Phone Recommendations for 2 Young Children Living Semi-Rural

Hi all, living semi-rural, our 2 children catch the bus for school every morning.

Mainly for safety reasons as they have to walk after the bus but also as one of our children has ADHD, is quickly disruptive and has behavioural issues on the public bus, the school has suggested a music player or mobile.

Phone Requirements

The phone needs to have a headphone jack and Bluetooth
MicroSD slot for us to store music
Band 28
Ideally android with parental controls

The budget is around $100-$200 Each. Using Aldi family plan.

Thanks for any input

Comments

  • +3

    I can't comment on phone models. The usual process is to grab something on sale, so which phone is best at your price range will depend on when you're looking. I'd be looking at the weekly specials at Coles, Woolworths or AustPost. Just avoid grey imports if you need Band 28.

    I will say, however, that as someone who has a child with ADHD, anything with a cable is the worst. My life is much better, and cheaper, now we've gone completely wireless. A wired headphone and jack is setting you up for a new phone and new earbuds in short order. Just get a cheap set of bluetooth wireless earbuds, such as soundPEATS.

    Not sure what you need with a MicroSD. Every Android phone is perfectly capable of transferring music to onboard storage, you don't need a MicroSD slot, which is super fiddly for no obvious benefit. Even the cheaper end of phones have at least as much storage as early generation ipods. You really don't need much. Also, if you have Spotify and some data, practically no storage at all.

    • Yes the wireless are the way to go for sure, The phone jack is more of a backup to when she loses the wireless ones haha.

      • Go for the wireless over ear style, not the earbuds.

  • Motorola E7 Power might be the go. Long life battery, SD card slot, Band 28. Currently $169 @ Mobileciti. (Appear to have plenty of stock). Definitely add a case of some sort and screen protection.

    https://www.mobileciti.com.au/motorola-e7-power-6-51-2gb-32g…

  • I was an android user and only swapped because work gave me an iphone so for me I prefer android as it gives me more control.
    However I gave my kids iphone 7's (now would be 8) and they work well for the same reason, you don't want your kids to have control. You don't need a microsd slot, just use itunes to transfer music files to internal storage, music files are small.

    It would depend on whether you have an iphone though as a lot of functionality is gained by having kids accounts attached to your iphone account and being able to track them using your iphone, messaging etc.

    Probably can do the same on android but iphone 8s refurbed are pretty cheap and reliable. I bought mine here and the very good quality ones are fine. https://refurbished.boost.com.au/products/iphone-8-refurb?va…
    I have seen them cheaper as well.

    Any phone you get must have a solid case and screen protector. My kids are rough on their phones because they are clumsy.

  • Smart phone or not? Nokia 8210 delivers hours of talk time and weeks of standby

  • +1

    When my kids went semi rural for high school, I made sure I had the Telstra blue tick phones for coverage.

    Most important thing is to make sure your Aldi plan has coverage all the way to and from school and while at school. I was previously with Voda and the coverage just didn't work so we had to go Telstra.

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