Can I ask what type of phone your teen has (for 14 year old) and roughly how much it cost please?

[Sweepingchange]

We have a phone battle going on at our house atm.

The old phone that dd has inherited from me and previously from dh has died (it was a Huawei); well apparently it doesn't receive Instagram any more which is tantamount to it dying apparently .

We are looking to buy dd a new phone but don't want something outrageously expensive or something that will attract thieves when she comes home from school on public transport.

I would be so grateful for some ideas about models and price ranges please (and all the ones dd has shown me on-line seem very expensive indeed) because I am clueless about this sort of thing and I don't want to be hoodwinked in to buying something that apparently "all her friends have".

Want to go in to this battle informed. We are not doing pay as you go because we run our own business (and live abroad anyway) and phone will be bought as part of office package ifyswim.

Thanks you very much for your help.

[ToffeeCaramel]

She's year 8 and not quite a teen though

[millifiori]

One has an iPhone (not lastest model) for about £25pcm and the other has a Sony now I think, for about £20. I have one of their cast offs, a Samsung Galaxy at £8, and a good friend who refuses to pay silly prices for teen phone contracts has all three of her teens on £8 smartphone monthly payments, so it's perfectly possible to get a good deal on a monthly if you want one.

[BuzzKillington]

Ours has an iPhone 6 on a contract. Not sure how much it is.

[PurpleAlerts]

A new i phone SE (which is the same tech as a 6s but same size as i phone 5s) is £340 at John Lewis at the moment. 2 year guarantee

Or you can still get i phone 5s new for £259 at JL also 2 year guarantee.

[Sweepingchange]

Goodness, lots more replies! Thank you very much for them.

I see there are more modest solutions out there which will be definitely be investigating. Thank you Backforgood Reallybadidea and Averythinline and others - we are thinking along the same lines I think!

All of this info has been really useful thank you: dh has just read this thread prior to nipping out alone (without dd who is busy with friends) to have a look to see what is available out there. That way he can suss it out objectively without any pressure and look in to deals and contracts too!

Maisypops yes I had my sceptical face on when dd was telling me that And I agree that schools should provide technology if they are relying on it to teach. I worry about the dc whose parents are unable to afford all these latest gadgets. Will definitely be looking in to the 6 and reconditioned models as you suggest, thank you.

Actuallythatsupremecommander dd is an 'only' so her friends are very very important to her - and I agree with you and Natalie that it is important in the teen years to be "in the gang" - but I don't want to spend silly money either and agree Euros 600 is madness!!

Chasingsquirrels thank you - yes - £200 was around the price I was thinking of paying - that is plenty expensive enough in my book for a young teen. But times have changed it seems .... .

Unicorn good to know about the 5 model being virtually indestructible thanks although yikes at broken screens Maisy!

Very useful info there about the upgrading system thank you MissWimpyDimple

Thanks that is reassuring Chewbacca

And thank you to everyone else who replied - I really appreciate your input, links and advice.

[Sweepingchange]

Thanks PurpleAlerts¨sadly we are abroad where everything is even more expensive than in UK but I am sure that info will be very useful for others reading this thread and Fuzzys links too!

[Sweepingchange]

Meant to say that all sounds v sensible Millifiori Badders and Sadik

[GaladrielsRing]

They both have Iphone SE, as do I. I had a small win on the lotto so bought them outright. We're all payg as use FaceTime and Facebook messenger calling, can't remember last time I topped up!

[Chasingsquirrels]

I'd also say that I have a Samsung S4 (but had it a while - got the S2 when it was brand new out, although I didn't know it at the time, and my S4 when the S5 had just been released) and my ds's J7 compares very favorably. As far as we could work out the only significant difference between the J and S ranges was the screen resolution, but the resolution on it seems fantastic. I'll seriously consider a J rather than an S when I replace mine. Ds says it is his best present ever. He'd had an old iPhone and has and iPad but didn't want another iPhone he specifically wanted an Android.

[Sweepingchange]

Thanks Gadrielsring and MissWimpy from down thread - the IphoneSE is one of the models we have on our list now

Chasingsquirrels that's all good info and very timely as my AppleI4 is on a go slow and I quite fancy a Samsung as a replacement (and I certainly don't need anything fancy). And God bless your ds - it is so nice when they are appreciative !

