What's the point of buying new phones every years?
Other than your carrier give it for free or cheap, I don't really see the reason why should you buy new phone. I've been using Redmi Note 9 for past 3 years and recently got my had on Poco F5. I don't see the point of my 'upgrade'. I sold it and come back to my Note 9.
Gaming? Most of them are p2w or microtransaction garbage or just gimped version of its PC/Console counterpart. I mean, $400 still get you PS4, TV and Switch if you don't mind buying used. At least here where I live.
Storage? Dude, newer phone wont even let you have SD Card.
Features? Well, all I see is newer phones take more features than it adds. Headphone jack, more ads, and repairability are to name a few.
Battery? Just replace them. However, my Note 9 still get through day with one 80% charge in the dawn. Which takes 1 hour.
I am genuinely curious why newer phone always selling like hot cakes. Since there's virtually no difference between 4gb of RAM and 12gb of RAM, or 12mp camera and 100mp camera on phone.
If you buy budget phones, don't be surprised they stop working soon after the warranty expires. I had a Samsung Galaxy A32 and just a few days after the 1 years mark, the camera lens started to fall out, even when glued back together, the image quality degraded because of exposure to dust and moisture. As to the camera, there is a huge difference between image quality as the phone price goes up. If you get a flagship, the phone camera is just as good as an actual camera. Flagships aren't really that expensive if you wait a bit for prices to drop. Android phones goes on sale within a few months of release. You can get an Unlocked Google Pixel 7 128GB for $499 in the US, $100 cheaper than the 2 years older iPhone 12. All phones since Google Pixel 6 have minimum 5 years of security updates, same as Apple. Flagships aren't that expensive if you wait for sales. Using a Pixel 7 for 5 years is better than buying a $100 phone every year.