[FireBeyond]

Not for nothing, but those devices are generally sold interest free.

There's no functional difference between "If you're poor, you should save $50/month for the next 2 years, and when you do that, maybe then you can get that $1200 phone", versus "You can pay $50/month for the next 2 years and get that $1200 phone now", other than bias against the "financially constrained".

[thisislife2]

It's not "bias", but being financially prudent - when you are financially constrained, you don't need a $1200 phone nor do you need to subscribe to a $50/month plan when cheaper options are available. Depending on your budget, you can get a feature phone for around $50 or a smart phone for around $100, and opt for a prepaid plan (the cheapest of which starts from $15/month with limited data).

[scarface_74]

You can not fill out job applications or participate in the modern economy with a feature phone

[ssl-3]

Feature phone? What year is this where the only options are a $1200 iPhone or a "feature phone"?

A person can walk into a Best Buy today and buy a carrier-agnostic, factory-unlocked Android phone -- new, in a retail box, with a warranty -- for less than $100. No strings, no contracts, no weird stuff. It's just an item that they have for sale in their store.

(Or, FFS: The last Android phone I bought new was $64.00, including tax and overnight delivery. It came with a 60-day carrier lock, but my carrier is cheap.)

[scarface_74]

I’m replying to this statement

> Depending on your budget, you can get a feature phone for around $50

[rustcleaner]

I am computing comfortably on my GrapheneOS powered Pixel and Qubes OS powered Thinkpad.

Own AAPL, not Apple.

(on second thought...)

[BenjiWiebe]

What happens when the $1200 phone breaks before it's paid off? Does the carrier replace it?

I prefer buying used phones so I don't have any experience with that...except the first phone I bought... I understood from Verizon that the phone was included in the plan. Turns out I owed $300 for a dumbphone at a time in my life where $300 was a lot more than I wanted to pay for a phone.

I replaced it with a used smartphone for $20 a year later.