Price of phone shouldn’t be used as a barometer. It should be the price you end up paying per month when all is said and done.

I buy unlocked phones without financing them and use Ting for mobile service. I don't buy phones from the cell providers.

I wasn’t critiquing you. Just pointing out what makes sense. I’m positive you come out with less paid in every metric than most. Since I live in the US and my cousin and brother want to be on Verizon. The price of Verizon with 4-5/lines and carriers that piggyback off the big three are not too different, for me, I do end up getting a $1K phone every 3 or so years without paying anything directly. I’m locked to the big 3 carriers at that point for 2 years.

It’s not as flexible but my end cost for the phones is usually $5 more a month in plan cost and being stuck to a big 3 carrier, I haven’t paid much for a phone since I started doing this after Att paid T-Mobile equivalent of $4B in break up fees a decade ago and that pushed for more competition. Though back then I was rocking webOS then Windows Phone before sadly going from iPhone to iPhone. I believe it was iPhone 6 to 8 to 13 Pro. So 3 year and 4 year gaps waiting for deals where I wouldn’t pay anything except a trade in and being tied to the carrier.

I also use a ton of data. Except during the first 1.5 years of the pandemic. During that time period I for sure was wasting money.

I pay £10/3 months plus £200-300 every 4 years for a phone.

Wow the 10 every 3 months is cheap. Even if little data is included. Nice.

I use an iPhone but I was surprised the OP mentioned price as a reason to switch.

I buy unlocked.

I would rather have a 10/month phone bill than a 40-50 one.

I buy unlocked too. But you can get a decent Android phone that does all the major things for far less than an iPhone.