The competing Apple variant (lower res HDish screen but much faster CPU) is the iPhone SE 128GB for $449. It will probably get OS updates for 5 years which works out to $7.48 per month.
- phone batteries basically on last 2 years or less (iPhones are rated to 80% capacity after 500 cycles), which means your phone will last 4/5 as long as it did when new and possibly shut off prematurely in cold/hot temperatures unless you pay for a battery replacement ($50-100+)
- since we bring phones with us pretty much anywhere, a random fall in a pool, an unforseen rain storm, or butterfingers over a hard surface could end up destroying your phone well before those points.
While the SE (2020) certainly has more potential life than the 4a, both phones become fairly useless after 3 years due to the battery concern anyway and might not make it that far depending on who's using them. At that point, the 64GB larger storage, nicer screen, better camera, and $50 lower price of the 4a becomes a competitive advantage.
5.3 being newer than the 7.2, but down one class in "feature set"?