Buy a refurbished or new in box flagship phone from a couple years ago. I paid like 1400$ for a Sony Xperia 1 III but now 2 years later it's like 500$, refurbished with a warranty. It's great value considering most phones brands don't change much in only 2 years and you still get a pretty cutting edge device.
good advice, i bought Moto G100 when it was about 3 years old and antutu benchmark is around double what my friends have for a similar price (Samsung A series)