Would it be cheaper in the long run to buy a newer phone less often? Get a "this year flagship" and use it for 5 years rather than a couple year old model and use it for 2-3?

Yeah protective case helps A LOT. I've broken two phones basically two weeks from buying them by dropping them on the floor before I put them in protective case. Costly mistakes, I don't do them anymore. Nowadays I buy the case together with the phone.

I don't know if it's just my luck, I never drop my phone, but when I buy new, I'm guaranteed to drop it several times a day for the first two weeks of owning it. The protective case is a phone saver

For me i had a case and a screen protection film bit the phone dropped on stone pavement exactly so that a higher part of the stone hit the screen edge between the case and the panzer glass.

My phones all fail from internal hardware faults. Also never broken a screen.

I had a S3 that the battery would only last 12 hours or so, but the EMMC failed before the battery did.

People drop their phones. It's not complicated.

You might just be lucky. Tempering glass is a tricky business and it can be very very strong if impacted in some places but extremely weak in others.

Attempted to take picture. Dropped phone from chest height. Center of screen hit corner of I-beam sitting on ground that I was standing at the end of. Bought a screen protector after that.

Dropped it off the top of some pallet racking, ping ponged down, broke the button and cracked the screen at the bottom near the button. Bought a case (and kept the screen protector on under it, lol)

Left it sitting on top of trailer tongue tool box to run timer to check/flip lunch that was being grilled in the vicinity. Trailer was involved in a minor industrial accident. Phone got tossed and crunched. Lunch was fine.

Exposed the 3rd one to, IDK, something, that etched it without hurting the case. IDK what that would be though since I can't think of anything that I have around or use that would do that.

Current phone has survived since 2022. Last month the case finally wore out to the point where corners were coming apart and it would sometimes get caught on its way in/out of pockets and got replaced.

I’m not crazy like some people, but I’ve broken screens many times and every time it has been in a case, one time it was in a case I specifically bought for extra protection.

Half of my screen breaks have been from getting out of my car with my phone in my lap and gravel on the ground.

Another way I’ve broken screens is from my phone falling out of my pocket and onto rocks/concrete. That has happened twice.

And the final way has been from getting smashed in my pocket. I slipped while scrambling some rocks and my phone(in a case I bought for this long backpacking trip) got smashed on my hip, another time I was running around at my friend’s house at night and ran into a wheel barrow, smashing it on my thigh.

Never had a battery fail.

A note: My current iPhone 16 pro is built like a tank, and the glass is truly extraordinary.

I recently broke my 12 Mini beyond reasonable repair during a battery replacement recently (mostly just bad luck, I've been doing my own mobile repair for a long time). I bought a 17 to replace it, and promptly returned it in favor of a used 13 Mini. It's wild to me how large the smallest mainstream phone you can buy these days has become.