I figured my kid should learn to touch-type and told him he needs to do that before getting a mobile (smart) device. I figure once you're using something that doesn't have a proper keyboard, you're not going to learn to touch type. By that logic, of course, you also might not need to touch type, but it's a skill I find useful, and not hard to learn.
The kid refuses to learn to touchtype. So, no smart phone (he's a teenager). We got a dumb phone in 2019 and pulling up my ebay order history, it's a
Nokia 3310 3G Factory Unlocked Phone 2.4" Screen 32 MB Charcoal BB14/2 TA-1036 O
Honestly, the thing is pretty fabulous. It's tiny, it's indestructible, it has great (I mean, phenomenal) battery life. That's relevant if it's used by someone who can't keep track of stuff, because 3 days after he dropped it in a corner of his bedroom, it still rings when you call it.
We got a Ting plan for it. He uses it mostly for backup communication. In the pandemic, I don't think he really cares that he doesn't have a smart phone (I think having them when interacting in person with friends is part of the cache, and he's not doing much of that) -- he uses Discord (on a PC) to communicate with friends, and the phone when he's out and about solo and wants to be able to reach us, or we want to be able to reach him (or ditto when he's home alone, we want him to have a phone obviously).
And I'm going to stand by what I said -- if he wants a smart phone, he can learn to touch type (and if he does do that, I'll get him one). Meanwhile, honestly, I'm glad he doesn't as it dramatically simplifies keeping track of when he's online and reduces the kinds of things he's exposed to.