so what mobile phone for secondary?

[PersonalParadox]

Hi im in a quandry of what mobile phone to get DS for when he srarts secondary school.

Torn between boringly practical (as he is bound to lose it) so high end PAYG phone of around £100 or get him onto contact and insure it?

He said he would rather quite like an iphone but i am struggling with the extragavance of it.

Clearly the cool factor is key to him but with so many to choose from i am totally flummoxed.

Please share your experiences - good and bad.

foragogo, can you recommend any apps for Samsung galaxy that really work? There are a few if you just search for them in Play Store, but the reviews are not all very positive.

Three of uni age DCs have cheapy androids and one has my old iphone4 - I've offered them iPhones but they like having cheaper phones that they don't have to worry about.

iPhones are worth so much money and are too attractive for thieves. We don't need to have the cheap phones insured either.

There is a certain 'coolness' associated with not having to have the latest iPhone. I love my iPhone but I think it's too valuable for little kids to have. One of my DC studies computer science and is quite vocal about his dislike of all things Apple - it's a fun thing to wind him up about

One good thing about iPhones is that it is fairly easy to retain some control over what your child can use it for. (Not that you can't on an android) If I was buying an iPhone for a younger teen I would not let them have the restrictions password ever I wouldn't let a younger teen have unrestricted access to the Internet on their phone and I think it's irresponsible if parents don't, at least, attempt to have parental restrictions on their kids smart phones.

Hi there I am currently trying out MMGuardian which seems to work really well on my android phone. It's a Google Nexus though not a Samsung galaxy but I'd have thought it would be compatible.

Ds (15) has a Moto G 2nd Gen and is happy with it. But neither he nor his school seem to be into "labels"

He's on PAYG with Tesco and is very good at not overusing it and/or using wifi as much as possible with his data turned off must of the time. As a result, he I only top up £15 every 2-3 months.

Cheap(ish) £50 2nd hand old Samsung Galaxy phones for yr7s in our household. (Also work in computing, no way will we allow Apple products in this house.)

Those Galaxy Ss were better than many newer models at the time of purchase, and kids didn't want to potentially lose hugely expensive phones.

Kids are on Three 123 PAYG, they occasionally use data, but mostly wait until they're home and can access the wifi. We've spent less than £20 per year on call charges so far.

Both have hand me down iPhones on a Tmobile/EE sim only contract of £6 per month. They get unlimited texts, 500 mins and 2gb data which they don't use any of it as they FaceTime/Skype and use apps like Instagram and whatsapp with their friends. I agree that a smartphone, at least where I live, is essential. My dd is encouraged to use hers in lessons and the school allows them to use their wifi.

We got dd a £99 iphone 5c a year ago from ebay. She said plenty have a 5 and some have a 4 at her school. Some have the latest ones but it doesn't bother her that she doesn't
We just got dd2 an iphone SE for £135 from ebay for when she goes to high school.