I would go the exact opposite of the iPhone way, a few people I know have been using different generations of Xiaomi Redmi's as tool phones with great satisfact

I would go the exact opposite of the iPhone way, a few people I know have been using different generations of Xiaomi Redmi's as tool phones with great satisfaction. Surprisingly the build quality is good and battery life is amazing. You can have dual SIM or a SIM and extra memory card. It is not a great phone for gaming or photography, but that's not what you are looking for. Now assuming the batteries decay over time, screens break and phones fall into the toilet or getting stolen you can buy 2 Redmi's for the price of one iPhone SE.