Baby's first cell phone

SeñorAmor

Not so much a baby, I guess, as he's about to turn 11, but my wife and I are looking at getting our son his first cellphone. He's involved in a lot of activities and it'd be nice to be able to contact him (or for him to contact us) should the need arise.

I'm not looking for anything fancy or expensive. I don't really care about tracking his whereabouts or restricting what he can and cannot do on the phone. A basic Android phone with a low monthly cost is what I'm thinking about.

My wife and I have phones but we're on my work plan, which wouldn't cover my son, so I'll need a standalone plan.

Any thoughts/advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Peen

My wife and I have been starting to look around and have you seen the Relay? I almost pulled the trigger on one before the pandemic started last year and now I'm glad I didn't but when my kids are neck deep in activities again I probably will.

Edit: Sorry I could have said what the thing actually is, it's basically a cell-enabled walkie talkie that connects to your grown-up phone via an app.

HappylilElf

It depends on the kid of course but honestly for an 11 year old boy?

Flip-phone. Preferably as indestructible as you can find.

What will be an option is largely going to depend on what carrier you'd be going through though.

Shadowfire

You can get the Poco M3 for like $160ish. Owning it outright would mean you could get onto a prepaid plan so it's cheap.

MichaelLC

Moto (man i hate that name) had been making some decent 'cheap' phones like the e:

https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/motorola-moto-e

evilmrhenry

Prepaid, to save you the trouble of getting a $1000 phone bill once he discovers mobile games. Also, most of them (the locked ones) are cheap, so you're not out real money if it goes missing or ends up in the washing machine.