That’s incredibly pathetic. My phone’s UI (sxmo) is a bunch of desktop software and a handful of phone specific tools stuck together with shell scripts and it manages to turn the screen off while the proximity sensor detects my ear during a call.

If you’re willing to drop most native mobile apps and maybe spend some time tinkering, you could get the far niche-er alternative of a GNU/Linux phone for as little as $150 (plus ~15% more for shipping all the way from China).