My niece (11) is lookimg to buy her first phone (50-80 new or used). Her eye is on s3 mini payg.

I cringed as i know how old the phone is and how out of date and bloatwared-up samsung phones are, so assumed i could find better. But looking here: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/test-cent...0-may-3600474/

maybe i was wrong. These phones seem to mainly be running older OSs and look clunky to boot. But any suggestions? Might even throw in my old s4 mini into the mix, but her parents are already concerned she is paying for unneeded functionality. Myself, i think a fluid gui is very important for enjoyment of the device and this may take a hit at such extreme budget levels.

Thanks in advance
Getfrodo

Know someone with an S3 Mini. Every time he uses it I know to brace myself for his moans!

You might be able to get something a bit better slightly used. A Moto E or G would be a good bet but prices will vary.

Apart from that a Chinese phone like the Cubot X12 which is about £72 and they get reasonable reviews. If you ignore the narration on here you can get an idea of the performance of them. http://youtu.be/37UFq2JdR1w

If it was myself buying I would go the Chinese import route myself (as I have). However for an 11 year old I think I would recommend something from the UK and new, as it will have warranty.

The best phone for that money is the Vodafone Smart Ultra Prime. It has a 5" 720p screen Snapdragon 410 SoC, 1gb RAM, 8GB storage plus SD card - so very similar specs to the Moto G at half the price. It is currently £65 from Vodafone and is easy to sim unlock - maybe a fiver off Ebay. If you order online for instore pick up the delivery is free and you can avoid any top up which they might force if you buy in store if you are not an existing VF customer.

Oh, the parents have no idea what they are talking about. Unnecessay functionality? The purpose of a smart phone is to have functionality, the important thing is that these funtions work well. And there is no way she wants to buy a dumb phone, that would be wasted money.

Vodafone are selling the Moto G 3rd Gen for £89 until the end of Jan (though it has shown as being out of stock at least once) - an unlock code can be had from eBay for a couple of quid.

I would 2nd this.

Worth paying the extra £9 over if they can.

Vodafone smart prime 6. Does just about everything my Sony Z5 does for only £80 new no brainer

Get a Lumia? They're always smooth

I gave Youtube's auto-translated subtitles a go on that, figuring that it was a nice clear voice with very few other noises to throw it.

Gibberish.

Looks a good phone though - I'd second the suggestions to look in the direction of a chinese import or something second hand that's a bit better than the S3 mini!

Moto E LTE might be good. Practically stock Android and works fine for its price.

The Moto G 3rd gen would be even better and that can be had locked to Vodafone for £89 new (you'd need to look for unlock code on eBay for very little money).

You can find a few Lumia phones in that price range new. They are pretty smooth but you need to consider they have Windows and not Android.

I'd say to avoid the Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini as it's pretty old by now, even if my MIL used to have that one and I had never heard her complaining.

Just compared the auto subtitles to what he's saying, it's utter rubbish. Can't get the technical terms in German let alone translate them and it can't even get the gist of a sentence.

I can't really translate a video so I'll just put the conclusion from his written review here:

How about the Orange San Francisco?

Thanks for the suggestions. Turns out the parents were thinking just calls/sms/camera. While i have no direct experience, i could imagine that not having social apps would be a hurdle (for b etter or worse) for someone starting out in secondary school. Like not having a landline in the 80s. Opens up the door for more nastiness too, it's true.

Of course this is veering into "how to raise your child" territory rather than which phone go buy. But i would like to hear your views.

The s3 mini is getting old now. A Core Prime or J5 would be a better bet if she wants a Samsung.

Second hand she should be able to get a proper S3 for her budget, but obviously that is old too.

The cane.

Agree, lumia is really great and smooth. But the camera of old lumia is not that good for a young teenager girl. I would recommend lenovo S856 (4G LTE Phone, 16.0MP resolution, 5.5'' HD). http://www.ebay.de/itm/LENOVO-S856-5-5-HD-Quad-Core-8GB-Android-4-4-Mobile-Smartphone-Unlocked-GOLD-UK-/131200398624?

Or maybe you can check out Cubot, which is also a good option.

Why ebay.de? Surely you'd have to pay extra shipping if it's dispatched from Germany?

This item is located in UK so you can expect a fast delivery to UK, as the shipping terms suggested.