[SilenceOfThePrams]

Secondhand iPhone 5c (£50/eBay) and a £6/month contract with plusnet.

Battery life not great but it does what it needs to do.

[millifiori]

Wow PurpleAlerts really? I looked a few months ago and there was nothing under £450

[PurpleAlerts]

Yes! I bought a 6S for DH just yesterday so these are current prices- I get all my tech stuff from JL- they are really competetive- the SE was cheaper than in the Apple shop!

[AndNowItIsSeven]

Dd 12 has my old iPhone 5s. Dd 17 has a 6plus bought for her birthday. It was approx £600.

[19lottie82]

17 YO - IPhone 6
13 YO - iPhone 5S

If you don't want to commit to a long and expensive go PAYG and buy a reconditioned handset from eBay. You can prob get a ip6 for about £130

[Therealslimshady1]

Huawei 9 lite

Very good!

[mummabearfoyrbabybears]

We buy our phones outright and DS1 has a Samsung 6edge and DD1 has an iPhone 6. Their choices. Our other 2 DS aren't old enough for phones.

[Therealslimshady1]

My 14 year old says I Phones are for kids, who try to be popular through "brands", but who know nothing about technology.

Apparently Huawei make lots of the components for other phones and are a good make

[PickAChew]

DS1 has got through a couple - a Sony E5, which runs pokemon go quite happily - £120. We've had to get the charging port repaired twice. He jumped at the chance of buying my moto G4 plus off me when I upgraded to a slightly smaller and more comfortable Moto G5. My G4 plus cost me £200 (ith dual SIM) and my G5 is the £170 3MB dual SIM version from Amazon.

The vanilla G4 is £140 on Amazon
<a class="break-all" href="//www.amazon.co.uk/d/Mobile-Phones-Smartphones/Motorola-Moto-G4-16GB-SIM-Free-Black/B01GZZK9XQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=telephone&ie=UTF8&qid=1492896834&sr=1-1&keywords=moto%20G4&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21" rel="nofollow noindex" target="_blank">//www.amazon.co.uk/d/Mobile-Phones-Smartphones/Motorola-Moto-G4-16GB-SIM-Free-Black/B01GZZK9XQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=telephone&ie=UTF8&qid=1492896834&sr=1-1&keywords=moto%20G4&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21
Don't be seduced by the G4 play, though - it only has 8GB storage which is barely enough for the OS plus email and a few bits. It can take a SD card, but not many apps will actually intall and sve to SD cards, even if you get a fast one.

[AChickenCalledKorma]

Just for a bit of balance - my 14yo has a three year old Sony on a £7.50 a month contract. The camera is useless and she frequently runs out of space. But she loves it and refuses to upgrade.

Yes, I do have the world's strangest teenager, but they definitely don't all have iPhones!

[ActuallyThatsSUPREMECommander]

SlimShady's son speaks wisely. The problem with iPhones is that you get trapped into the infrastructure - you've bought the apps, you have everything on bloody iTunes. Two years later your phone gives up the ghost and it's an utter ball ache to switch to Android so you shell out umpteen hundred for the next one.

If you go Android then if you happen to be broke the next time you need a new phone then you can buy a Moto for 150 quid - or if you're flush you can go top of the range Samsung. Also you can replace an aging battery or expand the storage - neither of which is easy/possible with an iPhone.

[Violetcharlotte]

DS2 is 15 and had an IPhone 6. I pay £33 pm which includes 10g data.

[PickAChew]

If you're looking at non-Apple stuff (sensible, until they can afford to pay for their own, I think) then look for a bare minimum of 1.5GB RAM (2G is better) and 16GB of storage, with the option of adding an SD card.

Some manufacturers, such as Samsung and LG, add loads of unremovable bloatware, which eats into storage space. The version of android on the Moto G phones is fairly vanilla, leaving more space for other stuff. They also have decent cameras - much better than the one on DS1's sony.

[cocopops88]

Me and my husband have Motorola g4. Paid about £150 brand new. Run android software so very similar to Samsung. By mobile less than 10 a month, 5000 texts 500 min and 500mb data.

[PickAChew]

Techradar do great reviews, btw
www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/best-cheap-smartphones-payg-mobiles-compared-961975