I have a three or four year old smart phone that I'm waiting patiently to die so I can replace it without feeling guilty. The other day when I was thinking about replacing it I remembered phones from the early '00s. Candy bar phones, flip phones, those nifty little sliders. Half of those things were pretty cheap, but the other half lasted forever, andany had nifty features like built in bluetooth, the ability to play MP3s, and even a camera of you were willing to splurge. The form factor was as much of a selling point as anything else, they were fashion statements almost. Now we have all of the features we could want and none of the cool form factors. It's nice in a way, cause we don't have to make anywhere near as many compromises. Still, I kind of miss buttons.
I'm on Fi right now. Don't know what your time frame is, but I'm sure it's worth waiting until the new HTC phone comes out (forget what they're calling it--not Nexus). The Nexus 5X is ok, but it's kinda cheap. Having never seen the HTC phone, I can still almost guarantee it will be nicer. Also, you get $150 discount on the handset when you sign up for Fi. You may already know that, but it's not heavily advertised if you just go on the Nexus page. I almost bought the phone then signed up for Fi, because I didn't know any better.
Yeah, been looking at that. Good tip about the 5X 'cuz I was going to saddle my wife with one. Apparently the specs between the Nexus 6P and the "Google Pixel XL" are pretty damn similar so I was thinking of jumping on it... but if the 5X is plastick-ey we'll hold off. Assuming my wife's iPhone survives another month. A friend tried to order the new iPhone in blacker-than-black. It wouldn't let him. "mostly black" was due end of November. Ridiculous.