I just busted my pixel 3, and might need a new phone depending on the repair cost.

I don't give that much of a fuck about my phone, but I was under the impression that getting the latest phone is going to mean more years of support, meaning buying older phones means you have to buy a new phone more often. Kind of like buying $80 boots vs $200 boots. My samsung galaxy s3 I bought in 2013 (I think) was no longer supported by the time pokemon GO stuff was happening in 2016.

I look at phones as a cost per year basically. I don't care how good the screen or camera is, just that apps are supported on it for as long as possible. So [cost] divided by [years of support]. My question is, how would I go about evaluating how many years my phone is probably going to last, relative to the cost of it?

I'm on Verizon which I think limits my choices by a lot. It generally just seems like my choices are flagship phones and previous year's flagship phones.