I wouldn’t get too stuck on a brand name and lose sight of the economics of owning a smartphone. iPhones are reliable, but so are a number of others brands. My HTC Inspire 4G has worked flawlessly in the past 3 years or so. It was something like a $450 phone for free. I went in to buy an iPhone, but the HTC was much nicer all around than the dated iPhone 4 I looked at, plus it was hard to beat a deal on a free phone with the plan compared to spending hundreds of dollars for the Apple name. But the choice is yours.
Thanks for all of the info and advice, Kirkwood. I appreciate it.