I'd been a long Android fan, mainly for reasons of being able to customize my phone more and more different types of apps. These days, I want a phone without bloatware, that just works, respects my privacy, and in a small size. I use an iPhone SE 2nd generation. I got it for around $400 new, and you can easily get a lightly used SE, even 3rd generation, for your budget if you don't want to shell out $400. I've found Apple commits to keeping their phones updated for much longer than most Android manufacturers, and even with the cheapest iPhone it's not much more than a comparable Android phone, but it has higher build quality. The other problem is that there aren't a lot of great Android-based manufacturers out there now. Motorola when owned by Google had some good high quality cheaper phones, but the quality has gone downhill since being sold to Lenovo. Samsung is very hit or miss at the lower end of the price spectrum. And you'll likely need to replace your phone sooner because of lack of security updates (only reason I had to ditch my last Android phone, which was perfectly fine otherwise).
