Best budget smartphone for 10 year old?

[pumpkintits]

Looking for any recommendations please for a phone for DD for her birthday.

I'd ideally like to buy outright so I can get a cheaper giffgaff contract and budget is £100-£150 max. I've been browsing and looking at Honor and motorola phones but not sure which are good and which aren't. I've been in a few shops and they have recommended phones that are way above our price range to buy outright and still more than I'd like to pay if I got it on contract.

I've been into a few shops and have been recommended phones that are way above our budget and even on a monthly contract they would cost more than I'd like to pay.

Does anyone have any recommendations of something that might be suitable?

We actually brought DSD9 one for her birthday last month! I got a refurbished iPhone from giffgaff (literally no mark on it think it was graded A?) for £75 and then the rolling month sim card for £10 which gives her enough data etc.

When setting up the iPhone, I done it as a child's phone which means both dad and I can access the settings on our own phones. We put time limit on her apps so TikTok for 1 hour a day, general phone use 9am-6pm and then it locks itself except to allow her to message or call us.

https://www.giffgaff.com/mobile-phones/refurbished?brands=apple&sort=price-asc

It all depends on the stock they have in but here's a direct link. I also done ours through topcashback and then got £35 cash back too which was a bonus! For the parental control side of things though, I honestly cannot fault the iPhone as it links to our own iPhones so well for control and monitoring

Can I ask what model you bought please? That sounds exactly like what we need! 😊

We got DS11 a Samsung for 130 quid. Think it's a Samsung Galaxy A13.

I'd get whatever phone system you have (iPhone or Android) as it's much easier to manage parental controls if your phone is the same. Get a refurbished phone from musicmagpie / iOutlet or similar. I've just bought my Yr 6 child a refurbished iPhone SE 2020 for £120. It still updates and does everything they need it to.

@pumpkintits Just checked and it's a iPhone SE 2020 and of course she wanted red 😁 It has finger print recognition, not Face ID but otherwise it's a great starter phone whilst she's learning how to navigate and be trusted. For example she's away this weekend with our friends and their children so im putting it on the 'downtime' setting so she can't sit glued to it except to take photos, view gallery, check her rooster banking app and call/text her dad and I - you can choose which apps to make an always allow, along with what contacts in her phone book, and also individual app limits. The tracker also cannot ever be disabled by her at any point. Can only be done from our settings on our phone.

Thanks so much everyone, I like the sound of the IPhone SE 2020 and the Samsung Galaxy.

I'm a Huawei fan and DH has iphones, not sure how Samsung phones phones compare (I know very little about phones and neither does DH) but the extra parental controls of the IPhone sound good.

My first phone was a Nokia3410 when I was 12 and I was just thrilled at having Snake 😂

Cubot pocket it's dinky ( 4") android it's brilliant!
Backmarket is good for refurbished phones

Samsung phones have a really good battery if that helps 😀

I did exactly what @hereistopositiveenergy has done. Bought an iPhone SE 2nd generation phone. It was refurbished on Amazon so comes with their guarantee. Cost £135.