The best phones for kids in 2023 [Buyers guide]

The iPhone 13 mini may be more expensive than other options on our list, but it's arguably the best overall smartphone for a child, especially a teenager. It comes with a 5.4-inch display and offers the same flagship performance of its bigger variant—the iPhone 13—making it significantly more future-proof than a cheaper smartphone would be. So if you're looking for a long-term phone that your child can reliably use for years to come, this iPhone is worth considering.

As an Apple product, it also natively supports a variety of gaming controllers, which could turn it into a powerful little gaming console. Apple also offers the Apple Arcade subscription service, which includes countless family-friendly games. Of course, the iPhone 13 mini also rocks some of the best cameras ever put on an iPhone, plus it's 5G ready and trendy.

In addition, each modern iPhone supports a feature called Screen Time, which lets parents set content and privacy restrictions and see their child's daily iPhone usage time.

The 2021 mid-range Galaxy A52 features a beautiful 6.5-inch AMOLED display and good stereo speakers, making it perfect for watching YouTube videos and other content. Its mid-range performance is good enough for 3D gaming, even if not at the highest graphics settings.

Its camera performance is really good for the price too, and the main Galaxy A52 camera even has optical image stabilization, meaning less shaky video recordings. The A52 also has an ultra wide camera and can take portrait photos with a bokeh effect, which is trendy nowadays.

This budget Samsung smartphone sports a decent 6.5-inch screen, good for watching videos and playing casual games, and a quad-camera system. The latter includes wide-angle and macro cameras for taking creative photos.

As expected from a phone at this price range, it doesn't have the smoothest performance, but it does pack a large battery, which lasted just over 11 continuous hours of YouTube playback on a single charge, in our testing. If the priorities are large screen and affordability, the A21s is worth considering.

The Google Pixel 6a is also another smartphone perfect for kids, especially pre-teens and teens. It comes at a budget-friendly price and offers a lot for its money. The Pixel 6a is powered by Google's first Tensor chipset — the same silicon that powers the Pixel 6 Pro — and offers great performance. So your child should be able to play most games on the Google Play Store without any issue.

The phone also takes great pictures, has great battery life, and is also 5G-capable, which means that your child will have a fast internet connection for their homework and for gaming and streaming videos in their free time.

Samsung Galaxy A10e

The A10e is a highly affordable offering from the South Korean giant, and a solid content consumption device. Watching YouTube videos or Netflix on it is an enjoyable experience, thanks to its tall but still manageable 5.8-inch IPS display. The fact that it has a headphone jack may also come in handy.

The Galaxy A10e is a good cheap phone for kids who haven't used a smartphone before, even young ones, as cracking or breaking a device in this price range is way easier to digest than a more expensive one. Due to its low specs, it's not suitable for hardcore gaming, but it handles casual 2D games just fine.

Nokia 5.3

The Nokia 5.3 is a well-rounded and snappy Android smartphone at an affordable price. It's strong sides are the impressive "portrait mode" photography it delivers, as well as its long-lasting battery, up to two days on a single charge.

Although it doesn't have the sharpest display, it too impresses with good contrast and colors. The Nokia 5.3 is no slouch in the sound department either, featuring a loud (but single) speaker and a headphone jack.

Motorola Moto G8 Power

In our battery tests, the Moto G8 Power lasted 8 hours and 55 minutes of YouTube video playback. That, combined with its widescreen 6.4-inch display makes it a solid content consumption device.

Despite its large 5000 mAh battery, it weighs a reasonable 197 grams and keeps the headphone jack. Its mid-range specs are suitable for light gaming, though it likely won't handle the more intensive games at anything beyond low settings.

When it comes to strong battery life for long YouTube and Netflix watching sessions on a large phone screen, and all that for a budget price, the G8 Power is a good pick. Because of its large size, however, it may not be suitable for people in their early teens or with smaller hands.