iOS is evil and should not be countenanced.
Some fun things to know:
There are three and a half real phone carriers in the US, Tmobile, Verizon, AT&T and the half is US Cellular, which is only available in some parts of the US Midwest.
There are DOZENS of MVNOs, resellers of services from one of the big three. Some of the resellers are just subsidiaries of the main-line carriers. For example Boost and Mint are both owned by Tmo directly. Other carriers can use more than one network, but your phone will never be active on multiple networks at the same time unless you're paying for access via more than one SIM.
When you're buying a plan, be aware that you definitely qualify for AARP/55+ discounts at the very least, and may have more qualifying discounts based on being a Rutgers alum or possibly a union member.
You can definitely overbuy on 4G/5G data coverage, which you will only use when you're not on a local network. Maybe take a couple months to get a handle on what your normal usage looks like. 10GB might be plenty for you, but you may also need 30GB or 50GB of data service. Start with a pay as you go plan to get an idea of what you need.
Many non-premium phone plans are deprioritized. This means your calls could drop or data service slowed if a cell tower becomes busy with requests from premium plan subscribers of a given network operator. In practice, I'm aware that this is why I was nearly always able to use my phone and data service at places like Obama's 2004 victory party in Chicago and at Lollapalooza; I'm on a premium subscriber tier and most people aren't. Honestly, most plans that are on any kind of discount from normal rates from the actual carriers are deprioritized.
Tmobile has the actual fastest network and tends to work well in urban and suburban areas.
Verizon's network isn't fast, but it has the most towers overall, so Verizon often works in places where no other carrier does. In Chicago, Verizon phones will be the only ones that get a signal on the underground portions of the El. Verizon also charges the most money for everything always.
AT&T has nothing to recommend it, being neither all that fast nor having amazing coverage. It's kind of always $5 cheaper than Verizon.
I'd encourage absolutely anyone to look at MVNOs over primary carriers. Mint/Boost, US Mobile, Vision, Tello, Google Fi, all have good offerings.
You should also be aware that not all carriers support RCS Texting. This is something you have to specifically ask about if you care. RCS allows for full-quality binaries to be texted between Android devices, but also newer iphones. This is a big deal in particular because Apple has in the past gone out of its way to degrade the quality of binary messages delivered between its network (iMessage) and the SMS network not-Apple uses.
You can buy unlocked phones, which does nicely solve the issue of choice in network provider. Locked phones are sometimes cheaper and carriers DO have to unlock them if the phone is paid for. I try to avoid used phones for myself but they are a decent way to save money. Phones are a total PITA to work on since they're all basically glass sandwiches now, so I'd rather buy with an eye toward getting a new battery than anything else.
If you buy an iphone, get Applecare for it it because parts procurement for third party components is a nightmare.
If you buy a Samsung phone, get a Samsung+ plan for it. I think these are only available on phones bought directly through Samsung, but they deliver to Best Buy if you'd like. I paid $100 for two years of coverage when I got my S24.
In either case, the main reason for this is broken screens. Even if you're comfortable doing electronics repair, the devices are extremely hard to take apart without special tools.
