I always buy my smartphones off Amazon as unlocked ones, I ain't giving these mobile service fuckers any more money in monthly installments and other fees. I'd rather pay $1000-$1200 up front then $3000 for 2 years of installement fees, and other crap.
I probably should start doing this, I just end up paying them back faster than needed and shave off some of the price with a trade in of the old phone. The thing I will not do every again though is get like a paired device (tablet, watch, etc) from them.
I doubt my carrier will even carry these since they're pretty niche and you have to have their cable company to even use their phones. I'm sticking with my iPhone 12 Pro Max or Max Pro or whatever. I can't see going back to Android.
You should check out the phones made by Asus (or any gaming phone really). They're cheaper than the iPhone series but with better battery life, better sound system (dedicated sound amplifiers), as well as a build quality just as good?
It's a gaming phone, so it should be able to do everything that a regular flagship smartphone should be able to do, and more!