Well, you'll be paying the ~$1000 "real" price back in overpriced contracts with obscene minimum runtimes. (unlocked versions are available for ~€700-€1000 in Germany, France, so the real price is probably closer to $600-800, as Europe routinely gets screwed over on import prices anyway)

I'll stick with my cheap-ish phone that is actually mine, and a nice and flexible pay-as-you-go tariff. The way mobile phone contracts are going these days (in Europe) you're almost guaranteed a bad deal with a contract.