Best touchscreen phone(s) for the elderly?

[Victor McDade]

Trying to help the grandparents out with their T-mobile upgrade and thought they may like something a bit different than their usual 'old school' style Nokias.

They are very technologically challenged and thus would only use the phone for calls, reading texts (they still struggle to compose and send one) and taking, receiving and sharing photos.

So something with a decent screen and something I could modify so the start up screen is uncluttered and only had a few icons.

Any suggestions? They pay around £35/month so I'd imagine they have quite a few handsets available (for free).

Cheers.

[clonmult]

If they only use it for calls and texts, then most touch screen phones are going to be complete and utter overkill for them.

I'd suggest they go SIM-only (probably half their monthly bills) and get something relatively basic, or if their current phone is still working fine, just keep that.

[Aviz]

Victor McDade said:

Trying to help the grandparents out with their T-mobile upgrade and thought they may like something a bit different than their usual 'old school' style Nokias.

They are very technologically challenged and thus would only use the phone for calls, reading texts (they still struggle to compose and send one) and taking, receiving and sharing photos.

So something with a decent screen and something I could modify so the start up screen is uncluttered and only had a few icons.

Any suggestions? They pay around £35/month so I'd imagine they have quite a few handsets available (for free).

Cheers.

Just get them the newest "old school nokia" you can find. My mum has a 6700.

You'll be sorry if you try and get them something with no physical keys.. trust me.

[Man from UNCLE]

I agree with everything above. My mum is 84 & it was a job to get her to answer anything that wasn't connected to a wall by a cable. She's had all my old phones for about the last 5 years & even with me teaching her time & time again she simply doesn't get it. Last year I gave her my C905 which is the best for her so far because all she has to do is slide the front up or down to answer or finish a call.

There's no way she'd even try to answer a touch screen & wouldn't even understand the unlock swipe. I think the best option foe people like my mum is a cheap bog standard phone out of tesco for a tenner on pay as you go, anything on a modern touch-screen is never going to be used & will only be a hindrance for them.

[FlossyThePig]

When my parents (both 87) moved out of their flat into a residential home my brother bought them a simple phone from Maplin.

Unfortunately dad decided to keep it in a drawer so no one could hear when it rang. They now have a BT landline with a "proper" phone.

[Munter]

Last time I was in an Orange store there was a flip phone with huge buttons inside. That's the sort of thing. Obvious how to answer the phone and finish the call. Buttons easy to hit and not susceptible to "old person double tap".