Smartphones are close to achieving &#x27;commodity&#x27; status as far as I&#x27;m concerned.<p>I just paid $60 (no commitment&#x2F;contract) for a Lumia 640 (it was a gophone, which works fine on my regular AT&amp;T plan).  It&#x27;s a reasonably fast, decently built phone, and I must say the Windows phone UI is starting to grow on me (and I HATE windows 8&#x2F;10 on the desktop).<p>Besides voice calls, I use a smartphone mostly for texting, email, web browsing, maps, music, and the occasional (netflix) streaming video.<p>A $60 phone can now handle all of these things easily, so I would be stupid to spend more (vanity? status symbol?).  If I drop it onto the sidewalk and it shatters, I&#x27;ll merely sigh, mumble something obscene, and go buy another one.  My reaction to dropping a $600 phone would be a bit more... extreme (mostly because I can&#x27;t afford to replace a $600 phone on the spot).