Phones

[Midnight]

Evening all ,

Whether or not I agree , I have been told by my better half that when my eldest goes to his next school in September that he will need a phone .

I know nothing about phones , so what would be a decent cheapish phone ?

Any advice on good contract, or do I just get a sim . Don't really trust the shops.

Cheers for any help.

 

[xcore]

Can get basic phones for a tenner with free credit

 

[Pin-seeker]

iPhone,some good deals if you don't get the latest model.

 

[brendy]

Motorola Moto G series are very hard to look past, good battery, vivid screen and expandable storage if needed, you can go slightly older depending on budget.
I got both my eldest girl and wife a £10 PAYG sim each which gives them unlimited texts, 2gb data and 500 minutes talk time free. Works well for them.

 

[Deleted member 1740]

Look at the giff gaff 30 day rolling tariff's, loads of data, calls and texts for £20.

I'd be inclined to look at the HTC or Samsung models. I'm not a fan of IPhones.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

How old is your son? What do his mates have? If it is incredibly basic then he may not want it as it would be embarrassing for him. Don't underestimate that. I'm not saying get an expensive phone but don't get him the equivalent of a pair of Dunlop trainers when his mates have Nike and Adidas.

 

[Midnight]

Thanks for everyone's input so far, not even thought about the embarrassment factor.

 

[Region3]

I don't know if other providers do this, but I'm with EE and I added a sim only contract to my bill for my daughter with unlimited calls and texts, and shares my data for £13/mth.

 

[Robster59]

Motorola Moto G series are very hard to look past, good battery, vivid screen and expandable storage if needed, you can go slightly older depending on budget.
I got both my eldest girl and wife a £10 PAYG sim each which gives them unlimited texts, 2gb data and 500 minutes talk time free. Works well for them.

I'd agree with this. Great bangs for the buck compared to nearly all the other brands out there. About a quarter of the price of the iPhone.
I'm on Tesco and you can cap the spend on the SIM and also restrict what they can look at.

 

[HowlingGale]

Plusnet is one of, if not the best deals at the moment. Uses the ee network and you get 1500 mins of calls unlimited texts and 2gb data for £7.50 a month. Thats what i'll be doing when my contract expires in July.

Just buy a sim-free phone online. If you can still get one lg g3 or 4 should be fairly cheap. The g3 was a market leader when itcame out a few years ago. I still use mine and it does the job.

 

[Spear-Chucker]

We've just been through this in the last 6 months and it can be quite difficult. Simple basic phones get treated like disposable items by some, the next level up such as Motorola's and Windows phones (where we are with Chucker minor right now - he understands and accepts cost limitations) are ok and enable them to use Instagram etc - which they all want to do. They can take a reasonable battering too which is useful as cases are generally not 'cool' and will be often removed minutes after they disappear into school.

They ALL want iPhone's which are great of course but more expensive and be prepared for cracked screens (the lad tells me about one per fortnight among his friends and associates). They are the cool accessory to have though and that's pretty important to the kids if not us grown ups.

Look out for good deals with bundles featuring unlimited texts and high minutes of call time and if it's a smartphone learn to find wifi hotspots at every opportunity to keep data use to a minimum.

 

[Fish]

Look at the giff gaff 30 day rolling tariff's, loads of data, calls and texts for £20.

I'd be inclined to look at the HTC or Samsung models. I'm not a fan of IPhones.

I use GiffGaff and I can't get through £15 and I've only just upgraded form £10 and I'm never off it for everything! £20 is loads too much for a kid that's never had a phone before, I'd start with what I give my wife, a fiver

:smirk:

Oh, and get a 6310i, best phone ever, keeps him off the internet but great for calls, texts and battery life is immense :thup:

 

[stokie_93]

Try asking your son!

I bet he knows more than all the old todgers on here

 

[Midnight]

Try asking your son!

I bet he knows more than all the old todgers on here

The problem being he will say I phone 😁😁

 

[stokie_93]

The problem being he will say I phone 

.

Take a look at one of the older models?

The SE is a good cheaper option but still has an iPhone

 

[RustyTom]

How about an older samsung. S4/S5 im sure you can get them pretty cheap now and they have all the bells and whistles, or a sony xperia z2. Great phone and waterproof incase it gets dropped down the bog

 

[ScienceBoy]

Buy them a nice one and say if it breaks you will replace it like for like, with a bright pink one covered in glitter, sparkles and stickers

 

[Beezerk]

Has to be an IPhone I'm afraid (older model will do) he'll get laughed out of school with anything else, specially a Windows phone.

 

[Rooter]

I phone 5c or the SE will mean he wont get beaten up. you can buy both factory refurb models on ebay for circa 100-150 quid. PAYG sim and he has to earn pocket money to buy credit. simples!

 

[brendy]

Has to be an IPhone I'm afraid (older model will do) he'll get laughed out of school with anything else, specially a Windows phone.

Really? My eldest daughter has my Galaxy note 4 (I moved on to newer) and her friends love it.