One thing of note is that many of the cheapo Android phones that are also high-spec don't necessarily come with malware from the factory - that $79 price is the real price, running AOSP. They will happily sell you it for the real price!

But if you live in a different country, your only choice might be through reshippers/resellers, who will root the phone and install their own malware onto the system partition for $1 in profit, seal it back in its box, without the factory's knowledge. This happens somewhat-frequently.