I've been happy with the lower priced Android phones for the last several years, buying a new model each year to avoid the common complaint that these entry-level phones don't generally receive an Android upgrade from the system they shipped with, but last year, I bought a mid-level ZTE phone on the basis that two Android system updates would be offered. Android 10 came in last fall for my phone, and apparently 11 is on the horizon. I probably paid twice what I normally would for this phone, but I figured I wouldn't need to buy a new phone until next year because the software would be regularly updated--although admittedly, not at the cutting edge.

I'm still not certain what my strategy will be going forward since the cash outlay is about even. If I have any concerns that would make me go back to yearly purchases, it's that the features offered on phones that I care about tend to make their way down to the lower-priced phones fast enough that waiting for two years for a hardware upgrade might not be worth the software upgrades I got with this phone.

No matter what I do, though, I still haven't seen anything that ever makes me want to purchase a much more expensive phone--whether Android or Apple.