The Nokia 110 4G sits sixth in our line-up, and it earns its place with one clear claim. It is the cheapest phone we list that still has a camera. For around £25 you get a 4G basic that can take a photo and send it home, which the Nokia 105 4G, at around £24, cannot.
Think of it as the 105’s slightly more capable cousin. Same rock-bottom corner of the market, same weeks of standby, but a pound or two buys you a basic camera, Bluetooth and an MP3 player. HMD’s plainest phones rarely make headlines, and that is rather the point of them.
The pound that buys a camera
The whole argument for the 110 4G over the 105 4G is about a pound. The 105 does calls, texts and FM radio, and that is the full list. The 110 adds a 0.3 MP camera, Bluetooth and an MP3 player. The camera is proof-of-life only, but proof of life is precisely what a parent wants from a first phone: a photo from the school gate, the bus stop, the sleepover. The 110 is the cheapest Nokia that can send one.
What it does
Calls, texts, a 0.3 MP rear camera, a torch, FM radio, Bluetooth and an MP3 player with microSD support up to 32 GB. It weighs 79 g, runs for weeks on standby from a 1450 mAh battery, and is unlocked 4G with VoLTE, so it keeps working as the UK’s 2G networks switch off.
What it doesn’t do is the reason to buy it. No WhatsApp, no app store, no social media, and no way to add any of them.
The trade-offs
Two real ones, and one piece of small print.
The camera is the most basic kind made. At 0.3 MP it proves where your child is and not much else. Nothing it takes is worth keeping, only sending.
The 1.8 inch screen is tiny, and this is one of the most basic-looking phones we list. A child used to any kind of smartphone will notice both. A child who minds being seen with it is better served by the Nokia 3210, which costs more and looks like it.
The small print: a token Opera Mini browser is included. On this screen and T9 keypad it is unusable in practice, but if the brief is no browser at all, even on paper, the 105 4G is the one without.
Price and where to buy
Around £25 on Amazon UK. That’s the buy button on this page. Cheap enough that a second one in the glovebox as a spare for the car is a reasonable idea, not an extravagance.
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Pair with
A ParentShield SIM for first phones, ages eight to eleven, which covers the 110’s natural range of 8 to 10. If the phone is doing spare duty in a coat pocket or the car, the cheapest SIM on our best SIMs page will do.
The honest summary
The 110 4G is honest value at the floor of the market. We rank it sixth, below the Nokia 235 and 225, because the screen is smaller and the build plainer, not because it fails at anything it promises. The judgement that it is a reliable cheap phone that happens to suit a careful first phone comes from the published UK and US coverage (GSMArena, Digital Camera World) and HMD’s specifications. Knock doesn’t lab-test phones, and this review doesn’t pretend otherwise.
Where to buy
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Notes from Knock, when there is something worth saying.
Short notes on simple phones, the parent conversation and the school side. New subscribers get our first-phone series, four short emails over eleven days, then occasional notes when there is a piece worth sending. Unsubscribe with one click.
How the Nokia 110 4G sits next to the others
We keep a tight list of simple phones on the shelf at any one time. The Nokia 110 4G is one of them. Here are the others, and the short reason a UK family might pick each one instead.
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Nokia 3210 (2024), from £79
Our first recommendation for almost every family. It looks like the phone your child's friends will think is cool, which matters more than parents often admit.
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Nokia 8210 4G, from £35
The cheaper sibling to the 3210. The same idea, a phone a child is happy to be seen with, on a bigger screen and at a lower price. The trade is a plainer build and a weaker camera.
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Nokia 235 4G, from £40
The starter pick for under-tens, and the no-fuss phone for anyone who genuinely does not want anything beyond calls and texts.
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Nokia 2660 Flip, from £55
The one for a younger child, or anyone who likes the satisfaction of closing a phone to end a call. The flip protects the screen at the bottom of a school bag, and there is nothing on it to fall down.
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Nokia 225 4G, from £45
The middle of the cheap-Nokia pack. A little more phone than the 105 or the 110, a little less than the 3210. The 2024 version adds USB-C charging, which the older basics lack.
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Nokia 105 4G, from £24
The rock-bottom option, and a genuine one. If the brief is a phone that makes calls and sends texts and does nothing else at all, this is it, for the price of a couple of school lunches.
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HMD Barbie Phone, from £99
Half novelty, half genuine simple phone. It says 'Hi Barbie' when it boots and the buttons glow in the dark, but underneath it is a proper 4G flip with no app store, no browser and no social media. For a child who would carry a fun phone but not a plain one.
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Pinwheel Plus, from £279
For families who need a smartphone-shaped device but want a hard boundary on what runs on it. The portal lets you whitelist apps from a curated list. There's a monthly subscription for the Caregiver Portal.
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Punkt MP02, from £259
The keypad alternative to the Light Phone III. A beautifully made minimalist phone for an adult or older teenager stepping back from a smartphone, with Signal-based messaging and 4G tethering, but no app store and no camera.
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Light Phone III, from £399
Quiet, minimal, slow on purpose. The Light Phone III ships from the US, which means import VAT and a longer wait. For the family who is sure this is right and is willing to pay for it.
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Refurbished iPhone SE (3rd gen), from £169
The fallback for parents who have decided a smartphone is the answer (often because of a specific school or medical reason) and want the cheapest, longest-supported route in.
The full ranked list, with the trade-offs spelled out alongside each phone, lives at /best-simple-phones. If you'd rather a ninety-second picker that points at one phone for your specific family, that's at /which-phone. If you'd like the catalogue at-a-glance, the Phone-dex is at /phone-dex.
Questions UK parents ask about the Nokia 110 4G
Does the Nokia 110 4G have WhatsApp or internet?
No WhatsApp and no app store. There is a token Opera Mini browser, but the 1.8 inch screen and T9 keypad make it unusable in practice. Calls, texts, a basic camera and FM radio are the real functions.
Is the Nokia 110 4G good for a child?
Yes, for under-tens on the tightest budget. At around £25 it is the cheapest phone we recommend that still has a camera, so a child can send the occasional photo home. It is unlocked 4G with VoLTE, so it keeps working past the 2G switch-off.
What is the difference between the Nokia 105 4G and the Nokia 110 4G?
The 105 4G (around £24) has no camera and no Bluetooth: calls, texts and FM radio only. The 110 4G (around £25) adds a basic camera, Bluetooth and an MP3 player for almost the same money. The 110 is the cheapest Nokia that can send a photo home.
Read next
- The conversation, in seven moments, the kitchen-table script built from published UK parent testimony. Free, no email gate.
- For teachers and carers, a letter from the head, an assembly script, the SLT one-pager. The school side of the conversation.
- What the research says, calmly, the plain-English read of the evidence behind delaying a first smartphone.
- The research, every claim Knock makes, with the primary source attached.
- UK pricing guide, the £24 to £400 ladder and the hidden costs.
- The best UK SIMs for a child's first phone, ParentShield first, the cheaper alternatives below.
