Best Phone for 10 year old

[J Rock]

Hi,


My nephew recently turned 10 years old, and I think it is time he gets a smartphone. In this modern age I think it is important for kids to be exposed to new technology as much as possible, otherwise when they grow up they will have no experience and will be less likely to succeed as a result. I have spoken to my sister (his mother) about it, and she has agreed that he is old enough to have a smartphone.

She wants to get him an iphone 6, but since I am paying for it and I don't like wasting my money I would prefer an android or windows phone. I am well versed in technology, but I am not up to speed on all the new mobile offerings around. I was hoping you guys could help.

Thank you!

 

[openwheel]

iPhone 5

 

[Ravynmagi]

I like the iPhone suggestion. It's hard to mess up these phones and the iCloud backups make it very simple to restore it should they child mess it up or lose it.

Though I don't know about giving a 10 year old a $550 phone. I'd probably give them an iPhone 4S. If lost or damaged it could be replaced very cheaply.

 

[J Rock]

iPhone 5

Holy crap, I just went on Apple.com and they are charging $450 for an iphone 5c 8gb off-contract!

http://www.apple.com/shop/buy-iphone/iphone5c

I should mention that the phone has to be new. I'm not getting him used stuff. This seems like a lot of money for what it is. Are you sure this is the best deal for $450? At that price, I might as well just spend the extra $200 and get him an iphone 6 so it won't become a brick when iOS goes all 64bit, right?

 

[J Rock]

There must be an android phone for $450 that's better than a 5C.

 

[Crono]

Lumia 635/640 or a Moto E/G. Inexpensive phones that can take a beating, and there are plenty of games for both, as well as enough apps (for a 10 year old at least) on both.

If it doesn't have to be a phone per se and your nephew has a strong preference for iOS (he might if all his friends use it) then get him the newest iPod Touch (6th generation). $200 for the 16GB base model.

 

[Crono]

There must be an android phone for $450 that's better than a 5C.

With that budget, there are plenty. ASUS ZenFone 2, OnePlus One, LG G2, HTC One M8, Moto X (2014), to name a few.

 

[Oyeve]

10 year old? iphone 4s. Doesnt need anything more than that and well below the cost of anything else.

 

[blackdogdeek]

There must be an android phone for $450 that's better than a 5C.

OnePlus One. With the OnePlus Two coming soon, the One will drop in price.

EDIT: The One has already dropped: 16gb for $249, 64gb for $299.

 

[sm625]

Getting a 10yo a new phone is not a good idea. This is exactly what the used phone market is for. I would recommend a used galaxy S4 with a zerolemon 7500 mah extended battery. All kids do is play games on the things which means the battery will always be dead unless it has a really big battery. total cost is under $200, and the battery life is all day even with battery draining games running all day.

 

[cronos]

Good suggestions so far. I do think you need to ask him if he needs and/or wants it, though (and ask him to *really* think about it, and not just because 'cool, I'm getting a phone!'), and whether he has any preference at all. You may have done this already but you didn't mention it.

Around the time my son turned 10 last year we happened to upgrade my wife's phone and he ended up with her old phone (T-Mobile's LG Optimus L9 we got for like $100 a couple of years prior). So I got him a Lycamobile account (with $10 credit that's basically lasts forever if used once every three months or so), and he ended up never using it. Sure, it's handy and pretty useful when he's on a field trip/sleepover and the likes, but other than that more often than not I found it lying on his desk, battery dead, because he really didn't need it and just didn't care enough to take care of it. It's an okay situation for my son, because I spent zero dollars on this phone (and it is useful once a week or so), but it would be a huge waste if you bought your nephew a $400+ brand new phone that he ended up doesn't care about anyway.

 

[KeithP]

She wants to get him an iphone 6, but since I am paying for it and I don't like wasting my money I would prefer an android or windows phone.

You fail at gift giving.

In any event, you could always pick up a cheap android phone and get him a new iPod Touch for $200. Best of both worlds and the nephew gets exposed to both mobile OSs so he can decide what he likes.

-KeithP

 

[poofyhairguy]

Moto G

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

These seem appropriate. I remember when my youngest was in high school in the mid ninety's before 'everyone' had cell phones. They'd call each other for hours but, never say anything, just listen to each other breathe. Spend several hundred on a kid not even in high school? That's crazy talk.

 

[J Rock]

You fail at gift giving.

In any event, you could always pick up a cheap android phone and get him a new iPod Touch for $200. Best of both worlds and the nephew gets exposed to both mobile OSs so he can decide what he likes.

-KeithP

Why do I fail at gift giving? The kid is getting a $300-600 phone for free. His mother is getting him a snowboard that actually costs less than that.



I will look into the OnePlusOne. I did check and the kid says his friends all have iphones (shrug). I'm sure they'll grow out of it.

 

[cronos]

Why do I fail at gift giving? The kid is getting a $300-600 phone for free. His mother is getting him a snowboard that actually costs less than that.

