Which mobile phones for 13 yr old?

[Kitchy40]

My son currently has a iPhone 7 which he daily moans at me is antiquated and “everyone” in the class has at least an 8. He is demanding an 11 which is totally out of my budget. We normally buy our phones outright and then get a cheap sim tariff, so don’t have phones to hand down as you tend to do with contracts. Can I ask what other parents do and am I being a dinosaur cheapskate or is he being unreasonable?

Well my 14 year old has an iPhone 6 and I don't give a shit what the other kids have.

If you do want to get him a newer model, you could get a second hand one from music magpie. Tbh I'd be making him pay for some of it though.

Yes I agree I’m not paying for it. The battery on his phone is probably worn out because he’s always on it 🙄 I don’t fancy paying £30 a month contract plus pocket money. Just wondering if other people do pay larger contracts for newer models..

We bought my DD a second hand iphone X from my cousin in law. I would never buy a full price iphone for a teenager. She has a contract which we pay half for and she pays half from her allowance. I think it is £10 maybe £11. However she doesn't have a huge data allowance because she is generally at school or in the house with wifi.

Sorry it isn't an actual contract. It is SIM only tariff.

DD1 pays for her own phone because she is over 18 and has a job. She’s just upgraded to a 12 which meant she handed down her XR to DD2 who is 14 who in turn handed down her 8 to DH because he doesn’t care about phones and never uses it except to look at his fantasy football team.
DD2 has a monthly rolling contract sim only with ID mobile with 12gb of data and unlimited texts/calls for £12 a month.
DH has a monthly sim only contract for £9 a month and I have an 11 on a 2 year contract for £30 a month but I got a great deal when I upgraded last.

My daughter has an iPhone 7. Do not stress or fall into the trap of keeping up with others. Stay strong for the other parents with similar sense! If we won the lottery my kids would still not have fancier phones.

To be fair anything older than an iPhone 8 is pretty much not fit for purpose. They are designed that way. The batteries are notorious, they don't hold charge and will eventually be unchangeable & the apps will just shut down or not able to install. I just got my 13yr old bonus daughter a Google pixel 3xl. The camera is fantastic its a nice little phone & the cost was reasonable (got it 2nd hand)

We got DS a SIM only contract . It's £10 a month with unlimited calls/texts and lots of data . Then bought a handset. Chose an OPPO. Fast processor /128GB and it's a great phone . No need for a contract. You end up paying a lot more for the phone that way

@Kitchy40

Yes I agree I’m not paying for it. The battery on his phone is probably worn out because he’s always on it 🙄 I don’t fancy paying £30 a month contract plus pocket money. Just wondering if other people do pay larger contracts for newer models..

You can check the battery life in the settings somewhere.

I paid for my teens to have up to date models. I can afford to and that's my choice. You say you won't pay for it so I'm not sure how helpful it is to know what others have done tbh.

In Y7 I bought second hand phones of what ever was "in" and acceptable, but not top of the range. My child isn't having a better phone than me . There wil always be someone with a better phone than your child unless you get them the latest phone every time one is released. As long as it has a decent battery and can cope with the apps he wants to use job done IMO.

My DD has an iPhone 11. She’s had it 18 months (she’s 13 currently). Prior to this she had a 6s which didn’t hold its charge at all.

She will be due an upgrade towards the end of the year but I’ve told her she’s not having one and will be moved on to a SIM only tariff.

In fairness to her - it’s well looked after and most of her friends have similar or Samsung equivalent in terms of newness etc.

YANBU though, it’s your choice what they have unless they are paying for it themselves.

We buy phones for our teens outright and then normally they only spend £5 a month on PAYG. Which phone is a careful negotiation between what they want and what we're prepared to spend.

Thanks for replies, I think to put it into context, he obsesses about tech, and insessantly demands me to buy him. I think his battery is actually about 75% capacity and if he could actually wait until his birthday in 5 months I would go halves. However I think there are other deeper issues with this obsessive nature.

My dd has a Samsung a21 I think. I have Samsung and I have that parent app on it so I can track her etc and block her phone as well

My DS is 13 and has a hand me down iPhone 8, which apparently is ‘so old, and out of date ’ He’s on a sim only, we pay just over 10€ a month.
He asked for an iPhone 11 for his birthday, we said no, there isn’t anything wrong with the one he’s got!
I’m sure someone in our family will upgrade at some point and pass him down a new model, but we won’t be buying him one outright.

My son is 14 and has the huawei pro 30 I think he's has that for almost 2 years and its in good condition says its better than the I phones his mates have gotten as most are broken now and his had a few scratchs on it..

Ds(17) has a reasonably up to date iphone, but he saves every bit of birthday and Christmas money and a lot of his pocket money each year to pay towards an upgrade every 2-3 years, otherwise he knows he wouldn't get it.

I would be making him wait until his birthday and if he has family who give cash for presents he contributes to a phone if it is outside budget. Also make it clear if he wants an upgrade in future he needs to save for it. These things shouldn't come easy.

We do the same with expensive trainers.

I have just upgraded DD from Iphone 6 to 7, not on music magpie but one of the other sites.

I gave the alternative of a new samsung A21 (like I have, and love) but Samsungs are social death, apparently, so refurb iphone it was.

My dds are 13 and 14 and got an iPhone 11 upgrade for Xmas. I pay for a contract (£30 each a month - off my line) and it is part of their pocket money. It's a bit more than I'd like to spend but I can transfer their data to myself so save on my contact. I also feel secure knowing they always can contact me. I've made it clear that if phone is lost or broken, then they will have to resort back to their iPhone 6 that I've kept for emergencies!

Not sure if anyone has mentioned it but you could get him an iPhone SE 2020. It has the body of the 8 but internals of the 11 - just cheaper. Think it is around £380 for 64gb.

My 11&13yr old have a reconditioned iPhone 6, and don’t complain (too much!)

It's the 'demanding' that's the problem.

Don't blame you for not buying him anything !

DD got an 8 for her 12 birthday but that was because the hand-me-down 6 was on its last legs. She has it now for 2 years and so far there is no demand to upgrade.

Normally she would have be in line for the next hand-me-down when DH upgraded but his 7 developed microphone issues so it was no good anymore.

I would wait until his birthday or get a reconditioned one now, he is old enough to understand the difference and make a judgement call.