Shaggy, if you haven't brought a phone yet, check-out the Samsung A51. That's what I have after I retired my dinosaur of a cell phone a couple of months back. I mostly use the phone for calls, which is about a 1 or 2 a week, but I have installed Whatsapp to join my wife's family group. I brought it in Euros, but in dollars it's around $265.

What ever smart phone you get, to keep it snappy, permanently disable all the bloatware running in the background. There are plenty of instructions on the internet about disabling and uninstalling software, boasting performance with other tweaks, and making it more secure and private.