Smartphone for a long weekend

Del_Astra

On a recent trip with DS to the national museum in Endinburgh, I spotted a fair few "retro" phones that I remember using. I recall with great fondness a time when you only charged once a fortnight.

Herongull

The Alcatel OT-983 (recommended by Sillygoose) looks a very nice phone. Can't see why anyone pays more, even for teens. I love my T-mobile Vivacity (similar price, great phone) but not so readily available these days.

If you buy a child or teen a very expensive £300 phone you are just making them a magnet for muggers and thieves. Not fair to them and not fair to you.

But you are where you are.

Why not get the Alcatel and unlock yourself (or else pay a fiver to get it unlocked on ebay) and use it for a family spare/backup phone for situations:

when children and teens are away on trips (not just this one) or in any other situation where their regular phone is at above risk of loss or theft. Or as a temporary phone when any family member's phone is broken, lost or stolen.

And then consider making it a family members permanent phone after the lost of their own phone?

tyllwyd

Yes, I appreciate everyone's feedback on the phones - she won't be able to go on the internet anyway abroad (too expensive) so it's only for a few texts to keep in touch and maybe as an mp3 player / camera.

We have already gone down the route of giving her an old Nokia for emergencies, and she was using a 4 year old LG cookie until two weeks ago, so she knows all about not having to have the latest smartphone. She also knows all about the snide remarks the other kids make about them, so I know that if I give her a totally rubbish phone she won't dare use it.

And I agree a £300 phone is too expensive, but we looked at all the deals and this one was the best value for money for what we wanted overall, so in the end it seemed daft to spend the same money to get a phone which wasn't as good, if you see what I mean.

sillygoose

T-mobile Vivacity? aka the San Francisco II, I just got one cheapish to upgrade my wife's SF1, brand new but came already rooted, upgraded ROM and unlocked. Really noticeably much quicker than SF1, quite snappy. Still a bit short of memory but you can work around that. Just hope the battery turns out to be better than SF1!

tyllwyd

Oh, and we would give her one of the old phones we upgraded from a year or two ago but they are nokia 3310's - if she took one of those she would have a crowd of kids round her asking what it was! And my phone is a nokia 6303i - not much better from a teenager's point of view.

macman

tyllwyd wrote: »

Oh, and we would give her one of the old phones we upgraded from a year or two ago but they are nokia 3310's - if she took one of those she would have a crowd of kids round her asking what it was! And my phone is a nokia 6303i - not much better from a teenager's point of view.

That's the solution then-give her that and she can tell them that it's the latest retro-cool phone! They won't know any different (until she switches it on)...

sillygoose

tyllwyd wrote: »

Oh, and we would give her one of the old phones we upgraded from a year or two ago but they are nokia 3310's - if she took one of those she would have a crowd of kids round her asking what it was! And my phone is a nokia 6303i - not much better from a teenager's point of view.

Do that and get her one of these, just has to be discreet :rotfl:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Apple-iPhone-5-Device-1-1-Dummy-Fake-Non-Working-Toy-Phone-Black-Blank-Display-/300875701979

rwalton159

Good post easy

MillicentBystander

tyllwyd wrote: »

Oh, and we would give her one of the old phones we upgraded from a year or two ago but they are nokia 3310's - if she took one of those she would have a crowd of kids round her asking what it was! And my phone is a nokia 6303i - not much better from a teenager's point of view.

The world has gone officially mad.

culpepper

If she is artistic or creative,the 3310s are very easy to customise.
Take off the cover, paint it with acrylics,add small photos or stickers. Varnish it.
Then find a theme for it that corresponds and a ring tone to go with it all.

She could have the worlds most unique phone.
Who cares what the other girls think anyway?
None of them are close friends and teenagers mostly laugh at things they are jealous of and wish they had the character to do themselves.