obviously the only solution is to switch to an iPhone that costs 4 times as much. Never mind that there are also Android phones that get updated just as long for the same price as the iPhone. Clearly all Android devices are absolutely identical no matter the price.

Not sure about 2016 but I paid $139 for my iPhone SE in 2017, from a prepaid carrier (Straight Talk).

It's also discontinued and very difficult to buy new.