Easiest phone for parents

Author
Discussion

Belle427

Original Poster:

8,857 posts

232 months

Wednesday 27th July 2016
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Id like to move my parents away from their ancient nokia and wondered which phone I should go for.
They only really would use text, calls and the camera but the larger screens would be a bonus for viewing photos of the kids etc.
I'm concerned the android platform would confuse them as I feel it may be trying to update all the time, they just about get on with an ipad they have.
I could stretch to buying something like an iPhone 5 but that seems a waste of money for their needs when I could get something like the phone below.
Any advice is much appreciated.
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5...

tight fart

2,866 posts

272 months

Wednesday 27th July 2016
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Mums payg phone recently died, she used to pay £10 every 6 weeks and that was calls only, I gave her an iPhone 4s, removing some of the more confusing apps and hiding others (she's 84 and a half) put her on a Life mobile tariff that gives her internet access for £5 a month.
It took a few days for her to get used to it but she now gets photos from grandkids and great grandkids and is on Facebook!
She loves it.

Jetblackonetenth

690 posts

208 months

Wednesday 27th July 2016
quotequote all
My mum has a Doro phone, she has just got the smartphone version but had the basic one before

http://www.doro.co.uk/mobile-devices/smart-phones/...

She finds it very easy to use (she is in her 70's and not very good with tech)

Brought it on a PAYG tesco

DSLiverpool

14,670 posts

201 months

Wednesday 27th July 2016
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Doro are good but expensive, check out amplicomms on Amazon they are very good and cheaper.

Craikeybaby

10,369 posts

224 months

Thursday 28th July 2016
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If they already have an iPad I'd certainly reccomend an iPhone as it is the same operating system, so less to relearn.

ZesPak

24,420 posts

195 months

Friday 29th July 2016
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One thing to note might be screen size.
Due to worsening eyes, they might prefer larger screens.

As above, if they're used to the iPad, I'd consider the big iPhone.
My mother had an android tablet when I have her my old iPhone, she just couldn't get on with it so I bought her a Moto G. Her only complaint about it is that it's too small, at 4.7"!
So next up will be the new Moto G, which is 5.5" iirc.

Bill

52,472 posts

254 months

Friday 29th July 2016
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A big screen might help with button use but my mil with mildly arthritic fingers struggles to hold the sodding thing while not pressing buttons on the side, turning it off, turning the volume down etc. She often fails to answer calls simply because of its size. banghead

DSLiverpool

14,670 posts

201 months

Friday 29th July 2016
quotequote all
Bill said:
A big screen might help with button use but my mil with mildly arthritic fingers struggles to hold the sodding thing while not pressing buttons on the side, turning it off, turning the volume down etc. She often fails to answer calls simply because of its size. banghead
Flip phone ?

Bill

52,472 posts

254 months

Friday 29th July 2016
quotequote all
She likes what it can do but needs a slimmer phone, despite being 80 she's learnt to use it pretty well. Unfortunately she still has a year to run on her contract and refuses just to buy something that would suit her.

simonrockman

6,843 posts

254 months

Friday 29th July 2016
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This is completely my home territory. I run a mobile phone network for people who find mobile phones too fussy.

I won't plug it here, and if you are talking about smartphones then your parents are probably too tech-savvy for my service anyway. We just do feature phones.

Looking at the smartphone territory.

I really like the Doro 8030, and would strongly recommend going for something which has a desk dock. Even people with good manual dexterity struggle with micro-USB charging. In my experience Qi wireless needs you to find the sweet spot for charging to work and while the phone will beep when you've found it you need to know to look.

One word of caution with touch screens is that we get older the conductivity in our fingers reduces. This makes capacitive touch screens harder to use. Unfortunately no-one makes a decent screen with a resistive display.

A couple of half-way house options - phones with keypads and screens are the Kapsys (mainly designed for the blind) and the LG Wine.




Note that if your parents have sight problems they can buy from the RNIB without paying VAT. This is a good way to buy the Synapptic software for an existing Android phone.

Other things to consider the Emporia Smart: http://www.emporia.eu/en/products/overview/emporia... and the Fujitsu stylistic SO1 (http://www.cnet.com/uk/products/fujitsu-stylistic-s01/) but they will be hard to track down in the UK.

It's very hard for people who "get" phones to understand how alien they can be. Last week I spent time on the phone to a customer who didn't understand the difference between the clamshell being shut and the phone being off. To her both were "off". When your mental model is a land-line "off" is a strange idea.

As an example look at this


Do you know what all the symbols mean? That triangle with a cross through it? What does that mean you can't do and why is it a triangle? This is how older people see a circle with a line in the middle meaning power. And if you are used to an electrical rather than electronic world you expect things to come on immediately. Pressing and waiting on a power switch is odd, so they press again and again, turning the phone off and on and off again before it comes on.

Then they press and hold on an icon and take the phone into re-arrange icons mode.

Sorry, I've ranted a bit.

If you want more PM me and I'll be happy to help.




cptsideways

13,535 posts

251 months

Friday 29th July 2016
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I see that Doro one has a dock I guess this is for charging only?


One thing I hate about phones is plugging the things in, we run Motorola Atrix's & they dock, either at home to charge or in the car. It is still a brilliant design & not yet bettered!

Would love to upgrade to something newer but have yet to phone a phone that docks neatly with car & home charging solutions.


PS I'm not that old!!!


Dave Hedgehog

14,541 posts

203 months

Friday 29th July 2016
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Craikeybaby said:
If they already have an iPad I'd certainly reccomend an iPhone as it is the same operating system, so less to relearn.
this is what we did, just deleted or moved all the unwanted icons and just left contact / phone and messages

very simple to use

FlossyThePig

4,083 posts

242 months

Friday 29th July 2016
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OP - how old are you parents?

I hate to admit it but SWMBO is 70, has an iPad and an iPhone 4. She is making hints about a replacement phone (iPhone SE).

Belle427

Original Poster:

8,857 posts

232 months

Saturday 30th July 2016
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FlossyThePig said:
OP - how old are you parents?

I hate to admit it but SWMBO is 70, has an iPad and an iPhone 4. She is making hints about a replacement phone (iPhone SE).
Late 60's, I looked at the SE in an apple store last week and although I loved my 4s I couldn't help thinking it was too small, but I suppose you get used to it.


gmaz

4,382 posts

209 months

Monday 1st August 2016
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My dad is 80 and has had a Doro Liberto 820 for about a year.

http://www.doro.co.uk/mobile-devices/smart-phones/...

Overall its OK to use but he still dials us by mistake quite often because he doesn't put it into standby then and doesn't hold it by the sides.

The OS is certainly the easiest I've seen for oldies , but they still struggle with it sometimes.

andy-xr

13,204 posts

203 months

Monday 1st August 2016
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I think you might be trying to fix a problem they dont have.

Having said that, my folks have Android phones (they chose them, I dont want anything to do with it, because if/when it goes wrong, they're going to turn to me and ask why) one is Samsung, the other a Sony. Neither Samsung nor Sony are known for their speediness to update the OS, and it's a reskin anyway from a base Android. They have each 10 apps between them that just do their thing from the Play store when it's time to update.

I did ask them once whether they wanted to look at eg the S6 and they just werent bothered. Anything above a quick snap, answering texts or calls and they were using the Tab they bought