Son's 1st smartphone - but must be orange network - best deal?

iwannastopworrying

Hi - please can anyone advise? I'm completely confused!

We want to get our 10 year old son a phone for Christmas, as he is often out in the village and out of contact. There is a chance he will leave it somewhere, and we have a tight budget so it needs to be cheapish. Due to our location, we only get orange coverage.

The phone needs to be a smartphone. He will use it for a few phone calls and a few texts each month, so the lowest tariffs will be fine. He will use the internet on wifi only, so we don't need data roaming.

Should we opt for PAYG or pay monthly and which deal is the best for us? I had seen on another thread about a deal on Argos for an EE Alcatel at £20. Is this the best option?

JJ_Egan

Moto G
PAYG you are in control of your bills .

grumbler

iwannastopworrying wrote: »

Should we opt for PAYG or pay monthly

Only Tesco (and '3'?) do capped pay monthly tariffs, so PAYG is your only option if you want Orange=TMobile=EE
BTW, some virtual networks use the same signal and can be cheaper:
Asda Mobile, Vectone, Virgin

and which deal is the best for us?

Define the best.

I had seen on another thread about a deal on Argos for an EE Alcatel at £20. Is this the best option?

This is possibly the cheapest smartphone.
Moto E will be much better in terms of value for money. Can be bought from Vodafone for £45 and unlocked very cheap for using on any networks: Motorola Moto E PAYG £45.00 @ Vodafone

Also: Huawei y330 Sainsbury's Mobile - £35.00

http://www.phonearena.com/phones/compare/Alcatel-OneTouch-Tribe-3040,Motorola-Moto-E,Huawei-Ascend-Y330/phones/8095,8654,8593

diamonds

T-Mobile and Orange are now both EE so a phone for all 3 brands would work.


The screen on the Argos mobile is poor but for £20 and a 10 year old should be adequate




EDIT:
Should have said, on EE who run off old T-Mobile both sims just do a network search and you will find the old orange signal now branded as EE


I have to lock down Orange to T-Mobile at home for the best signal (calls go to answerphone), lock to Orange 2G at dads (home network: H next to it or house icon or mobiles) for calls but lock to T-Mobile 3G for data (3G calls break up) and divert to my o2 payg or 3 contract...EE network can be shoddy in some areas as they merged the two networks, its hit and miss all over.


MBNL www.mbnl.co.uk were meant to have completed the Orange into MBNL by now which they have for the best part, but capacity and tweaking needs finished. I still have almost non existent home coverage from Orange (as before EE merged) and poor T-Mobile 2&3G, EE4G...not a chance indoors, even with line of sight 900 metres away, I'm the highest building overall around me within 300 metres in a city with a beautiful view but horrendous EE/O/TM signal.

blisteringblue

Any real reason it has to be Orange? Its just my daughter been on Tesco with a free smartphone since she was 10. Just the £7.50 deal. The capping facility is brilliant, she used her data up the other month and it just stopped, so only worked in the house with wifi. Not paid a penny over the £7.50 a month in that time.

Smartphone was basic but fine for facebook and the like. We've got her a 2nd hand iphone for Xmas and the sim will just go in it.

grumbler

blisteringblue wrote: »

Any real reason it has to be Orange? ...daughter been on Tesco

iwannastopworrying wrote: »

...Due to our location, we only get orange coverage.

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