I will look into the OnePlusOne. I did check and the kid says his friends all have iphones (shrug). I'm sure they'll grow out of it.

What he meant was if you're giving a 10 y/o kid such an expensive gift, you better be 100% sure that it's something that he wants (which is basically the gist of what I posted above). If his friends 'all have iPhones' (and presumably use iMessage, etc. to communicate), then whatever it is that you bought him no matter how superior, if not an iPhone (or to a lesser extent, an iPod Touch), has a potential to be a huge disappointment for him. If this happens you'd be out a lot of money that he won't appreciate. This then becomes a lose-lose situation.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

What he meant was if you're giving a 10 y/o kid such an expensive gift, you better be 100% sure that it's something that he wants (which is basically the gist of what I posted above). If his friends 'all have iPhones' (and presumably use iMessage, etc. to communicate), then whatever it is that you bought him no matter how superior, if not an iPhone (or to a lesser extent, an iPod Touch), has a potential to be a huge disappointment for him. If this happens you'd be out a lot of money that he won't appreciate. This then becomes a lose-lose situation.

He wont appreciate it anyways. That's pretty much the definition of being ten years old.

 

[Yuriman]

I didn't get my first phone until I was 21 (2009?), and I'm plenty savvy. Seems pretty tenuous.

My take - 1st gen Moto G on Republic Wireless. I got one for my wife, phone is $100 new and plenty powerful enough for all of the games I've tried on it, isn't absurdly large (10yo = small hands), much better at taking falls than iPhones, and best of all, we just got on a dataplan for $17 per month, and they refund at the end of the month any data not used, up to $7.

 

[cronos]

I didn't get my first phone until I was 21 (2009?), and I'm plenty savvy. Seems pretty tenuous.

Well I didn't get my first cell phone until I was 22, but that was 1995

 

[GodisanAtheist]

I'm going to back up the moto g comments (or even a moto e if you really want to low ball it). He would get the full Android experience, you wouldn't be burning money and no one is going to get steamed if he ends up smashing the thing to bits (the phone seems fairly durable, for what it's worth).

I picked up a pair of moto e's for my parents as starter phones (just to see if they're even interested in smart phones) and they really love em. I'm glad I didn't get them anything really nice for their first smart phones though. That'll be next time.

 

[Zodiark1593]

Well I didn't get my first cell phone until I was 22, but that was 1995

When I was 10, I had a Game Boy, and I took damn good care of it. Eventually, lost the bottom half of the display though. Still managed to play through my Pokemon Red game with that half screen because I knew I wasn't getting another system anytime soon.

 

[Raduque]

Well I didn't get my first cell phone until I was 22, but that was 1995

My family had a cellphone back in the late 90s, 98 ish or so. It was one of those Motorola ones that you could change the face plates on. Big and bulky with a mono segmented LCD, but you could play Snake on it. I didn't get the phone that was my actual cellphone till almost 2004. I was 22 also.

I don't think kids need smartphones, or any technology beyond an Xbox or basic PC. Kids that age needs to be outside playing, and not having their faces stuffed in a screen while walking around or sitting at a restaurant, playing games all day.

If I ever have kids and they want a phone, I'll buy them a Nokia Brick. If they want anything else, it's going to be their responsibility to pay for it.

 

[J Rock]

My family had a cellphone back in the late 90s, 98 ish or so. It was one of those Motorola ones that you could change the face plates on. Big and bulky with a mono segmented LCD, but you could play Snake on it. I didn't get the phone that was my actual cellphone till almost 2004. I was 22 also.

I don't think kids need smartphones, or any technology beyond an Xbox or basic PC. Kids that age needs to be outside playing, and not having their faces stuffed in a screen while walking around or sitting at a restaurant, playing games all day.

If I ever have kids and they want a phone, I'll buy them a Nokia Brick. If they want anything else, it's going to be their responsibility to pay for it.

My sister doesn't let him play Xbox or PC games because they are violent and stunt children socially. He does play games on his mother's iPad though. I agree with her, ideally he would learn a sport or get a hobby like building furniture.


I see that Apple released the new iPod touch for $199, and looking at the specs it looks pretty impressive. I don't want to give him something that is stunted though, I want him to be able to tinker with it somewhat... so I think I may just get him one of these and a cheaper android phone to go with it. That way he gets imessage for his friends and will be able to play the games he likes, but he will be forced to also learn android if he wants to use the phone.

How does that sound? I guess the alternative is to get him an iphone 5c or 5s or 6.... but the ipod has the same specs as the 6 and is 1/3rd the price! It just screams ripoff to me.

 

[J Rock]

The android phone I have in mind is the moto G per reccomendations here. So $249 for the 32GB iPod Touch and $100-150 for a Moto G and we're still at a lower price than the iphone 5c alone.

 

[DigDog]

nokia 3310