So my 10 year old desperately wants a smartphone of some sort for Christmas, he’s reasonably sensible but can be a bit forgetful, but aren’t they all at that age.

Anyhow we wouldn’t be getting a new one (I’ve never had a new one either, always older iPhones, on a 5 myself at the mo, on sim only deals) and was thinking of an iPhone 4 or 5 from something like CEX as they are the only phones I know anything about, but are there any Android phones we should look out for, thinking something cheap as a try out them maybe upgrade the phone for when he goes to secondary school in the Autumn, any suggestions?

One of those JCB ones? Something extremely robust…. Ooh wait: Gen 1 Moto G, if you can find one that’s got a good battery.

We picked up a BNIB Samsung J3 from eBay for £75, far cheaper than that CEX place. Sim card from Tesco.

A quick scan shows BIN for £120ish, we got lucky on an auction.

Make offer: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Samsung-Galaxy-J3/142606642134?hash=item213404abd6:g:lkUAAOSwLJ9aD0iS

Moto E5 – nice phone, does everything, cheap.

I got my lad the basic one that Vodafone do in their shops for about £20. It’s basic, laggy and has pretty poor storage but at his age he has no idea what he really wants one for anyway.
I got it just to be able to keep in touch when he’s at his mum’s and vice versa.

Cheers guys, some great ideas

Bear in mind he’ll probably drop it or lose it so so don’t go daft.

Ours at secondary school age got their first one.

Second hand, middling Android as first. (Always in case and screen protector)
They get maximum £10 top up a month.
All other costs are theirs – including any over spend or upgrading to better phone.
So far all three of ours have saved own hard earned cash and birthday moneys for a better phone, so far we have only had a couple of days of ‘out of credit’.
Eldest now has a contract (in my name) and pays me back the extra £6 a month from paper round earnings.
So far no broken or lost phones – and all three respect the phone and its value (not in cash) to them.

I also until 16 have to have their passwords – any deviation from this = phone taken from them. So far I have not had any cause for concern to even check anything on phones. We also go via Vodafone/Talkmobile mainly as their filters are pretty good it seems, and at home go via OpenDNS. My biggest concern is what I am facilitating their access to via a web browser…

I also until 16 have to have their passwords – any deviation from this = phone taken from them. So far I have not had any cause for concern to even check anything on phones.

How do you know that the passwords are valid, if you haven’t checked?

(Genuine question, I’m not being an arse!)

got ours one when he started at secondary school.
2nd hand iphone 6 in case with screen protector
3 mobile tenner a month gives 4gb data and unlimited calls/texts

has worked well this way as we don’t have to worry about running up bills etc

@Cougar – phone passwords/passcodes/shapes I do *occasionally* check. So far I have logged into Android acc of them all without checking and detail – just it is the same password we set together.
I am sure one of them could choose to avoid it/me, so far I don’t think they have.

Our two eldest have got Moto C.

For the lad we bought it outright (80quid or so from Argos), then fiver a month from plusnet.

Daughter got hers through a deal at Tesco. 8.50 a month incl. handset and a set of over ear headphones. Bargain

£10 a month will get you a deal with the handset if you shop in a super market.

I do *occasionally* check.

Fair enough then.

I was curious because I’ve been on the receiving end of this in workplaces – middle management demanding the master Administrator password to the domain, insisting on keeping “password lists” for their staff, and so forth. It’s something which I’m steadfastly against in a corporate environment. There are a few ways around it, but by far the easiest way is simply to lie.

When I did once get caught out and cornered with the Administrator one, I wound up renaming the Administrator account as “Admin” or some such and then creating a regular user account called “Administrator” which I could cheerfully disclose the password for to anyone who wanted it.