How to choose a smartphone for a child? | Articles | Phones

Today, the first smart­phone is pur­chased at a fair­ly ear­ly age. Already for ele­men­tary school, you will prob­a­bly need a way to con­stant­ly keep in touch with your child. What about mid­dle and high school. Of course, the task of choos­ing is not easy, espe­cial­ly when you have to take into account not only the inter­ests of the child, but also the fears of the par­ents. In a word, among the abun­dance of offers and options it is very easy to get con­fused. That is why we will talk about how not to make a mis­take, what para­me­ters to con­sid­er and how to get a durable device with max­i­mum func­tion­al­i­ty.

Age

A suit­able smart­phone nec­es­sar­i­ly depends on the age of the child. For exam­ple, in ele­men­tary school, the device should be sim­ple, intu­itive, durable and long-last­ing charge. Of course, a smart­phone should be such that it would not be a pity to lose or break it, because chil­dren do not always treat devices with due atten­tion. But if you still want to max­i­mize the ser­vice life, then you should choose a durable phone that will be reli­ably pro­tect­ed from drops and bumps, and will be able to sur­vive being in a bag with­out scratch­es and dam­age. Pay atten­tion to heav­i­ly pro­tect­ed mod­els, in a spe­cial rub­ber­ized bumper case. Also pay atten­tion to the glass. The stronger it is, the bet­ter.

One such hard­ened smart­phone is the Black­view BV6000. The device is pro­tect­ed accord­ing to the IP67 stan­dard and is equipped with an extend­ed bat­tery. This smart­phone eas­i­ly tol­er­ates high humid­i­ty and dusty envi­ron­ments. Inside, there is a Medi­aTek MT6735 proces­sor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of inter­nal mem­o­ry. The device is equipped with a small (4.7 inch­es) rein­forced screen, which is addi­tion­al­ly pro­tect­ed by a “recessed” design. Black­view BV6000 weighs 247g, and the bat­tery capac­i­ty is 4500 mAh.

For old­er chil­dren or teenagers, as a rule, more “adult” smart­phones are cho­sen. Most often, these are bud­get-class devices with the widest pos­si­ble capa­bil­i­ties. There is no point in buy­ing a pre­mi­um device for a child. Often, the dif­fer­ence is not so notice­able, but in case of loss or break­age, every­one will be offend­ed. At the same time, the child will be pleased to receive a device with a large screen, which will also help not to strain or dam­age their eye­sight, a good cam­era for tak­ing pho­tos with friends and, of course, enough mem­o­ry for games.

Xiao­mi Red­mi 4A is just such a device. The smart­phone is equipped with a large 5‑inch dis­play. The case is made of plas­tic, so for rest­less chil­dren, it is still bet­ter to strength­en it with a shock­proof cov­er. Xiao­mi is pow­ered by a Snap­drag­on 425 proces­sor, which is enough pow­er for var­i­ous appli­ca­tions. The oper­at­ing sys­tem of the smart­phone is Android Marsh­mal­low. With 2GB of RAM and 16GB or 32GB stor­age options, the phone more than meets the needs of par­ents. The smart­phone is also equipped with a 5MP front cam­era and a 13MP main cam­era. The bat­tery capac­i­ty is 3120mAh, and the func­tion­al­i­ty is great for use by chil­dren and teenagers.

Price

Most par­ents are reluc­tant to pur­chase expen­sive devices for their chil­dren, and this is under­stand­able. If you are choos­ing a device for a child of preschool or pri­ma­ry school age, then you should lim­it the amount to 10,000 rubles. More­over, it is quite pos­si­ble to find excel­lent devices and up to 5,000. Thus, you will not spend much, but the baby will always stay in touch.

When the child is old­er and already bears more con­scious respon­si­bil­i­ty for things, you can also pur­chase a more expen­sive smart­phone, up to 15 or 20,000 rubles, depend­ing on your capa­bil­i­ties. In this case, choos­ing a device that will be suit­able is not dif­fi­cult at all. The main thing is to know exact­ly what you want to get from your smart­phone. For exam­ple, you need to decide what func­tion­al­i­ty you need and what tech­ni­cal char­ac­ter­is­tics a smart­phone should have. This is what we will talk about next.

In the mean­time, we note one of the most bud­get smart­phones that can be per­fect for a child. This is Alca­tel 4047D. The smart­phone has a small size, weighs only 168g, and is designed to be com­fort­able to hold. For exam­ple, the back sur­face of the case is cov­ered with tex­tured plas­tic. The Medi­aTek MT6737M proces­sor is respon­si­ble for per­for­mance. The char­ac­ter­is­tics of the smart­phone are very bud­getary: 1GB of RAM and 8GB of inter­nal mem­o­ry. The smart­phone, how­ev­er, sup­ports the pos­si­bil­i­ty of expand­ing the mem­o­ry. The dis­play has a diag­o­nal of 5 inch­es, while the cam­era is equipped with a 5MP main cam­era and a 2MP front cam­era. The bat­tery has a capac­i­ty of 2050 mAh, which is eas­i­ly enough for a day of work. The smart­phone is attrac­tive in the first place, its afford­able price. This makes it great for kids to use.

