I found this when searching for a basic non-smartphone for the kids to use in emergencies. It gets good reviews for the price, and currently on sale about $10 cheaper than anywhere else I can find in stock. The Emporium store in Melbourne had a few left.
Probably would be better to get them a used Nokia E series. Something like E50 or similar. Battery live is fantastic and they would not cost more than this ugly sammy either:)
My Samsung E1205 seems to last about a week on battery. Try doing that on one of those modern phones. :)
For such cases there is a not that old Nokia E6. You forget to charge it how rarely you need to.
Maximum GSM standby time: 684 h
Maximum standby time: 31 days
Maximum 2G talk time: 14.8 h
Maximum 3G standby time: 744 h
Maximum 3G talk time: 7.5 h
Yes it really depends on how often or less often you use the phone.
I have a drawer full of old phones, but unfortunately the battery life is the first thing to suffer.
This thing might sit unused for a week or more in the bottom of a school bag between charges, so that was a consideration.
I couldn't keep a straight face when the store guy tried to convince me that $25 for an extra year warranty was a good deal on a $29 phone :P
That's a laugh. For an extra $4 over that $25 you could have bought a second phone any way.
Probably would be better to get them a used Nokia E series
That's what I did.
I hung onto my 6210 Navigator until the start of this year and then decided due to work-related responsibilities having Exchange ActiveSync and the ability to open Office documents and browse the internet would really be handy, so I got a Nokia E6 (QWERTY keyboard) for $100 from Gumtree with the original box, accessories, two unopened covers and in very good condition.
I scoured the current mobile market for any of these low-cost button phones that could approximate my old 6210 in a modern package but they are so ridiculously gimped and low-end, that even my now 6-year old 6210 still beats them in just about every single spec.
The Nokia E6 is a great phone for touchscreen neophobes like myself who detest the whole finger-painting-like-a-2-year-old-smudgy-Diarrhea-screen fad that's taking over, as well as the increasingly unportable nature of modern smartphone (the E6 is just a tad wider than my old 6210 and weighs 133 grams) and it still looks the part of a modern, business-oriented smartphone and has a relatively modern feature set and capable hardware in it (at least for running Symbian Anna, which is quite frugal on resource-usage). Having an alphanumeric keyboard, directional buttons and a touchscreen is where it's at.
The only thing I could fault the E6 for is it's fixed-focus camera, which means taking photos close-up is difficult (but shutter speeds are instantaneous and you never have to wait for it to auto-adjust) and the fact that the touchscreen is a little on the insensitive side.
Surely you could get a phone locked for your carrier around the same price but with 3g?
i'd be more comfortable getting a 3G phone for 'em. Depends on where you are, I suppose.
Specs:
GSM (900 / 1,800MHz)
I got this same Samsung mobile phone from Dick Smith a few months ago for $29.98 but with free delivery. It's a quite basic GSM phone, no internet, just SMS and polyphonic ringtones.