[xethos]

> Does anyone keep a phone for close to 8 years?

Ask and ye shall receive: I'm actually a little over 6 years into my BlackBerry KeyOne (though I will concede that I am an outlier).

> if you could replace the battery, the physical wear and tear is quite substantial

That's why I'm still using it. Parts are dirt cheap. There's scant little glue to dig through for anything that needs to be replaced, and it's easy to work on. It's been dropped so many times the only original-to-this-phone parts are the mainboard and damn SIM tray.

Beyond that, there are no other options. There is nothing meaningfully better that includes a notification LED, physical keyboard, reasonable battery life (due to chipset and smaller screen), SD card slot, 3.5mm jack, and has spare parts for reasonably low cost (ruling out later BlackBerry handsets).