Cheap phone for a year 7 student $100-$200

thanq on 08/05/2016 - 21:17

Hi all,

My nephew's birthday is coming up and he keeps on pandering me to keep him a phone.

However I'm a bit reluctant to spend too much until he proves he can look after his devices.

Just wondering if anyone had any recommendation within the above price range?

I was considering the lenovo in the following deal:

https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/246828

He'll only need it to make calls and I suppose play games. Nothing fancy but don't want him hassling me a few months down the track for a new one.

Help is appreciated.
Cheers

Mobile

Comments

  • AlwaysFree on 08/05/2016 - 21:27
    +1

    moto E2 price around $120-150
    checked it online or nokia lumia 530

  • captobvious on 08/05/2016 - 21:42

    he needs something unbreakable but I cant think of anything that is unbreakable anymore.

    • thanq on 08/05/2016 - 22:04

      Probably doesn't need to be breakable. $100-$200 seems fairly low cost compared to the higher end of the table.

  • ninetyNineCents on 08/05/2016 - 21:48

    A year 7 kid does t need a phone, he needs a cricket bat and some friends to go to the local park and play…

    • Emli on 08/05/2016 - 22:42
      +3

      They need both. Houses have small backyards so the boys need to go to the park or the nets which may be some distance from their houses. Boys being boys forget about the time, it gets dark and then need to ring for a lift or to say they have gone back to another one of the other boy's houses. Yes, they do not need to be permanently attached to their phones but they need to be connected and to be like their mates.

      • ninetyNineCents on 09/05/2016 - 07:59
        -3

        Parks are everywhere, a ride on a bike or walk will do them good. I used to ride thirty mins to go home after playing cricket when the sun went down, it's not the end of the world. Grow up.

        • Emli on 09/05/2016 - 09:17
          +1

          Okay so you have not bought your 13 year old son a phone. Getting back to the OP, who us going to fund the ongoing costs. That is something I also would consider. My 14 year old son has a hand me down phone with a $10 month plan. Very useful the other night when he had to work back later at McDonald's, As I am obviously overprotective and won't let him catch a bus or walk at 9pm he used his phone to tell us when he had finished and needed picking up.

        • ninetyNineCents on 09/05/2016 - 10:04
          -5

          @Emli:

          The problem is your son shouldn't be working st maccas, he should be studying or being a kid. He will work all his adult life, let him be a kid.

        • geek001 on 09/05/2016 - 13:40
          +1

          @ninetyNineCents: I am not sure about this. When my son is of age, I would encourage him to get a job, just to learn skills you don't learn at school, like good work ethics. Being at school, everything is theoretical, getting a job makes everything you learn real. Otherwise, you get questions like, when I am ever going to use <insert school lesson topic here> in real life? I don't want my kids to be just good at taking tests.

        • ninetyNineCents on 09/05/2016 - 21:18

          @geek001:

          Not quite, Learning the buttons on the drinks machine, how to assemble a hamburger, or how to complete an order isnt learning anything worthwhile unless you want a career at Maccas. They could learn all that by doing sme kitchen work and that would save them time in travelling back and forth to wherever the local maccas is.

        • geek001 on 09/05/2016 - 22:01
          +1

          @ninetyNineCents: You are kidding right? Work ethics like turning up to work on time. Responsibility like dealing with your mistakes at work. Customer service. How to deal with work politics. The list goes on. Dont you learn any of that in your own job?

        • ninetyNineCents on 10/05/2016 - 13:44

          @geek001:

          One of the greatest advancements in all humanity was stopping kids from working and forcing them to goto school and get an education. During that time they learn all the same items you just listed and a whole lot more.

          The way you endorse Macdonalds one would think kids learnt nothing at school and should instead replace high school with MacD.

          Kids should be kids not working for anyone for money, which most just throw away on nonsense. They will be working and worrying about finances that when they are adults.

          What a joke.

      • geek001 on 09/05/2016 - 13:35
        +1

        They also need it, so that their parents can keep tabs on them using the phone's GPS. :)

    • captobvious on 08/05/2016 - 22:43

      Kids these days would rather watch other kids play cricket by doing so inside on a tablet.

      • Emli on 08/05/2016 - 22:44

        Not mine. But point taken for some boys.

  • Flowerbomb on 08/05/2016 - 22:47
    +1

    Why is he hassling you for a phone? What about his parents.

  • Marx on 08/05/2016 - 23:39

    I'd personally recommend buying OPPO's F1

    http://offer.optus.com.au/shop/prepaidmobile/oppo-f1?SID=con…

    $200 locked to optus but for a really great phone with 3GB of RAM which is what kids really need these days for their heavy games

  • altomic on 08/05/2016 - 23:56
    +4

    Nokia 1100 - he needs to learn to be a man.

    • Narx on 09/05/2016 - 00:03

      Use it as a hammer? :P

  • mingofmongo on 09/05/2016 - 09:28

    The Microsoft Lumia 640 is currently ~$67 at Target (locked to Optus but easily and cheaply unlocked)

    Good phone, great specs. Microsoft have great family controls so that you can lock down, or open up, what he has access to at a fairly granular level.

    Plus with the free Windows 10 upgrade you can log on to your 'parent' account and view his current location, depending on how helicopter-y you are :-)

  • windwai on 10/05/2016 - 16:11

    Xiaomi mi 4

    https://www.ozbargain.com.au/product/xiaomi-mi-4

  • PVA on 10/05/2016 - 16:17

    what plan will he be on, maybe $20 per month Boost and then buy a Boost 5inch phone for around $99.

  • ubor on 12/05/2016 - 11:09

    Lenovo Lemo K3 (K30-w) Android 4.4 4G Smartphone 5.0 inch HD IPS Screen MSM8916 Quad Core 1.2GHz 1GB RAM 16GB ROM(everbuying.net)
    mentioned in https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/246828

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