To question whether to allow my baby to play with a toy smartphone and/or remote control?

[dellacucina]

As in Fisher Price versions? Thoughts on these toys?

We tried to get dd a set of toy keys, phone and remote, when she was little. It didn't work she only wanted the real ones.

I had a Fischer price phone in the 60s and now have having a home phone. HTH. :)

Or they like pressing buttons to make a noise. Cause and effect although of course other toys will do this too. Some children do like the predictably of these sort of toys though and it isn't necessarily about copying others.

It's fine to play with that. Toys are often based on real life objects as that's what interests young babies and children and part of how they learn, by watching us and putting that into practice with their own toys.

Or you could go the cheapskate route and give an old phone and a calculator to DC like I did.

fwiw she lost interest at about 18 months.

The toy versions bear very little resemblance to the real thing therefore don't encourage them to want the real thing. Seeing mummy, daddy etc. using the real thing is what makes them want them.