Best first mobile for 11 year old boy

[Katryn]

Any ideas? We are with Orange Network.

Tesco do a dead basic Samsung for a tenner, with a PAYG SIM thrown in. I would start off with something like that to see if he can manage not to lose it within a week

If he shows he can look after it, then (if he wants) you could consider something a bit more techy with camera etc. But if it's just for communication the basic one is fine.

You could also consider putting him on \link{http://giffgaff.com/\giffgaff}

\link{http://phone-shop.tesco.com/mobile-phones-and-sim-cards/pay-as-you-go-phones/SIM-FREE-Samsung-E1080i-212-5470\actually it's £15 for an unlocked one} (£10 on Tesco Mobile)

Thanks for info, if you join giffgaff - what network are you using? Yes Tesco sounds good deal, but Orange are offering contract plus phone for £10 a month and as far as I can tell you get better deals like that than with pay as you go, but will investigate. Good point about losing phone too.

the risk with a contract phone is if they lose it & someone picks it up & makes eg international calls before it's blocked (happened to my DD, masses of calls to Africa overnight - Orange waived half the charges but it was still a lot. Mind you she was a lot older than 11 & out at night )

giffgaff uses O2 I think

Samsung tocco icon. Looks nice, touchscreen etc and has wifi. But no 3G which means he can't use t to watch endless shite on YouTube when he is out of the house

What is the main use for the phone - being able to contact you or play with the gizmos?

My dss both have very basic phones -they can call and make texts - no cameras and only really basic games. One has a cheapy Tescos one and the other an old Nokia of dh. They then got itouches for birthdays for the games stuff.

We still had a problem with ds1 playing games on his and running out of charge, so he couldn't call home and let me know what train to meet. They can take the phones to school (train & bus trip) now don't play games on them and I can contact them, they can call me. They are unlikely to be stolen (as they are quite pants).

Itouches don't go to school or the woods to play, I can take them away as punishment & I couldn't take the phone of them or would not know what train to meet.

I think the main use is for him to contact us when he starts travelling to secondary school. Of course I am worried that he will lose it, but talking to Orange it seems to work out cheaper getting contract than pay as you go. We have actually decided to give him a trial with an old phone of ours and then if he doesn't lose it, get him an upgrade. Thanks for all the info.

contracts are always better deals for what you want to get; it's only a problem if you have to pay for anything you didn't want to get

I gave DSD an old mobile of mine to begin with on now she has succussfully managed not to destroy, chew, draw on etc it we will be getting her a second hand Blackberry (phone of choice with the in crowd apparently) for her next phone

Tesco do the Samsung Chat for free on a £7.50 per month contract. That gives about 150 minutes, 3000 texts and (I think) 500 mb data. You can opt to have to contract capped so they can't go over the limits (so there will be no nasty bills). My 10 year old had this one for Christmas, as did most of her friends. It's a funky little phone and a good deal. Clubcard points too!!

DS had my old phone for the first term at secondary, to test his "reliability" and so he could establish what sort of phone he might like longer-term.

He now has a Blackberry, which is what a lot of them use (for the BBM instant messaging). He is very careful with it, but knows that if it gets lost he will be using DH's knackered old one until his contract ends.

DD1 starts secondary in September, and we will do the same thing, start with an old phone. She's a bit of a scatterbrain, though, and I'll think long and hard before giving her anything expensive!

Habdab thanks for tip about Samsung Chat it looks perfect for what I had in mind.