Simple phone for basic use for mom in 15 range

Buying Advice Phone Buying Advice
1

Recently mom jokingly asked me to get her a new phone, She currently have Poco M4 Pro and her usage is voice call/whatsapp chats/Youtube only. Please suggest a phone in 15k range.

P.S. I can increase (1~2k) budget if its VFM.

2

Take a look at this X7 5G (Cosmic Silver, 128 GB) on Flipkart
https://dl.flipkart.com/s/SvUXtHuuuN

3

Dont know much about phones but Poco M7 PLUS is also under 15k

4

Get Redmi Note 14 SE 5G if mom don’t mind slightly larger/heavier phone. It has AMOLED screen for better YouTube viewing, modern 5G SoC, decent battery and camera for the price.

2 Likes
5

Better to go with nothing(cmf) or motorola.
Chinese brands have so much bloatware and ads. Best for mums.

1 Like
6

I can get behind this. If I were buying a phone for my mother today - I’d get a Motorola or CMF.

7

I can see her screen filled with notifications but it doesn’t bother her, she would only check the home screen for calls, WA, Youtube sometimes IMOU and Hickvision aaps for CCTV access.

I want to avoid POCO this time since she is using the same brand and would like to switch. Samsung phones in this range are not worth but she would always praise them no matter what.

Big Screen and heavier phones will work fine AMOLED screen is a plus.

I personally like CMF but haven’t used one also its been sometime when I researched for phones.

8

My mom using the same phone and her usage is also same. And it’s works fine and good. I hope looking for new phone doesn’t mean the phone isn’t handling well, right?

I am looking to get one for myself in the sale and my use is even lighter than our mom’s. But still hesitant to pick sub 10k phone. In this budget my top picks are,

  • iQOO Z10x / Vivo T4x

  • Realme P3

If interested in Samsung, last year M35 is a decent one.

For couple of grand more, there are several phones,

  • Oppo K13

  • Moto G86 Power (Only one OS update)

  • CMF Phone 2 Pro

  • iQOO Z10R / Vivo T4R

  • Realme P4

  • Realme Narzo 80 Pro

  • Samsung M36 (Pretty much same as M35, with some downgrades and few upgrades)

1 Like
9

Check Redmi Series.. I like there blocklist/security features.
Can only ring from numbers which are present in contact list.. avoids lot of hassles.

My mom started receiving SPAM calls and started using this blocklist on her Redmi Note 11 PRO.

10

Motorola is Chinese. It would be okay but their update program is horrible.

I would argue that more than anything else, you need a secure phone for more elderly people that receives regular updates.

However, that limits one to either Samsung (M/F 30 series) or Pixel (A series).

11

I would vote for motorola too.

  1. clean/stock OS and pretty much gets out of the way once you set it up. None of the shady chinese apps or galaxy stores.
  2. TBH, it’s fine to not have security updates. Getting hacked due to lack of security updates is a super rare IMO. There’s a much higher chance of falling for a scam/fraud by sharing OTP or joining shady whatsapp groups.
  3. It’s also okay to not have many android upgrades/updates. Because no budget phone can take my mom’s abuse for 3 years without slowing down or developing other issues.
12

It is actually not okay to not have updates because there are too many apps on the Play Store itself as well as websites that use old exploits to auto install malware on the phone.

Especially if it is a primary phone with banking apps installed on it, then I wouldn’t ever take a chance.

13

I understand that, but it’s just such a super rare occurance that I would gladly risk it. How many cases like that do you hear about in news (especially compared to UPI scams)?

14

That’s true, we don’t see much in the media. Generally I would agree if you need to use a device beyond its supported period because of the money spent on it.

However, when getting a new one, especially now with Samsung offering 6 years of upgrades on 10k phones, it seems that you should go for one that offers decent support.

Again if you are buying a Moto phone that has 3 years of security updates remaining even without OS updates, then it is okay if you plan to not use it beyond that period.

However, as you can see below you have 50+ exploits being patched in a month that are “actively exploited” in Google’s own terms.

15

go with iqoo z10x my cousins dad uses it its a no non sense phone

16

CMF phone 2 pro or moto g85

17

I am not concern about hacking because she won’t use any bank apps or do online transactions also we keep an eye on her phone to see if everything is fine.

I like CMF phone 2 pro and the reason is style and color (a good color phone is better than a flagship phone…. What can I say, this is what she thinks)

18

get the CMF , Avoid Poco / Redmi Devices