About a simple mobile phone

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I got my son (10) a cheap pay as you go mobile as he's just started walking home himself and it's quite a way...so he can call me if needs be. He's now cross as apparently friends all have cool ones and this is boring and old fashioned. AIBU? I don't want a screen one to add to screens and also read it can distract them walking along. Also we are on a tight budget, and these phones are cheap, also charge lasts ages and if it gets wrecked it is not so much of an issue. He now says he doesn;t want to take this phone and wants to get another.

My eldest had a basic phone to prove she could be trusted with a bells and whistles one when going to high school.

She took it seriously, graduated to an old smartphone of mine and more recently a new lower spec phone of her own.

When I explained there was no way she'd be walking around with something worth a couple of hundred pounds aka my old phone in her pocket without earning the privilege and trust for one, she wound her neck in and accepted the cheap mobile with grace.

It shouldn’t matter but in reality most 10 year olds around here have iPhones 🤷‍♀️

Doesn't matter what the other kids have.
When he can afford his own phone, he can decide what to get.

I work in the mobile phone industry and have done so for over 10 years. I constantly see parents shelling out loads of money on expensive phones for their children. Those same parents end up coming back into store having to spend even more money on insurance excess fees or even worse, a full repair cost of over hundreds of pounds. Which usually happens at some point because the children getting the phones don't understand the value of them and aren't as careful with them as a result.

What you've started him on is perfect.

Thanks. Yes it is also maybe because his older brother has a better one but he is 14 and saved up...he could have another when older but for the time being it seems a sensible choice.