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For a person who isn’t technical (able to compile programs), an iPhone has a superset of a laptop’s functionality. Except, much more user-friendly, because all your programs come from the App Store.

A $600 laptop is not a prestige device.

> For a person who isn’t technical (able to compile programs), an iPhone has a superset of a laptop’s functionality.

That doesn't even begin to make any sense. Can you run CAD software or serious photo processing on a phone (like DxO)? Nothing I run on a mac can run on a phone.

It’s not “just” a phone. As a previous comment addressed: a high quality camera, video or audio editing workstation, hotspot, nav system, media player.. you can even get FLIR camera attachments, use it as a measuring device, and play high quality games on it.

“Just” a phone would make and receive phone calls and that’s it.

> That's an inordinate amount of money for what's just a phone.

i would argue the phone app on an iPhone is the least used function of the phone. It's certainly not "just a phone".

“Just a phone” is incredibly reductive, and not an argument made in good faith.