I think a lot of it really depends on how often and for how long you use the phone. I spent $500+ for my iPhone 5s and I've used it for almost 2 years now with

I think a lot of it really depends on how often and for how long you use the phone. I spent $500+ for my iPhone 5s and I've used it for almost 2 years now with a cheap Virgin Mobile plan. I use it daily (maybe too much even) and once I upgrade from it, I'll continue to use it periodically as a testing platform for my web development. I'll probably get another year or two of use out of it for that purpose before testing for the 5s isn't worth the trouble. And honestly I can't stand the cheap Android phones. Android is a solid OS, but the cheap devices it often appears on are just awful. It causes a lot of headaches...at least $500 worth to me at least :)