Device specifications

In most cas­es, you will not need a pow­er­ful device, because you are choos­ing a non-gam­ing smart­phone. On the con­trary, most par­ents pre­fer to lim­it the oppor­tu­ni­ties for play so that the child is not dis­tract­ed from school. But you don’t have to com­plete­ly give up on gam­ing. For a chil­dren’s smart­phone, a quad-core proces­sor, 2–3GB of RAM and 16–32GB of inter­nal mem­o­ry are enough. The dual SIM func­tion is not required at all, but most smart­phones allow you to use either an addi­tion­al SIM card or a mem­o­ry card. It is best if the cam­era on the smart­phone is high enough res­o­lu­tion so that if nec­es­sary, you can eas­i­ly con­tact the child using video calls. The device should not be heavy and large, espe­cial­ly if you choose a phone for a small child. Keep in mind that chil­dren’s hands are small­er than adults’, so it’s not easy for them to han­dle phablet screens.

A smart­phone must nec­es­sar­i­ly pro­vide the abil­i­ty to com­mu­ni­cate in instant mes­sen­gers and social net­works. Also, it must pro­vide high-qual­i­ty and reli­able tele­phone com­mu­ni­ca­tion.

One of the fun­da­men­tal char­ac­ter­is­tics of the device is the bat­tery capac­i­ty. You want the bat­tery to last at least a day of heavy use, includ­ing gam­ing, music, video and apps. At the same time, you can pay atten­tion to mod­els with a rein­forced bat­tery, which are designed for sev­er­al days of oper­a­tion at high load.

Most of the capac­i­ty goes to the dis­play, so it is not rec­om­mend­ed to choose too large and bright screens so that the charge is con­sumed more slow­ly.

Both Android and iOS are quite con­ve­nient and famil­iar to every­one oper­at­ing sys­tems. Both are intu­itive and can be dealt with fair­ly quick­ly. It is best to choose a smart­phone for your child on the same plat­form that you use your­self. So you can eas­i­ly set the nec­es­sary para­me­ters and choose a com­mon appli­ca­tion that will allow you to con­trol and inter­act between devices.

If you are look­ing for a smart­phone for a teenag­er that is mod­ern enough and afford­able, then the Huawei Hon­or 9 Lite mod­el can be a great option. The smart­phone looks real­ly fash­ion­able, it is equipped with a dual cam­era with 13MP and 2MP lens­es, and a 5.65-inch bor­der­less dis­play. The dis­play has a Full HD + res­o­lu­tion of 2160x1080 and an aspect ratio of 18:9, like most flag­ship devices. Inside the device runs an eight-core HiSil­i­con Kirin 659 proces­sor. 3GB of RAM will allow you to run games and appli­ca­tions, and with 32GB of inter­nal mem­o­ry, expand­able with a card. Both the main and front cam­eras have a res­o­lu­tion of 13MP, so the smart­phone will allow you to use video calls and take high-qual­i­ty pho­tos and self­ies. The bat­tery capac­i­ty is 3000mAh, the smart­phone weighs 149g and is equipped with a fin­ger­print scan­ner. Being the mod­el of 2017, it is still rel­e­vant today.

Smartphone features

When pur­chas­ing a smart­phone for a child, it is advis­able to make sure that the sys­tem has func­tions for parental con­trol. You should be able to pass­word pro­tect some appli­ca­tions, and also restrict access to a num­ber of sites. In this case, you will be able to con­trol what infor­ma­tion your child receives. iOS and Android gen­er­al­ly have sys­tem fea­tures that allow you to set lim­its.

A num­ber of appli­ca­tions also allow you to track how much time the child spends in var­i­ous appli­ca­tions. How­ev­er, do not for­get that you should not abuse con­trol either.

On any smart­phone, there is the abil­i­ty to make urgent calls with­out the need to unlock it. How­ev­er, it is worth mak­ing sure that the sys­tem has ways to pro­tect data in case of loss or the abil­i­ty to track a smart­phone. Some appli­ca­tions also allow you to install a track­er, so it is rec­om­mend­ed to pick up devices equipped with GPS, which elim­i­nates the use of old fea­ture phones.

If the fin­ger­print scan­ner is a rather impor­tant fea­ture for old­er chil­dren, since even at school or among friends they may need to pro­tect their data, then it is absolute­ly not nec­es­sary to choose mod­ern facial recog­ni­tion sys­tems. Also, there is no need to pur­chase a smart­phone with the pos­si­bil­i­ty of con­tact­less pay­ment.

Xiao­mi Red­Mi 5 3/32GB is anoth­er very mod­ern smart­phone at an afford­able price, which will be a great gift for any teenag­er. At the same time, it has high tech­ni­cal char­ac­ter­is­tics. For exam­ple, a smart­phone is pow­ered by a Qual­comm Snap­drag­on 450 proces­sor, equipped with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of inter­nal mem­o­ry. The bezel-less dis­play has a diag­o­nal of 5.7 inch­es, which makes the smart­phone ide­al for gam­ing, watch­ing movies and chat­ting. The main cam­era has a res­o­lu­tion of 12MP, the front cam­era has a res­o­lu­tion of 5MP. The smart­phone is equipped with a fin­ger­print sen­sor, and the bat­tery capac­i­ty is 3300 mAh. Xiao­mi Red­Mi 5 is a trendy and styl­ish device that was announced in 2017. This smart­phone is ide­al for your child, allow­ing you to enjoy all the nec­es­sary func­tions in a styl­ish pack­age.