Tablet for elderly

[disconnecteddrifter]

My dad, a fit and healthy 77 year old, has never been the brightest. He's persisting in paying for broadband despite not being able to work out how to use his ancient laptop. I'm pretty certain he's spent a fortune on it but o no avail and I think this is due to him never remembering passwords.
Anyway, I am thinking of getting a kindle fire 7inch for his birthday as I assume this is just like an iPad and will be easier for him to use than his laptop. He'll want to browse internet (once I've shown him how), email and perhaps take pictures but won't need a large memory. It's under £50 and I want to buy it now but worry it's not what I think.
Anyone got any insight/recommendations? Wasn't looking to spend more than £70
Thanks in advance

Noooooo. Don't foist a touch screen on someone non-tech savvy. Show him how to use his laptop or pay for an upgrade.

Does he use a mobile with an Internet connection.

If so, the basic kindle fire will be fine. I have one and my 10 year old twins have them.

I don't agree with the pp, I think tablets are much easier to use than a laptop so that would be a good idea. However I don't have any experience of the ones you describe sorry x

Tablets are easier. Once he gets to grips with it. Just remember when teaching him to use it ...he doesn't know much or ANY lingo.

So words like "tab" and "scroll" might not mean much.

Reduce it all....talk of "pages" and keep apps to a minimum.

No he has an old Nokia. Ha I was wondering whether it would be foisting! I was hoping to show him how to check ans write emails anyway with his one typing finger. Apart from that I'm hoping to reduce the five newspaper a day habit, that then lay around his house for ages! He's into tracing family trees and is quite needy of contact with people. Unfortunately, this results in him phoning to monologue for hours at people and this is a turn off. I tried to explain but really this is just who he is. I thought being able to look stuff up, looking at Facebook and being able to email would be good for him and make use of the broadband he pays. I did upgrade his laptop but he can't really open the front screen.
Thank you

Oh thank you for the further replies. I think I'm just going to get it! £50!

My Mum won't have any of it OP....she phones me nightly to Google things for her!

She says things like "Oh...ask what that song is! The one that goes Love! I love you!"

And expects Google to know things like "Where did Aunty Jean go to school?"

Do it! We got my grandparents who are in their 80's an iPad so we could FaceTime them and now there like teenagers. They FaceTime my DDs all the time I often just hear them whilst I'm pottering in the house and my little ones chatting away to them and showing them things, it's lovely. They also like the news app and watching iPlayer and weather updates, we can't keep them off it!

Yes that's sounds great. And there's Alexa too who I heard was very nice and helpful! I'll get it £50 isn't much is it?

I'd get him a tablet but not the Kindle Fire.
I am tech savvy but I found it one of the hardest/least intuitive to use (I was looking for my grandparents) and has the fewest options for apps.
iPad is the most intuitive IMO but massively costly.
I would meet in the middle with an android device - plenty on inexpensive ones out there.

Oh interesting. Was just about to buy and am looking up reviews. Apparently camera and screen resolution not good, which he won't know. But it does need to be simple. What android would you recommend? I'm apple all the way but my iPad screen broke and I decided to do without it

Husband has a Samsung Galaxy, which is my only real experience of using one with any frequency.
But IIRC that was a lot more expensive than the Kindle Fire.
I have an iPad myself.
Might be best to pop into Currys/PC World and have a play about. Pretend you know nothing and see which is easiest to use.

The 70s and over I know are far better on iPads than I am, the things drive me mad!

If he will let you, also check he isn't on a ripoff broadband and phone tariff. BT are the worst for this but all the rest are pretty bad. Unliimited broadband and weekend calls should be around £20, add anytime calls and it shouid be around £30 (per month)

Thanks I think he is on rio off bt and pays for being able to call abroad - not that he does as people he wants to call are busy but he won't listen.

I don't like the iPad, both dh and Mum have one, and love my Kindle Fire. I do have an HDX though. Far more intuitive for me.

I got my elderly nan an iPad, she loves it! She had an android type tablet before but it was quite confusing. She FaceTimes every day, catches up on TV episodes, downloaded eBay app and has great fun bidding against people and even joined Facebook!

My PIL are not tech savvy in the slightest. You know they type. Get pissed off shouting how it's all bloody stupid and how they can't do it, but refuse point blank to let you show them. However, we thought, sod it, and bought them an iPad. They pretend they never touch the "damn thing" but in actual fact, they're on it all the time when we're not visiting. It's so simple to use.

Kindles are great as well but I dislike the fact that if I'm signed in I can too easily buy something with just a click or two. No password to confirm or anything. For non technical peeps I say get a 2nd hand iPad over a kindle. Can't believe I accidentally bought that stupid kindle book the other day cos I clicked one bloody thing!

Ipad or ipad mini. My mil doesn't even speak english really and managed to learn how to operate it within a day.

Wow thoushaltnotpass, they sounds exactly like my dad!
I have asked around his local friends for tech suppprt.

My mum, also 70's and not tech savy, has an IPad.

She used to get very frustrated not understanding it. I spent quite a bit of time talking to her about what she wanted to use it for and cleaning it up for her as it was very slow. The thing is people who haven't been using computers for years don't understand some of the very basics. Mum didn't realise you needed to close things. She was ready to bin her tablet because it was old and slow. That'd be so many windows open I lost count!

Now its all cleaned up I've setup shortcuts to all the things she wants to see on her home screen. Like her facebook feed, eBay, childrens school news page, local paper, email, family photos etc. She just turns it all off at the end of the day and her links are there for herwhen she wants to access things again. Every so often I'll add a new one for her. I think that this has been very beneficial because along with the advise 'if it all gets a bit confusing just turn off and on again and you'll be back at your choices page' its given her the confidence to use it regularly and slowly move forwards with clicking links to other pages. She did ask about what google is the other day too.

It is just a bit embarassing when she tells people her internet connection only has ten pages and they look at her a bit sideways.

Any basic tablet is a good starting point but a bit of time helping set up might be the most generous thing.

Get one and then look up a multi-subscription type jobby. My mum has some kind of app that gives you almost endless magazines and papers. If you can afford it then join him up to ancestry.com or some other genealogy type thing. There are tonnes of free books on Amazon/kindle in particular the classics. Audible are also good for freebies but require a subscription. If it can help with him feeling isolated and bored, then it could be wonderful for him.

My Mum used to have to ask my Dad to Google things for her on the computer. She now has an iPad and uses it loads.

I don't know anything about the specific model you are looking at, but I understand in experiments in old people's homes, they found that tablets were relatively instinctual to use.

When deciding what tablet to get, my suggestion is always to get the same as you personally use - that way you'll be able to talk them through any system updates, problems etc very easily as you're looking at a similar menu setup.

My Nan (sadly now passed) did start on a desktop computer and moved onto a laptop, but she really thrived once she had a tablet as she understood better how to push icons around on the screen, rather than working a remote mouse device.

My mum did ok with a fire, and my very tech savvy son bought one to use for music and browsing.

My DS and I gave my DM (complete technophobe) an ASUS when she was 80. Less than £100 and she gets on really well with it. Needs the odd bit of tech support but otherwise great