Or you could buy an android phone and have it break with 5 months to go on your contract. You can't get it repaired because the warranty is expired, you can't upgrade without paying full price of $500, and you can't leave the contract.
So you learn to live with 1/4 of your "touch"screen being not touchable at all--move your apps to the left side, get an app that lets you answer the phone without swiping, and forget about playing games or ever pressing the search button--and you hope that the new verizon iphone will create a glut in the used market.
Is there some reason you can't pay for an out of warranty repair? I don't think products breaking outside the warranty period is Android specific - if you dunk an iPhone a year after purchase you'll be spending dollars on a repair.
Wasn't offered at Verizon, but it could have been an unhelpful salesperson. If not them I can probably find a 3rd party repair. Don't know why I wasn't considering this, thanks for pointing it out.
I wasn't trying to trash android, just annoyed at the whole lock-in/upgrade scheme.
They usually want you to pay for insurance so they make these things difficult without such plans. The insurance has been worth it in my experience -- it adds $7-$10/mo, but covers a lot of damage that the warranty excludes, and you don't have these hassles or worries after warranty expires. I agree that it's a greedy, crappy scheme, but that's how the carriers want you to get your phone "repaired".
So you learn to live with 1/4 of your "touch"screen being not touchable at all--move your apps to the left side, get an app that lets you answer the phone without swiping, and forget about playing games or ever pressing the search button--and you hope that the new verizon iphone will create a glut in the used market.