Is there a halfway house between a brick and a smartphone?

[Flippetydip]

DS is very much the only child (bar one) who does not have a phone in his year. He is final year primary (year 6 and aged 11). We have always avoided him having a phone until we feel he's mature enough to handle it and feel that he actually needs one. He is now, however, feeling very left out because he doesn't have one. Whilst I realise this is not a reason to capitulate I don't want to unnecessarily make life more awkward than it is. He doesn't really have gaming other than Wii either so we are a bit of an outlier in the tech age.

I don't want him having a smartphone before secondary (which is only half a year away) but I also get that he would like something. I'm willing to compromise so that he has one after Easter for the final term of year 6 but would like a reasonable "dumb" phone.

I am technically incompetent so any advice gratefully received.

a smartphone IS a brick, look at the size of the things. And you are right to be concerned even if all the other parents allow unlimited access to porn.

very difficult to get something small with a long lasting battery and a camera in the shops, but plenty available on ebay etc. This is the one plus of drug dealers, they ensure a good supply of usable phones.

on second thoughts, not a camera! I forgot what kids do now.

@Mencken - thank you - I am concerned! I have no idea whether I am being unduly worried as I know he'll have to go down that route eventually.

I am happy for him to have a camera just looking for a basic, camera, text, call, game (off-line) like "snake" or something.

I am in the same situation and am looking at getting the Nokia 105 (I think) on Amazon. There is also the Nokia 3310 (?) - I had the original version of this about 20 years ago and am regretting getting rid of it, as it would have been perfect.

Other options here as well:

www.mumsnet.com/swearsby/best-phones-for-kids

Thanks @whendoIsleep. They mostly seem to be Smartphones though. I'm sure I'm over thinking this as we just need to go down the smartphone route but I'm just not feeling ready to embrace it yet.

Nokia 105 looks good, but no camera....which I think would be a good thing to have.

Just get him a basic smartphone and don't give him internet access. If he hasn't got any data and can't connect to your WiFi, he won't be able to go online.

If you want a camera, then you're talking about a basic smartphone. You could go online (slowly) even with the really early ones with cameras

Also, I just held off until secondary so I didn't have to buy two phones!

What does he want it for?

He wants it because everyone else has one and he has FOMO like any other 11 year old I guess. Either that or he's drug dealing on the QT.

He's pretty good about it generally. He has been the only one out of his friendship circle for at least a year without a phone and he hasn't really nagged at all about it. He just got a bit upset last night and it made me question things a bit.

I bought a new nokia 3310 a year ago for a back up phone. It has a camera and snake. And very basic painfully slow internet. Was about £50.

The problem with not getting a smartphone is that the kids all seem to use WhatsApp instead of texts.

If anyone knows of a brick that does WhatsApp I am ALL EARS.

A brick with WhatsApp and no internet would be great, but can't imagine that's even possible.

Not possible I don't think as WhatsApp uses data. The whole phone bit is utterly pointless for most kids - I don't think my kids have ever sent an SMS or made a phone call that wasn't via WhatsApp