Cell phone for a kid, with texting and/or email capability

Bumping this up in case there are any new thoughts or new responders. School starts soon!

I do have an iPod touch now! So she can use that sometimes if there is wi-fi available. (I still don't know whether there is wi-fi at her school. I know there is nearby.)

I get nervous about her carrying it around though, I actually trust her but I worry about what her friends will do to/ with it and even though I got it for free I really really don't want it lost or ruined. (I like it a lot more than I thought I would. Apple is good at this stuff.) So I don't think I'd want her to have it on an everyday basis.

My ideal is still cheap service, cheap device, text important, speed important (in terms of communication -- I want to have quick exchanges), voice calling good but not required.

Thanks!

Just checked this again, it does seem promising. $15/ month for text and messaging ("messaging" means email, right?), then 10 cents a minute for voice calls on top of that. So she could use it for mostly text and then if she needs to call, she can.

http://www.virginmobileusa.com/transform?page=plans&open=plan|/plan-detail-flash.html?planid=ptd#/detail-plan/ptd

Devices start at about $70 I think, that's not bad.

Edit: thanks a lot for the "texter's delight" hint, your old link goes to a page that says plans start at $25, I had to Google "texter's delight virgin" to find the plan.

This is the phone I'd be thinking off. Too sucky? Again texting would be the main purpose, with calls as an extra.


Kyocera Loft

I'd actually prefer she NOT have internet access/ web browsing, so that part doesn't matter.

And I'm willing to give up some quality for a good price. Minimally functional is fine (so long as it's functional).

http://reviews.cnet.com/cell-phones/kyocera-loft-s2300-black/4505-6454_7-34093845.html

http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1643413-kyocera-loft/page7

Plonking something else I just found:

http://www.prepaidreviews.com/wehelpyoudecide/text.html

Kajeet is looking good!

It's specifically targeted to her age range and has won a "Mom's award."

http://www.prepaidreviews.com/kajeet.html

The phone if I go with that one:


Sanyo 2700

http://www.mobiletechreview.com/phones/Sanyo-SCP-2700.htm

with out reading the other responses, and just throwing out an idea...

virgin mobile has phones for under 20.00 and unlimited text for 10.00 a month. She can text you all day and her friends too.

I dont know if this is what you were looking for or hoping to hear about but its an idea

and yes, on virgin mobile you can text directly to email too. You need to keep it short, about 160 characters or so, but you can do it and it counts as a regular text

Can you find a link for that? I didn't see an unlimited text plan for $10/ month at Virgin mobile. That'd be nice though. (The $15 one I found looks good -- it's 1,000 texts/ month, which I think will be enough -- but I'm happy to shave off whatever I can.)*

I also didn't see any $20 phones. The cheapest one offered had a qwerty keyboard, which is nice 'cause it's our preference (that one was about $70).

*The kajeet $15/ month plan is unlimited texts.

Don't worry about the ipod touch (we have one too), they're not allowed in
school, and I actually had to remove the safari browser already as Jane was
using the internet too much and you can't control where they're surfing on an ipod touch. I am thinking of removing youtube also. I have parental control on her computer and she's restricted to evening hours only.

With the phone plan: the last one does sound good, however, I'd be worried
about reception, only Verizon and AT&T have the best reception everywhere.
Verizon also offers now a $ 20 plan with unlimited texting, as well as AT&T.

Jane has one of these phones where it's easier to type - although she has no texting privileges and no internet on it - so she only uses it as a phone and she
can take pictures and small videos which is nice as she takes pics of her classmates a lot.

Wow, I really started this over a year ago? I thought it was more like six months.

Anyway, another update (just updated the trumpet topic, thought of this one).

After a whole lot of research, I decided to go ahead and upgrade my Blackberry (I now have a Bold, liking it), give sozlet the old Blackberry Curve, and activate a new plan for her (Sprint Data-only, which she's eligible for since the main reason we're getting it is for the two of us to communicate). I just couldn't find anything better than unlimited data at $29.99/ month.

There are downsides, like she can't accept calls. But most everyone texts anyway and she can call out if she needs to (20 cents a minute).

We got a fancy case/ skin so the phone doesn't seem too "mommish," which I believe was her word.

As soon as she took possession she changed the wallpaper, font, everything, and made it hers.

She's very happy with it thus far. Hasn't used it a lot, will really kick in when school starts.

Thanks to all for your feedback/ ideas!

That's great, sozobe. You know, Jane doesn't have text abilities on her phone - but she was resource full and found a website where you can text and talk for free - it's mainly for ipods though. Jane and all her friends go to www.pinger.com and use the free service there - saves all of us parents lots of money. Check it out! http://www.pinger.com/textfree/

Yep, sozlet has Textfree and uses it on our shared iPod at home. (Less now that she changed over to the new phone, she's texting on that more.) Problem is the connection. (The iPod only works if there is wifi, which we have at home but she doesn't have at school, at soccer practice, etc., etc.)

I'm not sure this was the absolute best solution but the research phase was dragging on and I wanted to move on something, and I seemed to keep coming back to this. Lots of positives like she's very familiar with my old Blackberry so the learning curve was nil. And the price was right (I got the new phone cheap as a 2-year upgrade, and the old phone was of course free since we already had it).