Why should I buy an iphone to my teenager?

If you play games, or do a lot of video and other multi-tasking, or indeed, anything else processor heavy like any media editing

The answer is when she's buying it.

I have both - one for work is an iphone and my own is an ageing Samsung s20. To be honest the locked in philosophy of the iphone annoys me, but that aside I can't differentiate in performance. They all have a camera, internet and access to the same apps.

It is just a brand she wants, basically, and the purchase pressure is the same as wanting a shit t-shirt with a crocodile on it, vs a shit t-shirt without.

It will run all the same apps, bar the odd one that needs a really up to date version of the OS, which an older phone might not support.

It's processer speed and battery life I'd be sceptical of in something that cheap. You say yourself your old one is dying at less than 2 years old, and I bet you've spent a lot of those 2 years slightly annoyed by how sluggish it's getting.

I had exactly the same conversations with my 15 year old daughter and I ended up buying her a very capable £130 Xiaomi Redmi Note 13. She'd be much happier with a second hand iPhone SE which would end up a similar price. And to be fair to Apple, they support the phones for long enough that you would probably get just as much life out of each. However as the one paying the bill, I couldn't bare buying something that inferior just because of the badge. And she can get whatever she wants when she's earning money and can buy it herself.

As someone who has just bought my daughter a standard Nokia for emergency use, it is a lot less user friendly (although other models may vary), it doesn't have emojis (she is fine with that but when she gets a text from a smartphone there is just a blank square), no WhatsApp (which is how a lot of the kids communicate in groups), no spotify etc.

None of them are deal breakers and we are sticking with the Nokia for now but will probably install WhatsApp on her tablet so she can join group chats etc if she wants to, although she won't be carrying it with her during the day so will just be a quick check/ respond in the evenings.

A very strong and massively compelling reason to avoid an iPhone is the apple ecosystem. You'll be compelled to buy iPads and MacBooks until the end of time for compatibility.

Android tablets are more flexible and cross compatible with Windows machines, I'm told. Also a lot cheaper.

Indeed.

I remember when Apple was viewed as the plucky underdog, but now it's a behemoth that won't let anyone look under the bonnet, and monetises to the max every tie-in to that ecosystem. Both MS and Android seem to be happy to let people tinker with the systems to personalise the experience (though caveat emptor, obvs.)

Lots of research about that says access to social media for children is really quite bad for them.

This is not true. Both ours have iPhones (hand-me-down and refurbished) and Android tablets for school work (and Minecraft). No real issues with the limited situations where compatibility is needed. My whole work IT system is Max based but I've only ever had Android phones (which are heavily used for work) - again, no issues.

They aren't using them for work. I'm thinking of phone backups, sharing apps between devices, music libraries etc.

I'm not in IT, but for professional use they are also comparatively closed, I am told. One example would be I can't actually open .msg files on outlook on an iPhone if someone attaches an email to an email, without going to a different app. I'm sure if I was using the default Apple iPhone app and attaching Apple emails to Apple emails, it would be fine.

Maybe. I know some parents of teenagers and they are only allowed smartphones in the house, no social media and only in the living room. Seems reasonably well enforced.

There are some kids who aren't allowed to watch TV. It's not normal though.

I'd have thought like all things, it is a balance between what is neurologically healthy, Vs potential downsides of being excluded.

I wouldn't want to have to treat that particular tightrope these days, I must say.

Where do you stand on when to teach people how to cope with the online world?

I personally am almost exclusively a consumer rather than a participant. This forum is it for me. But I'm an endangered species and I don't think younger people can really escape it can they? So when is it appropriate to start to allow them to experience the true horrors of it?

I would suggest not attaching emails to emails is a good start. Just forward the relevant message. All mail clients have differences so whichever one you use - Apple Mail, Outlook (ugh), Gmail, Airmail, etc. - you can't assume that the recipient has the same one and will be able to open an attached message.

I'm sure they'll be just as effective as the regulations that prevent kids from drinking and smoking.