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To ask you to find my DD a phone

1 reply

Magentam · 06/01/2026 22:17

Sorry for posting on AIBU but am posting for traffic as need quick answers.
I want to buy DD 12 a phone. It will be her first one.
I want to buy her a dumbphone due to her young age and she's happy with not having internet access or SM. She simply wants to text friends and call me. However, she has severely bad dyslexia and she won't cope with a Nokia type keyboard due to having to press multiple times to get the different letters to spell out a word. Too much processing and sequencing involved which her dyslexia causes difficulties with. I want to make life easier for her, not give her yet another obstacle to contend with.
I need to find her a phone that has a QWERTY keyboard, but that isn't a smartphone.
I have scoured the internet but all I can find is the new phone released by mumsnet which looks perfect but costs hundreds of pounds and I can't afford it, or a phone called 'The Phone' which can only be bought from France.
Does another QWERTY dumbphone exist?
*Edited to add: Am I doing her a disservice by not getting her a smartphone? Her dyslexia is very severe, to the point of being a significant disability for her. Smartphones have assistive tech which would be brilliant for her. But I so don't want to go down the SM and online phone safety issues that smartphones present for children. Very mindful of the smartphone free childhood campaign.

OP posts:
slashlover · 06/01/2026 22:33

A quick google and search around reddit has suggested the Nokia Asha, they're on CEX for £20-35 on CEX depending on the model. While they do have internet capability, it's 3G which is going to be painful to use and most of the big networks have said they're going to stop supporting it.

I'd do some research before committing though.

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