Ah.

Renting is you pay $X a month and when the contact ends everyone walks away. You don’t get the thing back, the other party does.

Leasing is close but slightly different. You still pay $X, you still don’t own it and can walk away at the end.

But with a lease you are given a choice to buy the thing at a pre-arranged price when the lease is over. So when you sign the contract you know that at the end you can pay $700 and it’s yours. Or you can still walk away.

It’s far, far more common with cars. The dealership guesses how much the car will be worth and offers you at lease based on that. If the car is worth more at the end of the lease than your buyout price, you can buy the car cheaper then you could, on the open market. If it’s worth less, you can walk away. You didn’t lose as much as you would have if you had gotten a loan, and you could go buy the same car used if you wanted for less.

For something like a phone, I’m not sure it really matters that much. So I don’t know why they decided to do leases.